Servant
School
May 25, 2003
Gifts of Healings, Miracles, Prophecy, Discernment
A gift of the Holy Spirit is a special ability given to a believer by the
Holy Spirit.
It is not a natural born talent, like music is for some people. A person may indeed be “gifted” in music, but
it is not part of our list of gifts imparted by the Holy Spirit.
It is not some kind of earned “merit badge” for good Christians. It is a form of “grace”. One of the Greek word for “gifts” is charismata, or, “workings of grace”.
The purpose of the gifts in the church is to build up the church.
Healings
(1 Cor 12:9 KJV) To another faith by the same Spirit; to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
gifts – charisma
– a favour with which one receives without any merit of his own; the gift of
divine grace; The word here is in the plural form. It’s not a single “gift”, but several
“gifts”.
healing – iama
– a means of healing, remedy, medicine; a healing. This word is plural too, literally, “gifts of healings”.
We often think of a person who is used to bring healing as having the “gift
of healing”, and I’m not sure that isn’t possibly the case. But it could very well be that the person who
is healed is the one who has received the gift, and the idea that these gifts
are plural, many, is that God offers healing to all of us. Possibly even the idea that there are
different kinds of healings: Different
physical diseases, emotional, social, spiritual...etc.
Does everyone get healed?
No. Many people teach today that God will heal everybody, all the time, all
they need is faith.
They teach that when a person is not healed, then there is either
unconfessed sin in the person’s life, or they lack faith. Sounds a little like
Job’s friends, huh?
When a person says that you lack faith, just say, “Okay, then we’ll use
your faith”.
Though it could be true that a person isn’t being healed because of their
lack of faith or because of unconfessed sin, it could also be that God doesn’t
want them healed, or at least not yet.
If God heals everybody, and all you need is faith, then why doesn’t Paul
just tell Timothy to claim his healing?
Instead, he says,
1Tim.5:23 No longer drink water exclusively, but use a
little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
There is another doctrine that teaches people that they need to believe
that they are healed even when they don’t feel healed. The problem I have with this is that it is
teaching people to simply deny reality.
They are taught that if they ask for healing and don’t keep confessing
that they are healed, then they lose it.
There are no instances in scripture of a person getting “healed” who needed
to be talked into believing that they were healed.
Examples of healings
Jesus’ life was full of healing others.
Sometimes He reached out and touched a person (Luke 5:12-13)
Sometimes a person reached out and touched Him
(Luke 8:43-48 KJV) And a woman having an issue of blood twelve
years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed
of any, {44} Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and
immediately her issue of blood stanched. {45} And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude
throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? {46} And Jesus
said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
{47} And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and
falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what
cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. {48} And he said
unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in
peace.
Once He even waited to ask the person if they really wanted to be healed
(John 5:1-14)
Sometimes Jesus healed by simply speaking a word, even long distance, as
when He healed the centurion’s servant from a distance (Luke 7:1-9).
There was another time when Jesus spit in the dirt and made mud, and spread
the mud on a blind man’s eyes (John 9:1-7).
Try that some time!
With all these accounts of Jesus’
healing, what do they have in common?
Was there a formula that Jesus spoke to bring healing? Was there a certain thing He did to bring the
healing? I see no pattern. The only thing these things have in common is
that Jesus did the healing.
How to receive healing:
Notice how many different ways Jesus healed people. Don’t put God into a box to think that He
must heal you a certain way. God can do
and use anything.
1. Ask God to heal you.
2Cor.12:8 Concerning this I entreated the Lord three
times that it might depart from me.
2. Ask someone else to pray for you.
(James 5:16)
3. Ask others to lay hands on you
(Mark 16:17-18)
4. Ask for the elders to anoint you
with oil.
James 5:14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and
the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will
raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
elders (pl) - that way you don’t focus on one person being the “healer”
Miracles
Definition
(1 Cor 12:10 KJV) To
another the working of miracles
(1 Cor 12:10 NASB) …the effecting of miracles
working – energema – thing
wrought; effect operation. Plural.
miracles – dunamis – strength, power, ability
(1 Cor 12:10 NLT) He
gives one person the power to perform miracles
The words are both plural (“workings
of powers”), seemingly to point to the effecting of each miracle as a gift,
much as gifts of healing were the healing given to each person in need, here
the miracles are each miracle produced.
The effecting of a work which cannot
be produced by natural agents or means.
Examples of Miracles
In a sense, much of Jesus’ ministry would be called “miraculous”. His
miracles involved:
Turning water into wine (John 2:1-11)
Healing (Luke 6:19)
Raising the dead (Luke 7:11-15;
John 11)
Feeding the multitudes (John 6)
Walking on water (Mat. 14:25)
The apostles also demonstrated the workings of miracles.
They spoke and people dropped dead (Acts 5:1-12)
They raised the dead (Peter, Acts 9:40;
Paul, Acts 20:9-10)
They healed many people. People were even healed by Peter’s shadow passing
over them (Acts 5:15). People were healed by Paul’s sweatbands (Acts
19:11-12) and these events were
called “miracles” (dunamis).
Paul blinded Elymas the magician (Acts 13:6-12)
Warnings
1.
Some supposed miracles may be hoaxes.
Christians are famous for being gullible.
Not everyone is genuine.
2.
Some miracles may be genuine, but that doesn’t mean that God is behind
it.
Jesus talked about false prophets performing genuine miracles. (Mat.
7:22-23)
God said He’d allow false prophets to do miracles as a way of testing whether
or not we really love the Lord or just the miracles. (Deut. 13:1-3)
3.
Miracles don’t guarantee to cause belief in a person.
Jesus rebuked the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida,
and Capernaum –
(Mat 11:20 NASB)
Then He began to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles (dunamis) were
done, because they did not repent.
These cities had seen most of His miracles, yet many of them still did not
believe.
4. The danger of adulation.
There is a danger that we will accept
adulation from people for miracles performed through us.
When Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra (Acts 14:8-18), Paul healed a lame
man, and as a result, the entire town turned out to worship them as gods. A few days later, this adoring crowd had turned
against Paul and Barnabas and stoned them.
I’ve heard Pastor Chuck say that this
is one of the biggest reasons why we don’t see too many miracles beyond
healing, because there aren’t a lot of people who could handle what would
happen if miracles began to occur.
Ingredients for making miracles
1.
Need
Every where we see a miracle done in the Bible it was because there was a
need for it. Jesus never performed a
miracle just to entertain people. (Luke 23:8-9)
2.
Permission
As with anything, we need to keep in mind that it must be God’s will (1John
5:14-15) to perform a miracle. When Peter was in prison, the church prayed
and God sent an angel to set Peter free.
But when James was imprisoned, he was put to death, as Peter would be
one day.
You may be sure that you have a “need”, but if God wants you to live with
your perceived “need” a little longer, He isn’t going to give you a miracle.
3.
Faith
It would seem that both this gift and the gifts of healings seemed linked
with the gift before that, the gift of faith.
It seems that God gives a certain abundance of faith to a person to
trust that He will perform a certain work.
There was one place where Jesus did NOT do many miracles:
(Mat 13:58 KJV) And
he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Prophecy
Definition of gift:
prophecy – propheteia – prophecy. From pro (for, forth, on behalf of) + phemi (to speak). Hence, to speak for or on behalf of someone
else.
The prophet is merely a person who relays God’s words or God’s will to
people.
We often think of prophecy as telling the future. That may be only part of what is
involved. It is actually speaking for
God. Since God knows the future, fore-telling may actually come to pass.
Definition:
Speaking for God to another person.
Scriptural examples of the gift:
(Acts 13:1-3 KJV) Now there were in the church that was at
Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called
Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod
the tetrarch, and Saul. {2} As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the
Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them. {3} And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on
them, they sent them away.
How did the Holy Spirit speak? He
spoke through the prophets.
How the gift is used:
1. Visions and dreams.
(Num 12:6 KJV) And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a
prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and
will speak unto him in a dream.
Visions - being awake and seeing
God’s message.
Dreams - being asleep while
receiving God’s message. I hope you
don’t receive these while you’re in church.
2.
Edification, exhortation, and consolation.
(1 Cor 14:3 KJV) But he that
prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
Edification - to build up another in their faith. To help them to trust Jesus more.
Exhortation - To encourage someone to move on in their faith. To get them going in the Lord, just as the
Holy Ghost sent Paul and Barnabas.
Consolation - To comfort someone who is hurting. To bring emotional healing to one who is
depressed.
3.
In an orderly way.
(1 Cor 14:29 KJV) Let
the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
There is a limit to the number of prophecies that should be given.
Sometimes we get the idea that if the Spirit is really working, that it
will go on for a long, long time and we can’t stop it. Not so.
God gives us control. God says to
keep things in order.
4.
With Faith
(Rom
12:6 NLT) …So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you
have faith that God is speaking through you.
It takes faith to speak for God.
It’s not just a matter of having a
message from the Lord in your mind, but to be brave enough to speak it out in
front of others, to risk being “wrong”, takes faith.
Sometimes only one sentence comes until
we have spoken it, and then the rest of the prophecy flows forth. We need to
take the first step by faith.
How the gift may be misused:
1.
Lack of validation.
(1 Cor 14:29 KJV) Let
the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
A person who is giving a “prophecy” needs to be ready and willing to have
their words scrutinized.
Donald Gee, (Spiritual Gifts in the Ministry Today, pg. 50), writes, “One
of the abiding safeguards for those who wish to be true is humility of mind,
and a willingness always to submit their revelation “to another that sitteth
by”.
We may not always have a word to confirm or deny something as being from
God, but if we never confirm things,
we open the door for trouble.
2.
Power trip.
“Speaking for God” can be a HUGE head trip.
And a dangerous temptation. It
can be a temptation to get people to do what YOU want them to do, or even maybe
just what you THINK they should do.
I believe this is part of the seduction of Satan that the Mormon prophets
(Smith, Young, etc) fell into. When
Joseph was having difficulty getting his wife Emma to accept the idea of plural
marriage, he even tried dictating a “revelation” declaring that God wanted him
to have many wives and if anyone didn’t accept this revelation that they would
be damned. (No Man Knows My History,
Brodie, pgs. 340-343)
3.
Your imagination
(Jer 23:16-32 KJV) Thus saith
the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy
unto you: they make you vain: they speak
a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
This is pretty serious stuff. It
ought to make us think twice before we venture out to say, “Thus saith the
Lord”.
The consequences of prophesying falsely in the name of the Lord in the Old
Testament was death (Deut. 18:20). With
a seriousness like this, who would dare even speak up and say anything?
I wonder if it isn’t okay for us to test the water to see if we’re on
track. I think it’s a valid thing to
say, “I think the Lord may be saying
…” and then let the others judge to see if it’s valid or not. I think that in my own experience there has
been a process where I’m learning to recognize the voice of the Lord.
But I do think that a “word from the Lord” isn’t going to be a thing that
you’re always “wondering” about. I see
in my own life that there are times when I’m POSITIVE that God has a certain
message for a person. Sometimes it
happens when I’m teaching, sometimes it happens as I’m counseling one on one
with a person. For me, there’s a sense
of a “definite certainty” about the message.
Discernment
The need for the gift
Jesus warned us that there will be people who will be claiming to speak for
God, but aren’t. We need to be able to
tell the difference.
(Mat 7:15 KJV)
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Warnings about the unseen –
I think we have a great need for “discernment” for many different things in
the church. Sometimes we make a mistake
of putting certain people in certain positions.
Sometimes people aren’t gifted for certain ministries. Sometimes there are hidden issues going on in
a person’s life that will keep them from being effective in a certain ministry. We need discernment to help make a “good
fit”.
I think that sometimes I lack discernment.
I am learning that I need to take advantage of those who have
demonstrated a gift towards discernment.
I lean on my wife (and others) heavily for this at times.
I’m learning to slow down in some of my more important decisions and learn
to ask for people’s ideas. I’m listening
not just for wisdom, but discernment.
Defining the gift
(1 Cor 12:10 KJV) … to
another discerning of spirits …
discerning – diakrisis – a distinguishing,
discerning, judging.
spirits – pneuma – spirit.
The word can identify many different things.
Some have limited this to strictly whether or not something is demonic, but
I’m not so sure of this. The Greek word pneuma doesn’t speak of only demonic
things. The word is plural, so it would
seem to be talking of the distinguishing of one spirit from another.
1.
Divine
It can speak of the “divine” spirit, as in the Holy Spirit. Is this thing
I’m looking at from God or not?
2.
Angelic
By this I mean the demonic. Demons
are fallen angels. They can have
influence over people.
3.
Human
It can have a human element, either in referring to a person’s own spirit,
or in talking about the attitude that a person has (as in a “spirit of fear”).
(Mat 22:18 KJV) But
Jesus perceived their wickedness,
and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
perceived – ginosko – to learn to know, perceive,
feel
Lesson
Discernment or critical spirit?
If we’re not careful,
we can fall into a trap of thinking that we must have an opinion about
everything. And we let people know what
our opinion is. And it’s usually
negative. I am not convinced that this
is discerning of spirits. It is a
judgmental attitude. It seems to be
usually done for the purpose of putting others down.
This is the person who
finds something wrong in everything.
Pastor Chuck calls it the “gift of suspicion”.
On the other hand, we
need to be careful that when a person has the gift of discernment, that we
aren’t quick to label it a “judgmental attitude”. They may indeed be pointing out some
“negative” things, but it may be the Lord’s discernment.
Using Discernment
1.
God’s Word
God’s Word gives us some specific things to measure truth by. There is great value in using God’s Word
along with the discerning of spirits.
It’s one thing for a person to say, “it just doesn’t bear witness” but
it’s another thing to point to Scripture and say, “Here’s what God really says
…”
2.
The witness of the Spirit
Sometimes the working of discernment is simply by a “witness of the
Spirit”. You just know deep inside that
this is right (or wrong).
1John 2:26-27 These
things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive
you. And as for you, the anointing which
you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach
you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not
a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
You often hear people use the phrase, “It just doesn’t bear witness to
me”. Though this idea can be much abused
and become an excuse to not listen to the truth, the Holy Spirit will often
give a sense of confirmation that something is the truth.
3.
Take time to ask “what now”?
As with many of the gifts (wisdom, knowledge, prophecy), part of learning
to use the gift is not just in receiving the information from God, but in
learning how and when to act upon it.
Sometimes God wants you to pray.
Sometimes God wants you to confront.
How the gift may be misused:
We need to be careful that we don’t get overly skeptical of prophecy by
being overly critical.
Quenching the spirit
1Thess.5:19-22 Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise
prophetic utterances. But examine
everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form
of evil.
We also need to be careful in our judgment.
When something is in error, but it is just coming from the person’s
flesh, we need to be careful to keep from falling into the trap of calling it
demonic when it is fleshly. We throw out
a lot of babies with the bath water when we label something demonic when it is
just fleshly. We tend to ignore the
person entirely.
Heresy
Hunters
I’ve seen some folks be awfully quick
to slap the label of “heretic” or “cult” on just about anything they don’t
agree with or understand. I hate to say
it, but with some of these folks I tend to not pay any attention to just about
anything they say. You can only cry
“wolf” so long without having people learn to not pay attention to you.