Discovering Your Spiritual Gift: Part 3 Sign Gifts
1. Serving gifts (7) 2. Speaking gifts (8). 3. Supernatural (4)
1. Miracles . 2 Healing 3. Prophecy 4. Tongues
- Also called “wonders”; “miracles”; “powers”
- “signs” – point to King Jesus & Kingdom of God
=Supernatural; 2 realms 1 reality
=Natural: Rationalism – Scientific Method – Naturalism – Atheism
Don’t dismiss. Do discern
1 Jn 4:1 do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (0 soul)
Cessationism vs Continuationism
1 Corinthians 13:8–12 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Cessationism – the supernatural sign gifts (including extra-biblical revelation) that existed in the 1st century to confirm & approve the apostolic authority & message but are no longer needed because we have the completed canon of Scripture.
Continuationism – the supernatural sign gifts continue to operate on earth until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ & establishment of the Kingdom on earth
- Love – continues forever
- Some gifts we don’t need in Kingdom (discernment, evangelism, healing, prophecy/tongues & revelation, casting out demons)
Miracles (1 Corinthians 12:9)
The ability to call on God to do supernatural acts that reveal His power by special moments of divine anointing from God the Holy Spirit. People with the gift of miracles see God show up in extraordinary ways from daily little events to major public displays. In these moments, there is an overriding of the natural laws which govern the universe, and God shows up to reveal His sovereign rule as Creator over creation.
Jesus’ ministry: 40 miracles in 4 Gospels; 1/3 of Mark is Jesus miracles
- Commanding nature (storm, walk water); healing, casting demons
-Jn 20:30 Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book…
-John 21:25 there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Do you have this gift?
1. Do you truly believe God can do the impossible and have you seen Him do just that?
2. Are dreams, visions, angelic visits, demonic encounters and deliverance, and other supernatural wonders part of your testimony?
3. Have you seen God do extraordinary things in times of prayer and worship?
4. Are you keenly aware of God’s presence and power?
Warning: 2 Thess 2:9–10 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception
My experiences:
Most of my theological tribe leans cessationist/open cautious
- God spoke to me in college
- Dreams – 1st church plant
- Visions – woman harmed, pastors daughter stadium
Healing (1 Corinthians 12:9)
The ability to call on God to heal the sick through supernatural means for the purpose of revealing God and His Kingdom where all sickness will be forever healed. Epaphroditus (Php. 2:25–27), Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23), Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20), and Paul (1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 11:30; 12:5, 7–10; Gal. 4:13) each had a sickness that was not healed despite the fact they deeply loved God and walked with Jesus faithfully. Every Christian will be fully, totally, completely, and eternally healed forever upon the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus’ ministry:
Gospels: 27X healed individual. 10X groups.
Acts: 12/28 chapters – Dr. Luke (verifies, does not negate medicine)
· Cast out demon & healed – (mental health, muteness, blindness, bleeding, epilepsy)
· Isaiah 53:5 “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed.”
Do you have this gift?
- Do you enjoy laying hands on the sick & praying for their healing in faith?
- Do you have deep compassion for those who are sick?
- Do you have an interest in both prayer & medicine to seek total health for others?
- Have you been healed, or seen someone else healed supernaturally?
Warning:
- Some desperate people are open to demonic counterfeit
- Our faith in God should help us to grieve differently when life comes to an end
My experiences:
- My mom was healed
- Lots of people delivered from demonic sickness
Prophets/Prophecy (I Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11)
Like a mail delivery person who does not write or edit the mail, but collects and delivers it, the prophetic calling combined two ministries. First, prophets received specific revelation directly from God. Second, they spoke that revealed Word to people with the expectation of an obedient response to God. Prophets communicate either by speaking or in writing. People with prophetic gifting more easily spot compromise, sin, and error and desire immediate change and action for Christ. They tend to be bold, sensitive to sin, and place a very high value on biblical behavior and telling the truth no matter the cost.
Bible: 25% Bible prophetic, Major (Is. Jer/Lam., Ez, Dan) Minor (Hos, Joel, Am, Ob, Jon, Mic, Nah., Hab, Zeph, Hagg, Zec, Mal
- Von Rad – 241X OT 221X a prophet “the word of the Lord”
Jesus’ ministry: Deut. 18:15-22 Prophet like Moses promised = Jesus Acts 3:22, 7:37
Prophetic Ministry:
- OT give us perfect Word of God (canon closed, concluded)
- Anointed to apply God’s Word to a time/place
- Special info re. future
Do you have this gift?
1. Are you deeply burdened by lies, apostasy, false teaching, and injustice?
2. Are you the kind of person who will say what needs to be said no matter what?
3. Do you struggle with being loving & not just truthful, loving mercy as well as justice?
4. Do you get upset when people do not simply and immediately obey God’s Word?
Warning: Jesus/Paul/John warn false prophets. 1. Messenger (character). 2. Message (agree Bible, does it happen?). 3. Motive (paid well to avoid repentance)
-1 Thess 5:19–21 Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.
My experience:
- TTC – God spoke to Grace and I, Mexican restaurant vision, Jimmy bldg., veil
Tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10, 12:28-30, 13:1, 14:1, 14:5-6, 14:18-23, 14:39)
The word “tongues” is best translated “languages” from Greek so speaking in tongues is a supernatural ability to pray in the Spirit in the language of Heaven or speak to others in their native earthly language which is unknown to the speaker.
This gift may also include the general ability to skillfully translate from one language to another as scholars do to get God’s Word out in thousands of languages so that people can read God’s Word in their own tongue/language. Additionally, this gift may include the ability of some Bible scholars to work masterfully from the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew, Greek Aramaic) to accurately help us learn the exact meaning of the Scriptures from the original languages and earliest manuscripts.
- 7000 languages today on earth. Why? Babel (Gen. 11) & Pentecost (Acts 2)
- Tongues – always listed last in gifts lists
Jesus’ Ministry: not said (does say He is Spirit-filled)
3 Kinds of Tongues
1. Private prayer in the angelic language of Heaven
-1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
-1 Corinthians 14:2,4 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit…The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
2. A public missionary proclamation in the earthly language of the hearer not known by the speaker
-Acts 2:4-6 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance…and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
3. A revelation in a language unknown to most hearers needing interpretation
-1 Corinthians 12:7,10 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good… another various kind of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
-1 Corinthians 14:27-28 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.
Do You Have This Gift?:
1. Do you have a private prayer language of tongues?
2. Are there times in your private prayer that you communicate at a soul level too deep for words that unburden you and unlocks spiritual growth?
3. Have you ever had a word that was given through you in a language that was foreign to you?
4. Have you ever interpreted a word given through another person in a language that was foreign to you?
5. Do things like Bible translation and getting Bible teaching out in multiple languages to reach people from as many nations as a possible matter a great deal to you?
Warning:
1. Some have. 1 Cor 14:18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
2. Some don’t. 1 Cor 12:29–30 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
3. Don’t forbid, even if don’t understand: 1 Cor 14:39 So, my brothers…do not forbid speaking in tongues.
6 Observations on the Work of the Spirit
1. Malachi 3:6 I the LORD do not change
2. John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
3. Ephesians 4:30 do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God
4. Acts 7:51 stiff-necked people…resist the Holy Spirit.
5. 1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
6. Matthew 12:39 [Jesus] answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.