Don't Misunderstand Spiritual Gifts pt1

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message.

Well, I'm really excited about today.

This morning I'm going to be introducing a a new topic.

We've been on the book of Ephesians for a lot of weeks.

I actually don't know when we begin that, but we just finished

that this past weekend. I hope it was a blessing to you.

If there's some weeks that you missed, I really would encourage

you to go back and listen to those because every week was

just really power packed and it'll be a blessing to your

life. This morning I wanted to reduce

the topic of spiritual gifts. It's not really something that

we've talked a lot about before in the church.

There's just been a lot of other things that the Lord has had on

my heart to talk about. And really we only have one

service A A. Week.

On Sunday mornings predominantly.

So there's just so much what we can get through and I've been

wanting to talk on this subject for a long time.

And finally, the Lord is like, OK, talk about it, now's the

time. But there are different ministry

gifts. These are different.

Sorry. Then the ministry gifts that we

talked about in Ephesians chapter 4 and verses 11 and 12.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

That's the apostle, the prophet, the teacher, the the evangelist.

And I think I'm leaving one out there, the pastor, the apostle,

the prophet, the teacher and the evangelist.

But spiritual gifts are ministry gifts.

The the, the other things are like a position.

It's an office in the body of Christ, but spiritual gifts are

for everyone. Those are those other things are

ministry gifts in the body, but spiritual gifts are things that

the Holy Spirit gives to everyone in the church.

And we're going to talk about those things.

And both the ministry gifts and the spiritual gifts, those are

decided and distributed by the Holy Spirit.

It's not something that you can decide one day.

I'm going to be a pastor or I'm going to be an apostle, or I'm

going to be a prophet or a teacher, or I'm going to walk in

this spiritual gift or that spiritual gift.

These are things that the Holy Spirit gives.

He decides. All right.

It's not like you can go. And you know, like my son Aiden,

he's getting ready for university and he has to.

Choose, you know, kind of what field that he wants to go and

he's picking, you know what I want to go to university for.

All right, but in the body of Christ, it doesn't work that

way. God's the one that picks those

things for us. He's the one that determines

those things. But we're going to begin here in

One Corinthians chapter 12. The Apostle Paul spent a a a lot

of time in the book of Corinthians, his letter to the

Corinth church talking about. Spiritual gifts really, because

the. Church in Corinth was kind of a

mess, all right. They had a lot of things going

on. They were very excited about the

things of God and and operating in the things of God, but they

kind of did it recklessly and without order.

And so the Apostle Paul. Spent a considerable amount of

time in this first book of Corinthians addressing those

issues in chapter. 1213 and 14 and it begins in one Corinthians

chapter 12 and verse one saying this.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about

the spiritual abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want

you to misunderstand this. And it's really not that

surprising that there are misunderstandings about

spiritual things. It's not like something that we

can we can see or or or really go to school.

And and and study and see these things and experiment like we

can with things in the natural right?

Like it's easy to experiment with gravity.

I can take this tissue box and I can drop it and see the law of

gravity happened. It's something we all can

observe, right? Well, spiritual gifts are a

little. Different, but there's

misunderstandings with spiritual things sometimes if they're not

taught biblically or if they're not taught at all.

And you have that happening in a lot of places where things

aren't really taught biblically. In other places, they actually

don't teach on those things at all because it's spiritual.

There's some misunderstandings there, and it's something that

people have a difficult time wrapping their mind around,

right? But it's not something you can

wrap your mind around. These are.

Spiritual things, not natural things.

It's easy to wrap. Ourselves, our minds around the

law of gravity, isn't it because we see it, we can touch it, we

can experience it how many of you have fallen that's the law

of gravity happen right? But spiritual things are are

different. So it's important that we.

Stick with scripture, this is what God has given us as our

manual. I can go to IKEA and I've done

this a few times. Oh, this is going to be an easy

enough piece of furniture to put together.

I don't know how many times I do this.

You think I'd learned my lesson, right?

Go to IKEA, you know, and the, and the instructions are really

simple. You don't have to read anything.

It's just pictures, you know. It's pretty simple and easy.

Right. But I don't know how many times

that I started. It's just simple enough.

I start putting something together, I get, you know, like

through it a little bit, and then I realize I did that wrong.

I probably should have just stuck with the manual, You know,

don't have time to do it right the first time, don't have time

to do it right the third time, but you have time to do.

It right the you know the the third time, right?

It's better just to do it right the first time.

Just. Stick with the manual, right?

Is there any other people that have?

That same issue and and problem right?

It's like I've got this one. Just stick with the manual,

it'll save you a lot of time and energy.

I just actually experienced this not too long ago.

I put on some piece of a Kia furniture.

I put the board on wrong and I'm like I have to.

Go through an undo, you know, literally like 40 minutes of

work to put it back together the right way.

So let's just stick with the manual.

It's the same thing with the things of God, all right?

This is our manual, right? This is the beginning point.

This is the end point, right? This is everything.

This is what as Christians, we are supposed to live our lives

by, right? This is what we stick with.

If we don't stick with this. Then what are we putting our

faith in, right? This is what we put our faith in

because this is the word that God has given us.

You know, don't put your faith in someone's opinion, right?

It's OK if someone's opinion is founded on the word and it lines

up with scripture, right? If their opinion differs from

this. Then stick with the Bible,

right? Don't stick with an opinion that

isn't biblical, right? So here in the the New Testament

church in Corinth, Paul is instructing this church in verse

in chapters 12/13 and 14 in his letter and to every other church

by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on spiritual gifts.

And it begins by saying, I don't want you to misunderstand

spiritual gifts and I don't want our church to misunderstand

spiritual gifts either. So we're going to spend some

time talking about this. So to begin this topic, so there

is no misunderstanding, we're going to talk about these three

points today. First, we're going to talk about

what are spiritual gifts. The second thing we're going to

talk about is the box that Jesus operated within.

And then the third thing is we're going to talk about the

box that. We.

Operate within. All right, so let's go to this

first point. What are spiritual gifts?

What the apostle Paul began to line out for the church in

Corinth and for all future generations is he's lining out

that box all right. He began to line out the the

framework, the guidelines, the rules that govern these

spiritual gifts. All right, Not to control them,

not to suppress them, but that they would.

Be a blessing to a. Church, you know, there's a lot

of different, different churches that because there's either been

some strange things that people haven't been responsible with

spiritual things and have done different things and really they

were acting naturally, not spiritually.

There's been some churches that OK, we're just done with

anything spirit. No spiritual gifts happening in

in this church, right? But spiritual gifts are of God.

Spiritual gifts are something that the Holy Spirit.

Places in the body of Christ that places in each one of us,

and its purpose as we're going to.

See is to be a. Blessing to us.

To help us, to encourage us. So to cut that off is to cut off

a part of the Holy Spirit. Blessing and encouraging us.

So we don't want to do that. Listen, I know there's a lot of

weird. People out there, right?

There's a lot of people that drive crazy.

Does that mean that I'm not going to drive?

Right. You just want to rely on public

transportation the rest of your life.

Good luck. It's a blessing, right?

But sometimes it's just nice to drive somewhere, isn't it?

So Paul's lining out some guidelines, some rules to govern

these these spiritual things. Everything that God does all

right has an order to it. Right.

Everything that God does works within some kind of box.

All of nature, everything we see.

All right, has an. Order to it, a very specific

order to it. If anything in nature operated

outside of what it was specified to work within, life would cease

to exist. On this planet, right, there's

an order, there's a box that everything operates in.

That's what God does. Scripture provides us with this

guidance, beginning with the pastor and then the

congregation, so that. We can keep.

The church within a biblical framework so that everything is

a blessing. To the church.

Right, We want things to be a blessing.

So Paul states the purpose of spiritual gifts in One

Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7.

He says a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can

help each other. Do you know you all been given a

spiritual gift? Whoa.

I didn't know I'd been given a spiritual gift.

I just found out this morning, Pastor Brad, that spiritual

gifts are actually a thing. This is the first time I've ever

heard about them. All right, well, the Holy

Spirit. He gives you a spiritual gift.

And that spiritual gift is for the purpose.

Of helping each other to be a blessing, right?

The gifts the Holy Spirit distributes to believers in the

body of Christ are for the purpose of building his church

up and advancing the. Kingdom of God, but what are

those gifts? Pastor Brad, you're talking

about these spiritual gifts. You've mentioned spiritual

gifts, spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts.

What are those spiritual gifts? Would you like to know?

Paul lines these out clearly in one Corinthians chapter 12 and

verses 8 to 10. He says, for one is given the

word of wisdom through the Spirit to another, the word of

knowledge through the same Spirit to another, faith by the

same Spirit to another. Gifts of healings.

By the same spirit and verse 10 to another the working of

miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of

spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another

the interpretation of tongues. So there's nine different.

Gifts listed here and there really can be grouped into three

different categories. All right, you have the

Revelation gifts. These are.

God revealing something. This is the word of wisdom.

This is the word of knowledge. This is the discerning of

spirits. All right, it's God revealing.

Something. And that's for the purpose of

helping someone, isn't it? Then you have the.

Power gifts. It's God doing something.

This is the gift of faith. It's the gift of healings.

It's the working of miracles. And again, that's God doing

something to help. Isn't it to be a blessing?

Then you have what's called the utterance gifts.

This is God saying something to encourage, to exhort, to

comfort. This is the gift of prophecy.

It's the gift of tongues. It's the interpretation of

tongues. You ever read this the book of

Corinthians before? How many of you?

Have ever heard. Any teaching on spiritual gifts

before raise your hand? Yeah.

How many of you have never heard any teaching on spiritual?

Gifts. Yeah, few of you.

Hey, I get it to introduce you a scriptural, biblical spiritual

gifts. So this is a privilege.

After listing these things, Paul gives a very important,

important statement which is really key here to all of these

spiritual gifts. He says in One Corinthians

chapter 12 and verse 11, he says, but one in the same spirit

works all these things, distributing to each

individually as he wills. It's an important key there.

That's in the new King James translation and the new Living

translation. It says it is the one and only.

Spirit who distributes all these gifts, He alone decides which

gift each person should have, right?

He alone decides, not me, not you.

Not a personality test. Not some spiritual gifting quiz

that you might have taken on some social media thing.

The Holy Spirit alone determines what gift he gives you.

And scripture says that he's given us all a gift, right?

At least one, right? We're each of us the Holy Spirit

gives us. When we become baptized in the

Holy Spirit, He gives us at least one gift for us to operate

in, to be a blessing to people around.

US, it's he alone who decides that.

And this is very important for us to keep in mind.

We can't simply decide I'm going to operate in the gift of

prophecy, right? Sounds really cool.

I think I'm going to operate in this gift.

No, it's the holy. Spirit who decides, right?

We can't just decide I'm going to operate in the spiritual gift

of the Word of Knowledge. It's the Holy Spirit that

determines which gift that we operate in.

He alone decides. They are given as He wills.

And each of these gifts fall inside a framework.

They fall inside a box that God intends for them.

To. Operate within all right, and

that box begins and ends. With Scripture and we'll go over

some more more things here in Scripture, but the.

All those spiritual. Gifts operate within Scripture.

Scripture is what? Defines that anything outside of

that is called unscriptural, right?

You want to remain within the confines, the box of Scripture.

This is where God. Those things are a blessing and

are a help to people when people.

Operate outside of Scripture. That's when things start to not

be a help, not be a blessing to people.

So that box begins in the framework of Scripture.

All right. Now, the second point here is

the box that Jesus operated within.

It's kind of hard to picture Jesus operating within a box,

isn't it? But he put.

Himself in that box he came down from heaven and operated as a

man in humanity right he operated within a box so let's

look at John chapter 3 and verse 34 this kind of shows some

John 3 · chapter mention

different things here John chapter 3 and verse 34 and it

John 3 · chapter mention

says for. Jesus is sent by God.

He speaks God's word, for God gives him the Spirit without

limit. So Jesus was given the Spirit

without. Limit.

Isn't that amazing? Wow.

Imagine having no limits on anything.

Would you like to have like a debit card without?

A limit on it right? Like.

Anything. Everything you needed, wanted,

you could just use it. Could never ran dry.

It was without. Limit That would be amazing,

wouldn't it? I'd.

Like that kind of debit card? But Jesus, God gives him the

Spirit without. Limit right now, soon as.

Jesus begin his ministry is 30 years old and he was filled with

the Holy Spirit. Scripture says that he operated

in the Spirit without limit, but we'll see here that even Jesus

operated his ministry within a box.

So let's look at that box, all right, in John chapter 5, just a

John 5 · chapter mention

couple chapters later, John chapter 5 and verse 19, it says,

John 5 · chapter mention

then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly I say.

To you all right, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he

sees the Father do for whatever he does.

The Son also does in like manner.

Then a couple of chapters later here in John chapter 8 and verse

John 8 · chapter mention

28, then Jesus said to them, when you lift up the Son of Man,

then you will know that I am. He, for I do nothing of myself,

but as the Father taught me, I speak.

These things I first noticed the the parameter of this box.

Here I guess this. Is the box that Jesus is saying?

This is the box, lads, that I operate in all right?

I do nothing of myself. That's the first thing.

Like he put a limit on himself. He was given the Spirit without

measure, right? That's what Scripture says.

That's what we. Read.

But he says here that I do nothing of myself.

He only ever did these things, what the Father directed him to

do. That's the first thing.

And what the? Father directed him to say.

Right. That is the box that Jesus

operated within. Whatever the father shows.

Me, whatever he tells me, whatever he wants me to do that

I'm going to do, I don't do anything outside of that.

If he hasn't told me to do it, I'm not going to do it.

And what the father tells me to say, those are the things that

I'm going to say. If he has not told me to say

these things, then I'm not going to say them.

That's the box. That Jesus operated within,

right? Do you see that now?

Could he have done things outside of the Father's

direction? He could have, right?

That's a really. Good question, but what would be

the reason and what would be the motives for him operating

outside of what God told him to do and outside of what God told

him to say? Why would Jesus do that right?

Everything that the Holy Spirit does is to help people and to be

a blessing to people. The Holy Spirit knows the

perfect things to do to be a blessing to people.

The Holy Spirit knows the perfect things to say to be a

blessing to people, right? So we should want to stick

within that box, right? Because we trust that the Holy

Spirit has the perfect way to do the perfect things, to say

anything outside of that, I'm not moving.

If Jesus didn't move outside of those parameters, all right,

then who am I to think that it would be OK for me?

To operate outside of those parameters.

I'm not. I'm following Jesus.

Example. Right.

He's who I'm emulating. He's who I'm following.

So that's the box that Jesus operated within.

Does that make sense? The third thing is the box that

we operate within. All right, so let's look at this

box because this box is smaller and it's tighter than Jesus box

is Jesus was given the Spirit without measure.

Jesus operated at different times in all of the gifts of

the. Spirit in his ministry.

Well, the Holy Spirit distributes us to at.

Least one, but the odds of word? Probably not ever.

Going to be operated in all of the gifts of the spirit in our

life Jesus operated in those all the time right he was given the

spirit without measure but we. Have it in measure all right so

our. Box is is a little smaller and a

little tighter, right? Jesus had this bigger box.

The parameters that he operated within, well, ours is a lot.

Smaller, I move this way, I move this way and that's the

confines. That's where I'm supposed.

To operate within, when we try to operate outside of that box,

you know, maybe step into a spiritual gift that the Holy

Spirit. Hasn't placed in our lives?

Well, that's outside of our box. Let's not do that, OK?

It never turns out good for the people that you're trying to

minister to, and it never turns out good for you.

Just stay within your lane. Stay in your box.

Amen. So Paul kind of talks throughout

chapter 12 about these amazing gifts, but ends this chapter

with this. In One Corinthians chapter 12

and verse 31 he says so you should earnestly decide desire

the most helpful gifts, but let me.

Show you a way of life. That is best of all.

So all these spiritual gifts are amazing, right?

But the apostle Paul says well. Let me show you.

All right, the best way of all. And then he goes right into one

Corinthians chapter 13 and verse one.

All right, we put chapters and we put verses in here, so it's

easy to find, right, If you're trying to thumb through

someone's letter and find the exact place.

You know, it can be kind of difficult.

It's nice having easy reference points where we can just go to 1

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 13, verse one.

We can all. Go there really shortly, right?

But this is a continual letter that the apostle Paul was

writing. So in One Corinthians chapter

13, verse 1, he tells us what the best way of life is.

He says. If I could speak.

All the language of earth and of angels, but don't love others.

I would be. Only a noisy gong.

Not kind of funny, a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Now, if you're a drummer like my son is, you know, like most,

most cymbals, most gongs, like it's a, you know, music to his

ears. You know, he'd love to wake up

to that every morning. He'd love to go to bed with

that, you know, every night, you know, others of us.

It's like, that's just annoying just to hear Dong Dong Dong

Dong. My daughter, we went to the zoo

yesterday and she got this, this, you know, new little

stuffy, a bird, you know, and it's pretty cool.

It's, you know, it's like looks like the actual bird and they

recorded the sound where you push a button, you know, and

it's the, and it's the sound that that bird makes and it's

really loud, right? And it was really cute at the

zoo. And I'm thinking I'm going to be

listening to. This a lot coming up here like

you know where I take her downstairs before church.

We're going to Dunn's, you know, and she's doing it down the

lift. We're walking through the the

car parked in the basement, pushing that button, the birds

making it sound we're going up. Going up to the shop, you know,

making that sound, I'm like you might want to when we get in the

shop, you know, just keep your bird quiet.

You know, people are going to be looking around to see if there's

a bird. Around, you know.

Whoa, what was that? You know so, but sometimes

things can just be loud and and obnoxious.

That's not what we want to be. That's what we don't want, the

spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit is having us operate in

to be loud and obnoxious. Right, and so part of that box,

all right, we, we have, you know, that's the same thing that

Jesus whatever, you know, we see the Father do whatever he

directs us, whatever he tells us to say, whatever he tells us to

do. That's the box that we operate

that within. But also it's the motive, you

know, in there and it's love. Everything that God does is

through the motive of love. Spiritual gifts operate through

the motive of love. You have chapter 12, you know,

the apostle Paul. Whoa, lad, you guys are a

serious mess. You're like, you guys have some

serious misunderstandings about spiritual gifts, right?

Let's start, you know, trying to tighten this up.

Let's start giving you some framework and some guidelines.

And he starts giving, you know, those framework and those

guidelines in in chapter 14, right?

But in the middle. Of that chapter 13, it's all

about love. Right, that's that cream, that

cream feeling in the Oreo, right?

You have those crunchy outsides, you know, but you have that, you

know, like my my daughter, sometimes she'll take the Oreo

part. She just eats the cream feeling

and like discards the, you know, the crunchy part on the outside.

You know, that cream feeling is nice.

Well, what is that? Cream feeling in One Corinthians

chapter 13. It's love, right?

That's how everything is supposed to.

Operate is through the motive of love and the apostle Paul is

saying listen if you're. Not operating with that motive

of the spiritual gifts operating through that, being filtered

through that. Then it's just an annoying

noise, right? Am I the only one that sees it

in that light? That's how I, when I read that,

that's how I see it, you know, So in chapter 14, Paul begins

defining our our box further. This box is kind of getting a

little tighter and tighter, isn't it?

It's supposed to. In chapter 14, Paul begins

defining our. Our box and he says that that

box begins with order, right? Everything that the Holy Spirit

does is to help is to be a. Blessing.

And it has an order. All right.

With that in mind, Paul gives us this instruction in One

Corinthians 14 and at the end of that chapter in verse 40 he says

this One Corinthians 1440. But be sure that everything is

done properly and in order, right?

Spiritual gifts should be operated in properly and in.

Order and a massive part of doing everything properly and in

order. Paul gives this rolling things

back a few scriptures in one Corinthians 14 and verse 26, he

says well my brothers and sisters, let's summarize.

When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach,

another will tell some special revelation God had given them,

one will speak in tongues, another will interpret what is

said. But everything that is done must

strengthen all of you. The apostle Paul has given this

instruction because the Corinthian church was coming

together and they were all wanting to give a.

Song and all, wanting to give a word and it was just crazy and

chaotic. Can you imagine if all of us

came together and all of us came?

I'm going to give a. I'm going to this morning, I'm

going to have a song, I'm going to teach, I'm going to give

someone a special revelation. I'm going to speak in tongues

and I'm going to interpret right.

Like if all of us. Came with that.

This is going to be a crazy meeting, right?

And it's going to go a long. Time, if you have your, if you

have your roast in the oven, it's going to be burnt by the

time you get home. This thing is going to go a long

time, right? The apostle Paul is telling us

that these spiritual gifts operate within a box.

They operate in order, right? They're not disruptive.

They're not going to detract. Or take away what the holy?

Spirit is wanting to accomplish in a service, right?

And, and every service can be different because we're bringing

in different needs. We all, we all have different

needs. We're all living complete

different lives, right? And sometimes we need to hear

something. We need to be ministered in a

way. Sometimes the Holy Spirit may

tailor and design a service for one individual and everyone else

is like, wow, that was an amazing service.

But one individual is like, Lord, that was that was for me.

I needed that. Thank you.

Right. But if we're coming together and

we're just running this thing with no order, right?

There's not going to be that ministry that's going to be able

to take place. That's not going to be helpful

to us. It's not going to be a blessing

if it's chaotic. Right.

Everything the Holy Spirit does has an order to it.

A massive part of doing everything in order is, as Paul

said in One Corinthians 1426, US doing our part in turn, right.

You ever, you ever been to like an orchestra?

You know, you have the the maestro, the the director of the

orchestra stand up there. You know, they, they're not even

playing an instrument. You know, sometimes you're like,

what do they do? Actually, you know, they have

this little wand. What are they like a magician?

You know, like. What are they doing with that?

With that thing, you know? Well, they're directing the

entire orchestra, aren't they? They're keeping in time.

You know, they're pointing sometimes to a section.

Oh, our cues coming up, you know, pointing to another

section. They're direct and everything.

And sometimes if you watch a director, sometimes they're

really into it. Like, aren't they?

It's fun to watch them. I spend half the time watching

them than the than the orchestra because they're like.

Really into their their job, you know, but that's kind of like

what, what a pastor does, right? There's the behind the scenes

things that no one else has been seen.

You know this. Isn't the first time the

orchestra got together was the performance right They've been

getting together a long time, they've been working out the

parts, they've been working out different things well.

Well, the director is the one that's directing that, so on

the. Day of, he's just really helping

them keep time and help keeping them in the place that they're

supposed to be. They all know their parts,

right? They all know what they're

supposed to do. They practice it.

You know who knows how many times before that performance,

right? Well, that's what a pastor does,

equipping you like right here in a church service, right?

We're coming together, being equipped, and then you go out

there in your life and you're doing your ministry, and I'm

just standing here watching you. All right, All right, you do

your part. Oh, spot on.

He nailed it. All right.

That's really good. All right.

You nice? All right.

Yeah. But it's all.

With order, the Holy Spirit's amazing, right?

We all do our part right. It's a.

It's a really. Boring performance, you know, if

only one, if only one instrument is playing.

Well, why isn't all the rest of the organs?

They're just sitting there, right?

We all have a part. The Holy Spirit has given us

each a part to play, all right, But all of these things have to

be operated in responsibly and in order.

All right, so I'm about ready to close here.

But before we we close, there's something else that I want to

get into. Then.

This is really just an introduction to spiritual gifts.

There's no way that you could really talk about spiritual

gifts on just one Sunday morning.

I promise this isn't going to be a 20 part series, all right, but

we will talk about this. Some more and kind of go through

those spiritual gifts because we listed, you know, gave the list

of the 9 spiritual gifts there and kind of told a little bit

about it. Well, OK, you told me there's a

word. Of wisdom what is word of of

wisdom right well, we'll get into some of those things but

before I end this morning I want to zero in a bit on properly and

in order within Triumph church all right I pastor Triumph

church. I don't pastor another church.

They may they're properly and in order may be a little different

than our properly and orderly might be.

You know, as long as it's scriptural, like that's cool,

right? Like your personality is

different than mine. If you.

You know, like Sean's come up here and he's preached different

times and he does a great job. He he preaches differently than

I do, doesn't he? Right.

And I enjoy listening to him because he is different.

I don't want to look in the mirror and just listen to myself

preach. I can do that at at home, right?

Like I love listening to Sean preach.

We'll have him minister again here soon.

Or Pastor Amy, when she ministers, she ministers

completely different than I do, right?

Right, we, we each. Operate differently.

Well, churches may have like a different flavor, a little bit

different of a personality. And that's fine as long as it

remains within that box of of Scripture, right?

But it's the Holy Spirit. Who gives these gifts?

And all of them are for our benefit and within the church,

they come under the biblical authority of that church and

within a church they're subject to. 1st the authority of the

pastor OK, and then the authority of.

The congregation, right? And it's everyone holding things

accountable that make sure it lines up, that those things

operating are scriptural and biblical.

What does that mean, Pastor? Anything that's done under the

umbrella of a church is subject to the authority of that church,

all right? Because it represents that

church, right? So if we have someone come, come

in here who's never been here before, and they start going

around and giving a prophecy to everyone after service, right?

Well, people don't know. Like it's within.

Triumph Church, right? And so if they're giving some

things that are really strange, you know, spend everything on

your, you know, credit card limit, you know, thus saith the

Lord, and then you go out and spend your credit card limit,

you know, and then you're like, well, Pastor Brad, you know,

that was someone came in Triumph Church.

And you know, yeah, that would be wouldn't be a blessing to

you. It wouldn't be helpful, right.

So there's things that operate under the authority, under the

umbrella. Of a church in Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

13 and verse 17 because we want spiritual gifts to be a

blessing, right Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17 says obey your

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

spiritual leaders and do what they say their work is to watch

over your souls and they are accountable to God.

I'm accountable. To God for you, dear Lord Jesus,

help me. Just kidding.

Just kidding because this next. Part, you know, give them reason

to do this with joy. You guys are such a joy.

Like really honestly, we have a really great.

Congregation. But then he goes, and not with

sorrow. All right.

But really quickly, before we. Close I want to give direction

for any anybody operating in a spiritual gift within Triumph

Church. All right, Firstly, churches

should desire that gifts of the Holy Spirit be present within

our services because those things are to build.

Us up. They're to encourage us, they're

to help us. We want spiritual gifts in

operation within Triumph Church. Right.

And that means that all of us have been given.

A spiritual gift. Not just me, not just Pastor

Amy, not just Sean. All right, God's given.

Our church, every person, every believer, a spiritual gift, and

we're supposed to walk in those, but in that box because the Holy

Spirit has a purpose. For them, all right, but that

purpose is never going to violate the order and the

authority of a church. So let me give you a few.

Steps. Some guidelines, and I'm going

to just use the word of knowledge, the Word of wisdom

and prophecy as examples because you see these real commonly.

The word of knowledge is the Holy Spirit revealing something

to you either present or in the past.

All right, that's what the word of knowledge is.

The Word of Wisdom is the Lord revealing something to you in

the future. OK.

And then prophecy is a message. To edify, to build up and to

encourage. The word of knowledge is the the

Holy Spirit revealing something so.

If you receive. Something from the Holy Spirit.

It might be in a dream, it might be in a vision, it might just be

that in your spirit you're, you're receiving something from

the Lord. All right.

A good rule of thumb for you to follow is never to act on that

immediately, all right, Unless the Holy Spirit is.

Telling you now you know. Otherwise you just sit on it and

this is the first thing that you should do.

The first thing is ask the Holy Spirit what he what does he want

you to do with what he's revealing?

OK, often times it's. Just that he simply wants you to

pray to intercede. He's given you some information

about something so that you're equipped to.

Pray for that, all right? Sometimes he may have you take a

step further. He may want you to.

To tell. Someone, something all right,

but the first step. Is we we take a step back and

say, OK, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do with this

right because Jesus, how did what box did he operate it in?

I only do what the father tells me to do.

I only say what the father tells me to say.

So we're. Operating within that box.

Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do with this?

Do you want me to say something? Do you just want me to sit on

this? Do you want me to pray about it?

What is that you want me to do? 2nd, if it's something major

concerning someone within the church, you should consult your

pastor, the Holy. Spirit likely has already been

dealing with your pastor. About things.

I pray for you all the time, right?

The Holy Spirit reveals sometimes some things to me

about you that you're going through that I pray for.

Not to talk. To you about.

That, you know, ring, ring, ring, ring.

Hello, this is Pastor Brad. The Lord was telling me

something. How?

About we we meet up. For a coffee and talk about.

No, it's for me to. Pray about right.

I'm your pastor, right? Thirdly, if it's praying or

speaking a spiritual word over someone within the church, you

should have another trusted person with you.

All right? Don't minister to someone alone.

This is for the benefit of you and for the person you're

ministering to. It's accountability.

All right. We have some friends that pastor

in a church in, in the States, and there's been a number of

occasions where they've talked to Pastor Amy and, and myself

where they have someone who's come in, they start coming to

the church and they're going around and they have a word for

everyone, right? How do you?

How do we deal? With this like they're a really

nice person and stuff, but they're going around and and

giving a word to to every person that breathes in the church.

Well, listen, the box that we operate in is if the Holy

Spirit, if God, what are you telling me to do with this?

I'm only going to do. What you want me to do, I'm only

going to say what you want me to say.

Right. But anytime someone comes into a

church, all right, you're operating under that umbrella,

the authority of that church, there's accountability there,

right? You know, so it's, it's a good.

Practice that if the Holy Spirit does have a a word, give us a

word for someone. You know, if it's something

major, like I said, come talk to the pastors about it, all right?

If it's, if it's something that's that's not major.

You know, and, and we love you and we, when we trust you and

we're cool with you going around and, and giving words to people,

then that's cool. But take someone with you all

right? Because sometimes there might be

someone who comes from the outside, right?

They're not of Triumph Church. They don't have, they're not

operating necessarily with the motive or love.

They're not trying to be necessarily a, a help or a.

Blessing to people in the church.

And so if you see someone all right, who's not operating

within that system, the buddy system, right?

If you see. Someone from the outside OK,

well, they're operating outside of the guidelines.

The framework that we have that Pastor Brad is if if that's you,

someone comes up and gives you a word and there's they're not

coming with a buddy, you know, hold on, hold on a minute.

Invite someone over, you know, or.

If you have a word for someone, all right before you go over and

give that word, invite someone with you.

Hey, you know the Lord, I've been praying and Lord's given me

something for this person, you know, can you come over with me

while I'm ministering to them and praying for them?

All right, like that's a blessing that's a help.

There's there's trust in that right.

Like it makes you makes you feel good because listen, another

thing is the way we've been taught and I'm going to close

with with this here is when someone.

Gives you a word you know before we were traveling.

But before we moved over to Ireland many years ago, in 2000,

we were traveling around America and it was really interesting.

You know, we'd stop and we'd meet different people.

We were raising support to move over to Ireland and that three

different places like some. Places gave us a a word.

From the Lord you know they. They told us that.

You know, it was going to be hard at first, but then it was

going to be fun, right? And so Pastor Amy and I joke all

the time, you know, Well, when's the fun part?

You know, but it was like 3 different places right?

Like was. That from the Lord, I don't know

you know, but it's you know when someone gives you a.

Word. It's I.

It's going to do one of two. Things, you know, either it's

going to bear witness with things that you've already been

praying about and talking to the Lord about, and that is

confirmation from the Lord. All right.

If it doesn't, then you put it like in a metaphorically like in

a jar and you and you put it up on on the shelf and you don't.

Move on it, you know, and and you pray about it and you ask

the Lord, you know. Well, if that was from you, you

know, Lord, what should I do with that?

You know, and if you don't get anything, you do nothing with

it, you know? Right, that's good sound device,

isn't it? But usually if someone if

someone, someone has a word or something's for you, let me just

give one more more example. You know, before Pastor Amy and

I moved over to this part of the country, we were working with

her, her parents in her church, her parents church, right?

And a lot of you probably have heard this example before, but

it kind of bears in line with this, you know, and over and

that was like, I don't know, 2015, I think.

And I always move really slow. I don't make quick decisions.

I don't move really quick. I like to spend time praying.

I like to make sure that it's the Lord that's leading us in a

direction or telling us to do something.

It's that box again, right? There's safety there.

You don't have to make rush decisions, you know, unless the

Lord says I need. You to move right then you move

but we. Were kind of, we were kind of

struggling because there was a lot of emotion.

We were working with Pastor Amy's parents and we loved it.

We loved Limerick. Where we were, we really thought

that we would. Spend the rest of our lives

living and ministering in Limerick, right?

And so when the Lord told us, you know, we really felt like

the Lord was leading us away from that.

We're like, OK, Lord, what do we do with this?

Like we were really struggling emotionally with it.

The Lord. Didn't give us a lot of.

Direction, you know on the. Way that we where we should go,

what we should do. You know, so we were at this

meeting and I don't know if you remember Pastor Sam, who was

here in September speaking at our church, but he had a word

from the Lord. He didn't know it.

Who, who he was talking to, you know, but he was reading our

mail the exact situation that Pastor Amy and I were in and he

was saying if you don't move, you're going to miss the window.

You feel like a square, square peg trying to fit in a, in a

round hole. You know they're.

Like, these are all exact words that I was talking to Pastor Amy

about, you know? And as Pastor Sam was talking, I

just felt the Spirit of the Lord.

Come on me. Like such a thick.

Presence. I've never, you know, it's only

a handful of times that I felt the holy.

Spirit like physically? Naturally, you know, like, come

on me like that. And I just started bawling like

a baby just crying uncontrollably.

You know, I was thankful that I didn't like fall on the on the

ground because I felt like it, you know, and I'm seated on the

front row, right, crying uncontrollably.

You know, Pastor Sam is probably like like here to Pastor Amy

from me and I'm crying uncontrollably.

He probably knew at that. Point who he was talking to, you

know, it was to me, but I needed.

That. All right, because we were

dealing with a, a situation that was very emotionally difficult

for us to do, to separate ourselves from her parents so

that we could. Walk in the call of God that He

had for us. Right.

And so it was really difficult. I needed.

That all right. So sometimes the Lord the Lord

will minister to someone else. With a a word of knowledge, a

word of wisdom, you know whatever it is so that you know.

That's the Holy Spirit talking to me.

I need to begin to. Move on this right?

We didn't move that quick because of the next year.

We went to this meeting and Pastor Sam was there again.

He knew it was us now. He actually called us to the.

Front right And he turned off his mic and just had a

conversation with us. If you guys.

Don't move, you're going to miss the Lord, all right?

And the cool thing was all right.

Like the Holy Spirit was trying to talk to us.

I need you to start moving, you know?

I know. You move slow.

You want to follow me? Well, this is me.

Hello. What do I need to do here?

All right, you know, And it wasn't long before, you know,

like too many. Years afterwards, all right, we,

we moved over from Limerick, you know, stepped down from the

church there, moved over here to the, the Dublin area to, to

Klain here. And then COVID happened right.

And we started the church after right after COVID.

Well. We could have missed that

window, right? Like if we didn't move, you

know, COVID happened and we know what the lockdowns were here in

Ireland. Like we had to move before

COVID. The Lord knew that He started a

process in 2015, right? Wow, Pastor Brad, you move slow,

don't you? I do all right, but I needed

that. All right, so these spiritual.

Gifts are to be a help to you, to be a blessing to you, and

when someone operates in them, all right, it's going to be a

blessing to you if they're operating within that box, all

right, and if they're operating through the motive of.

Love. To help you and it's so good

when a when a church body is operating like that.

We need that all right. We want to not.

Be just us four and no more. There is a lost world out there

who needs equipped believers, right?

Who are founded on God's. Word and know how to follow the

Holy Spirit. In their life and ministry.

That's so important. Amen.

Well, I have gone long enough here, Children's.

Workers are probably like Pastor Brad, when you going to end?

All right, so I need to I need to wrap this this up here.

Let's close our eyes. We're going to pray here.

Definitely, Father. Lord, I'm so, so thankful for

your word, so thankful for the the Holy Spirit.

I'm thankful for all these members in our church, Lord,

Father, who are being equipped, who are being sharpened, who are

being prepared for the ministry that you've called them to and

their lives. Lord, thank you for what you're

doing through us at Triumph Church.

Thank you for what you're doing through the the congregation at

Triumph Church, Lord, and we just welcome you, Holy Spirit,

to move in this church, to move in our lives.

Lord, use us. Let us be a vessel that you used

Lord Father, to reach those around us, whether it's our

neighbor, whether it's our Co worker, whether it's someone on

the street. Lord, help us to be sensitive to

the Holy Spirit. Help us to walk through those

doors with boldness that you open and help us to know not to

walk through doors that are closed.

Lord, we just give you all the praise and all the glory and

honor. Jesus name Amen.

Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this

week. If it was a blessing to you,

share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph

Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.