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by
Sam Storms
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February 18 - November 2, 2017
I knew that I could navigate the questions and challenges of growing in the gifts myself, but I wasn’t sure how to work with others or lead a church in using the gifts.
I’m talking about a local church in the twenty-first century that is committed to the centrality and functional authority of the Bible and to the effective, Christ-exalting operation of all spiritual gifts.
capital “A” Apostles
The gifts are God himself working in and through us.
Paul is writing that this energizing power from the Spirit is essential to the church as a whole and in the lives of individual church members to enable them to reach maturity.
One of the greatest assets to a local church pastor seeking the exercise of spiritual gifts in his church are men and women who share his passion and are willing to bear the burden and pay the price required to make it happen.
Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 14:1 is that we should eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. To long for and humbly pursue all the spiritual gifts that are described in the NT is both pleasing to God and biblical.
If you regard this as something optional and not worth the effort or sacrifice that must be made, you will not be willing to endure mistakes, deal with flaky folk, and push through those times of discomfort.
That day, I resolved in my heart that I would never justify my disobedience to God’s Word because of the abusive or embarrassing practices of others.
One thing I’ve learned is that a successful transition will only happen (and there is still no guarantee) if the pastor is committed to teaching and preaching on the subject of spiritual gifts consistently on Sunday mornings. He must be committed to regular and repeated teaching on the subject, and the church as a whole must be quick to respond to the direction and correctives set forth in God’s Word.
They need to be assured that the church will provide a safe environment for the practice of spiritual gifts.
He wants passionate people who are devoted to his glory. If we stumble along the way, perhaps falling flat on our faces at times, he’s not disappointed, angry, or embarrassed by our failure.
God is far more pleased with our obedience than he is with our success.
But only the Spirit can make the wind blow!
Although Paul refers to the “elders” praying for Timothy, I don’t think he intends for us to see this as a prohibition against ordinary believers praying for one another. He is simply calling out a responsibility that the elders have.
Many Christians will say they are committed to prayer. But how many actually pray?
Leonard Ravenhill would say, it is like reading and memorizing a book on body building. If you stop there but do not do the exercises you will not gain muscles.
I believe it was Augustine who once said, “God does not ask us to tell him our needs that he may learn about them, but in order that we may be capable of receiving what he is preparing to give.”
Expectant prayer flows from the recognition that Jesus healed people because he loved them and felt compassion for them (Matthew 14:13–14; 20:34; Mark 1:41–42; Luke 7:11–17), a disposition in the heart of God that nothing in Scripture indicates has changed.
On the other hand, we are responsible to take steps that will facilitate the deepening of faith in our hearts. We can do things by God’s grace which will expand our confidence in God’s goodness and his greatness and help diminish, if not drive out, our doubts. As I read and study and meditate on the character of God, my confidence in what he can do increases. As I reflect and ponder the grace and kindness of God, my confidence in his goodness grows and intensifies.
No amount of faith will force God’s hand to do something that is contrary to our welfare. It doesn’t matter how persuaded you are or how much faith you have, you simply don’t want God to answer every prayer you pray!
Sometimes God says no to prayers that are offered up in faith because he has something even better in store for us, something he plans on giving to us at a more appropriate time.
In other words, what you don’t eat or how long you don’t eat or whatever activity you deny yourself isn’t paramount. What you do eat, spiritually speaking, is critical.
his response was startling: “I have food to eat that you do not know about”
The church leaders at Antioch did not take Jesus to mean that we sin if someone knows that we are fasting but that we sin if our motive is to be known for our fasting so that men applaud us.
But God does promise to be found by those who diligently seek him with their whole heart (Jeremiah 29:12–13).
Do not feel pressure from others to fast in precisely the same way they do.
What is of critical importance in regard to both of these sorts of fasting is that you not simply refrain from these things but that you fill the time and energy otherwise devoted to them with prayer, Bible study, worship, witnessing, or some other spiritual endeavor.
When I pray for people to be healed, I typically ask them to confess out loud their belief that God is able to heal them. I suggest you do the same.
Clearly, Paul could not heal at will. And aside from Jesus, no one else could either!
I would also recommend that you consider anointing them with oil.
The degree of healing or relief is not the measure of success: obedience is.
Prophecy is the speaking forth in merely human words of something God has spontaneously brought to mind.
Prophecy will always build up, encourage, and console, but not everything that builds up, encourages, and consoles is prophetic.
It’s not uncommon for people who’ve been touched in this way by a biblical text or truth or through the convicting ministry of the Spirit to feel that not to share the word on their heart would be sin. “I would be disobedient if I didn’t share what God has shown me,” said one young lady.
and deliver what is on your heart in words similar to these: “I may have entirely missed this, but I think God may have put something on my heart for you. If this doesn’t make any sense, you won’t hurt my feelings by telling me so.” Resist the temptation to say: “Thus saith the Lord,” or “This is the will of God for your life.”
Also, don’t assume that every random thought that passes through your brain is from God. Simply because God may have genuinely revealed something to you in the past does not mean he is always speaking. Exercise discernment and restraint.
This is why when i deliver a Word to someone, i try hard to separate what God said from what i thought about what He said. I may share both, but make sure they know that one part is from God and the other part from me.
Was my impression that led to this time of prayer a prophetic revelation? Was it a word of knowledge, or perhaps a word of wisdom? I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t think it matters much. What matters is that she was profoundly encouraged and built up in her faith.
“A truly liberated Christian is never under bondage to her own freedom.” Some people are actually quite legalistic about their liberty, but not Paul. If you think you must at all times exercise your freedom in Christ, you aren’t really free!
On the basis of this revelation, they in turn interpreted this to be God’s warning for him not to go.
In other words, they allow Agabus to make small errors but not contemporary continuationists! I find that oddly, and sadly, inconsistent.
Some are simply unwilling to entertain the possibility that they made a mistake in some aspect of the revelatory experience and arrogantly seek to impose their will on others in order to preserve their reputation as uniquely gifted and anointed.
For some reason, those who are the recipient of prophetic revelation struggle to stop once the word has been shared. They feel compelled to interpret and explain and eventually apply the word either to an individual or to an entire group.
Another implication of the passage in Acts is that simply because these prophets got the interpretation and application wrong, it does not mean they are false prophets.
They agreed to disagree and to entrust themselves, especially Paul, to the will of God.
If your group regularly spends time in singing or prayer at any one gathering, it may be helpful to pause in the middle or even wait until the end, and then say: “Let’s stop for a moment and remain silent.
Don’t be afraid of or offended by the awkwardness of silence.
We must never forget that we live in a world at war and a spiritual battle rages on all around us each day.
As J. I. Packer once said, whenever God moves, Satan keeps pace. The enemy of our faith will do whatever is in his power to discourage you, to frighten you, and to enslave as many as he can in fleshly bondage and spiritual darkness. And one of the most significant ministries of the church is to liberate people from this bondage, from their enslavement to the demonic.
One thing I do know about the devil: he’s not hard of hearing.
Neither unbelievers (the “false teachers”) nor even the holy angels have the authority that we have received by virtue of our being in Christ.
