In our morning sermons we’ve been looking at spiritual gifts, the ways that God the Holy Spirit equips Christians for God’s work in the church and the world. We’ve looked at what the apostle Paul teaches about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14. We have seen how that ties in with the work of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, particularly with the fulfilment of the promise in Joel chapter 2 that the Spirit who inspires prophecy will be given to all believers. Our question for tonight is how does all this fit in with Jesus’s teaching about the Holy Spirit as it is recorded in John’s Gospel?
Let’s start with a whirlwind tour of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers according to John’s Gospel. To begin with is the Holy Spirit who brings the believer into eternal life, the life of the Kingdom of God, through new birth.
John 3 3 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ … 5 Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
Christians are born again through the work of the Holy Spirit, but that is only the beginning. We saw in our Bible Study at Draw Near To God that Jesus promised that believers will continue to receive the blessings of this new life through the ongoing work of the living waters of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling promises from Zechariah 14:8 and Ezekiel 47.
John 7 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The Holy Spirit brings to believers all the blessings of new life. Then in John 14 as Jesus is teaching his disciples in the Upper Room on the night before he was crucified, there is a wonderful promise for all believers which doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit but certainly speaks of what the Spirit will accomplish through us.
John 14 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Doing the works that Jesus did and even greater works than those! Jesus goes straight on to explain how this will be possible. In five passages in John chapters 14 to 16, Jesus explains that all the blessings I have just mentioned and more will come to believers through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper.
John 14 15 ‘If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
Jesus promises that God will give to believers “another Advocate.” The Greek word which the 2011 New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version both translate as advocate is paracletos or the paraclete. There is no comparable use of that word as a title for the Holy Spirit either in the Old Testament or among later documents written by the early church. That leaves us with a bit of a puzzle about how we should understand the title. In the Greek-speaking world a paracletos was an advocate in a court of law. The word comes from a root which means “one called alongside to help” and J.B. Phillips used the phrase, “someone else to stand by you.” But other Bible versions prefer different translations. Paracletos is also related to the verb parakaleiv which can mean to comfort or encourage. So the old 1984 NIV and the old RSV used the title Counsellor. The old King James Version used the word Comforter but the New KJV and the Good News Translation use the title Helper. All of these titles reflect aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit as paracletos. But to fully understand what it means we will need to look carefully at what Jesus actually promises about this work of the Holy Spirit, which will only begin after Jesus has left the world.
The first thing to say is that Jesus promises that God will send to his disciples “another paracletos.” One more little bit of Greek, because you love it so much. They used to have two words for other. One word means “another of the same kind”, the other “another of a different kind.” Here Jesus uses the word which means “another of the same kind”. But, “The same kind as what, or as whom?” you will obviously ask. And the only sensible answer is, another paracletos of the same kind as Jesus himself. In the future, the Holy Spirit will continue the work which Jesus himself was performing in his earthly ministry for his disciples, as their paracletos, their advocate, their counsellor, their comforter, their helper. I will give you “someone else like me to stand beside you.”
Next we need to look more closely at what it is that Jesus says the Holy Spirit is going to do in the lives of believers as their paracletos.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – 17 the Spirit of truth.
The 2011 NIV translators hedge their bets between advocate and helper here by translating the one word paracletos with the whole phrase “advocate to help you”. But there are no words saying “to help you” in the sentence. The NewRSV just says advocate and the old NIV just says counsellor. Through his crucifixion, resurrection and exaltation, Jesus will be leaving his disciples. However he promises 18 I will not leave you as orphans but instead the Holy Spirit will remain with them and will never leave them. The Holy Spirit as paracletos will “be with you forever”.
Verse 17 says The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
So the Holy Spirit is already with, alongside the disciples, and when Jesus has gone the Holy Spirit will be in them, inside them, living in them. What Jesus says next is even more amazing.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
I will come to you. Jesus will come to his disciples through the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes on the disciples as the the Helper, they will share in the life of Jesus himself. Because I live, you also will live. When that happens … you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
“You are in me and I am in you.” That is a very strange thing for one human being to say to another. But Jesus is saying to his disciples that through the Holy Spirit they will know that “you are in me and I am in you”. One day, after his resurrection and his ascension, Jesus will not just be with them, alongside them. He will actually live inside them, through the Holy Spirit. In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit as paracletos will be the personal presence of Jesus with his disciples once Jesus has returned to the Father.
23 Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
Jesus and the Father will make their home with the disciples through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus points forward to this in his High Priestly Prayer when he is praying for all his disciples, even for us
John 17 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me …
“May they also be in us”, “I in them and you in me.” God’s plan of salvation is that we should experience a relationship with God which is as close and profound as the relationship between the Father and the Son. “I in them”. Jesus is living in us!
John 17 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’
“That I myself may be in them.” Jesus lives in us. Our experiences of Jesus living in us come to us through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the paracletos.
This is how Christians experience the personal relationship with God which is eternal life, life in all its fulness. Jesus talks about that relationship in his parable of the true vine, right in the middle of all this teaching about the paracletos.
John 15 ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. … 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Remain in me – abide in me. Stay joined to Jesus. This is all made possible through the work of the Holy Spirit who is the personal presence of Jesus in our lives. So let’s think a bit more about the ways in which Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will work in the lives of his disciples.
25 ‘All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
The role of the Holy Spirit will be to teach the disciples. The paracletos will call to their minds everything Jesus has said to them. And then the Spirit will help the disciples to understand and to believe it all. This will also bring to the disciples an experience of God’s peace in the midst of persecution.
Then Jesus has more to say about the work of the Holy Spirit.
John 16 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’
The Holy Spirit, the paracletos, is the Spirit of Truth. He will guide the disciples into all the truth. Then it says, He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. The Spirit will pass on to the disciples what God is saying. Sometimes that will include foretelling what is going to happen. This will bring glory to Jesus. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. Jesus is glorified because he himself is the source of all the truths that the Spirit is revealing to the disciples. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’ The role of the Holy Spirit the paracletos is to pass on to the disciples the saving truth which God has entrusted to Jesus. Jesus revealed the truth by his words and his actions and even by his very presence, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) The work of the Holy Spirit would be to open up that truth for the disciples to believe and experience. As “another paracletos of the same kind as Jesus,” the Spirit is continuing Jesus’s work of revealing God to the world. The Holy Spirit will bring the presence of the risen Jesus into the lives of the disciples and mediate our relationship with God.
The Spirit will bear also witness to Jesus and help the disciples to testify to Jesus.
15 26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
The Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus to the disciples. More than that, the Spirit will also be working in the world to reveal the truth about God.
16 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
So when Jesus has gone, the disciples will not be facing the world alone. The Holy Spirit will give them power to be witnesses for Jesus, as Jesus promises. But the Helper will only be given after Jesus has departed.
16 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
After Jesus has gone away, the advocate, the Helper will come. While Jesus was still with them the Holy Spirit was only among and alongside them. But when Jesus has gone the paracletos will come and be at work in the disciples, inside them. The Spirit will mediate the personal presence of Jesus into the lives of the disciples.
To recap, how will the Holy Spirit accomplish these tasks?
1426 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
15 26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
16 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’
These promises will surely remind you of what we have been thinking about so far in our series of sermons about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the communicating Spirit who inspires prophecies and dreams and visions. When we look closely there is a great deal of overlap between these apparently different activities of the Holy Spirit, the communicating Spirit who works through spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit who is the paracletos.
Inside every one of us the Holy Spirit is teaching and reminding (14:26), testifying (15:26), guiding into truth (16:13). He will “speak what He hears … tell you what is yet to come … the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.
It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that Christians experience our personal relationship with God – this is our eternal life. This is how Jesus lives in us and remains in us and we remain in him. The Holy Spirit brings the presence of Jesus into the life of every believer. As our Helper, the Holy Spirit helps us to know Jesus better. He helps us to become more like Jesus. Through spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit helps us to serve Jesus in the church and in the world. And he gives us power to be witnesses for Jesus. But in some ways, titles like Helper and Comforter really need a much more vigorous word. Jesus promised his followers that “The Strengthener” would be with them. Somebody has said, “This promise is no lullaby for the fainthearted. It is a blood transfusion for courageous living.” Because through the Holy Spirit the paracletos we have Jesus living inside us!

1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. The Good News Translation says, “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.” The Voice translation says, “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”
Many of you have already experienced God moving in your lives in spiritual gifts. Others might be asking, is there anything I can do to open my life to God working in those kinds of ways in my life?
In our minds we must not separate the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in spiritual gifts from all the other aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is by the Holy Spirit that we receive new birth into eternal life. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us the experience of being God’s children and mediates our personal relationship with God which all Christians enjoy. The Holy Spirit is at work in every believer changing us, making us holy and transforming us into the image of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to say no to sin and yes to God and at the same time who produces the fruit of the Spirit, the character of Christ in our lives. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us power to be witnesses for Jesus. We all need the Holy Spirit to be working in our lives in all of these areas, just as much as we need the gifts of the Spirit. We can’t expect to experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit if we are resisting the Spirit’s work in other areas of our life.
The Bible tells us that we should each be living a new life through the strength of the Holy Spirit moment by moment!
Galatians 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
Galatians 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit
Live by the Spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit. As Christians we should always keep on growing. Growing in our relationship with God. Growing in knowledge and understanding. Growing in witness and service. Growing into the image of Christ. Growing in deeper fellowship with each other. Growing in victory. Growing in passion for God. We all continually need the help of the Holy Spirit to grow in all these ways.
Galatians 6:8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Live by the Spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit. Sow to please the Spirit. Paul is talking about our ordinary everyday lives of faith and obedience. Trust and obey. We need to be relying on the Holy Spirit working in our lives all the time.
But if we want to grow in our faith, I believe that we also need to be open to special times of blessing. We should be ready and eager for God to surprise us and take us on and lift us higher. Longing especially for God to draw us closer to himself. The blessings of salvation don’t come to us by themselves. They are gifts which only come as we grow to know the Giver. What we really need to be seeking is God Himself – seeking the Father who loves us, the Son who died for us, and the Holy Spirit who lives inside us to make all the blessings of salvation real to us.
The New Testament tells us about a number of occasions when the Holy Spirit touched people’s lives, sometimes as they were first becoming Christians, or for others after they were already Christians. We find two phrases in particular. “Receiving the Holy Spirit” can refer to the beginning of a new work of the Holy Spirit at any stage of a believer’s life even if that person has already “received the Holy Spirit” previously. The other phrase, “being filled with the Spirit”, describes a sudden inspiring experience from the Holy Spirit.
Michael Green explains “being filled with the Spirit” this way. Being filled with the Spirit “should be the continual state of the Christian, but he can also look for special fillings of the Spirit in special circumstances”. This is picture language, of course. The Spirit is not a liquid and we are not containers which can hold different amounts of Spirit. In “being filled with the Spirit”, we don’t receive more of the Spirit. In some respects it might be better to say that the Spirit receives more of us. As we open our lives to God in obedience and faith, so the Holy Spirit chooses to transform us and use us the more.
We all know that there are times in our Christian lives when we are more obedient and more trusting, when we are walking more closely with our Lord. At those times we reflect better the glory of Christ and we are more open to God’s Holy Spirit working in our lives. Many Christians would also say that they have experienced all kinds of experiences from the Holy Spirit, not just once but many times. These occasions have deepened their relationship with God or empowered them for witness and service. Sometimes such experiences have marked the beginning of them exercising some particular spiritual gift. The Bible phrase, “being filled with the Holy Spirit”, describes all these kinds of uplifting occasions.
In Ephesians 5:18 Paul commands all Christians “Be filled with the Spirit”. The verb in the instruction is a present imperative which means either a continuous action or a repeated action. So the verse is saying, “keep on being filled with the Spirit.” Many of us are far from being “filled with the Spirit” for most of the time. We drift from God and we need to repent and be lifted back to Him. There is no single experience following conversion which will lift us up on to a higher plateau of Christian living from which we can never fall. Time and time again we need to return to God in repentance, to draw closer and closer to Him and let him fill us with the Holy Spirit time and time again.
In addition, there are times when we need special grace and power from God, filling us for a specific situation or filling us as the beginning of a new work of the Spirit in our lives or filling us as the first experience of a new spiritual gift. Sometimes, for some people (especially the first time) such experiences of the Holy Spirit moving in their lives can be very spectacular or emotional.
The preacher and theologian Bob Gordon compared our Christian life to a canal boat journey up a mountainside, through a series of locks. “Many of us know God to one degree or another but we are not unlike a canal boat sitting in an empty lock. It is not that there is no water there but we are just not full. We have enough experience to keep us afloat in the Christian life, but not enough to take us ahead.” We need, he says, “a conscious awareness that we have come as far as we can as we are. There needs to be a closing of the doors behind us …… and an opening up to a fresh infilling of the water of the Holy Spirit.” Such experiences of being filled with the Spirit, not once but many times, should lead to more Christ-like living, greater love in relationships, greater praise and worship and thanksgiving, bolder witnessing and more effective Christian service. These are blessings which God surely wants all believers to enjoy.
1 Corinthians 14: says Eagerly desire spiritual gifts. Christians aren’t just allowed to want the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. We are encouraged to set our hearts on spiritual gifts. To “passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”
Of course, we need to desire God the Giver and not just His gifts. When we do, then we simply need to ask God. We’ll return to asking in a moment. But there is something else which Christians have done ever since the Early Church to help release the Holy Spirit to work in each other’s lives. I am referring to the practice called “the laying on of hands”.
In Acts 8 Peter and John placed their hands on the first believers in Samaria and they “received the Holy Spirit.” In Acts 9 Ananias placed his hands on Saul. He received his sight and was filled with the Holy Spirit. When Paul met some disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus in Acts 19 we read, “When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.”
We see a connection between spiritual gifts and the laying on of hands twice in Paul’s letters to Timothy.
1 Timothy 4:14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands
The important element in the act of Laying on of Hands is not physical contact. The Holy Spirit is not passed on from person to person. What matters is praying for each other. Laying on of hands is not necessary for God to bless anybody – God can bless in any way he chooses. But laying on of hands helps to encourage faith and expectancy in the person who is seeking God’s blessing. It also reminds us of our dependence on each other in the church, the Body of Christ. So the Laying on of Hands can be the channel of God’s blessing to move us on in exercising Spiritual gifts. It certainly was for me, and it has been for countless people that I have been privileged to pray with over the years. But we also need to WANT to be filled with the Spirit. God does not force His way into our lives.
We need to eagerly desire spiritual gifts. And we need to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
2 Tim 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
7 For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us afraid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control. (GNB)
God wants to give us the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of power. To invite God to work in our lives in spiritual gifts and even in supernatural ways if he chooses. God is able, and indeed longs `to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.’ (Ephesians 3:20). The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of love. Many people find that when God fills them afresh with the Holy Spirit they have a new experience of just how much God loves them. At the same time the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of SELF-CONTROL. It is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, the power of Christ who saves from the gutter-most to the uttermost and helps us to become more like Jesus.
Fan into flame THE GIFT OF GOD, says Paul. For some Christians fanning into flame the gift of God will mean opening our lives to the Holy Spirit in spiritual gifts. It may mean opening our mouths to speak God’s messages in the gift of prophecy. It may mean reviving or even exercising for the first time the gift of speaking in tongues as a personal prayer language.
If all this talk of power and holiness and spiritual gifts seems scary, it should not be. As Paul says, we have not received a Spirit of timidity, a Spirit which makes us afraid. We need never be afraid of the Holy Spirit who is Love. We all need the Holy Spirit.
It was the great evangelist Moody who said “I am filled with the spirit, but I leak” – we all need our spiritual batteries recharging sometimes. We all need to be filled afresh with the Spirit of God. We all need to fan the flame of the Spirit in our lives. So how can we open ourselves to taking the Next Step in the Spirit? As I just said, first of all, we have to WANT to move on with God in such ways.
A.W. Tozer said, “Before we can be filled with the Spirit, the desire to be filled must be all-consuming. It must be for the time the biggest thing in the life, so acute, so intrusive as to crowd out everything else. The degree of fullness in any life accords perfectly with the intensity of true desire. We have as much of God as we actually want.”
I reminded you a couple of years ago about the film, Castaway, with Tom Hanks as a kind of modern Robinson Crusoe, stranded alone on a desert island in the middle of the ocean. Fairly early on he makes himself a boat out of trees and tries desperately to paddle out to sea. But the island is surrounded by a coral reef and however hard he tries to row, the waves over the reef push him back, until in the end the boat turns over and he is badly injured on the coral. Many attempts to row out to sea end in disaster.
But then one day a piece of wreckage comes to shore and the castaway sees how he can use it. He changes the design of his boat. He rows out to the reef again but instead of trying to row against the waves he hoists the wreckage as a sail. The wind catches the sail and blows the boat past the waves out to sea and eventual rescue. At the end of the film the castaway is telling his story to a friend. “I was trapped on the island,” he says, “until one day God gave me a sail.”
Many Christians spend all their lives rowing hard trying to go somewhere new with God. But all the time the waves of life push them back. Sometimes they even fall overboard and the coral hurts! But God has given us a sail – or a number of sails. What we need to do is hoist the sails and let the wind of the Holy Spirit carry us where God wants us to go. The God of surprises is longing to surprise us. We need to stop rowing frantically to battle the waves and instead to just hoist the sails – sails of obedience and faith and worship. Above all the sail of prayer.
`He longs to do much more than our faith has yet allowed,
To thrill us and surprise us with His sovereign power.’
May God help us all to live in the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit, to sow to please the Spirit, and to fan into flame the gift of God within us. If we want God to fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit, all we need to do is ask. Jesus Himself encourages us to ask God to give us the Holy Spirit. And Jesus promises that we can expect to receive the Holy Spirit, not just once and for all, but time after time!
Luke 11: 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. …
We don’t need to be afraid of what might happen if we open our lives to the Holy Spirit. God loves us with a love which will never let us go.
11 ‘Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
Eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit. Fan into flame the gift of God. Just ask!
How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.” “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”
We have been looking at spiritual gifts, ways in which the Holy Spirit equips Christians to serve God in the church and in the world. Last week we talked about the gift of prophecy, receiving a revelation from God and passing it on. The apostle Paul tells us that prophecy is the most important of the Gifts of the Spirit. This week I am going to explain what the gift of speaking in tongues is all about, not because I think that gift is especially important but because it has certainly been the most controversial. No spiritual gift has generated as much misunderstanding and division within the church as the gift of “speaking in tongues”. So we need to approach this topic with humility, love, prayer and open minds.
This message also comes with an advisory notice. Some people may find the subject of the gift of speaking in tongues weird, confusing and even a bit unsettling. If so, I refer you to the wise advice from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Don’t panic! Hopefully by the time I have finished, everything will make sense. But if it doesn’t, don’t worry. Don’t panic! Let’s start with the obvious question

What is the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues?
Speaking in tongues is related to the spiritual gift of prophecy because both are forms of speech which are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Bishop David Pytches of St Andrews Chorleywood gave this helpful definition. Speaking in tongues is “spontaneous utterance inspired by the Holy Spirit, where the normal voice organs are used, but the conscious mind plays no part. The languages spoken or sung are entirely unlearned by the speaker.” Speech directly inspired by the Holy Spirit.
To begin with, we need to recognise that there are three distinct expressions of this spiritual gift of speaking in tongues.
1. Speech not understood by the speaker but recognised by hearers as a known human language.
This is clearly what happened on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4-12). The first Christians heard the sound of a mighty wind and saw tongues of fire coming to rest on each of them. We read,
Acts 2 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? (Acts gives a list of 15 different nationalities and languages) 11 … – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’ 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’
The disciples were praising God in languages they had not learned. That spiritual gift as it was expressed in Acts 2 is still happening today. There are many reliable accounts from around the world of believers speaking in tongues in a recognised human language that they haven’t learned. Over the last century some people have thought that the gift of gift of speaking tongues should always involve only recognisable human languages, but Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians believe this is far too limiting. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels”. 1 Corinthians 14 makes clear that there are forms and uses of the spiritual gift of tongues other than speaking in recognised human languages. Sometimes tongues will not be in a language anybody else speaks. Which brings us to the second expression of the gift.
2. The use of speaking in tongues followed by interpretation in corporate worship
1 Corinthians 14 26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.
When the earliest churches gathered in worship, in Corinth at least, part of their worship included praise or prayer expressed using the gift of speaking in tongues. They then expected the Holy Spirit to give a spiritual gift of “interpretation of tongues” to somebody else to express the meaning of the praise or prayer in the language everybody would understand. The interpretation was not a simple translation (which would be a different word). The interpretation is rather an explanation of the prayer or praise just offered. Normally tongues will be praise or prayer addressed to God and the interpretation will express that in the common language. Sometimes the combination of the speaking in tongues followed by the interpretation could be the equivalent of a prophecy. 1 Corinthians 14 shows us using these spiritual gifts in corporate worship is acceptable and pleasing to God. But Paul does say more about how they should be used.
1 Corinthians 14 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.
Elsewhere Paul encourages all who speak in tongues to seek the gift of interpretation as well. He discourages speaking in tongues in corporate worship without interpretations. Examples of this kind of speaking in tongues followed by an interpretation or explanation are also reported in a wide variety of churches today.
Beyond speaking in tongues in recognised human languages and the use of tongues with interpretations in worship there is a third aspect of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues which we find in 1 Corinthians 14 and in the experience of many Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians today.
3. Speaking in tongues as a private prayer-language.
Over the last hundred years the Pentecostal Tradition has re-introduced the practice of using the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues in private prayer and worship by individual believers. Paul is talking about this kind of prayer in the passage of 1 Corinthians 14 which we just read.
2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. … 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves
Praying using the gift of speaking in tongues is a form of prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit. In it our spirits communicate directly with God, in some way “bypassing” our minds. It edifies and builds up the speaker. This is as just as valid and beneficial as “ordinary prayer” in a language we understand. We can deduce that Paul himself prayed in that manner.
18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Since Paul says that in gathered worship he prefers to use words everybody understands to instruct others we can conclude that he used to exercise the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues in his own private prayers. By doing so, he says, his spirit is praying.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays,… I will pray with my spirit, … I will sing with my spirit.
Richard Foster calls this kind of prayer where our spirit communicates speaks directly to God “heart prayer.” Paul writes about a similar form of “heart prayer” in Romans 8.
Romans 8 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
This private use of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues would make it unusual among the spiritual gifts because it primarily builds up the individual believer, but only indirectly blesses the wider church. That said, there are also instances of prophecies and messages of knowledge and messages of wisdom which are just for the hearing of the believer who receives them and are not to be passed on to the church. Very many Christians today claim to share this experience of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues as a private language for prayer, including a number of us here today and that includes me. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were not just for the Early Church – they are still for Christians today.
People who use the gift claim that speaking in tongues is helpful to them in at least three areas of prayer. Firstly, in praise and worship. Some people describe the gift of tongues as a “love language”’ with God. Secondly, in intercession. Especially when the person is uncertain what to pray for, praying in tongues is a valid way of interceding with God. Thirdly, in spiritual warfare. The gift of speaking in tongues is very helpful in deliverance ministry in direct confrontation with evil and the demonic.
Some questions you may have –
Doesn’t Paul teach that speaking in tongues is unimportant and unhelpful to the church?
This is certainly not what 1 Corinthians 14 teaches us. Here Paul is saying that in corporate worship everything must be done decently and in order. In corporate worship, praying in tongues is unhelpful. The problem with speaking in tongues in Corinth was that Christians who had that gift were exercising it in public as a way of showing off. Paul’s criticisms of that kind of public exhibitionism do not cast any doubts on the value of tongues in private prayer. “Do not forbid speaking in tongues,” he says (v 39). Just use the gift properly!
Some people think that Paul thought the gift of praying in tongues was unimportant because he puts it last in his lists of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul clearly believed that there were other things which were more important, such as prophecy and love. And sadly some Christian traditions have tended to over-emphasise speaking in tongues. But we should not dismiss any spiritual gift or any activity of God the Holy Spirit as unimportant. Paul is enthusiastic about praying in tongues. “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues”. (v5) “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” (v 18)
Is all speaking in tongues genuine and from God?
No. There are instances of tongues-speaking in many other religions and also in occult practices. Many of these are surely of satanic origin. It is also true that phenomena very similar to tongues can be induced psychologically through emotion and hysteria. We are called to “test the spirits”, and the spiritual gift of discernment, also called the gift of “distinguishing spirits” helps here. But just because a gift can be counterfeited does not mean that the real thing doesn’t exist.
What is the point of praying in tongues if the person is not able to understand what they are saying?
There are many benefits of speaking in tongues. Some Christians find find it gives a genuine liberty in prayer, taking prayer to a new dimension and making prayer a joy. It can give a greater depth to praise and worship, and a greater intimacy with God. Tongues accompanied by an interpretation is one channel God chooses to speak to His Church. There are reliable accounts of tongues which are human languages being recognised by others both guiding Christians and bringing non-Christians to salvation. There are also reliable accounts of praying in tongues releasing other blessings – for example of addicts coming off drugs without any painful withdrawal symptoms as they call on God by praying in tongues.
We live in an age which can be too cerebral. The gift of speaking in tongues enables communication with God at a spiritual and emotional level to supplement our rational approach to Christian things. Speaking in tongues is an exercise in faith.
Should all Christians be able to speak in tongues?
Paul would like all believers to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:5). He feels the same about prophecy. However the Greek form of the question in 1 Corinthians 12:30, “Do all speak in tongues?” ,“ou me”, clearly demands the answer “NO”. Paul was saying, “Surely all do not speak in tongues?” 1 Corinthians 12 makes it clear that Paul does not expect any of the gifts of the Spirit to be exercised by every believer, and that surely applies to the gift of speaking in tongues.
At first, Pentecostal churches expected all their members to speak in tongues. Studies show that today only about half do. Most Charismatics would say that the gift of tongues will not be given to all believers. However, all believers should be encouraged to ask God to see if it will be given to them. Exercising this (or any other) spiritual gift should never be a cause of pride. Not exercising a particular gift of the Holy Spirit should never lead to discouragement or jealousy.
Let me remind you of what I said at the beginning. Some people may find this subject of the gift of speaking in tongues weird, confusing and even a bit unsettling. If that is you, don’t panic! The spiritual gift of speaking in tongues is simply another way of praying. So how do you feel about this? If God wanted you to exercise the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues how would you respond? Next week we will talk much more about what we can each do to move on with the Holy Spirit and to release the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our church. But in case you can’t wait until next week to find out let me give you the short version. Ask God. Just ask.
Luke 11 9 ‘So I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
We don’t have any reason to be afraid when we ask God to work in our lives.
11 ‘Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
1 Corinthians 14:1 says, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit,”
How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Ask. Just ask!

1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. … 3 … the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. … the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
This morning we started thinking about the spiritual gift of prophecy. We saw that the Holy Spirit poured out on the Church at Pentecost was the promised Spirit who inspired the Old Testament Prophets, the Spirit of prophecy.
Acts 2 17 ‘ “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
This is the nature of the Holy Spirit promised in the Old Testament which God has now poured out on all his children – the Spirit who inspires prophecy, visions and dreams. This means that in principle ALL Christians can experience the spiritual gift of prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says that we should all desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. He says that he would like all of his readers to prophesy.
1 Corinthians 12:29 asks Are all prophets? The question is phrased (in Greek ou me) as if it expects the answer to be no. So the best translation will be, “Surely not all are prophets.” Paul envisages that some believers will exercise a regular ministry as “prophets” alongside apostles and teachers, subject to their recognition by the local Chris
tian community as prophets. On the other hand others (not known as “prophets”) will occasionally exercise the gift of prophesy. But Paul longs that ALL Christians would prophesy which implies that he thinks that all potentially could.
Verse 31 says “For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.” Paul says “you can all prophesy”, rather than “some of you” or “lots of you.” That surely implies that he thought that all believers could potentially exercise the gift of prophecy, if the Holy Spirit inspired them to, even if not all of them would be given a revelation to share on the same occasion. There’s a simple phrase which sums this idea up very well: “the prophethood of all believers.” We’ve heard the phrase, “the priesthood of all believers,” the idea that every one of us can come into God’s presence and pray. We don’t need special priests as intermediaries. The prophethood of all believers implies the reverse, the corollary. God will speak directly to ALL of us – because the Holy Spirit who is working in every Christian is the same Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets! Preacher and Old Testament theologian Bob Gordon commented, “It is this universalizing of prophetic potentiality to every believer that marks the greatest difference between Old Testament and New Testament prophecy.” So let’s think a bit deeper about how this might work out in practice.
We looked this morning at some examples of prophesy in the Book of Acts. We saw Agabus foretelling a famine and predicting what was going to happen to Paul. But we said this morning that prophecy does not mean fore-telling events in the future. More often it is “forth-telling” a revelation from God. As an example, when Jesus is blind-folded and mocked the guards taunt him with the words, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” (Lk 22:64) The expectation was that any true prophet would receive supernatural knowledge from God about people and events. We see examples of that kind of supernatural knowledge in Jesus knowing about sinful life of the woman who anointed him in Luke 7:39, or about the many husbands of the woman at the well in Samaria, and Jesus’s knowledge of all men’s hearts in John 2:24. In Acts 5 we saw Peter’s supernatural knowledge of the lies of Ananias and Sapphira. Some would see these as examples of other spiritual gifts closely related to prophecy, which Paul calls words of knowledge and words of wisdom. What is central in any prophecy is some kind of revelation from God either for the individual or to pass on to others.
This morning we also talked about examples of revelations from God in Paul’s vision of a man of Macedonia and God encouraging Paul not to be afraid in Corinth. We saw God speaking directly to Peter, and to Cornelius, and to the church at Antioch sending Barnabas and Paul out on their missionary journeys.
David Watson gave this definition of Christian prophecy. “While the written word is God’s truth for all people at all times, the prophetic word is a particular word, inspired by God, given to a particular person or group of persons, at a particular moment for a particular purpose.” Prophecy is not just good Bible teaching. “Prophecy would express a new word from God as such, whereas teaching would tend to denote more a new insight into an old word from God,”. “Prophecy receives its content through revelation, teaching from tradition”.
According to Paul the function of prophecy will always be to build up the church, bringing “strengthening, encouragement and comfort.” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Let’s look more carefully at the instructions Paul gives about the practice of the gift of prophecy towards the end of 1 Corinthians 14.
1 Corinthians 14 26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.
In other words, Paul expects that many Christians will be participating in the church’s times of worship together. Alongside teaching, others will bring a revelation, a prophetic message from God which God has given then, perhaps in their prayer times during previous week.
1 Corinthians 14 29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.
These verses tell us some important things about the practice of Christian prophecy. The first is that all prophecy should be carefully weighed and scrutinised, particularly by others with prophetic gifts. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. Some people think that “two or three prophets should speak” means that God will normally give the same or parallel messages to more than two people, on the biblical principle that the truth is established by at least two witnesses. Some would go as far as to say that isolated prophecies coming from only one person are not necessarily reliable. We will come back in a few minutes to think about how “others should weigh carefully what is said.”
They we read, 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn. This tells us that somebody delivering a prophetic message is always in control of themselves. They are not in a trance or some kind of ecstatic state – they can start and stop speaking at will. Uncontrolled ecstatic speech is often a sign of demonic activity, not of the Holy Spirit. This verse also confirms another important fact about Christian prophecy. The person will normally receive a revelation, a message from God, and then subsequently share it with others when they gather. The first message is not lost if somebody else receives a fresh revelation while the first person is in the middle of sharing. They can stop and share their revelation afterwards. For you can all prophesy in turn.
Not all churches express the gift of prophecy in that way. From the early days of Pentecostalism, many have believed that God will just tell them to start speaking and then the Holy Spirit will give them the message word by word as they go along. But that is not how the Bible understands prophecy to work. Normally God will give the whole revelation, and the person will subsequently share it. From all observation, and from many studies I have read, I am convinced that delivering the message after it has been received in its entirety is generally much better than trying to deliver it at the same time as the revelation is being experienced. Prophecy benefits massively from the reflective process of receiving a revelation, then reflecting on its meaning and finding the best way to express the message.
People who regularly exercise prophetic gifts generally agree that it is usually the sense of the prophetic message which is inspired, rather than the precise words. In some churches prophecies are always delivered in King James’ Authorised Version English. They are always delivered in the first person in the name of God, “I the Lord tell you.” But it is important to note that prophecies are no more authoritative or authentic if they are expressed in those forms of language. Indeed, Michael Green has observed, “Prophesy does not rant.”
Pentecostal churches tend to be used to that kind of “explicit” prophecy delivered in the first person, as if God is speaking. Pentecostals prefer direct speech. But as good evangelicals we may be too shy to speak on behalf of God in that way. In practice Charismatics tend to say something like, “The Lord laid this on my heart last night …” and carry on in indirect speech. These “words from the Lord” which we have may well come from an equally strong experience of revelation. But sometimes because we report them in a different form of language they may not be recognised as “prophecy”.
An example of that kind of “unrecognised prophecy” might help. 40 years ago I was in a church meeting which was on the point of approving a scheme of major renovations to the buildings. One member stood up and said, “I was praying about this. Our God is a great God. This scheme isn’t big enough.” We all received those simple words as a message from the Holy Spirit. The mood and direction of the meeting was transformed and six months later the church embarked upon a much more ambitious project for structural alterations costing three times as much, which proved to be a turning point in that church’s life and growth and witness. That prophecy was a very powerful message from God.
It is the element of direct communication of a revelation from God which is at the heart of all Christian prophecy, rather than the form in which the message is delivered. That includes the kinds of unrecognised Christian prophecy,. When we share our convictions about the will or the heart of God, expressing after prayerful reflection what we believe God might be saying to the church, that fits very well into the New Testament pattern of prophecy. Looked at in that way, very many Christians might realise that God HAS actually spoken to them and through them. They have indeed already experienced the spiritual gift of prophecy.
So, back to the very important question of how we should “weigh” and evaluate prophecies.
All Christian prophecy is mixed. “We know in part and we prophesy in part. … We see through a glass, darkly;” (1 Corinthians13:9ff AV).
Unlike prophecies in the Old Testament, Christian prophecy is not always simply true or false. People who make genuine mistakes in their prophesying, should not be condemned as “false prophets”. Jesus used that label “false prophet” actually to describe false teachers. Specific prophecies can be very good. On the other hand, Bruce Yocum wrote that other prophecies can be “poor” or “bad” for different reasons. They may be “impure” because a genuine revelation from God gets mixed up with the speaker’s own ideas. So many women have been convinced over the years that God has told them they were going to marry Cliff Richard. Prophecies may be “weak” because they actually contain very little content – many messages described as prophecies are simply quotations of Scripture or even merely pious thoughts, with no actual elements of revelation in them. They can bless others, but they are not technically what the Bible means by prophecy. Or some prophecies may be “sloppy”, because they are delivered carelessly or irrelevantly.
I mentioned last week an example of bad prophecy, reported by a prominent church leader. “I the Lord who created and redeemed you, who know everything about you, I the Lord (although just at this moment I forget thy name) am with you.”
All prophecy is mixed. We thought this morning about Agabus’s prediction of Paul’s sufferings.
Acts 21 10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, ‘The Holy Spirit says, “In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.” ’
12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
There was a problem with this prophecy. The revelation Agabus had received was absolutely correct, and he reported it faithfully. The problem was that the church misunderstood it. God was warning Paul to prepare him for what he would suffer. God was not telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
All prophecy is mixed. So here are some tests we should apply when we think God is speaking to us or to the church.
10 Ways to Test and Weigh Prophecies
1. Scripture and sound doctrine. Prophecies will never contradict the Bible
2. The traditions of the Church, although we should remember that sometimes God has used prophetic witness to challenge and reform the church.
3. The effects – “strengthening, encouragement and comfort.” (1 Corinthians 14:3)
building up the church and glorifying Christ.
4. All who prophesy must be judged by their fruit their works and lifestyle Matt 7:15f.
5. The spirit of love with (or without) which the message is delivered.
6. The gift of discerning spirits and the “inner witness” of the Spirit in others.
7. Specific messages must be evaluated by others with prophetic gifts (1 Corinthians 14:29)
8. Does the speaker submit to the church leaders?
9. Is the speaker in control of himself/herself when speaking? Evil spirits take over people, the Holy Spirit never does
10. For rare prophetic predictions foretelling the future, the biblical test is whether the prophecy is fulfilled (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Throughout the history of the church, false teachers have arisen who have led Christians astray. But we should not reject the spiritual gift of prophecy because of that. Just because a gift can be counterfeited does not mean that the real thing does not exist. The Bible gives us criteria for testing prophecy because genuine prophecy also remains a possibility.

In the New Testament, prophecy and prophetic gifts aren’t peripheral to the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. They are central activities of Spirit who inspires Prophecy. And no Christian is excluded from God speaking to us or through us in such ways if He chooses. Indeed, we all could expect to receive much more direct communication from God, because we have all received the communicating Spirit, the Spirit Who inspires prophecy. We share in “the prophet-hood of all believers.”

We all need more education about prophecy. We all need more experience of hearing God speak directly to us, learning to listen to God. But more than anything, we all need greater expectation. We rightly expect the Holy Spirit help us to understand the Bible. But some Christians can be deaf to the Holy Spirit if He speaks to us through prophecy or dreams or visions or pictures.
Samuel prayed, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10) We can pray that same prayer, confident that God still wants to speak directly today, not just to some but to all of his children. Because each believer has received that Holy Spirit who inspires prophecy and communicates revelations. But we all need to become more open to the word of God coming to us in all sorts of different and unexpected ways. Or when God does speak, we may not hear Him!
To finish with, let me give another example of prophecy from my own experience, which I have shared before. I share it not so much because of the message it contains but more because of the way the message came to me, in a prophetic dream. One Sunday I was all prepared to preach a sermon on taking risks for the sake of the gospel. On the Saturday night I had an interesting dream. I dreamed that on the wall of our church I saw a painting. The painting I saw clearly in my dream was of fields next to a river on a bright sunny day. And on the riverbank a large group of people were having a lovely picnic together as rowing boats drifted past along the river.
Then in my dream, next to that painting on the wall I saw a second painting. It was of a scene further along the same river. Just around a bend, where the people having the picnic couldn’t see, there was a Niagara Falls sized waterfall. All the people in all the boats passing by were plunging to their deaths over the waterfall.
Meanwhile all the time the people on the riverbank in the first painting just went on enjoying their picnic. Nobody was throwing out lifelines to the boats passing by. Nobody was even shouting out warnings to the boats. Nobody had even put up a sign saying, “Danger, waterfall ahead.” They just went on enjoying their picnic. Those were the paintings which I saw in my dream. Shortly after sharing it with my own church, I was giving the launch address in an ecumenical mission to the town and I shared it there as well, and many folk were deeply moved. I give that as an example of prophecy. This was not a story about two paintings which I thought up and developed myself. I believe the Holy Spirit gave it to me in a prophetic dream.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 commands “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.”

Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
Speak Lord, for your servants are listening!

1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.

1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
We started last Sunday morning to think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the ways in which God equips Christians to serve him in the church and in the world. We finished with these words from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14. Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit. The Good News Translation says, “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.” The Voice translation says, “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”
Christians aren’t just allowed to want God to give us gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are all encouraged to long for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and to give us spiritual gifts. We should all eagerly desire, set our hearts, passionately seek God to use us in his service and to equip us with whichever of the gifts of the Holy Spirit he chooses at any time. So we are going to carry on thinking about the different gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. Today we will think about the spiritual gift which Paul clearly thinks is the most important
1 Corinthians 14:1 eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
Paul goes on in verse 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
So what is this spiritual gift of prophecy? Why is it so important? What does it mean in the Bible and how should we be experiencing prophecy in the church today?
We find the words prophet, prophecy and prophesying 384 times in the Old Testament. The prophets were God’s messengers and God’s spokesmen. God would give the prophet some kind of revelation, a message or a dream or a vision, and the prophet would deliver that message, sometimes just to individuals like kings or leaders or at other times to God’s people as a nation. The authority and the authenticity of all those messages and prophecies rested upon their divine origin. The prophets would often say, “thus says the LORD”, “this is the word of the Lord. God spoke to the prophet and then the prophet spoke to the people. It was the Holy Spirit of God who inspired the prophets so that they received direct revelations from God which they then passed on. If you count up the mentions of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament then prophecy was the by far most frequent activity of the Holy Spirit. The ways in which prophets received God’s message varied. So did their subject matter and the ways that they delivered God’s messages. But the prophet was always essentially God’s spokesman in the world.
Before the birth of the Church at Pentecost the Holy Spirit only came upon special individuals for specific purposes or occasions. But even Moses said in Numbers 11:29, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!”. Through the prophet Joel, God promised that in the Latter Days the Holy Spirit will come and rest upon all God’s people, in particular inspiring the spiritual gift of prophecy. “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” (Joel 2:28). Jews in the time of Jesus were eagerly looking forward to that day when God would pour out his Spirit.
And this is what happened on the day of Pentecost. While they were gathered together, the Holy Spirit descended on the first Christians and enabled them to praise God in all kinds of languages they had never learned. People in Jerusalem recognised those languages and asked what was happening, and the apostle Peter explained it like this.
Acts 2 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘ “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

Peter’s sermon explained that God was fulfilling his promises and had poured out his Holy Spirit on all believers. By quoting Joel, Peter was saying specifically that the same Holy Spirit who had inspired the prophets in the Old Testament was now at work inspiring all believers. Now Christians will receive messages from God, see visions and dream dreams. Let’s look and see this morning some examples of how this promise was fulfilled in the Book of Acts. Time after time the first Christians received prophecies and specific revelations from God, giving guidance, assurance, solutions to problems and predictions about personal and national events.
Saul of Tarsus had a vision of the Risen Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road which called him to become Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. That vision left Paul blind. God had a specific plan to bless Paul and that began with a prophetic instructions to a man called Ananias.
Acts 9 10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, ‘Ananias!’
‘Yes, Lord,’ he answered.
11 The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.’

The Holy Spirit revealed to Ananias what God wanted him to do. Next, when people who weren’t Jews first began to become Christians, God healed the divisions between Jewish and Gentile Christians through a meeting between the apostle Peter and a Roman soldier called Cornelius. And a number of prophecies were very important in that vital process. First God spoke to Cornelius.
Acts 10: 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, ‘Cornelius!’
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. ‘What is it, Lord?’ he asked.
The angel answered, ‘Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.’

God gave Cornelius clear instructions about what to do. Then God needed to deal with Peter’s Jewish prejudice against non-Jews, who Jews considered to be “unclean”. God spoke to Peter through a vision which was repeated three times.
Acts 10 9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
14 ‘Surely not, Lord!’ Peter replied. ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.’
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’

These visions was the start. But then Peter had to be persuaded do something very unexpected and to go along with the Gentile men that Cornelius had sent to fetch him.
Acts 10 19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.’
Dreams, visions, prophetic messages – all the work of God the Holy Spirit.
Acts 13 1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
“The Holy Spirit said.” Through the prophets at Antioch, God gave the church a strong message to send Barnabas and Saul off on their missionary journeys. The Holy Spirit continued to guide Paul through prophecies, dreams and visions.
Acts 16 6 Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Sometimes the prophetic message was very personal to just one person.
Acts 18 9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’ 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
In Acts 22 Paul said this to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus.
Acts 22 22 ‘And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
The Holy Spirit had given Paul a number of revelations about the trials he would have to go through. Paul had many other experiences of revelations from the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 12 he talks about “visions and revelations from the Lord” and even “surpassingly great revelations”. He goes on to write about a different kind of experience.
2 Corinthians 12:7 …. “I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Again God spoke directly to Paul and gave him a message through the gift of prophecy. But the Holy Spirit also spoke to many other Christians apart from Paul. One named Agabus is mentioned twice in Acts.
Acts 11 27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)
Through Agabus, God gave a message to the whole church about world events. On a different occasion the message was more personal.
In Acts 21 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, ‘The Holy Spirit says, “In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.” ’

There is a clear example of prophecy where Holy Spirit had revealed to Agabus what was going to happen to Paul and he delivered that message to the church.
It is important to note that not all prophecy is foretelling the future. Much more often it is “forth-telling” a message God has given, as we saw from other examples in Acts.
1 Corinthians 14 3 … the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 … the one who prophesies edifies the church.
The spiritual gift of prophecy strengthens and encourages and comforts those who hear God’s messages. And the church is built up by these messages from God.
Let me share an example of a time when I believe God spoke to me and gave me a message for the church. I once had a dream which in some sense foretold future events. When we arrived in our second church, that church had very few children in it. Early on, I had a very vivid dream of a Sunday service in which the church was different in two ways. Firstly the pews were laid out in a different arrangement. And secondly, the church was full of children singing and dancing and waving banners and running up and down the aisles. But in my dream, some of the old ladies of the church were scolding the children and making them sit down. At that moment I woke up. I shared my dream with the church and we agreed that the meaning was clear. God would not bring children into the church until we were ALL ready to welcome them and embrace the chaos which children always bring.
A few years later I was looking out on a morning service. In between, we happened to have rearranged the pews into the same pattern as I had seen in my dream, although not because of the dream. And I saw so many children singing and dancing and waving banners and running up and down, just as I had seen in the dream – but when it actually happened all the old ladies were joining in with the worship and rejoicing with the children! I still believe that dream was a message from God which strengthened and guided and built up the church.

Last week we heard about other spiritual gifts which are closely linked to prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul spoke about different manifestations of the Spirit,
1 Corinthians 12 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
Older translations used the phrases words of wisdom and words of knowledge. These are particular forms of prophecy where God gives supernatural knowledge to a Christian, not as a message to deliver but often to help with a pastoral situation. We can see an example in Acts 5 where the Holy Spirit told the apostle Peter that Ananias and Sapphira were lying to the church. The first occasion I experienced that kind of gift in my ministry came one day when it seemed to me that God was telling me to go straight away and visit a member of my church who was sick. God sent me there at just the right time so that I arrived to pray with her and her sister for five minutes just before she died. There are other experiences I could share which were much more dramatic but I will save those for another time.
1 Corinthians 14:1 eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
Verse 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
Paul thinks that the spiritual gift of prophecy is the most important. The Holy Spirit gives revelations to Christians through different means. Some Christians actually hear God speaking to them, but more often God speaks by giving dreams, or visions, or pictures, or a flash of inspiration or intuition. Sometimes Christians just have a sense or a feeling of what God is saying. There are two things we need to do if we want to grow in spiritual gifts like prophecy.
Firstly, we need to make space in our busy lives for God to speak to us. We need to devote ourselves to prayer and to listening to God. When the prophet Samuel first began to hear God speaking to him he learned to pray, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Then the second thing we need to do is to share with other Christians what we think God is saying to us. Share with a prayer partner, or in a Home Group or in a prayer meeting. Share with your minister what you believe God is saying. With practice we can begin to recognise God’s voice better and to sort out from among the jumble of our own thoughts and ideas what God is actually saying to us and to the church.
Not every Christian will be recognised as a prophet who has a ministry regularly delivering God’s messages. But I believe that the Holy Spirit can speak to every Christian. Because we have all received the same Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets in the Old Testament and then in the Early Church. God can speak to any of us and the Holy Spirit can give to each of us any spiritual gifts he chooses. We just need to be open to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 commands “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.”

Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially to prophesy. “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts. “Passionately seek the gifts of the Spirit, especially to prophesy.

1 Corinthians 14 begins, “Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.”
The Good News Translation says, “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.” The Voice translation says, “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.” We are allowed and encouraged to desire to exercise the gifts the Holy Spirit gives. We said this morning that the body of Christ, the church, is only built up when everyone plays the part God has given us. 1 Peter 4 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
We also said that spiritual gifts are for every Christian. 1 Corinthians 12 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
I am going to preach next Sunday morning on the spiritual gift of prophecy – listening to God and passing on his messages. Prophetic gifts deserve a whole sermon, not least because in 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul definitely says that prophecy is the most important of the gifts. The week after I will preach on speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues. That is not because I think it is a particular important spiritual gift but rather because it has certainly been the most controversial. At the same time, across the world church today, speaking in tongues may be the spiritual gift exercised by more Christians than any other. Those sermons will address some spiritual gifts, so this evening I want to think about some of the other gifts of the Spirit which you probably won’t have heard discussed in a sermon. But before that I want to talk more generally about what Christians generally call “the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” There are few important things to say if we are to understand correctly what the Bible says about the gifts of the Spirit. And the first thing is this. The Bible doesn’t actually use the phrase, “gifts of the spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:1 introduces the topic like this.
Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.
The King James Version, the Authorised Version, introduced the translation “spiritual gifts” there and that was the phrase the first Pentecostals adopted. But there is just one word in the Greek, pneumatika, and that literally means “spiritual things” or “things of the spirit”. It doesn’t say “gifts.”
It is the same in 1 Corinthians 14 where Paul goes on say more about prophecy and speaking in tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:1 says “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” (NIV 2011 Anglicised). NRSV says Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts.
But again there is just one word there, pneumatika, “spiritual things”. It doesn’t say “gifts.”
New Living Translation prefers to say, desire the special abilities the Spirit gives. That fits the context. But there is no word for gifts or for special abilities.
On the other hand as chapter 12 continues Paul does talk about gifts. He uses the word charisma, in the plural charismata. He uses that same word in Romans 12 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.
Peter uses that same word charisma in 1 Peter 4 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.
Gifts. The thing is that the word gift carries a much more general meaning than “gifts of the spirit.” The root of the word translated gift is charis, grace. Charisma just means a gift of grace, a favour which a person receives without any merit of their own. Elsewhere in the Bible, charisma is used in that much more general sense.
Romans 6 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The free gift of God, the charisma God gives, is eternal life.
Romans 5 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
So there Paul uses charisma when he is referring to God’s free gift of salvation or justification.
2 Corinthians 1 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
There the “gracious favour” of God’s deliverance from danger is the same word charisma. The meaning of charisma and charismata is much broader than “spiritual gifts.” And the key thing is that nobody ever uses the complete phrase the charisma or charismata “of the Spirit”. Only either gifts or things of the Spirit. Charisma, or charismata, in itself does not mean spiritual gifts.
Another different word is used in
1 Corinthians 12 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
A manifestation means a revelation or a disclosure of the Spirit. To translate manifestation, Good News Translation says, “The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.” J.B Phillips says God works through different men in different ways.
I like those translations for manifestations of the Spirit. So I believe that New Living Translation is wrong when it reads, A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. A manifestation of the Spirit definitely does not mean the same as a spiritual gift.
Let me be as clear as I can. The concept of spiritual gifts, or gifts given by the Holy Spirit, is there in the Bible. But the actual phrases, “gifts of the Spirit”, and “spiritual gifts” don’t appear anywhere. That said, for simplicity I will still use those phrases this evening to refer to the concept behind them, the idea that the Holy Spirit works in human beings in a recognisable variety of ways.
Now let’s think for a moment about the experiences of gifts of the Holy Spirit which we find in churches today. Early in the 20th Century God began to break into established churches in new ways with experiences particularly of miraculous healing and of speaking in tongues. The movement which we call Pentecostalism grew and spread from the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission in Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906. The Pentecostal Christians looked in the Bible and they found that their new experiences seemed to mirror those of the First Christians in the Early Church. They looked at 1 Corinthians 12 and found a list of nine spiritual gifts.
a message of wisdom, a message of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.
These are the nine spiritual gifts which Classic Pentecostalism experienced and which they expect to be part of the life of every church. I absolutely affirm that for the last century the Holy Spirit has been and still is at work in Christians who would call themselves Pentecostals and Charismatics. But I want to suggest that certain aspects of the Classic Pentecostal understanding of spiritual gifts are mistaken and we need to think a bit more deeply if we want to understand how the Holy Spirit has been and still is at work in the churches today.
Firstly, early Pentecostals limited the range of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to just the nine found in 1 Corinthians 12 verses 7 to 10. On the contrary, this morning, we saw that there are other activities also described as gifts which we would surely want to add to any list of spiritual gifts. There are not just nine “gifts of the Spirit”. From the end of 1 Corinthians 12 we would want to add at least the gift of helping or giving assistance. And the gift of leadership, of steering the ship, or some translations say administration. Romans 12 also adds serving, encouragement, giving generously and showing mercy and being compassionate. There are definitely many more than nine gifts of the Spirit.
The second point I want to make is quite profound but also subtle. The first Pentecostals were experiencing the Holy Spirit working among them in new and dramatic ways. They looked to Scripture and matched up their experiences with the list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians. But I am not totally convinced that was always correct. For example, the practice of prophecy in Early Pentecostal churches and still sometimes today is very different from the patterns of prophecy which I believe the New Testament teaches which I will be talking about next Sunday. The week after I will explain that the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues is primarily a language for personal prayer, which is not exactly how the first Pentecostal Christians experienced that gift. Nor is that the way that many Pentecostals practise speaking in tongues today. The fact is, we don’t exactly know what phenomena Paul had in mind when he referred to “speaking in tongues”, or equally to “the interpretation of tongues”. We think that he was not primarily referring to the same experience as the disciples had on the day of Pentecost when they began to praise God in recognised human languages. And most Christians who speak in tongues today are not using known human languages. So what was Paul referring to? We really don’t know. We can think that our modern experiences of gifts of the Holy Spirit correspond to gifts in the lists Paul and Peter give us. It may be a reasonable working assumption that God is continuing to work in the church today in the ways he did in the Early Church. But we actually can’t be certain.
This leads to an important question. How necessary is it that our experiences of the Holy Spirit working in our lives today do correspond to one of the specific spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament? Or is it possible that some people might experience the Holy Spirit today in ways we don’t find in Scripture? This was a big deal in the mid 1990s in the spiritual explosion of what was called the Toronto Blessing. Personally, my view is that we limit the Holy Spirit if we think he will only ever work in the church today in ways which are mentioned in Scripture. We do always need to test the spirits. But I think it is short-sighted if we always reject experiences which other Christians attribute to the Holy Spirit just because we can’t see those kinds of phenomena in the Bible.
There is also a third way in which that understanding which the first Pentecostal Christians had of spiritual gifts is still muddying the waters for Christians today. They believed that the gifts are static or fixed. They believed that God gave each Christian a particular gift out of the list of the ninefold gifts of the Spirit. That would be that person’s gift. So they might prophesy. Or they might speak in tongues. Or they might have special faith, or the ability to bring healing or work miracles. But that would be that believer’s spiritual gift. That specific gift, and only that specific gift, would be the way that God would work in their lives to build up the church. As I suggested briefly this morning, I believe that understanding is incorrect. It actually limits the ways that the Holy Spirit might work in his church.
I completely accept that there are some spiritual gifts which Paul lists at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 which are static and fixed.
28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping,99999 of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
If a person is an apostle they are always an apostle. If they have been recognised as a prophet they should always be respected as such. If a person is a teacher then that is usually the way God will use them in the church. By the way, to those three Ephesians 4 adds evangelists. Those gifts are generally static and fixed. But I believe we are misunderstanding the gifts in the ninefold list earlier in 1 Corinthians 12 if we think of them as fixed abilities which a Christian will have.
6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
NRSV says and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
There is nothing there to imply that God will always only do the same one thing in a particular Christian’s life. Paul is just giving a list of examples of how the Holy Spirit might work in different Christians from time to time.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
Paul is talking about different manifestations of the Spirit. I read that to mean different instances where the Holy Spirit is at work. He will go on to list different expressions of the Spirit’s work. But I believe it is wrong to understand that to say that each Christian will have a fixed unchanging spiritual gift. He is saying that on one particular occasion, 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom. On another occasion, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit. Similarly, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. I believe that Paul is listing the kinds of ways the Holy Spirit can be manifested in various individuals on different occasions. I do not believe he is saying that the Spirit will only ever work in that one way in a person’s life. I do not believe this says we each have one spiritual gift (or maybe two) and that is fixed forever. Instead, I believe Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit can work in any Christian’s life in any way he chooses whenever he likes, and then he gives some examples of how the Holy Spirit might be manifested.
As I said earlier, on this point I believe that the New Living Translation is wrong. It says 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. I disagree. Spiritual gifts are not static or fixed. In my understanding, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are dynamic. God can give any of us any spiritual gift he likes at any time. The Holy Spirit can be manifested in any way God chooses at any time. It is often the case that the Holy Spirit chooses to work in the same ways in a person’s life. At the same time, with practice and experience a person is likely to become more confident and skilled in exercising a particular gift. They may become more confident in prophecy, in hearing God speak in dreams and visions and messages of knowledge and wisdom. They may become more skilled in teaching, or in administration, so they and others recognize that God has given them that gift. But spiritual gifts are not limited by being tied to a particular person. God can work in my life in one way today, and another way tomorrow.
This distinction is particularly important when we look at three of spiritual gifts in the nine-fold list. Paul says,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers,
I believe that the Holy Spirit can give the gift of extraordinary faith to any Christian at any time. I don’t believe any Christian should ever say, “I don’t have the gift of faith. Faith isn’t my spiritual gift.” If he chooses, God can give any of us the gift of faith we need, when we need it.
Similarly I believe that “gifts of healing” does not mean that particular Christians have the spiritual gift of being able to bring healing to others. I believe the “gifts of healing” are the instances of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people being healed. The person who prayed for them to be healed happened to be there – God answered their prayers. But that doesn’t mean that that individual has “the gift of healing.” In the New Testament healing is part of the ministry of the church. Healing not associated with a specific ministry of “healers”.
In the same way, Paul says 10 to another miraculous powers. I believe that he is referring to different instances when God in his grace works supernatural miracles. Each separate miracle is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. I do not believe that means that any particular Christians have “the spiritual gift of working miracles.” So you will understand why I have great reservations about preachers who claim to have a ministry of healing or a ministry of working miracles.
The Bible speaks in all these places about the idea of gifts of the Holy Spirit, although that phrase and the phrase spiritual gifts do not appear anywhere in the text. In our thinking and our expectations, we shouldn’t limit the working of the Holy Spirit just to the list of nine gifts of the Spirit we find in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10. We shouldn’t necessarily assume that our experience of the work of the Holy Spirit are exactly the same as those of the Early Church. But most important, we should not think of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as fixed, with each person having just one or two of the gifts. The Holy Spirit can work in each of our lives at any time in any way he likes.
1 Peter 4 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. … so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Spiritual gifts are for every Christian.
1 Corinthians 12 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
1 Corinthians 14 “Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.” “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts. “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”

We have been looking recently at the words of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:15-16
15 … speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Paul describes the church as the Body of Christ. God has given every Christian a part to play in the body of Christ. Each and every Christian needs to see himself or herself as part of that body, and play the part God has given us in the universal church and particularly in our own fellowship, North Springfield Baptist Church. Each of us have a vital part to play.
Paul says much more about the church being the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12. He starts off by saying that it is the Holy Spirit who brings each one of us to put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Saviour. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us new birth and new life when we acknowledge Jesus Christ to be Lord of all.
3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.
And then it is the Holy Spirit who brings us all together and makes us into the one Body of Christ, the church.
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
The Holy Spirit brings Christians together and makes us into the Body of Christ, the Church. But then the Holy Spirit also equips each and every Christian so that we can each play our part and carry out the different tasks God calls us to do.
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Paul is talking here about what we can call spiritual gifts, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, He goes on to list some of the ways the Holy Spirit works in Christians to equip us to serve God in the church and in the world.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
To each one – the Holy Spirit is at work in every Christian, with no exceptions. The Holy Spirit will equip every Christian with ways of serving God so that the whole body of Christ is built up and enriched.
Each Christian belongs to the Body of Christ and we all have our part to play. The Christian life is a team game – not an individual sport! Claiming to be a Christian without being properly committed to a church is like claiming to play football but never joining a team or playing in a real match. God has work for all of us to do. We ALL have a part to play and spiritual gifts to use to build up the Body of Christ. NONE of US is useless. That is the difference between the Body of Christ and the human body – the body of Christ doesn’t have an appendix.NO part of Body of Christ is redundant. NO part of Body of Christ is useless!
Paul goes on to give a list of a number of ways that God can work through Christians, which we usually refer to as spiritual gifts. Let me explain what each of these gifts of the Holy Spirit mean.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives to Christians supernatural knowledge to help them to serve God and direct the church. These gifts are very similar to another Paul mentions,
to another prophecy,
Sometimes God speaks to Christians in dreams or visions or with messages to pass on to other Christians or to the church. God the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets in the Old Testament and is still speaking to the church today. Next week we are going to talk much more about the spiritual gift of prophecy, messages of knowledge and messages of wisdom.
The Holy Spirit also enables some Christians to sense the presence of demonic activity – that is what Paul means by,
to another distinguishing between spirits,
Then Paul says,
to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues
The Holy Spirit enables many Christians to exercise the spiritual gift called “speaking in tongues”. This is a special language which they can use when praying which the speaker has not learned. Sometimes words spoken in tongues carry a message, and that is what Paul means by the interpretation of tongues. Don’t worry if you feel you don’t understand these gifts at the moment. In two weeks time I will be saying much more about the gift of speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
Then there are some Christians who show an exceptional level of faith in God. 9 to another faith by the same Spirit,
Then sometimes even today God continues to work in acts of supernatural power, in healing and deliverance and even in miracles
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers,
Referring to all these gifts of the Holy Spirit, Paul says
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
To each one – spiritual gifts are not just for special Christians but for every Christian. Let me repeat myself. As we just read,
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
To each one. Every Christian should expect to exercise one or more of the spiritual gifts. God can give different spiritual gifts to an individual at different times depending on the needs of the church. Many Christians find that the way the Holy Spirit chooses to work through them is often the same. But the gifts are not static or fixed. On every occasion they are due to the Holy Spirit working “for the common good”. Each time the Holy Spirit works in a person in any way that is a “spiritual gift”. At any time or place God can work through a Christian in any way he chooses and give them whichever spiritual gifts they need so that they are able to serve him. I will explain what I mean more fully in this evening’s sermon.
This list of gifts of the Holy Spirit towards the beginning of 1 Corinthians 12 is not exhaustive. Paul gives an overlapping list at the end of the chapter.
1 Corinthians 12 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
So here Paul adds the spiritual gifts of being an apostle and being a teacher. Then there is the gift of helping or giving assistance. And the gift of leadership, of steering the ship, or some translations say administration.
Christians all have different spiritual gifts. We all have different parts to play. Paul continues,
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? (Actually the best translation there is “surely all are not apostles, surely all are not prophets, surely all are not teachers,” and so on.) Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
We don’t all have the same gifts. Just as different parts of the human body have different functions, in the Body of Christ God works through Christians in different ways. But he tells every Christian that we should eagerly desire God’s gifts. In the same way he says in
1 Corinthians 14:1 eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.
All of us should be welcoming God the Holy Spirit to work in our lives in any ways he chooses.
Paul offers a different set of spiritual gifts in Romans 12.
Romans 12 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
We all have different gifts. Serving, encouragement, giving generously and showing mercy and being compassionate are also spiritual gifts. Every Christian will exercise spiritual gifts to build up the church. In our sermons last summer from the first letter of Peter we read about two broad categories of gifts.
1 Peter 4 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
As we exercise our spiritual gifts we are faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
If this involves teaching or speaking God’s messages in prophecy Peter says, 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.
Equally on some occasions our gift may simply be serving God in the church or in the community. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ
Whatever God calls us to do for him, and whatever spiritual gifts we are exercising, we should always do it with the strength God provides and do it for God’s glory so that God will be praised. We may not feel we have anything to offer to God. But God can use any of us, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We can serve God with artistic ability and musical talent.
So here are the lists of spiritual gifts which Paul and Peter give us in their letters. A message of wisdom. A message of knowledge. Faith. Gifts of healing. Miraculous powers. Prophecy. Distinguishing between spirits. Speaking in different kinds of tongues. Being an apostle. Being a teacher. Helping. Leadership. Serving. Encouraging. Giving. Being compassionate. The body of Christ is only built up in love when Christians are exercising these spiritual gifts.
Which of those spiritual gifts have been part of your experience? Which would you like God to give you? 1 Corinthians 14 begins, “Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.”
The Good News Translation says, “Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.” The Voice translation says, “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”
The body of Christ, the church, is only built up when everyone plays the part God has given us. 1 Peter 4 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
Spiritual gifts are for every Christian. 1 Corinthians 12 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
So all of us should,“Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.” “Passionately seek the gifts of the spirit.”