Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
God we thank you you promised in your word that you would fill those who were hungry and thirsty Lord so Lord God we want more of you so that we can be what you've called us to be so that we can reach everyone that you've called us to reach father we thank you for for what you're preparing what you're about to do let us be prepared and father we pray it today in Jesus name amen amen you may be seated and welcome everyone the fire and grace church this morning those here those listening those watching we're trying something new this morning with Periscope so we'll see how that goes but we welcome everyone here I want everyone to turn this morning to first Thessalonians first Thessalonians chapter five you know frankly I'm just going to say it I don't understand churches or Christians for that matter that don't believe that the Holy Spirit is the same yesterday today and forever that Jesus hasn't changed that the gifts of the holy spirit are still for us today that God still speaks to his people I just don't understand that there's there's the whole segment big segment of the church world that thinks that once the Bible was finished that was it God quit talking God could talk in his holy spirit quit moving the gifts ceased but all of that is not so I want to read this first Thessalonians chapter 5 because I'm going to share a word of Prophecy that was sent to me from a brother who listens to our services in our radio show and I felt it was from the Lord so I'm going to share this with you but let's read uh let's see we'll just read from verse 12 since it's so good Paul wrote and we beseech you Brethren to know them that labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you to esteem them very highly and love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves now we exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly Comfort the feeble-minded support the weak be patient toward all men see that none render evil for evil unto any man but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men Rejoice Evermore pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you quench not the spirit despise not prophesyings
prove all things and hold fast to that which is good I'm going to stop there you're not going to turn me down just a hair that's a little bit of a ring there thank you now the Bible says here very clearly despise not prophesying right but let's define it now I'm going to turn there in a minute because we're going to look at First Corinthians chapter 14. but in First Corinthians chapter 14 in fact let's just go ahead and turn there first Corinthians chapter 14 because we'll be there quite a bit today First Corinthians chapter 14 and I want to say this very clearly there are those out there in the church world who try to use First Corinthians 14. in a way that basically they try to use it in an incorrect way to say that tongues is not for today that we should not the gift of tongues should not be in the church doesn't operate anymore excuse me and that Paul was trying to say that we shouldn't use the gift of tongues in church and that is not what he was talking about at all in fact what First Corinthians chapter 14 is about is really how the church service is supposed to go and that there's different types of church services but God gave us through the Apostle Paul here kind of a way of boundaries some boundaries and parameters of the way things should work now I want this to be be very clear this morning I want to go over to you well let's just start reading from verse one because we're going to cover all this anyway so we'll just set set this out first he says follow after charity and desires spiritual gifts but rather that you may prophesy for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God for no man understandeth him how be it in the spirit he speaketh Mysteries but he that prophesied speaketh unto men to edification to exhortation and comfort he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth or strengthens himself but he that prophesieth edify at the church I would that ye all speak with tongues but rather that ye prophesy for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues except he interpret that the church may receive edifying now Brethren if I come unto you speaking with tongues what shall I profit you except I speak unto you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by Doctrine now let me lay this out real quick here before we go any further because yesterday when I was preparing to share this message with you I was I came and I I was reading through
First Corinthians 14 slowly I've read it many times and sometimes you know you I've read it many times and I've read it over many years and all of a sudden this part jumped out at me that Paul said you know hey if I come to church now I speak in tongues I believe in speaking in tongues the gift of tongues every believer can have and every believer should have and operate in it for their personal prayer life and as the Bible says there's diverse kinds of tongues so meaning there's tongues for your private prayer life and there's tongues for public worship services that are to be interpreted uh but if I came to church every Sunday or Wednesday or Friday or whenever we meet if I came and I only spoke in tongues I would profit you nothing I'd profit myself something because the Bible says very clearly we just read it he that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies or strengthens himself but he that prophesieth he's he strengthens the church but let's understand something Paul said what shall I profit you except I shall speak unto you four ways he gave four different ways that we would speak unto you that that Elders pastors teachers evangelists Prophets ministers how we profit the body of Christ yes I need something of course I'm gonna start coughing now but look what he says here these four things he said what shall I profit you except I shall speak unto you either by revelation number one knowledge or by prophesying or by Doctrine now can I just tell you that most of the church world out there has no concept of these two right here Revelation and prophesying they understand knowledge and they understand Doctrine and some of them don't even have these two things they think they do but they don't right but let me break it down for you knowledge Doctrine Revelation and prophesying this is very important because you really need all four it's kind of like the balanced diet right a spiritual diet if you're going to grow strong spiritually you're going to have to have all of these in your life knowledge now let's look at it I'll give you I'll give you a breakdown here gosh I'm having a hard time today two months of this let's look at John 3 16. everybody knows John 3 16 right you don't have to turn there for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish your Bible says shall not you got a wrong translation should not perish but have everlasting
life right now most of us a lot of us learned this in Sunday school when we were kids right all right what you have there is if you know that verse of the Bible John 3 16 what you have is knowledge okay you have knowledge of a Bible verse you know it you know what it says right you're acquainted with it you may even have it memorized the word knowledge here in the Greek denotes that by studying like you study science you have attained knowledge by just looking at it okay now everybody can say that's good knowledge is good right but does God want us to stop with simple head knowledge of something no God's always wanting to take us deeper in our understanding and deeper and even into the realm of the spirit right so we we know John 3 16 so we have knowledge of it now Doctrine would be not only knowing John 3 16 but Doctrine would be knowing all the scriptures within the New Testament and even some in the Old Testament that pertain to Salvation the subject matter of Salvation how we are saved that God sent his son the Lord Jesus and that's when you systematically go through the Bible and you lay out what the Bible teaches about a particular subject it is called rightly dividing the word of Truth right it keeps us from getting into error but just taking one verse and running with it but taking all the verses whether you pick the subject of salvation you take the subject of Divine Healing you take the subject of demonology or spiritual warfare but you take a subject and you go through the Bible and you pick out all the places that talk about that subject and you lay them out and you make sure they all balance and they all equal out together and then you have a Doctrine okay you have a teaching you have a systematic teaching or a Systematic Theology on a certain subject all right the doctrine of salvation because like for instance with John 3 16 that's just the beginning Doctrine would go into the verses like in First Peter that we're born again by the word of God that by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself that it's the blood of Jesus that washes your sins away that repentance is involved see what I'm saying Doctrine would break down all of the scriptures around a certain subject and lay it out so not only you would just have knowledge but now you've gone from just knowing a verse to knowing how it interrelates to everything else in the Bible okay
and Doctrine is important because we need to be established in the foundational doctrines of the Bible people are getting away from these foundational doctrines and this is what is getting people into serious error okay but now what the Lord when he starts taking it Taking It The Next Step he says revelation Revelation is the Greek word apocalypses okay it simply means to uncover something that's hidden or to reveal a mystery to you now this is something that Jesus talked about and if you look at um go with me to Matthew 16. John 3 16. see to be saved to be saved you not only you have you have to know who Jesus is you have to believe in the Lord Jesus but it has to go beyond knowledge and Doctrine it has to become revelation okay let me explain that Matthew 16. hmm one of my favorite passages here verse 13. and when Jesus came into the coast of caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I the son of man am and they said some say that thou art John the Baptist and some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets now why did they say he was Elijah why did they say well because they had knowledge of a scripture in Malachi that said before the the Christ comes before the Messiah comes Elijah the prophet will come so they had knowledge of a scripture and they thought well maybe this Jesus maybe he's Elijah they weren't really ready to accept him as the Christ the Messiah the savior but they said maybe he's Elijah maybe he's Jeremiah maybe he's one of the prophets why because they were depending on knowledge you know what I'm saying and then Jesus asked this question verse 15 he said unto them but who say ye that I am and Simon Peter dancing said Thou Art the Christ the son of the Living God and Jesus answered and said to him blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah for Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee the word revealed in this passage is the same word as Revelation In this passage it's apocalipsis Flesh and Blood did not uncover this mystery to you but my Father which is in heaven so what he's saying is you didn't get this understanding of who I am by knowledge or by Doctrine my Father in Heaven by his holy spirit revealed it to
you on the inside and it went from head knowledge to Heart revelation this is the part of John 3 16. remember we said John 3 16 just knowing the verse is knowledge knowing all the verses around it and how they all work together that's Doctrine but when you believe it and you receive it and the Holy Spirit comes to you and you are born again that is when God reveals it to your heart to your spirit and it becomes real this is what Jesus said you must be born again he was talking about being born of the spirit it's not enough to have head knowledge it's not enough to just know Doctrine you must have a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life by the Holy Ghost Inside of You amen now I'm going to give you the next thing he said Doctrine he said well he said knowledge he said Doctrine he said Revelation let's go back to that First Corinthians 14 verse he said the last one or one of the four is prophesying now here's the difference knowledge we know the verse Man Doctrine we know all the verses that pertain to it revelation we have the Holy Spirit uncovering it to us revealing it supernaturally we have an encounter with the Holy Spirit prophesying is different I've shared this many times over the last year I know the last couple of years especially that prophesying according to the Greek definition means to speak by inspiration of God but it also means to foretell events so foretelling for instance a prophecy would be that say I know God spoke to me and showed me that uh you know Joe and Tom and Harvey that are my neighbors or my friends or whatever are going to be saved he showed me that that would be hearing from God supernaturally and knowing the future about John 3 16 coming into somebody's life you understand the difference I hope I'm explaining this well okay now prophecy Works in different ways it doesn't just foretell future events but also gives God's a revelation of God's will or wisdom in a certain situation okay how many of you know we don't always know what to do right we don't know sometimes we have job opportunities come our way or maybe uh you know should we go to this school or that school or should we you know major
in this or major in that and we we don't you know there's no scripture there's no Bible that tells you know I've said this many times there's no scripture that says Pastor Dean you know God go go to Auburn Alabama back in 2008 go to Auburn Alabama and start a church that's not in the Bible so how did I know that that's what God wanted me to do well basically the gift of Prophecy God speaking of his will for my life and giving me wisdom to know what I needed to do you see what I'm saying this is so important and this is what's missing in the body of Christ and in so many Christians lives they have a little bit of knowledge they might understand a little bit of Doctrine and everybody needs to work on that one they might even have a revelation of who Jesus is but they need a revelation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit they need a revelation about Divine Healing they need a revelation about deliverance and casting out demons they need a revelation a lot of things you get what I'm saying but they also need to be hearing from God about what's going to happen in the future and about his will for their lives now folks this is this is what I'm getting at this morning because Friday night when we were up here having our Friday night prayer and communion time the Holy Spirit began to move upon me and began to stir my heart that it was really really time for us as a church fire and Grace Church but really anybody listening watching this morning we should hunger and thirst to flow and operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit now here's the good news the good news and I love this is you don't have to be Mr Miss Perfect you don't even have to be like saved for years and years and years God's promise that if you are hungry and you're thirsty and you desire him he will fill he will fill you with his spirit and if you pray and you ask and you're open to step out in faith the gifts of the holy spirit will work in your life this ought to be the desire of every Christian and not just you know some of you the gifts of the Holy Spirit have worked in your life in the past and even once in a while now and the Lord began to just stir me we should be praying and Desiring that the gifts of the holy spirit would work more frequently and in more powerful ways and even here Paul is my witness Nancy's my witness Kevin was here
um the fricklets were here but I was talking about First Corinthians 14 I said you know I want this to happen when people begin to come now I said this didn't I didn't I say this to you guys I said when people begin to come strangers I want us to all be so in tune with what the holy spirit is saying to do so full of the holy spirit so ready so so um I don't know what the word just just so full and so ready that we we could walk up to somebody we don't know and prophesy to them or give them uh one of the gifts of the Spirit a word of knowledge or a Word of Wisdom or Discerning of spirits or a prophetic word that the Bible says in First Corinthians 14 it reveals the secrets of their heart and they fall down and it says they fall down and worship God and say God is in you of a truth now I've seen this happen many times I'm gonna give you an example for instance when I was pastoring a church in Montgomery Alabama years ago this is this is an example there was a lady that I had never seen before she was from Atlanta and back then we didn't do these broadcasts we didn't have this technology and this capability to do internet radio or to do you know live streaming or anything so I don't even know how this lady heard about us I have no idea maybe she got my book or Charisma magazine or something but she decided to visit our church from Atlanta now think about this she just decided to visit but she was going through a difficult time she had just started a new job she had been in some bad Church situations and she was asking God now listen to this she was asking God where are the men of God the Real Men of God who hear from God where are they do they even exist anymore this is no joke so this woman walks into the church she sits in the back back there I don't know who she is from as they say Adam's house cat I have no idea who she is so I preach I don't even remember what I what the message was that morning we probably had about 60 70 people in the room so at the end of the service I give an altar call for Christians anybody needs prayer and I don't know about three or four people came up and she came up now you have to remember she's never met me I've never met her is that me anyway I may have been me sorry but she I lay hands on her and this is what's what I'm giving you an understanding of how the word of knowledge the gift of Prophecy works and how it blessed her but she was she was stressed out and I remember praying for people coming
down praying for people and I got to her and I laid hands on her and immediately I had my eyes closed and I saw her standing in my mind I saw it it's a vision I believe in my mind I saw her standing in the middle of a grocery store aisle and I said you're standing in the middle of a grocery store aisle and you're afraid and you're asking God should I speak should I tell people about Jesus or not and I said the Lord wants me to tell you that you need to open your mouth and you need to speak to these people and you do not need to be afraid and don't even be afraid of anybody or anything God has put you there and he's going to use you there oh the tears are just running down her face and she says nothing right so after we dismiss and the service she before she leaves she comes up and in front of everybody she says this past week I just started a new job she said I took a job working in a grocery store standing in an aisle giving people you know samples of stuff she goes and people have been coming up to me to take the samples and I've been feeling this overwhelming burden to share Jesus with them but I've been afraid and I was afraid to to speak and I was afraid about maybe losing my job and all this stuff and she said not only that she goes I've been so discouraged because I've been hurt by so many churches and so many churches seem dead and empty and she goes I've been asking are there any men of God anymore that hear God's voice and she was crying and in and so you see what happened there God used the gifts of the Holy Spirit the word of knowledge the word of wisdom prophecy right to encourage her and to give her God's will in the situation she was in you see that she left there just floating on cloud nine she was so happy she was so thrilled she was so encouraged here's here's what we need to understand all of us not just Pastor Dean not just someone in the fivefold ministry not just an elder or Deacon but we can all be filled with the Holy Spirit and operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we should hunger and we should desire that in our lives and if the devil tells you you're not holy enough you're not good enough you're not this you know the devil always got a reason to discourage you
from pursuing the Lord you just need to tell him to shut up that it's the blood of Jesus that makes you holy enough you don't have to be perfect you don't have to be a Christian for 30 years you don't have to be more righteous than everybody else you just have to be hungry and thirsty and you have to be willing to step out in faith because it takes courage to step out and say something like I did to that woman it takes faith and it takes courage to step out there on that water amen now I say all that because I want you to understand that I believe God can speak through any of you at any given time even the younger ones here I believe that we've seen it happen right I want to see it happen more but let me give you this word now this is for our church but just think of it those of you who were here Friday night what the Holy Spirit had me sharing about this that we need to be more hungry more thirsty that we need to seek God for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to work through us more that we need to get ready when strangers come in here to reveal the secrets of their heart and to move in the Supernatural remember didn't I say all that Friday night so Saturday morning go to bed Friday night about midnight I wake up Saturday morning and a brother I don't even know he just listens to our radio shows I I couldn't even he's not even on Facebook that I know or I couldn't find him and I think I I think I've heard from him maybe once before but he sent me a word Now Kevin he's got one strictly for you I'm not going to give out that's just for you later I just hadn't got around to giving it to you but here's what he said all right now this is for our church but it may be also for some other churches as well but think about this so he this is uh he put the date on it March 5th 2016. he says Dean I woke up early this morning and began to see some things for you and your congregation please prayerfully test what I am giving here so I mean very humble that's what I'm giving here he said I see an influx of new Believers coming into your congregation number the amount of people who regularly attend your congregation God is about to Triple the size of your congregation two new Believers for every one person you count now listen to what he says very closely this will come at a time of great disaster
he says like a storm on the horizon at first the wind will subtly change direction almost undetectable then it will increase and then with violence it will be on top of you during this time of Calamity God will send many souls to you you must make preparations now on how to handle this influx of new believers you will need to have planning sessions with a few individuals the rest of your staff can be brought in later I see two men who have the spirit of wisdom upon them one is on your staff the other is not these two men will be key in assisting you with preparations what will it look like when you suddenly have three times as many people natural preparations of course like fire cold building Logistics multiple Services even special services for those new to the Faith home groups the ministry will have to adjust and direct its focus to accommodate a lot of new babes in the Lord many in your congregation will need to become teachers to help disciple these new people you and your staff cannot do it all it must be like Moses and the 70 elders he says I see a young woman with red hair 18 to 20 years of age she feels overwhelmed and unprepared but she knows by the spirit that she needs to disciple a few people I see this woman as a type of many people in your congregation even though she could be an actual person I'm not sure after all the fivefold ministry is to develop the Saints to do the work of the ministry training the congregation needs to be much more than sermons or teaching sessions uh you don't want to develop a bunch of hearers of the word it needs to be interactive people must practice and develop skills to teach one another one another and then he said this for instance how much of First Corinthians 14 is actually being performed in your congregation I was talking about this Friday night do people know how to judge prophecy without your help consider also this passage First Corinthians 14 26 what then Brothers when you come together each one of you has a hymn a teaching a revelation a tongue an interpretation or a Doctrine let all things be done into edifying is your congregation bringing forth Psalms a lesson a revelation he said please don't think I'm being critical I'm not but I say these things to encourage the development of the Saints and uh he says I'm in the I.T field and we need to have disaster recovery and business continuity plans and uh then he goes on to say some more things but I just wanted you to hear that we do need to prepare and I got to thinking you know there are some of you that I believe God
wants to use you in the gifts I believe God wants to use you in teaching I believe God wants to use you in Deliverance Ministry I believe the Lord wants to use a lot of a new members class when that day comes you know what I'm saying we need to prepare and this word confirms the word the lord gave to Trey the word the Lord's been speaking to us for a long time that we were to position ourselves ahead of the ahead of the wave ahead of the Curve there's a lot of people think we're we're kind of out there but we're out there for a reason right we're out there to be ready for what's coming I don't know about you guys but I find that very interesting about that don't you so it's time to get ready amen and that's biblical in fact I want you to turn to John chapter 4 because I called this message today preparing for the Harvest and you know this is not just a word that's come to our church let me share this you know there's a very very large church over in Griffin Georgia What's It First Assembly of God in Griffin Georgia Pastor Randy valimont my brother used to go there he used to drive from McDonough to Griffin to go to that church and then they they started a branch in Mcdonough and Allen actually went there for a while and was their youth Minister but then he's getting ready to move back here um but I don't know how long ago it was was a couple of years ago baby and you got to remember this church is about I don't know 4 000 members it's a big church um we've gone there uh before we went to a Perry Stone conference goodness it's been a little while maybe 2012 2013 something like that I can't remember but pastor valimont is a man of prayer and he got a word that a massive disaster was coming to the Atlanta area he didn't say what it was he didn't say everything that God showed him but God spoke to him and said that the churches would see a great influx of new people and that they were not prepared to handle it he said his church now think about this a big church like that with big staff big money he said if we took in 300 more people he said we are not ready for it and I thought God is speaking and God
gives Revelation he gives wisdom so we can get prepared so what I'm going to say to our church this morning and to any church out there if you if if you're watching and you go to another church it's time to prepare because as things get worse and worse in the world as these disasters hit as terrorism hits God's warned many people he's so many people that America is going to be hit hard I mean most people don't know the economy how bad the global economy is right now that I don't I mean we're swinging through hell on a on a dry corn stalk that's what the economy is I mean I don't even know how we're still afloat all right so many stores are closing so many I mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stores are closing Freights not moving both in the ocean and in America now I mean it's it's almost like it's happening in a way that it's going to catch most of us by complete surprise and shock when it all bottoms out but now people that are losing their jobs all over the country are they're finding out now it's time to prepare it's time and I've been saying this it's time to prepare for that economic time of difficulty it's time to prepare spiritually I said turn to John 4. I love this are you there foreign here's what Jesus said to his disciples John 4 34 Jesus saith unto him my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work say not that there are four months and then cometh Harvest behold I say to you lift up your eyes look on the fields for they are white all ready to harvest and he that reapeth receiveth wages and gather fruit unto life eternal that both he and the that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together who's saying there's don't say it's a long way off don't say we got plenty of time no it's already upon us so we're going to start preparing I'm going to talk to some people about preparing to teach a new believer's class new members class things of that nature we're going to look at some things we can do here to sound proof that room we're going to get ready amen turn see God wants us to flow in the gifts and I'm just going to say this before we
close here and I'm really not going to go along today believe it's not even 12 o'clock yet go back to First Corinthians 14. First Corinthians 14. now we read this a minute ago but I'm going to give it to you again and then we're going to look at the verse in in chapter 12. but he says in verse 1 follow after charity or love and desire spiritual gifts you see that desire you know what that word right there is it means to Lust For now I've said that before okay but it means to earnestly desire it means to long for I'm going to ask you something do you do you earnestly desire to be full of the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues to interpret tongues to prophesy to operate in the gifts of healing the gift of the working of Miracles word of knowledge Word of Wisdom prophecy do you long for that in your life can I just tell you we've got churches out there say oh don't seek the gift seek The Giver I'm so sick of hearing these stupid cliches we all know we supposed to we're supposed to seek Jesus and love Jesus first and foremost but that doesn't negate the fact that we are told in the scriptures to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts in our lives amen in fact if we don't we are disobeying the word of God and it's as much sin as disobeying any other scripture quits not the spirit he said that means don't put out the spirit's fire you should stir up the spirit's fire back up to chapter 12. let's look at the gifts of the Spirit and I love verse chapter 12 verse 1. he says now concerning spiritual gifts Brethren I would not have you ignorant I guarantee you I could walk down the road here down 8th Street over here yes downtown you know those big white places those big white buildings and I bet I could pick out a hundred Christians and I could ask them what is the gift of Prophecy what is the word of knowledge what is the word of wisdom what are those gifts how do they work I bet that out of a hundred I might get one or two maybe
that would know and yet the Bible says Paul said I don't want you to be ignorant of spiritual gifts ignorance is not a virtue folks and it's not Bliss that's right so he says that now go to the last verse in chapter 12 before we go I love this he says covet earnestly the best gifts covet covet anybody know what covet means that means the last four long four walk greedily you know what I'm saying I mean we have a commandment one of the Ten Commandments is Thou shalt not covet and yet God tells us by his Spirit In this passage no there's one thing you can covet now in the New Covenant you can covet the gifts of the Holy Spirit you see I don't understand why people don't want to speak in tongues some people I've heard this do you know there's nowhere in the Bible that it says that tongues is the least of the gifts do you know it does not say that but I hear our Baptist friends our Methodist friends others in the church World say oh you know we start talking about speaking in tongues oh that's the least of the gifts I want something better well let me just tell you something that attitude right there you will get nothing and I got news for you even if it was the least of the gifts even if it was the the the the weakest God says he's chosen the weak things to confound the wise God said that he's chosen the last to be first so even if that was so I've got news for you if you don't speak in other tongues if you're not baptized in the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues you should desire that more than anything else think about it the Bible says about tongues it's so important to speak in tongues because he says that when we don't know how we ought to pray the holy spirit will help us pray and then it says that if we speak in an unknown tongue we are edifying and strengthening ourselves I don't see a drawback in it and the Apostle Paul said I would or I wish I desire that all of you would speak in tongues Jesus even said in Mark 16 15-20 he said these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they will cast out devils and they will speak with new tongues he didn't say some of them obviously it is important and I got news
for you it's the first gift that God released when the church was birthed in the day of Pentecost so it must be important and remember what Jesus told him he said you know what Jesus had spent three years personally training the apostles think about this personal training how many of us got to walk with Jesus In the Flesh when he was on Earth for three years nobody got that kind of training right they walked with Jesus for three years he taught them how to heal the sick how to cast out demons he showed them how to walk in the truth he he revealed to them The Parables he taught them the scriptures but then he tells them after he dies on the cross and he's resurrected and he's with him for 40 days he tells them Luke chapter 24 we see it in Acts chapter one what does he tell them go to Jerusalem and wait go wait for the promise of the father go wait because you will be baptized with the Holy Ghost and Fire go wait now remember he had just told them at the end right before he ascended to Heaven go into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature right well I mean we got that in Matthew 28 we got it in Luke 24. right mark 16. go preach the gospel to Every Creature go to all the World Go Make Disciples of all Nations but then he says wait there's something you need to do first go to Jerusalem and wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit Acts chapter 2 so the ones that obeyed remember how many were at Jesus When Jesus ascended to heaven how many people did Paul say was there First Corinthians 15 Paul said there were 500 Witnesses of Jesus Ascension into heaven that means with the Angels standing there Jesus with his showing them the the nail prints in his hands saying what did the angel say why are you standing here looking up into heaven this saying Jesus which is taken up from you will so come in like manner 500 right and when Jesus ministered for those three years thousands hurting minister but he told them right before he ascended he told 500 think about this see we always got disobedient folks he told 500 people go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the father the baptism of the Holy Spirit how many were in Jerusalem waiting
120. a little over what is that 20 percent so the vast majority didn't obey but what does it say they were in there praying and on the day of Pentecost when the day of Pentecost was fully come the Holy Spirit came in that place like a Russian Mighty Wind has said cloven tongues of fire set upon each of them and they spoke with tongues right now why did he say this was important he said this was important because he said it would be power you will receive power to be a witness how is this bad how is it bad I mean I've had preachers tell me speaking in tongues is of the devil what's funny is we've had preachers in this town of big churches in this town teach the book of Acts and avoid that issue at all cost S I don't even know how you do that I don't know how you preach the book of Acts and avoid the the issue of tongues because it's in Acts chapter 2 it's in Acts chapter 10 it's in Acts chapter 19. let me just state it to you plainly the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in new tongues in unknown tongues Supernatural tongues this is the Gateway it's the door into the rest of the gifts amen now let me break it down let's go back to First Corinthians chapter 12. and I'm gonna give you this real quick we're going to be done verse 4. he says now there are diversities of gifts but the Same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all look at verse 7 but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man don't we hear it oh no God doesn't give the gifts to everybody don't we hear that that's not what it says the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man for to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by The Same Spirit to another Faith by The Same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by The Same Spirit to another the working of Miracles to another prophecy to another Discerning of spirits to another diverse kinds of tongues into another the interpretation of tongues but all these worketh that
one in the self-sane spirit look at this foreign he says dividing to every man severally as he will you know what this means right here he just he just gave you nine gifts of the holy spirit right he says that first of all verse 7 he says this man the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man and then he says the manifestation of the spirit is given to what go back to where we were then he says down here keep going man you messed me up man I don't know where you're going he said here verse 11. but all these worketh that that one in the self same Spirits all of these work by the same Holy Spirit but look what he says dividing to every man severally what's severally mean what's several mean more than one say this Jesus says the scripture says everyone gets several gifts let me tell you how it works you get tongues and you hear what I'm saying yes I don't know why I'm having such a problem today now let's break it down what they are your first step into this realm if you're not baptized in the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues your first step is to seek God to ask him to pursue until this experience becomes reality in your life it's got to go beyond knowledge it's got to go beyond Doctrine you've got to have revelation of this amen it's got to happen in your life now listen if it hadn't yet it doesn't mean that you're somehow uh uh you know less of a Christian I'm just telling you that God's got more for you he never wants you to stay in some kind of apathetic you know stale place he wants you to keep going so the first step is you need to seek this because listen folks they can say all they want that it's not for everyone but every time I read the Bible look at this Acts chapter 2 there were 120 in the upper room how many of them were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues all 120. we have another occasion in Acts chapter 10 where the Holy Spirit sent the Apostle Peter to cornelius's household and they were together at a great company of people in the court cornice's house to hear the gospel and Peter came and he preached the gospel and it says as he was preaching the gospel the Holy Ghost fell upon them
and guess what everyone there spoke in tongues and prophesied then we have Acts chapter 19. Paul goes to the town of Ephesus and it says he finds 12 disciples meaning people who are already following Jesus he says in this is Acts 19 1-8 he says he found 12 disciples who were following Jesus and he said to them have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed he said we got churches out there teaching though when you get saved you get the Holy Spirit that's it no you get the holy spirit in Salvation you do not have the Holy Spirit baptism yet it's a separate experience it's a separate event and so Paul says have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe and they said we have not heard about the Holy Ghost and so he explained that he said to what then were you baptized when we were baptized into John's baptism what is that water baptism and then it says Paul laid his hands upon them and the Holy Ghost came on them and they prophesied right they spoke in tongues and prophesied right so they spoke in tongues first and then the gift of Prophecy started working right folks this is Bible this is not your denomination or your church or theories or opinions this is the Bible and if you hunger and thirst for the supernatural in your life for the gifts of the holy spirit in your life you've got to start where everybody else starts right so Pastor Dean I don't understand it well maybe we need to sit down talk about it some more but let me go through the gifts real quick so the gift of tongues some say it's just speaking in a language you hadn't learned like I've never learned Chinese and all of a sudden I can speak in Chinese which I need to speak to a Chinese person um that can happen but that's not what God's talking about here okay um First Corinthians chapter 13 talks about speaking with the tongues of men and of angels he talks about speaking in a tongue that no man can understand that the devil can't even understand listen the devil knows all languages of the world hear what I'm saying tongues of men and of angels so after that look what he says you have the gift of tongues he says you're speaking unto God you're speaking mysteries in the spirit Realm and no man knows what you're saying and your understanding is unfruitful unless the gift the Holy Spirit gift of
interpretation of tongues takes place now what is interpretation of tongues is it translation no not translation there's a difference between translation and interpretation interpretation simply means you get the sense from the Holy Spirit what is being said in that unknown a lot of times it will come as a simple and gentle impression to you it may come as words in your mind and you just know that God's revealing it to you there are more of you and you need to listen to this there are more of you out here that need to start operating in the gift of interpretation in fact after you're baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues the Bible says you're supposed to pray that you interpret so you're supposed to pray and ask for the gift of interpretation to work in your life and I'm just going to tell you Paul the Lord's told me specifically you're supposed to work in this one so this is something you need to pursue reminded me of it again Friday night severally you get more than one now let's explain the gift of Prophecy notice he says that that tongues and interpretation is equivalent to prophecy so once you get a tongue and interpretation a tongue and interpretation will be a prophetic word it will be the gift of Prophecy its equivalence equal you could put tongues plus interpretation of tongues equals prophecy right and prophecy is going to do what he's going to edify it's going to exhort it's going to encourage it's going to also foretell the future okay so prophecy the gift of Prophecy is simply when God reveals something to you without using tongues and interpretation of tongues he just speaks it to you impresses you with it reveals it to you and you speak it see what I'm saying prophecy the gift of Prophecy is a Divine divinely inspired utterance it is not something from your knowledge it is not something necessarily from your study of Doctrine it is something that comes by inspiration of the Spirit by Revelation you didn't have it God uncovered it he spoke it he revealed it all of you can hear from God about that in fact in First Corinthians 14 we can look at it but he said you may all prophesy one by one see this goes against a lot of what we've been taught in church where right I believe all can speak in tongues all can interpret tongues all can prophesy but you have to desire it you have to want it you have to covet you have to lust for it you have to desire it and then you have to step out in faith in it all right let's look at the next one Discerning of spirits
I promise I'm just going to give you a short definition of these and then we're going to quit Discerning of spirits now the word Discerning means two things Discerning means to perceive something not with your five senses you just perceive it on the inside let me know what I'm talking about it's like in our intuition when you just perceive something you ever get around somebody and you just there's nothing on the outside that says it but you just feel that it's something creepy going on right or you feel danger you know what that's your perception that's your intuition but it's really in the Christian Discerning of spirits is when you begin to perceive or see the word means both perceive or see the spirits working behind a person or a situation give you an example we were ministering over in Georgia this friend of Nancy's has a beautiful singing voice beautiful singing voice without any explanation was losing her voice couldn't sing I remember that could hardly yeah could hardly talk no one could figure it out what was going on doctors couldn't figure it out anything she came to our service one Sunday morning we were having a service there in Georgia and I gave an altar call and she was coming up the aisle and we had a center aisle there were seats on both sides and she was coming up the center aisle and you know what I saw I saw this and this is Discerning of spirits but I saw a demonic hand only about this much of the hand it was like purple like a purple death color you know what I'm talking about it's like a pale purple death color and it had long fingers and it had these long fingernails like this you know just long things and it was dug into her throat right here and I could see that it's like this hand was stuck on her throat like this right here and I could see it just like I saw her I could see it I could see through it it was spiritual I could see her I could see it but I could see through the hand to see her you know what I'm saying that is the gift of discerning of spirits I saw what was causing the problem and she came up and I remember we bound the demon that was causing this and commanded it to loose her and leave her now I don't know how long after that she began singing but she started back singing again and is singing to this day amen sometimes you will see demon spirits when people have seen angels this is what you're seeing you're seeing the good spirits of God on that the side of God okay but sometimes it's just perceiving sometimes I get around certain people I can get around certain people
and I am very sensitive in the spirit to the spirit of witchcraft and boy can I feel it the spirit of Witchcraft when somebody's into that I get around them so that's just an example of it there's so much more let's look at the word of word of knowledge now word of knowledge just by definition you can put it up through the word of knowledge the word of knowledge a word what is a word a word is a piece of a sentence right it's a piece of information it's not all the information it's a piece of the information right so when you get a word of knowledge what God has given to you is a piece of information about somebody or a situation that there's no way you should have that knowledge you don't know it by learning it or seeing it or you knew it before like I shared about the woman remember I shared about the woman coming in that I never met before and I saw her in a grocery store working in the aisle remember that that's an example of the word of knowledge it can come in word form God can speak a sentence to you about somebody or he can show you in vision for him you can say but it's when he reveals something now word of knowledge is God revealing something that happened in the past that you have no knowledge of or something going on in the present foreign Word of Wisdom is a little different a word of wisdom is God giving you a piece of wisdom or a piece of Revelation knowledge about something about God's will for now or the future right like when God told me when I was in in 2008 when I was in Washington DC and he spoke to me and he said they're going to fire you on November 30th and when they do I want you to go to Auburn and start a church that was a word of wisdom God was revealing something about his will and something that was going to happen and something that he wanted me to do right that was the gift of the word of wisdom then you have the gift of faith now the gift of faith listen the gifts of the Holy Spirit you could say this the word dunamis power in the the word power in the Greek dunamis is where we get our word Dynamite from means little explosions of miraculous power we've all been given faith Romans 12 3 God is dealt to every man The Measure of Faith right we cannot be saved unless we have faith right but there are many times that Jesus looked at his disciples and he
said it's not that they didn't believe in him he would say you how is it you have no faith and what he was talking about was faith for the supernatural faith for afford to cast out a demon or heal the sick or do something that they needed to do and he said how is it you have no faith or or oh ye of little faith now the gift of faith when the gift of faith comes upon you is a moment of just Supernatural explosion of Faith you have an uh an unusual amount of Faith to do something you don't normally do I had this happen to me one time Mike Pitts if he was here this morning could testify he came to my house his hand was fractured right swollen and fractured he asked me to pray for his hand that the Lord would heal him okay well I've prayed for many people I lay hands on you and I'll be sweet and I'll pray for you and it takes me believing and you believing that Jesus still heals but I'll pray for you but all of a sudden I had this explosion of the gift of faith and I knew I so believed when I prayed for him I said in the name of Jesus Lord we ask you to heal this fractured wrist fractured hand and I so believed it I grabbed his hand when we said amen I grabbed his hand and I squeezed it with both hands scared him to death no pain though he was he was instantly healed but that was the gift of faith operating when you have just a I can do this it's done it's gonna happen right I don't encourage you to do that unless the gift of faith is working all right I had a guy another guy here's what you want another gift to Faith this guy was a Satanist trying to pretend like he was a Christian but we let him hang out with us right and so he had a cracked sternum that would never heal I mean you could just barely touch him right here like this and he'd be oh I mean he just for some reason it wouldn't heal so one day here's this Satanist he says man you know because I think I poked him in the chest I forgot about he was like oh I said man why don't you let Jesus heal you that they said all right pray for me so I laid hands on him I prayed for him I said Lord we ask you to heal this crack sternum that doesn't seem to heal normally or naturally or heal it in Jesus name and then I had that burst of faith so I punched him in the chest right in his sternum hard too boom it was gone no pain he was like wow it freaked him out a witness to him but again don't do that unless you know that you know right
then you have the word well not the word of knowledge we covered those two and the gifts of healing and the gift of the work of the Miracles are pretty self-explanatory right the Bible says that these signs shall follow them that believe Jesus said they will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover Mark 16. right so any believer can lay hands on the sick and believe God to heal that person and they can be healed but someone with a gift of healing is going to operate in it more frequently and more powerfully you hear me same thing with the gift of the working of Miracles okay any questions I think we covered them all day the difference in healing in a miracle is that a healing sometimes takes place as a process a miracle will be instantaneous but also sometimes healings are quick so sometimes a miracle is when for instance one of the men that I'm ordained by Jean May here's a good definition of a miracle Jean made when he was in his 20s had his stomach surgically removed he had some kind of problem I don't know if it's cancer or what I can't remember the problem but he had his stomach surgically removed this is a documented fact okay he went through several I don't know it was several years or months I can't remember now I have to ask him the details but he prayed he went to a church that they believed in the Supernatural and uh they prayed for him that his God would give him a new stomach sure enough he started feeling different he went to the doctor and he had a new stomach and he always Pats his Bell and heels as you can see it's working fine yeah and that was when he was 29 and what he's almost 70 now I think but that's a miracle when you you know like Jesus the man that had the withered hand you know from palsy or whatever and it says Jesus told him to stretch forth his hand that's not healing that's a miracle right uh they're different ones different things like that so you know I'll take either raising the dead that's a miracle that's not a healing casting out demons did you know this that casting out demons is defined in the scriptures as a miracle all right all right well I'm going to quit I think we've gone long enough hunger and thirst for the gifts I want everybody to say this with me I can have the gifts of the Holy Spirit [Music] several of them amen and really let me tell you what I
believe I believe if you're walking with the Lord and you're hungry and you're serious about him he'll let you operate in any of them at any given time whatever you need at that time amen because I can say this in my life all nine at some point have worked in my life I've laid hands on a woman that was deaf in the name of Jesus and her hearing came back I've prayed for a woman who was crippled in a wheelchair hadn't walked in two years the Lord spoke to me and said tell her I said to rise and walk and she got up and walked I've seen it I've seen people I'd say I could just go down the list nothing is impossible with God the problem is we limit him we doubt we get afraid to pray or step out or do these things so what I did one time and it didn't work so how many people would have would have ever learned to ride a bike if they fell down one time and quit you know what I'm saying you're not going to do it perfect every time it's not always going to work out perfect but you step out there remember Peter stepped out on the water to walk on the water and what did he do he walked on the water for a minute like wow this is great and then he started looking around at the storm and the difficulties and what did you start to do he started to sink it's not easy walking on the walking out in the Supernatural realm walking out in that water it's not easy but it's worth it helps people and there's going to be people we gotta we're going to have to minister to amen so hunger and thirst for the gifts pray for them fast and pray ask God for them don't settle for not receiving step out and face like God I I'm going to do what I got to do to have this if you've got to spend hours a day in prayer if you've got to fast if whatever you got to do be hungry and thirsty for God and he will fill you pursue him covet these things long for these things lust for these things go after them and he'll he'll do it I promise you I I'm to testify to you this day I made up my mind when I was 19 years old that I was going to have the power of God and the gifts of the holy spirit in my life and I'm going to tell you almost immediately they started working the baptism the holy spirit with evidence and speaking in other tongues was first then the word of knowledge began to work then the gifts of healing begin to work this is where all Christians where we're supposed to go don't have to God won't make you do it you have to want to you have to be willing to go he doesn't drag you down the road right I like what one preacher said this one preacher said he used to have Baptist
folks he was a Baptist preacher and he got baptized in the Holy Spirit but Evans is speaking in other tongues and he said of course he got kicked out of his church but he said he would have Baptist people come to his meetings and said do I have to speak in tongues and he'd say always say no you don't have to you get to change your attitude no you don't have to do anything you don't have to go to heaven either God won't make you go there you don't have to go to church you don't have to worship you don't have to do any you choose to do those things right all right let's pray thank you Lord father I pray that we will become a church hungry and thirsty each of us God and even those listening to us Lord on radio and Lord we pray in the name of Jesus that Lord there will be a hunger and a thirst we pray that people that are not baptized in the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in Supernatural tongues of angels Lord that that will happen in their life that they'll have their prayer language and that they'll begin to operate in several of the gifts of the holy spirit that they'll begin to be people that you want them to be in the kingdom of God not just having knowledge not just having doctrinal truths but having Revelation and and prophecy working in their lives while I pray this and I ask this for everyone here this morning in Jesus name