"Jesus is Lord" Kathryn Kuhlman Gifts of the Spirit talk 8 of 13

We have been having some wonderful heart -to -heart talks regarding the gifts of the Spirit. And I feel that this series of talks is very timely. We need some good Holy Ghost teaching regarding the things of the Spirit. especially regarding the gifts of the Spirit and how these gifts are to be used and for what purpose they were given. If you will please turn to the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and I pray that the Holy Spirit shall be your teacher. He shall open your understanding regarding the spiritual things. I agree with you that... There is so much that is attributed to the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with it whatsoever. But believe me when I tell you, there is the real. There is the genuine. Paul understood perfectly. The Bible teaches these things. You can't just take a razor blade and slit out portions of the Bible that you do not want to accept or that you do not understand. You can't just take out a pair of scissors and cut out portions of the Word of God that you wish were not there and that you say, I can't accept. I won't accept. I don't like it. You can't do it. This is as much a part of God's word as ye must be born again. This is as much of God's word as the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. This is definitely a part of his word and a vital part. It must be accepted. It must be understood and the Holy Spirit alone can give us the interpretation. Therefore, I ask you, instead of just discarding the 12th chapter of the 1 Corinthians, sit there with open hearts and open minds and be willing to be taught of the Spirit. All right? Spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. And I believe that all of these spiritual gifts were being manifested and were active in the early church. I believe that these same gifts should be in operation in the church today. When I say the church, I do not mean organizations, but in this great organism, the body of Christ. I believe that. And again, let me remind you that when we speak of the gifts of the Spirit, and we always speak of them as the nine gifts of the Spirit, don't limit the Holy Spirit to just nine gifts. The nine that are mentioned here are just an example, are just a few of the many, many gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. Whatever you do, don't limit. the Holy Spirit's giving of gifts to just nigh. All right, here we go now. You have your Bibles open. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. The meaning is concerning spiritual manifestations. Now, there are different ways in which the Spirit of God is manifested, and we should not be ignorant of these. They are called gifts because they are given freely by Christ himself and for a very definite purpose. Always remember, never lose sight of the fact that these gifts of the Spirit are given for a very definite purpose or to be used for this purpose. And the purpose is for the edification of the church and to assist in the proclamation of the gospel. There's nothing more important to the Spirit. There's nothing more important to Jesus or to the Father than that the gospel should be given out. That men and women shall find the Christ as their Savior. And the edification... of those who have been born again, who are members of his church. And these gifts of the Spirit are given solely for these two purposes, the proclamation of the gospel and for the edification of the church. Now, these Corinthians in their unconverted days knew nothing of the gospel, absolutely nothing. The scripture says, ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even ye were led. Now, carried away suggests satanic power. And there's satanic power behind all idolatry. The things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to God. Read the 10th chapter, the 20th verse. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Now we see readily that the apostle marks the clear -cut dividing line between Christianity and... every system of man's devices. There's a great difference. There's something more than just being sincere. You can be sincerely wrong. You can be a very religious person, extremely religious, and very sincere in your religion. And yet, in the final analysis, You are religious in your thinking, but sincerely wrong in your sincerity. And that's just it. Any religion that denies the deity and divinity of Jesus Christ, any religion that denies the atonement, the shed blood of the Son of the Living God, but is anti -Christian. It makes all the difference in the world in what you do with Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. That's the reason the apostles said, Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Christianity and Christianity alone exalts Jesus Christ as the very Son of God, accepts his deity and accepts his divinity. Other systems deny his lordship and rather think of him as accursed. It's by the Holy Spirit. that we recognize his lordship. I wonder whether you've ever taken the trouble to go through the epistle to the Corinthians and count the number of times that the apostle uses the title Lord as applied to our wonderful Savior. This is truly the epistle of the lordship of Christ. And we're called upon to... always recognize His Lordship, His absolute authority over our hearts and our lives. I want to pause for just a second and make this very definite to you. It must not be overlooked. It is one of the most important things that... I could say to you under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, under all circumstances, always remember the Holy Spirit always recognizes the Lordship of Jesus. Know that. You and I, as redeemed children of the King, You and I, as members of his body, must always, under all circumstances, recognize his absolute authority over our hearts, over our minds, and in our lives. No matter what your experience, First of all, recognize the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it comes to the gifts of the Spirit, remember two very definite things. Remember the purpose for which the gift was given, which is the proclamation of the gospel and the edification of the church. and remember His Lordship over that gift that's been given to you. I know that this has not been taught. We have needed this teaching a long, long time. Had we had this teaching earlier, there would not have been so much fanaticism or the misuse and the misappropriation. of something that's very sacred and something that's very wonderful. The manifestation of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, that are real. We've been just trying to take this portion of the Word of God out of the Bible. We have not accepted it because we have not understood it. Now we're coming face to face with something vitally important. Because we have every right to have the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives. If you are born again, if you are a healthy Christian, it is yours, a part of your inheritance, to be filled with the Spirit. And if you are a healthy Christian, filled with the Spirit, and there is constant spiritual growth, you will covet the gifts of the spirit. And it's just like that. All right, now watch something and never forget his absolute authority over your mind, your heart, your life. His... absolute authority over that gift at all times which he has given you. We are his servants and he is our Lord. But the way some of his children act, you would think that they were Lord and he was a servant. I do not say that disrespectfully. I do not mean to be sacrilegious when I say it. But it is true. I have seen so much spiritual bigotry in some of our churches and in some of our religious organizations and in the lives of some Christians. So much bigotry. So much spiritual pride that one would think that they held the lordship. They were the ruler. They were the controller. And the Lord Jesus Christ was the servant. I think of that sometimes, you know, when I hear men and women pray. When they are so demanding of God. I fear I tremble. I mean that. Please believe me. I am not being sacrilegious. I am just telling you some things that we should have been noticing a long time ago. I tremble when a man or a woman comes before the throne of God in prayer and I hear them demand that God should do certain things. And they command God to do certain things for them. My friend, you and I are frail creatures of dust. We're dependent on him for every breath. We are dependent on him for the next beat of our heart. How dare we command God to do anything? How dare any human being demand God to do something? You wouldn't even talk like that to an employee. He wouldn't take it. You wouldn't dare talk that way to your wife. If she was a lady, she wouldn't take it. You wouldn't dare order your husband around like that. He'd walk out on you. You don't dare talk to your children like that. Then how do you dare come before the throne of almighty God and start ordering him around? Hmm? He's God Almighty. Again, I repeat that sometimes I fear that we are laboring under the false hallucination that we are the lords and he's the servant. No, my friend. We are his... servants, and he is our Lord. And never forget it. Somebody says I feel like turning her off. That's perfectly all right. But not one of you will because you want to know what's going to follow. I know. But I'm saying to you, Should have been said a long time ago. Now, we go back again. Do you realize that as we read this 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, that the entire Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is in connection with the giving and the using of gifts? Think about the gifts of the Spirit. Being involved with just one person, the Holy Spirit. But if you read it carefully. Now, there's some folk who like to take their penknife and cut out the portion of the Word of God that they don't understand. There are others who read, but only read what they want to see. and they miss the most important part of God's Word. That's true. I'm going to show you that in three verses, in this 12th chapter, 1 Corinthians, all three members of the Trinity are in connection with the using and the giving of the gifts. In verse 4, and you have your Bibles there, we have the Holy Spirit. In verse 5, we have the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 6, we have God the Father. We read in verse 4, now there are diversities of gifts with the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit manifests Himself through the Church of God in different ways. We do not all have the same gift. We're not all constituted alike. Even from the human and the intellectual standpoint. Thank God that everybody wasn't constituted like me. And I've seen some folks that I thank. My God, I wasn't constituted like they are. You know, it's like that. And yet we all have a place. We all have a work to do. We do not all have the same gift. We do not all have the same ministry committed to us. And he who gives these gifts knows exactly what he is doing, and he gives to that one the gift that's best suited to that one. In our next Heart to Heart Talk, we'll go deeper into the subject of the gifts of the Spirit.