Romans 12:6
• Prophecy
• Ministering
• Teaching
• Exhortation
• Giving with simplicity
• Ruling with diligence
• Showing mercy with Cheerfulness
1CORINTHIANS12:8-12
The Gift of;
• Word of Wisdom
• Word of Knowledge
• Faith
• Healing
• Working of Miracles
• Prophecy
• Discerning of Spirits
• Divers kinds of Tongues
• Interpretation of Tongues
I believe that one of the biggest reasons that the body of Christ hasn't made a greater impact on our generation today like in the book of Acts is Discerning of our failure to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Without a doubt, Jesus and the first apostles used the gifts like a bell, calling men to their message and confirming that God was truly the One speaking through them.
Hebrews 2:3-4 says,
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" The Lord bore witness to the accuracy of their message through miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In Mark 16:17-18, Jesus said all true believers would flow in the miraculous: "And these signs will follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
If a Christian's life isn't supernatural, it's superficial. If its possible for you to explain away every event in your life then you are in the natural not in the supernatural . This is a radical statement going by todays trend in the church.
Mark goes on to say that messages based in God's Word would be confirmed by signs following: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen."
Jesus even said, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not" (John 10:37). That's another strong statement.
If we were to apply that standard to ministers today, that means most wouldn't be believed. The vast majority of preaching done in the name of the Lord today is without the power of the Holy Spirit manifest through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is not the way the Lord intended it to be.
The "main line" denominations have developed doctrines to cope with this obvious discrepancy. And many church goers having no experience of these things think its okay to do without them.
However, regardless of the rationale, it's absurd to think that we can be effective without the power of the Holy Spirit confirming the preaching of God's Word. If Jesus and the early apostles needed their preaching validated, how can we do any less? "signs and wonders in a sense are God's trademark of approval, otherwise that preaching is just cheap talk.
Even the non-denominational churches have fallen away from ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts that operate in most "Spirit-filled" churches are simply words of exhortation or prophecy, but the bible reveals much more.
The Lord has used the gifts of the Holy Spirit mightily in my life and ministry to confirm His Word. There are countless times when people were still skeptical after hearing me teach, but the demonstration of God's power through the gifts turned them into believers. It's like the teaching fills their mouths with God's Word, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit slap them on the back and make them swallow it. Hallelujah!
One of the most important steps to flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to earnestly desire them.
• Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:31, "But covet earnestly the best gifts."
• He repeated that thought in 1 Corinthians 14:1 when he said, "Desire spiritual gifts." Simply put, for as long as you can live without flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will. You have to seek these gifts with all your heart, as its not a half hearted experience (Jer. 29:13). "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
It's also very important to understand that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are always flowing. God doesn't turn them "on" and "off." We are the ones who are "on" or "off." That's a startling statement to many people and one that verges on blasphemy to some, but it's true. The Lord is always ready to flow through us in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It's just like praying in tongues. We don't have to wait for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come on us to speak in tongues. We can pray in tongues at any time. It's not us turning on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always on and giving us the ability to speak in tongues. Therefore, whenever we turn ourselves on, the gift of tongues is there to allow us to communicate with our heavenly Father. Praise the Lord! That's the way it is with all the gifts.
One time when Andrew Womack was teaching along these lines in Charis Bible College. One of the students said, "So, you are saying that you can flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit at any time?" Andrfew said , "That's right and I'll prove it to you." He then started down each row and just started "reading the students' mail. He was telling them things that had to be coming from the Holy Spirit. It was awesome.
No one has received everything that the Holy Spirit has for them. Therefore, the Lord is always seeking to release more to us through His supernatural gifts. Whenever we put ourselves in a mode to be His channel, His gifts will flow. The old "Pentecostal" doctrine of the anointing coming and going is not a New Testament truth. First John 2:27 says, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you."
Another great truth about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is what John Osteen called "the divine flow." This is based on, "God is love"
(1 John 4:8). --"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Therefore, whenever we discern the love of God flowing through us toward someone, God is reaching out to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is follow that flow through faith.
Once when Andrew Wommack was pastoring a little church in Pritchett, Colorado, his heart just went out to a woman in the back of the room. He'd never seen her before, and there was nothing natural that drew him to her. It was just the love of God flowing through him to her. Because of that love alone, he told her that God had a word for her. Andrew didn't have one single word to say to her, but he knew God's love was flowing; and therefore, God and His gifts were flowing to her. So Womack just started by saying, "God loves you." God then flooded his mind with things to minister to her.
It was a long word from the Lord, but Andrew specifically told her about how she was grieving over the loss of someone and was confused about why God allowed it. Andrew kept saying, "It wasn't God that allowed it. It was the Destroyer." He said that a number of times. She broke down in tears and was really ministered to.
After the service, she told him that she had just lost her son to leukemia. They believed that God allowed this disease. But just before her son died, her husband saw this huge demon over their town, which the Lord told him was named the Destroyer. They didn't know how to interpret that until Andrew spoke to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and put it all in order. They were set free.
This was the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom in operation. God gave Andrew the knowledge of what had happened and then gave words of wisdom to instruct them on how to deal with it. This all came because Andrfew followed the love that I felt in my heart.
This has happened to us all, but most of the time we don't understand this is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we miss an opportunity. According to Andrew he learned this the hard way.
There was a man who had been Andrew's youth director when he was just a young boy. He left our Baptist church before Andrew was a teenager, and Andrew heard how he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and was seeing great miracles happen. He had one room in his church that was filled with the wheelchairs, crutches, and braces of people who were healed and didn't need them anymore.
During a three- or four-month period of time, Andrew thought about this man often. It was usually while he was in prayer that he would just come to mind, and Andrew would feel the compassion of God toward him. He would just wonder what was happening with him and then dismiss the thoughts. Later, he found that he had died in a freak accident where a red ant bit him on the thumb, imagine.
As soon as Wommack heard of his death, he knew that the reason he had been thinking of him so often was because the Lord was trying to get him to intercede for him. Over a decade later, Andrew met this man's son, and he confessed to him his failure to pray for his dad. He told him that he was at least the twelfth person who had told him a similar story. The Lord had impressed many of them to intercede for this man, but none of them recognized it as the Lord.
It is imperative that we learn to recognize and flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It's not only a blessing to us, but the lives of other people may depend on it. You are carrying someone's miracle. Don't let it stay inside. You have to learn how to release it.
There is much more that the Lord has shown us about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This article doesn't come close to covering all the material but there are series by Andrew Wommack entitled, How To: Flow in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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