(Through the Bible) 1 Corinthians 12 — Chuck Smith

Spiritual Gifts and the Problem of Ignorance

Now concerning the spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant. An interesting statement of Paul, because I think that in the church, one of the areas where the greatest ignorance does exist today is in the area of spiritual gifts and their operation within the church.

And this ignorance is on both sides of the fence. Within the Pentecostal churches, there's a lot of abuse of the gifts of the Spirit because people are ignorant of their true operation within the church.

On the other side of the fence, among some of the fundamental churches, there's a lot of ignorance of the gifts of the Spirit as they dismiss them to another age and do not see any validity for them today.

And so where Paul says, I would not have you to be ignorant, sad but true, there's a great deal of ignorance today. Now you know that you were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as you were led.

Testing Spiritual Speech and Trusting the Father

So I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. Evidently, there was a rumor in Paul's day that someone speaking in tongues was overheard by someone who understood the language that he was speaking in and he was actually blaspheming God.

Paul said, impossible. No man by the Spirit calls Jesus accursed. Now, that rumor probably started in Corinth, but it hasn't died yet. I often today hear people say, oh, well, there was a meeting. You know, my aunt knew a woman who attended a service.

Never will you ever hear a first-hand evidence of that rumor. It's always someone who knew somebody. Somewhere. And there was this meeting and someone got up and spoke in tongues and someone was there from Egypt, understood the language, and they were blaspheming God and all.

And that rumor persists to the present day. However, know this. No man by the Spirit calls Jesus accursed. Impossible. Also, if you have a son who comes to you and asks for bread, you're not going to give him a stone.

If he asks for a fish, you're not going to give him a scorpion. If he asks for an egg, you're not going to give him a serpent. Now, if you earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?

I'm tired of these boogeyman stories. You better be careful when you yield yourself and open up yourself to God because you don't know what Spirit might come in. False. Your heavenly Father is much more gracious than we are as earthly fathers.

And if I, as a sincere child of God, am seeking the fullness of God's Spirit and asking Him to give me more of His Spirit indwelling me and empowering me, it would be blasphemous to say that God would allow some false or evil spirit to come in and to take control of my life.

That is an extremely blasphemous concept of God that I utterly reject. The second part of this is also interesting. No man can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit. If I really confess Jesus Christ is Lord, I can only do that as the result of the work of the Holy Spirit within my life.

If you have made that confession, it's because of the work of the Holy Spirit within your life. You can't do it apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. You cannot make a genuine confession that Jesus is Lord except the Holy Spirit has done His work within your life.

One Spirit, Many Gifts and Operations

Now, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are many different gifts. There is a partial listing here. Paul gives another listing in Romans 12 in which he adds some that are not here.

There are diversities of gifts. Many different gifts, but there's just one Spirit. The same Spirit. There are differences of administrations. Now, he speaks about governments and helps and things of this nature, and there are different administrations.

And yet, it is the same Lord. There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. So, even with the diversities of gifts, then there are diversities of the operations of that gift.

I may possess a certain gift of the Spirit and you may possess the same gift of the Spirit, but it may operate in my life differently than it operates in your life. And one thing about God is that He will not be pigeonholed by us.

He refuses to be conformed to our patterns and to our mindsets. He allows Himself that liberty of working as He wills and as He desires. And it doesn't always follow my patterns. Therefore, it is wrong to seek to receive the same kind of an experience that someone else received.

God may work differently in your life. A mistake that we often make when we hear a person give a glorious testimony of how they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or how they received some gift of the Spirit in their lives.

They think, oh, well, that's the way it happens, and so, you know, I try to look for the same kind of sensations, the same kind of feelings, as some people are very... the sanguine especially, can describe things so vividly, you know.

And I was under the piano. And I began to get this warm feeling that started at the top of my head, you know. And it was just like it came right on down through me and my whole body was just tingling with these.

And they can go on. And so, I am waiting upon God. I say, oh Lord, I want to receive more of Your Spirit. And then I wait for this warm glow to start in the top of my head. And nothing happens. I wait and wait and wait.

And I don't get this warm glow. And I think, well, maybe another night, you know. Because I'm looking to imitate someone else's experience. But we all of us relate to God in our own ways. And God relates to us in His own way.

And our experiences can vary dramatically, though we do have and can be exercising the same gift of the Spirit. The way it works in me is different than the way it works in you. The sensations that I may feel would be different from the sensations that you may feel.

And thus, we should not be trying to receive some experience or predicate the fact that I've received the experience because I've had a warm glow or I felt like a bath or felt like this or felt like that.

The faith should never be in the feelings that I receive. Because I may not have any feelings at all that I can describe. All I've got is pure faith in the promise of God. Oh, what a shame. No, what a blessing.

I've got God's Word and I stand upon the Word of God. Same in salvation. You know, people describe these marvelous feelings when they receive Jesus Christ. And so people are looking for some kind of a feeling rather than just taking the Word of God at face value.

God has said it. He has promised it. I put my faith in the Word and the promise of God and establish it there rather than, you know, well, brother, let me tell you, this is how it happened to me. And so, it's important that our faith be established in the Word because it doesn't change.

My feelings do. My feelings can change radically from tonight to tomorrow morning. But the Word of God doesn't change. Thus, when my faith is established upon the Word, then I have a solid relationship.

Diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God. And of course, here you have the Father, Son, and the Spirit. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man for the profit of all.

Gifts Given for the Profit of the Body

If God does give to me a gift of the Spirit, it isn't for my own personal pleasure. It isn't a toy for me to play with. It's for the profit of the whole body of Christ. There is only one gift spoken of that is to be used in one's personal devotion and is for their personal benefit, and that is the gift of tongues.

And we'll get to that next Sunday night as we study the 14th chapter, the proper use of tongues in the life of the believer. So, the gifts are given for the profit of the whole body of Christ to one is given by the Spirit, the Word of Wisdom.

This Word of Wisdom is exercised in, of course, different ways. Diversities of operations. In the early church, there arose a dispute between the Hellenist, the Grecians, and the Hebrews. Some of the Jews were following the Hellenistic culture.

Some were following the Hebrew culture. Those that were following the Hellenist culture felt that their widows were getting a second-rate treatment from the church's welfare program. So they came to the apostles with their complaint.

Our widows are getting second-class treatment over there at the welfare tables. And so the apostles got together. The Word of Wisdom. Let us appoint seven men of good reputation filled with the Holy Spirit that they might take the duty of administering the church's welfare in order that we might continue to give ourselves to fasting and to prayer and to the Word of God.

For it isn't right that we should leave our ministry to take care of distributing of the church's welfare program. Word of Wisdom. Further wisdom is manifested probably in the fact that seven of the seven men, and five of them have Grecian names, which mean they probably came from a Hellenistic culture.

When certain brethren came to the church of Antioch and saw the Gentiles and their liberty in Christ, they said, hey, wait a minute. You can't be saved unless you're circumcised. You keep the law of Moses.

And so Paul and Barnabas gathered these guys together and they went on to go right down to Jerusalem. We'll settle this right now once and for all. So they came to the church in Jerusalem and there was a big division over this.

Peter got up and said, well, he said, God called me to the Gentiles. And while I was speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon them. Who was I to resist the Word of God? I don't think that we ought to try and put a yoke of bondage on them that we've never been able to keep.

Then others of them, Paul and Barnabas told the work that God had done, the miracles that were accomplished among their ministry and the Gentiles. Then James, with the Word of Wisdom, said, I suggest let's just write to them and tell them, keep themselves from fornication and things that were offered to idols or things that were strangled.

If they do that, they do well. Let's not lay the whole thing on them. Just know the essentials. Word of Wisdom. Everybody's happy. Yeah, that's good. That's right. And so often when there are differences, disagreements, there's the possibility of people polarizing.

The Word of Wisdom so often can just come in and someone will speak up and say, well, I think we ought to do that. And everybody will say, hey, yeah, that's a good idea. How did you ever think of that?

And really, it's just the Word of Wisdom coming forth. And so there are some that God just gifts this way. It isn't a reservoir of wisdom that I can just tap on at any time and it's there. But in a situation that arises, the Lord just gives that Word of Wisdom that is satisfying to everybody.

The Word of Knowledge and Discerning Circumstances

The second that he lists here or speaks about is the Word of Knowledge. Now this is how that you intuitively or somehow inwardly just have knowledge of something that is going on and you can't tell how you know it.

It's just the Spirit has revealed it and you have from the Spirit knowledge of a situation. Knowledge of a person's circumstance. I've looked at people sometimes and the Lord just gave me all kinds of understanding of the problems that that person was going through.

Things that were happening in their lives. I can't tell you where I received it or how, but it was just there. The Word of Knowledge was probably exercised by Peter when this fellow Simon was seeking to buy the power that whosoever he laid his hands on, they might receive also the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And Peter said, your money perishes with you. I perceive that in your heart there's bitterness, there's jealousy, there's envy that is there. You better pray and repent. Peter was reading the fellow. And so this Word of Knowledge is interesting.

I am not really always aware when it's being exercised. Many times in the pulpit ministry, the Word of Knowledge is exercised and I'm not even aware of it. One time, you know, every once in a while I get on these kicks of these evangelists or these men who have a paper ministry.

It's all in letters. They go out and take pictures, you know, this is my great meeting here and, you know, continue to send in your support for God's work to go on. And they're doing nothing but sitting and typing these pitiful letters to their constituents and to their mailing lists.

And they really do no service for God. And I was going on about these kind of people one night and I said, you know, they live down on Lido Island. They drive white Cadillacs. And I go on and on. I was going on describing, you know, this scenario.

Monday morning I received an irate call because these services are broadcast. I received an irate call from a guy who lives down on Lido Island, drives a white Cadillac, who has a mailing ministry. He said, you have no right speaking about my ministry.

You don't know what I'm doing for the Lord. And I said, well, I really don't. Who are you? He said, you were talking about me last night. Talking about, you know, my home here on Lido and my white Cadillac and all.

I said, sir, I don't know anything about you. I've never heard of you in my life. I said, I was just making up an example. And because Lido's sort of a plush area, I just named Lido and, you know, white Cadillac sort of endemic for these guys.

And I said, but I don't know you. But I said, if I were you, I would sure examine myself. The word of knowledge. Now, it does happen sometimes in very peculiar circumstances. I mean, weird kind of things.

I was at a Rose Bowl game. SC and Ohio State. SC had the ball down on their own 15-yard line. And so, this friend that I was at the game with, I said, watch, on this next play, Davis is going to take the ball around the left end and he's going to go all the way in one play.

And my wife says that my voice carries. She always says, honey, talk soft. You're in a restaurant. Everybody can hear you, you know. And so, people around me heard me, you know. The very next play, ball was given to Davis, around left end, ran all the way for a touchdown.

Everybody in five rows turned around and looked at me. And they said, what's going to happen next? I don't know why I said it. I've never said anything like that in my life. But it was just something that came out.

And then when it happened, I was as amazed as everybody. Word of knowledge is a very interesting thing. Just how it operates, a person doesn't really know. You know, I think that one thing is that the supernatural often operates so naturally that we fail to recognize it as the supernatural.

There's an awful lot of supernatural happening around us that we are totally oblivious to. We're not even aware of it because it happens so naturally. I expect if God speaks to me that there's going to be the chuck.

You know, ooh, you know. Your hair's standing on end. Oh, God's talking, you know. I mean, you can tell His voice. It's got that shake to it, you know. And so, we're looking for some type of supernatural phenomena in order to recognize the work of God or the voice of God.

But it oftentimes happens in a very still, small voice. An inner awareness. A sudden thought or inspiration. A sudden desire. As God speaks to our hearts and plants His truth within our hearts. And so, I have learned not to look for the fire, not to look for the earthquake, not to look for the rushing wind, but to listen to that still, small voice as God speaks to our hearts.

Faith as a Gift for Particular Situations

The Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit. To another faith. Now, we are told to every man is given a measure of faith. That faith by which I believed in Jesus Christ was a gift of God. For by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God.

The faith to believe in Jesus Christ was given to me by God. When Peter was going with John into the temple, and the man was seeking alms, and Peter said, silver and gold I don't have, but what I have I'll be glad to give to you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand to your feet and walk. And he took the man, lifted him to his feet. That was an act of faith on Peter's part. Lifting a lame man to his feet. And immediately he received strength.

And he began to run and leap and praise God. And then as he made his circuit through the temple, people said, isn't that the lame man who's been out there for so many years? Yeah, it sure looks like him.

What's he doing running? I don't know, let's find out. And so as he came back out to Solomon's porch where Peter was still standing, he took hold of Peter. Began to hug him. And all of the people began to relate the miracle to Peter.

And so Peter said, hey, you men of Israel, about 5 ,000 had gathered. Why marvel ye at this? Or why look upon me or upon us as though we through our own righteousness have done this good deed to this lame man?

Be it made known unto you that it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that this man stand before you whole. He is the stone that was set of knot by your builders, but he has become the chief cornerstone.

And it is through the faith of him that this man has his perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Peter didn't say, hey, it's my faith, my great faith. I fasted and prayed for years and God finally gave this to me.

But he said it is through the faith of him, the gift of faith, the faith of him, that this man has his perfect soundness in the presence of you all. So Peter recognized that this wasn't just some faith that I have, I can go around and lift every lame man to his feet.

But the Lord gave him faith in that particular instance. And he had that gift of faith for that instance and he lifted the man to the feet by faith and God healed him. And so the gift of faith, and that's a special faith in a special situation.

It isn't that you have faith in every situation. Men of faith oftentimes have great times of failure. Abraham, the father of those who believe. God said, I'm going to give you a son, Abraham. God kept saying, I'm going to give you a son, Abraham.

The older he got, Sarah went through menopause. God said, I'm going to give you a son, Abraham. Sarah said, Abraham, let's quit fooling ourselves. God needs help. It's obvious. He wants to give you a son.

So you take my handmaiden, Hagar, going unto her. And then when the child is born, I'll be the midwife and I'll take the child from her womb and it'll be like my child and it'll be your son. And we'll help God out because this point, we've got to be practical.

So Ishmael was born. And one day when Ishmael was about 13 years old playing outside, Abraham said, I mean, the Lord said, Abraham, Abraham, I'm going to bless you and give you a son. Abraham said, let Ishmael live before you forever, Lord.

That's all right, Lord. There he is, I accept it. And the Lord said, no, through Sarah shall your seed be called. So here's a man of faith, but he had a lapse of faith. It wasn't faith in every situation.

He said, hey, Sarah, you're so beautiful. You know, they'll kill me to take you away from me. So when we get down there, you just say, you're my sister. Don't tell me you're my wife. The man of faith, pawning off his wife as his sister.

You see, sometimes we're discouraged because the faith isn't always there. Men of faith often have lapses of faith. Elijah, right after his contest with the prophets of Baal, when he said, hey, you build your altar, I'll build my altar, we'll pray to God and the God who answers by fire, let him be the God.

They said, fair enough. They built their altar, they prayed all morning, nothing happened, and Elijah came to him and said, hey, guys, I'll bet your God's asleep. You ever thought of that? You probably have to cry louder to wake him up.

Or it could be he's off on a vacation. That'd be a shame. Or it could be he's gone to the restroom and relieving himself. So that's what he said. He's a crude guy. And so these guys began to jump up and down and slash themselves with knives and throw themselves on the altar and all.

Still nothing happened. So then Elijah said, all right, I'll bring some water, pour it on my sacrifice there. And they brought the water, pour on more, pour on more. Finally, the whole thing was just sop.

They dug a trench around full of water. He said, okay, God, now show these guys. And the fire came, consumed the sacrifice, burned up the rocks upon which the altar was built, licked up all the water.

Great man of faith. While he had the roll going, he took the 400 prophets of Baal down to the stream. The brook Kidron killed them all. And then that wicked queen Jezebel came back and she heard what Elijah did.

And she said, God help me if I don't have that guy's head by tomorrow afternoon. And Elijah heard Jezebel's after you. And he took off running. This great man of faith ran over a hundred miles down to the Sinai where he hid in a cave.

Great man of faith hiding in a cave from Jezebel. You see, man of faith can have lapses of faith. And if you have the gift of faith, it doesn't mean it's going to operate all the time. Hey, I've got finally the little genie here, you know, and anytime I want to rub it, you know, shazam, alakazam, here it is, you know.

But God gives to you in certain situations, special faith. And it's glorious when God gives you the faith that he's going to work. And you just have that confidence in that faith and that trust and rest in God.

Beautiful experience. Doesn't happen in every case, but it's glorious when it does happen. To another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit operates much as the gift of faith. To another, the working of miracles.

Again, not in every situation, but a lot of miracles happening. To another, prophecy, which is really speaking forth the truth of God through the anointing of the Spirit. To another, the discerning of spirits.

For there are many spirits that have gone out into the world and not all are of God. To another, the various kinds of tongues. And to another, the interpretation of tongues. And we'll save our commentary on this till next Sunday night when we get into chapter 14.

But all of these are working that the one and self same, by the one and self same Spirit, or that the one and self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as He wills. So these gifts of the Spirit are something that are wrapped up in the sovereignty of the Spirit of God.

The One Body of Christ and Its Many Members

I cannot demand that a particular gift be operating in my life. The Spirit is sovereign in the dispensing of these gifts. Now, as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

So we are the body of Christ. Now, in your body, you have many different parts to your body. You have your fingers, you have your hands, you have your arms, you have your wrists, you have your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, your legs, your feet, your toes.

Various parts of your body. Many parts of your body, but yet you're one body. Now, if you drop a lead pipe on your toe, where do you hurt? You hurt all over. One member is suffering, the whole body suffers.

It's hard to divide the areas of pain when I'm hurting. Now, the body of Christ, here we are, many members, but we're not the whole body of Christ. The many members of the body of Christ include the Presbyterian church down the street, the Lutheran church over in Mesa Verde, the Baptist church down on Baker.

We are all members of the body of Christ. We're all then a part of each other, a part of that one body. And God help us to come to this awareness and realization. There are always those who seek to want to divide the body of Christ, the recognition of themselves to the exclusion of other parts.

Or there are always those who think that they are the most important part of the body of Christ. But every part is necessary for the other. And if the whole body were just an ear, then where would be the seeing?

And if the whole body were just an eye, then how could you hear? So, God has brought the body of Christ, of many members, brought them together. We are all one body. And in recognition of this, if one member of the body is suffering, then we should all be feeling it.

If one member of the body is being exalted, then we should all rejoice in the exaltation of that part of the body. And so Paul teaches this beautiful lesson of the oneness of the body of Jesus Christ, an important lesson that I pray that God by His Holy Spirit will help us to all grasp and to put into practice in our own mental concepts, in our own thinking processes, that we will not be guilty of just thinking of ourselves exclusively or looking for our own benefits exclusively or just one segment of the body of Christ to the exclusion of others.

We have not yet heard on channel 30 whether or not the interim license will be given to us. We're supposed to hear any day, but it's a government agency and there's not always the most, well, they're not always the most dependable.

They were supposed to have issued that by the fourth by their previous declarations, but they're no doubt deliberating it and whatever decision they come up with, we will surely abide with. But we do intend if they grant to us that permit for channel 30, I intend to immediately call Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, Dave over in Santa Ana at the Calvary Church, Hawkins, John MacArthur and get these fellows together and say, look, here's what God has laid in our laps.

Let's pray together and seek the Lord on how to best use this facility for His glory and get many different representatives from the body of Christ, giving them exposure, giving their ministries exposure on television rather than just representing one small spectrum of the Christian body on television.

I'd like to see all of the spectrums of the Christian body represented, the true body of Christ. Those who own to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so John and I disagree in some areas, but we are still brothers in Christ Jesus and one in Him.

And that oneness that we share in Christ is far greater than any disagreement that we might have concerning the issues that we're talking about tonight. So we need to have that awareness that when we get to heaven, there's not gonna be a section for Methodist and another one for Presbyterians, another for Baptist, but in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, Baptist or Methodist, Presbyterian or Nazarene or Church of God or Church of Christ, but they are all one in Him.

Beautiful lessons here that Paul teaches concerning the oneness of the body. So for by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, Baptist or Presbyterians, whether we be bond or free, we have been all made to drink into one spirit.

Shared Suffering and Mutual Care in the Church

For the body is not one member, but many. Imagine if the body was, what a weird world this would be if your body had just one member and each of us were just a different part. Look at that big toe going down the street, isn't that weird looking?

If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? Now, if any part of your body had a right to complain, it'd probably be your foot. Lives in the dark most of the time, stuffy and smelly environment.

Yeah, never complain. Well, it does complain sometime, I guess at night if you work too hard, but I mean, it's just there to just functions. It's just part of your whole body. Doesn't seek to exalt itself and move up and become a pendant to your knee or something.

You're gonna get out of this dirty, smelly place. Wanna be something different. If the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? There are those that say, hey, you know, we're this, we're that, and we're not part of the whole body, or they don't see it.

If the whole body were an eye, beware, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? Now, God has set the members, every one of them in the body as it has pleased Him.

Again, as it has pleased Him. An important phrase in the New Testament, follow it through in your concordance. As it has pleased Him. God gives us a body as pleases Him, our new bodies. And if they were all one member, then where were the body?

But now are they many members, yet one body, and the eye cannot say into the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be sort of insignificant are necessary.

And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow the more abundant honor and our uncomely parts, the more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.

And so God creating the body of Christ. And those parts that we sometimes look down upon, sort of look down our nose, well, you know, they are. And yet God has chosen to bless and exalt them, to bestow upon them honor.

That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care, one for another. And whether one member suffers, then all members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Every Believer’s Vital Ministry

Now, you are the body of Christ and members in particular. You are all important. You all have a vital part to play in the body, a vital part to fill in the body. A ministry that the body might be whole and complete.

And if you don't fill your part, then the body is missing in that area. So each of you have been placed in the body of Christ to fulfill your area of ministry there within the body. And God has set some in the church.

First of all, the apostles. Secondly, the prophets. Thirdly, the teachers. And after that, the miracles and the gifts of healing and the helps from the governments and the diversities of tongues. Rhetorical questions, are all apostles?

No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all work miracles? No. Have all the gifts of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues? No. Do all interpret? No. Therefore, covet earnestly the best gifts.

And yet, I will show you a more excellent way. A more excellent way than having these gifts of miracles or healings or whatever operating in your life. God has something even better for you. You'll get to it next Sunday as we move along.

So, for these last few verses, this morning's sermon is an exposition of this latter portion. And so I would refer you to this morning's sermon for the exposition of this portion from verse 28 on. And next week we'll move into that 13th chapter of Corinthians, which has to be one of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible.

As Paul defines for us this interesting, intriguing Greek word, agape, or agapo. And we get the definition for this kind of love that originates with God and that he wants to flow through our lives. And then in chapter 14, the proper use of the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues.

So, interesting study next Sunday night. Never think I'm unimportant. It doesn't really matter if I am there or not. It does. God has placed you in the body and God has chosen to place the greater honor on some of the more insignificant or parts that aren't as obvious or as noticed as others.

In a sense, I guess God has made me a mouth. But if the whole body were a mouth, what a mess it would be. So, we each take our place within the body, opening our hearts to God that the Holy Spirit might fill us.

Yielding to the Spirit’s Coordination

And that the Holy Spirit might cause us to function in a well-coordinated way that God then might use us for his glory. One of the problems with the church is that so often we find the church body spastic because each part of the body is wanting to do its own thing.

And we're not really sensitive and yielded to the Holy Spirit, who is the one who coordinates the movement of the body. And so, the church has not had as strong a testimony before the world as it should because of the body fighting against itself.