1 Corinthians 13: Love and The Spirit Kathryn Kuhlman Tongues Will Cease!

Underneath all of those uncertainties of life is Jesus. And you do not have to be defeated on a single score. No matter what those difficulties are, no matter how deep those waters, they'll never overflow. You'll never have to go down in defeat. Never. As long as your faith in God and in his word and his promises is still intact, he'll hear the cry of your heart. You and I are not only conquerors, we're more than conquerors. through Christ Jesus, who loves us. Well, today again, for a few minutes, we're going to continue our heart -to -heart talk regarding the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. And I would like to do nothing better than to just spend an entire week just talking to you about the wonderful deep... in this one chapter. Again, I say that you and I cannot understand the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians until after we have a clear understanding of this 13th chapter. Oh, I know. Somebody says, Catherine Kuhlman, are you going to go into the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians? I certainly am. Because the 14th chapter is the basic chapter on tongues. And you cannot understand the 14th chapter until, first of all, you have a clear understanding of this wonderful chapter on love. First of all, I'm going to do something today because I feel it is vitally important. I know that in this 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, there's a verse that literally hundreds of ministers use, and it's quoted very often by those who do not believe in speaking in an unknown tongue. is the only scripture that they can use to back up their theology that we are no longer to see the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the speaking in an unknown tongue. Right now, I want to go on record as saying that I am as Pentecostal as the Word of God. I'm not as Pentecostal as some people are Pentecostal. Not in that sense. I'm as Pentecostal as they were in the early church. I'm as Pentecostal as the word of God. Somebody says, what a letdown. Catherine Kuhlman, I thought you were sane and sensible. Reserved. My friend, the Holy Spirit is always sane and sensible. And anything that he does, I can accept. And I must accept the speaking in an unknown tongue because the Bible teaches it. It's there. It's in the Word of God. I could not tell you that I believed in the Word and that I believed everything that God's Word said and then turn around and say that I do not believe. in the speaking in an unknown tongue. I'll go one step further since we've been discussing this thing and I will probably be saying something more about it as we enter into the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians in the future. This is it. I do not believe that everyone who speaks in an unknown tongue has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. There are those who have spoken in tongues who have not been filled with the Holy Spirit. I just do that in for good measure because somebody will be writing and asking me the question anyway, so I'll just save you that trouble and answer it right now. But back again to this verse, and it's the eighth verse. Verse of the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Love never faileth. Oh, that's great. That's great. Sometimes I think that we should not dwell so much on the 14th chapter as the 13th chapter. Sometimes I think we get our minds so filled with tongues that we have forgotten Jesus. We forget the importance of love. And love is the greatest force in the world today. Love never faileth. You can depend on it. Never. Love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Now, somebody says, I've caught you in a contradiction. It says right there, plainly, that whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Sure, I know. That's the reason I want to talk about that today. But when shall they cease? That's the big question. They did not cease when the 120 were filled. in the upper room. They did not cease at the house of Cornelius. They did not cease with Peter and Paul and with those in the early church. Tongues will cease. There's coming a day when men and women will no longer be filled with the Holy Spirit. There's coming an hour when literally the last person will be baptized with the Holy Ghost. And that hour will come when the Holy Spirit leaves this old earth. You see, we speak much of the day of Pentecost and thousands of churches. observe the day of Pentecost. But the day of Pentecost did not cease in the upper room. The day of Pentecost did not cease when the 120 were filled with the Holy Ghost. We are still living in the day of Pentecost. Oh, glorious fact. If only something could happen that God could open our understanding to the day and the hour in which we are living. If somehow you could just get that glorious spiritual vision of that which is ours, yours and mine. Everything that they received in the early church. All the gifts, all the fruits of the Spirit, all the manifestations of the Spirit are ours today because the day of Pentecost has not come to a close. The day of Pentecost will not come to an end until the Holy Spirit who ushered in the day of Pentecost, leaves. And he leaves when we have the great catching up. That's what the great catching up is. The Holy Spirit will leave in exactly the same way that Jesus left. When his feet left the Mount of Olives and they saw him ascend in bodily form, so also the day is coming when the Holy Spirit will leave. He too will go back from whence he came. Only when the Holy Spirit leaves, he will not go alone. He will take the church, that glorious body of believers, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, with him. It will be at that time that... tongues will cease. For after that, there will be no longer tongues, the interpretation of tongues. There will no longer be the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit. There will no longer be the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. For he will have left. And he will have taken with him this wonderful, glorious body of Christ. And the gift that Jesus gave to the church will be taken up when the church goes. And the coming of the Holy Spirit was the gift that Jesus gave to the church. Oh, if only those who stand behind the pulpits, if only those who have been called to preach the gospel. And there are literally thousands of wonderful channels through whom the Holy Spirit wants to work. And there are literally... Thousands of these men who are hungry for more of God. I know they've written to me. They've talked with me. And if only they could realize that the greatest gift of that Jesus left the church was the Holy Spirit. Love is something that you do. You cannot help. giving when you love enough. It just goes hand in hand. That's why when you consecrate yourself and you give yourself completely unto Him, the first thing that you want to do is to give. When He baptizes you with His love, just automatically, Just spontaneously, you'll give. Jesus knew the secret to the power in his ministry. For remember again that when Jesus walked this old earth, when he was here in the flesh, he knew, the Father knew, the Holy Ghost knew, that as one being in the flesh, He was as much man as though he were not God, even though in reality he was the very son of the living God. Yet, having taken upon himself the form of man in the flesh, he was as much man as though he were not God. How else could he be a righteous judge? How else? else could he judge man sincerely and righteously if he had not known what it was like to have been tempted? Had he never had all the feelings, all the emotions that you and I have in our everyday life? He could not be a righteous judge. He could not judge us unless he had experienced the same emotions. How often you've heard me say that no person can give to another more than he has experienced. I can only give to that one in their hour of sorrow, in that hour when they're going through the deep waters and their heart is broken, I can only give to them that which I have experienced. I know what it's like to stand before an open grave. I know what it's like to come back. Home from the cemetery, and that which had been a home is just an empty house. And those feelings are just as real to me this moment as that afternoon that I returned from that little cemetery, Concordia, Missouri, and we left Papa out there. That's the reason. I can help another in their hour of sorrow. It isn't what I say. It's what I can give to them through my love for them. And sincere love comes through. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say. His love. Sincere love comes through and you cannot counterfeit it. It isn't what one says. It doesn't necessarily have to be what one does. It's what you feel. And it's just. And one of these days, beloved, you and I are going to fully realize all that could have been ours if only we had fully known. For the secret of the power in the ministry of Jesus was the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. He was his glorious strengthener. Those great healings during the ministry of Jesus was the power of the Holy Ghost. In that hour of temptation, who was his strengthener? The Holy Spirit. That is the reason that just before Jesus went away, the greatest words that he could have spoken were in those words when he told us, and ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. In other words, knowing that love was something that one does, and you can't love without giving. Jesus wanted to give his own, his church, the greatest gift possible. And knowing what the Holy Spirit had done for him, and knowing the power of the Holy Spirit, and knowing that there could be no defeat in the Holy Spirit, he looked up and said, Dearly beloved, Those whom I love more than life itself. And he'd given proof of it. I give you the gift of the Holy Spirit. And ye shall receive power. The same power that's manifested in my ministry, in my life. I give you that gift. And he gave his church the gift of the Holy Spirit. But there are thousands and thousands who have not appropriated, who have not accepted this wonderful gift. And you never force a gift on anyone. What are you doing with that gift? Pastor, what are you doing with that gift? Little lady, what are you doing with that gift? What is the church doing with that gift? Many will not recognize it. Others are turning their back on the gift. Still others are refusing the gift. And yet, that gift is That gift is for the church as long as the church is in existence and as long as the Holy Spirit is in the world. Yes, there is coming a day, beloved, when no longer there will be prophecies. There's coming a day when tongues shall cease. They'll no longer be speaking in an unknown tongue. And whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. Mm -hmm. When will that day be? Why, beloved, read the rest of that chapter. when we stand in his glorious presence, when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. That, my friend, is the word of God. And... I personally want all that he has for me. I shall not limit him. I shall not be satisfied with his second best.