Spiritual Gifts： Wisdom, Faith, Healing (Wed. night service) — Shane Idleman

Spiritual Gifts and the Need for Biblical Balance

Let me just give an introduction on this topic. The spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. It's almost like sometimes we have to deconstruct something in our mind and then build it back up because we've been taught certain things.

There's people in this church that are conservative, very conservative. There's people in this church who've came from Pentecostal churches, charismatic churches where the gifts are exercised regularly, often maybe out of order sometimes.

There's some in the middle as well. So my hope is to try to just show you what God's Word says based, of course, a little bit on my personal experience, but primarily on God's Word and what it has to say to us.

My thought on the gifts of the Holy Spirit is this. The question we have to ask ourselves as we study chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, does this apply to us or does it not? That's the big question because if it doesn't apply to us, we don't really need to teach through it.

This is something the early church had and thank God they had it, boy, because they really needed it. But today we have it together now. We have the Bible and that's all we really need and I'm not in a position to do that.

I think it's dangerous to start to take out entire chapters and things where there's just no scriptural support. In case you're unaware, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, there are a lot of different gifts.

There's helps, administration, pastoring, teaching, preaching. Nobody seems to have a problem with those, but it's the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, a gift of faith, gift of healing, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, a prophetic word, prophecy.

That's where we seem to have problems sometimes. Many people do. So what I'm primarily talking about is the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit that the church, the early church saw in the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon a group of people and the Holy Spirit was active in a way.

Paul’s Instructions About Spiritual Gifts

So let's start in chapter 12. If you have your Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I should have looked at the page in the Bible in front of you. And I think we'll have some of it up on the screen. I just don't know how far I'm going to get.

That's usually the case with this kind of study. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse one. So Paul's writing to the church in Corinth. And a vibrant, living, healthy church needs rules, doesn't it? So Paul said, hey, in regards to the gifts, here's how I want you to conduct yourself.

And D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, and I've told you this before, that living children need rules. Dead children don't. So the fact that a church is living and vibrant and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are flowing, they're gonna need some guardrails there.

They're gonna need some older women and older men to come alongside and help discern sometimes. And it's a living, vibrant, growing church is sometimes messy, isn't it? Just like Proverbs says, where there's no ox, your stall's going to be very clean.

But where there's an ox, there's manure. There's a dirty stall. And so when a church is growing, I've seen this, the more we're growing and God's building and people are being set free, there's a lot of attacks as well on the side, on the peripheral, back attacks, frontal attacks.

And it's like, man, the enemy will just, for every spiritual person on fire for God, he brings somebody that's not quite at that spot. He'll bring the fire of God and then the devil brings the loose cannon.

You know, a healthy church has to be careful in this area. So Paul says to the church, and I would say he's saying this to us, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.

You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

So let me stop there for a minute. Two things I wanna glean from this. Paul is telling us, I believe, do not be ignorant, meaning don't be foolish in this area. Don't, you know what ignorance is, right?

Ignorance is bliss, they say. Ignorance, well, I just didn't know. Don't be ignorant. Don't be ignorant on this topic. I just don't know, I just don't care. Understand what God is saying to us. But he also says, on the flip side, don't be carried away.

You know what carried away is, and just getting too focused on possibly the gifts, or getting carried away on certain things. And we see our kids sometimes, right? You say, don't get carried away on this area of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

So don't be ignorant, and don't get carried away. Be balanced. And he says, no one speaking by the Spirit of God can deny Jesus Christ. Now, this is interesting, because I think he's saying, you know, you can't be a follower of Jesus Christ and also curse God.

But the context now, he's gonna go into the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So people have said, and I don't necessarily disagree, he could also be talking about the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues because of the following admonishment.

So I have this picture, I could be wrong. Some of this is just speculation, I'm pulling from it. But Paul is saying here, if somebody's speaking in tongues, and as it's attributed today to Satan, so somebody's speaking in tongues, I'm gonna get into that hopefully next week.

Sorry for all those who think I was gonna get into it this week. You have to come back next week. But he's saying, and you can imagine them speaking in tongues they're not cursing God, it's not of the devil because they can't say that Christ is Lord in their heart, and they're praising God and be speaking something that is demonic.

Whatever they are speaking is glorifying God. And this issue of tongues happened on the day of Pentecost. Now I will give you this, it's interesting, isn't it? I mean, to say the least. To speak a language that's not known to you is interesting.

You know, it gives people pause for concern. Those who have experienced this have no problem with it. They read what Paul wrote and they said, man, I can relate. Those who haven't experienced it seem to have a problem with it.

And we make the mistake of thinking, I'm gonna get to this later, but now I'm gonna get to it now, I guess. We seem to think, well, if that person's speaking in tongues and I'm not, they must be more spiritual.

And what really stuck out to me at least this week as I'm studying this is a gift, the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be given at conversion. So you can have somebody one week in the faith who is given a gift by the Holy Spirit.

Some, we have this impression, right? Oh, after 25 years, this real mature, seasoned Christian, now they're gonna have a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge. But sometimes it can be with the baby Christians.

They can repent and they can believe in, Shane, I just have this, I'm worshiping in this, I just start praising God in a language I don't understand, what's wrong with me? Well, read 1 Corinthians 12.

Or I just, I gave my heart to the Lord, I repented, I'm filled with the Spirit, and I feel I just have this discernment or this faith rising up in me, or I wanna speak this word of knowledge to somebody.

It's been on my heart all week, what do I do with this? And they've only been a Christian a month. But also what comes with immaturity is immaturity. So that's what Paul's also addressing, is maturity in the church, and what does that look like?

So I believe Paul could saying, you hear these people speaking in a language that they don't understand. Of course, people are, when they're worshiping, they're speaking, they're worshiping, they're praising God.

I mean, I kind of, I'll be careful here, but I think, I wonder how many people in the church overall would be embarrassed how the early Christians acted in the book of Acts. Think about that. The Holy Spirit fell upon a group of 120, sometimes it gets to that here, and they just started praising God.

How many Christians would be embarrassed of that? Even though it's biblical, it's in the Bible. Those were early believers filled with the Spirit of God. So what happened is you see these people waiting in the prayer room, I like to call it, but upper room, and they were filled.

The Holy Spirit came in like just rushed in, a rushing of the Holy Spirit. And believe it or not, I've got books, this high probably, of past revivals, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, where, and I should read some of the excerpts sometimes, and it's recorded, where they'd be in a prayer meeting, all night prayer meeting, and they would just say, God, we're holding you to your promise.

Meet your people, and just the whole place was shaken like a leaf. The power of God came upon that place, and people were just on their face, prostrate before God for hours. See, I don't think that's weird.

I think that's biblical Christianity when the Holy Spirit visits a place. And I should be careful, because people say, well, isn't the Holy Spirit everywhere? Yes, the Holy Spirit is here, but his manifest presence, when God begins to reveal more of himself, and more of himself, and more of himself, humanity gets to a point where they can't handle the omnipresence, the powerful manifestation of God's Spirit.

How close to the fire are you is really what happens. The Holy Spirit's everywhere. Many people, you know, they know it, they're conscious of it, but when the Holy Spirit imparts the atmosphere, and breaks the atmosphere, and comes into a place, and really, he convicts people of their sin, people see, you don't get a lot of people, at least with the accounts I read, where people are just too excited, and they are sometimes, but usually the Holy Spirit, people have this awe, this oh my God, the Holy presence of God, the power of God.

I shouldn't even speak right now, it's just this weight of glory that's coming to the place. So that's what happened here on the day of Pentecost. They're speaking another language that they don't know, and they're praising God.

It would be like if I'm saying, you know, you've heard me say this, our Father who art in heaven, right, Padre Nuestro de Caso en Cielo, santificado, se tu hombre venga en nuestro reino, haga se tu voluntad hacia en la tierra, como en cielo, Padre Nuestro de cada día, de nos loy, it's our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name in Spanish.

And you'd be like, what in the world is going on with that guy? But right, we're singing the praises of God. So people, I believe we're saying, oh, they're just cursing Jesus. It's of Satan, it's demonic, and Paul's saying no, you can't worship Jesus Christ and be a believer, and Jesus be your Lord, and also be looking to Satan here.

You can't accurse Jesus and also praise him at the same time. So I think that's what was taking place as well. So then verse four, so Paul says, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, so the Holy Spirit gives different gifts, but it's the same Spirit.

There are differences of ministries. Everybody's got different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities. So there's different activities. I believe that the Holy Spirit, I've seen him call people to the gifting of helps.

You know what that is, a helps ministry? You know it when you have it and you know it when you don't. And it's, or administrative, like a Moses or a Joshua, you know, there's this gift to administrate, to lead the people, and he's giving different gifts to different people, why?

For the whole body. It's for the whole church to be edified and built up. But it's the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. And you don't have to be afraid of that word manifestation.

Does that kind of not sit well with some people? Manifestation. Manifestation just means God revealing himself. God manifests. God reveals himself. So basically, you could say this. The revealing of the Spirit, when the Spirit reveals his gifts, it's for the profit of all of us.

So as we work through these gifts, I would encourage you to pray for it. And say, Lord, impart into me this gift of the Holy Spirit. I want to operate in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Holy Spirit wants to give to me.

And a word of wisdom, a prophetic word, it doesn't have to be weird. And what happens, the side that says this no longer exists, they basically take it from 1 Corinthians 14. When Paul says, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things. And he goes on to say, right now, we look through a mirror kind of dimly, or at a mirror dimly, or through a glass dimly. We can't see real well in our fallen state.

We can't see well. But when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part will be done away with. And we'll be able to see fully the picture. We'll be able to have all knowledge. It says, knowledge will cease, tongues will cease, but love will never cease.

So people say, once we have the canonization of scripture, now that we have the Bible, that which is perfect has been fulfilled. Now we have the complete revelation of God. But that word perfect is teleos in the Greek.

It's also when Jesus said, when they said, hey, Herod's trying to get you, he said, you go tell that fox that in three days I will be teleos, perfected. I will be in my perfected state. Even John Calvin in his commentaries, 1500, said that perfect means when Christ comes again.

So we're waiting for Christ to come again. When we are with Christ, we will not need the gifts of the Holy Spirit any longer. So that's why many people say they don't apply anymore. They see the abuses, they see weirdness, or they don't experience them.

And well, we have all that we need now, and when that which is perfect comes, which is the Bible, now we don't need these gifts of the Holy Spirit. But based on what we just read, there is diversities with the goal being unity.

These gifts are for the profit of all, not just the spiritual elite. You have to remember that. These gifts are for the profit of all. And sometimes I think God uses the least likely. He'll just choose the person you just don't think will have spiritual gifts, and he will give them spiritual gifts.

He'll give them a word of knowledge or a prophetic word. I'm hoping to break these down in just a minute. So again, well, I already asked this. You must answer the question, are these chapters, are these readings for us today?

And that's how we can go forward. If they are for us today, we can go forward. If they're not, then we need to just move on to the next topic, basically. So verse eight, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.

So he's saying the Holy Spirit, there's different ministries, there's different callings. To one person, he gives a word of wisdom through the Spirit. To another, the word of knowledge through the same Spirit.

To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healings. Take note of that, gifts of healings by the same Spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits.

To another, different kind of tongues. And to another, the interpretation of tongues. There's a lot of gifts there, isn't there? So those are the gifts that are in question. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills.

So this is a sovereign act of God. So no matter how much you pray for a certain gift, it's up to the Holy Spirit if he wants to give us those gifts. It's his, it's his, it's his, it's actually his gift to us.

And isn't it funny? I believe that's where the word charismatic comes from, charisma. Charisma just means bestowing spiritual gifts. So that's where the charismatic term comes from, that they believe the Holy Spirit still bestows spiritual gifts.

And then verse 11, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. Okay, so look at the first one, wisdom. So the Holy Spirit gives a gift of wisdom.

It's called here the word of wisdom. What do we know, what is wisdom? Well, let me just tell you, because there's a lot of people, I don't want everybody answering. You know what knowledge is, right? Knowledge is knowing something.

Okay, you, you, you, for example, people know about God. They know about God. But once they experience him, now they have the experience, now they have wisdom. So wisdom is knowledge in application. Because you can know something and not do it, right?

James said that those who know the word of God, but do not do it, be doers of the word, not hearers only, or you're living in deception. So he distinguished right there, knowing something, knowing it, and actually doing it.

So wisdom is doing it. So the word of wisdom here, I believe is something brought to the mind, to your mind, my mind, by the Holy Spirit, possibly where action should be taken. So the Holy Spirit, it would, and somebody has, say, the gift of a word of wisdom.

I don't believe certain gifts are turn on, turn off. You can't, okay, I'm gonna go give them a word of wisdom today. I'm gonna give him a word of wisdom tomorrow. And we have to be careful, because this is the downfall of the church, where they put too much emphasis in the gifts and not the gift giver.

So everybody comes to church for a word. Everybody comes to church for this. And they're coming for the wrong reason. And they start, like an addict lives on his addiction, the person starts to live on words that are given to them.

And that's not healthy, because you should spend time with Christ in his word and get the word, and then these other things are just supplemental. And I know of churches where people, every week, they're going to get a word.

Now, if God's doing something, that's fine. But if they're just going for that, and the problem is, also, that not everybody's right on the money, right? God might give them the hamburger beef, but they like to add the buns, and the lettuce, and the tomato, and the ketchup, and the mustard, and just add to different things.

And I'm careful in this area. People have given me words of wisdom before. This is not a gift I necessarily operate in, to my knowledge. I'm going to get to where I think I'm at in a little bit as we keep going.

But a word of wisdom is something is brought to the mind by the Holy Spirit, possibly where action should be taken. An example I've given before, and I want to give it again because it's relevant, is before I started to pastor a church.

I had a half dozen people that normally wouldn't say anything, called me out of the blue, and they'd say, hey, it's been on my heart all week. Have you ever considered pastoring a church? No, leave me alone.

The next, another friend called from Hawaii. I hadn't talked, and he said, hey, have you ever considered pastoring a church? And it just kept this, so to me, that would be like a word of wisdom, giving somebody some, the Holy Spirit would spontaneously bring something to mind for someone else often.

It can be for yourself as well, but here's the thing. Spontaneously bring something to mind. Don't just say something because it comes to your mind. That can be dangerous, right? A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man, so things come to my mind all the time.

I'm not saying nothing, but I will if God, okay, you put that on my heart. Lord, you show me, just, and I believe there's almost like you have to do it, and I don't know if you've felt that before. It's like, I've gotta talk to this person.

I've gotta share this. I've gotta give them what I believe the Lord has put on my heart. Now, why wouldn't just God give us what he wants to tell us? I don't know, but we also know the Bible doesn't tell me God's calling me to pastor.

There's principles. I can sense it. I can feel it, but without this supplemental confirmation that gives me additional assurance, that's how the gifts work. It's supplemental to the Bible. It doesn't precede.

It doesn't take the authority over the Bible. It just comes alongside and confirms what is already in the word. So somebody who has the gift of, and maybe it's not a gift all the time, but God might put something in your heart because you can talk to that person like no one else can at all.

And maybe I should share this now. It's been a while, but I believe I didn't, and I still believe this. Hopefully I can, well, maybe not verify it, but many years ago, I think it was six, seven years ago, for about a week, I knew somebody, and it was all week.

I think I had two dreams about it, that he was cheating on his wife with this secretary at work where he worked. And when you have these dreams, it's not a pornographic dream. I just had this, like, he's spending time with her he shouldn't be, you know, and at least two or three nights in a row, and then all week, it's like, oh, I gotta call this guy, gotta call this guy.

And I never mustered up the strength to do that. Come to find out, I think later on, his job didn't work out where they moved. There was some turmoil. I didn't get the exact results. So I don't know if I never, you know, I was kind of maybe embarrassed, or I'm like, oh boy, this is gonna be off.

But it's funny, when I saw him at his work, I went to drop something off to his work, and I saw how he interacted with the secretary. And right then, something prompted in my mind that all week, it was building and building and building.

So I would believe that would be a word of wisdom, something I should have confronted him on. Or God might bring a word of wisdom to our own heart. I've known people that, they write about too, that where they're going to go on a flight, and they just, oh, had a strong, oh, I'm not gonna take that flight.

I don't wanna take that flight. I can't, and then ends up, the small Cessna crashes or something. So sometimes God can put a word of wisdom into our hearts, or he puts it into your heart. So here's what it would look like.

Usually what I would do, and what I think would be biblical, is to say, okay, Lord, well, I know my own heart, and I need to know this is from you. I need to know, Lord, if you want me to talk to this person.

Give me confirmation. And there's been times where I've run into somebody I haven't seen for a year. I'm like, oh, well, talk about confirmation. So God will, oh, if you're like, Lord, I wanna wait on you, will you show me?

Because often, he'll plant that word that you should give somebody. Not necessarily you have to give it to them that day, but it's watering, it's seeding, it's growing. So when you go, you feel confident because you've waited out for a while.

You've let it sink in for a season. Because some things come and they go, right? Like, what was that about yesterday? I'm like, I don't even, I'm glad I didn't bring up anything. And usually, if you went to somebody, you could say, hey, I don't know, take it for what it is.

I don't know if this will help at all. But God put it, I think it's, God, I mean, you do with it what you want, but this has been on my heart all week. And you just share with them. You share with them what's been on your heart.

I remember one lady's, I won't get into details, her names are different things, because she used to go here. But just totally out of the blue, she doesn't even operate in this type of gift. She was on the phone with somebody, and she just said, hey, I need to tell you this.

I don't normally do this. And there's a passionate discussion going on, and she said, but God spoke to me all week, and I've been ignoring it. But you've developed a prideful, arrogant, hard heart. You're not hearing God, and it was just kind of silent, and the guy knew it was right.

It was right on, dead on. There's an area in his life where Satan is working, and he was getting harder and harder in this area, and it took this lady's boldness to confront that. So that's kind of what a word of wisdom is.

See, it's not weird. It's not people doing cartwheels. It's God working through his people. And wouldn't you think somebody filled with the Holy Spirit of God would be able to, and word of wisdom here can be applied not just to believers.

You can speak to the waitress, or at Trader Joe's, or where you're shopping, and God put something on your heart. I know people who operate this quite frequently, and not necessarily at this church. This guy who wrote this book will list some of those people, too, and I know one of the guys he mentions.

But where they'll just be in a store, and God puts it on their heart, and they can't ignore it. And they'll talk to this lady, and she breaks down, and she starts crying, and he helps her out with groceries.

And see, a word of wisdom where God's working through his people. See, we kind of come like, okay, I'm filled with this Holy Spirit. Let me come to church. Let me sing. I got fed today. Thank you. Now, next Sunday.

But being filled with the Holy Spirit starts now, like a car broken down on the side of the road, that you're a neighbor, and you're filled with the Spirit of God leading you and directing you. If you say, Holy Spirit, use me today, watch out.

Put down the TV controller, and just turn off the television. Go to the hospital homes, and allow the Holy. See, the Holy Spirit will work through an empty vessel that's wanting to be led by him. But if we already have our preconceived ideas, I don't want to be used of God, I'm comfortable, you're not going to be.

You have to be open for the work of the Holy Spirit. So then we see the word of knowledge. So wisdom, I believe, is something is brought to our mind where somebody needs to act on something. It's wisdom.

Something needs to happen. So knowledge is something brought to mind by the Holy Spirit that a person needs to know. Now, this is interesting. Most of you will know this, and this goes out on video. So let me preface it by saying, men of God who I look up to do not agree with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One, as you know, is John MacArthur. I did a message on a pastor response to the John MacArthur Strange Fire Conference, and it's over close to 100 ,000 views right now. So I get emails from both sides, of course, on this.

But it's interesting, I was at, and again, I love these guys. I go to their conferences, the Shepherds Conference once a year, I try to go to, and I love their works, and I try to, I'm broad-minded and read different things.

But I went to one of the conferences seven, eight years ago, and I believe they were interviewing or showing a video clip of one of their professors now who's Chinese, and he escaped the persecuted church in China.

And on the video, he's telling a story of when he was riding a bike, riding a bike, and the Holy Spirit, don't go down that road. Go down that road. Changed now, and he changed, and went and got free, and the police were at his house.

So I wanted to get up and shout, hey, for all you who don't believe in the gift, that's exactly what it is. You just proved my point on video to hundreds of thousands of people who say the gifts don't cease, but now that works in the Chinese guy's life, escaping the police in China from a world of knowledge, and see, that's all it is.

Don't wrap me into this weird group that you just explain what it is. Why is that okay? The Holy Spirit supernaturally gave him knowledge of something to do immediately and change course, and that's not uncommon.

You get some of the underground Chinese, China books that we've handed out before. I don't know if we have any more, but it talks about this gift is operating often, the word of knowledge, where to go, what not to go, what not to say, and the Holy Spirit's directing them.

That missionary movie we watched on Wednesday night a few months ago, that guy was led often by the Holy Spirit on a word of knowledge. So sometimes it's for others, sometimes it's for ourselves, being open to what God wants to do.

And again, I think, I've had times, and so have you, where I'm riding my bike, and I'm like, oh yeah, go right. This is a, you better turn. You better, this is, you know, you know that you know that you know.

This is a, that's why you don't have to worry about sometimes making the wrong decision. I think if you just say, Lord, I'm trusting you in this, I'm making the best decision to the best of my ability.

Oh, this is interesting, too, on the word of knowledge. I'm gonna give this example again. Many of you remember it, but it's perfect for this. This is a perfect word of knowledge. I spoke about David Ravenhill in his book, Leonard Ravenhill's Son, who talked, he talked to this guy who was having dinner with a missionary, or a girl who was getting ready to go on the mission field, and all night during dinner, it kept coming to his mind to tell her that God hates mommies and daddies.

And he's like, I can't tell her that, that's ridiculous. There's no way, okay, God loves mommies and daddies. But it got so hard and so burdensome, and he was, oh, can I just say this so I can be relieved?

I believe that God wants you to know that he hates mommies and daddies. And she lunged at him and broke down right there and then. And he's wondering, what happened? Well, when she was little, her uncles abused her and said, let's play mommies and daddies.

So she's been carrying all this, this whole time. And God was so gracious to say, you tell her that I hate mommies and daddies, and she was set free. That's how it works. That's how the Holy Spirit works, he ministers to people.

We can think of a lot of examples where the Holy Spirit would do that. Also, word of knowledge that somebody needs to know. Somebody might come to me, or leadership at the church, or different church, or different things, and say, hey, listen, this has been on my heart all week.

I just feel prompted, do whatever you want with it, but I feel that the church needs to be prepared. There's gonna be a season of shifting. There's gonna be some people leaving that you're not prepared to leave, and different things.

And just take it for what it is, be prepared for that. So when that happens, ah, thank you, Lord, for preparing me. Word of knowledge, something you need to know. Why does the Holy Spirit do that? Because I wouldn't just, because if you're just hit with something out of the blue without any preparation, so see how God's gifts come alongside and help the body?

It helps, because, well, we have the word. We have the word, but nobody, no, it doesn't tell me, oh, next month, people are gonna get upset, and a couple families leave, and for no reason, and wow, I was warned of that ahead of time.

Or different things, or there's somebody, I know somebody who has a strong gifting, I'll get into it in a minute, on discerning of spirits and different things, and he's been right a lot. Like, hey, I just don't feel good about that person.

This spirit is in them, and just be careful, and they're right, and just, oh, I didn't realize that, because my antennas aren't, you know, because usually Aaron's side of grace and love and mercy, and everybody's welcome, and not, we don't use a Ronald Reagan trust, but verify in the church, right?

We just trust, trust, trust, trust, trust. So it's the, but we do verify. Just kidding on that one. But we do see that there are different gifts to help each other, and then it goes into faith, the gift of faith.

The Gift of Faith and the Sovereignty of God

Now, this is interesting, because it ties in with, I believe, some of the other gifts. The gift of faith is a supernatural surge of faith, confidence that God is going to do something. And if you've ever experienced it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

If you haven't, then just suffice it to say, it's a strong surge. It's, oh, you know, I have so much faith. A person who, if you're interested to look at more videos and things online, Sam Storm, Pastor Sam Storm in Oklahoma, theologian, wrote a wonderful book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

He would talk about a time, an opportunity, where he had to, it was just a normal day, and the elders got oil, anointing oil. It just represents the Holy Spirit. They're asking the Holy Spirit to be in the prayers of the elders, and praying over, and they prayed over the sick child that had a liver disease, and they were gonna need, the CAT scan wasn't good.

He actually needed a transplant. And he just, as he was praying, he just knew, he said, oh, that child is, it's healed, it's done. It's done. I mean, I don't wanna tell the parents necessarily and get their, you know, because you're checking yourself.

And he said, oh, I had so much assurance. That baby is healed. Unbelievable. Something you normally don't feel, right? Who feels that? Usually it's like, oh, I hope so. But he just, oh, I knew it, I knew it.

And they called a week later so excited. They said the doctor's never seen anything like this. The liver, it looks like a brand new liver on the CAT scan. So see, that's faith, and it doesn't just come.

You can't just, you know, it's just a supernatural act of, and I wish I could tell you this happens a lot with me. It doesn't, right? My faith stands trial. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. One area, though, that this did, if I remember correctly, was when we were considering moving up here and driving.

I drove it quite a bit. And after, you know, I don't know, a dozen times or so, just driving back, I think Morgan felt the same way, just this assurance. It's like, okay, it's a done deal. I mean, God's gonna do this.

I have no doubt. I know he's, I could just sense it. So it didn't matter that, you know, people didn't, you know, complaining or going back and forth. It didn't matter. They're taking a vote, I think, in a month or two, you know, and it didn't matter because you knew there was an assurance that God's will is going to prevail.