Spiritual gifts are divine enablement’s for the ministry characteristics of Jesus Christ that are to be manifest through the body corporate just as they were manifested through Jesus’ body incarnate. Each gift the Holy Spirit now gives to believers had its perfect expression in Jesus’ own life and ministry. Tragically, Some members of the church at Corinth apparently became so fleshly and confused, and their worship so paganized and frenzied, that they even allowed the Lord to be cursed within their own congregation. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 Paul gives two doctrinal tests for the validity of the gifts as they are displayed in the church. First, a negative test, “No man speaking by the Spirit of Good calls Jesus Accursed” To say that Jesus is accursed is to condemn His nature, Character, teaching, or work. For example, to deny the deity of Christ, or the reality of the resurrection is to call Jesus a liar, and therefore, accursed. Second, is a positive test, which is the opposite of the negative one. But notice something very important “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, BUT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Emphasis mine). True confession for salvation, comes based on true … READ MORE

New Testament Corinth was filled with priests, priestesses, religious prostitutes, soothsayers, and diviners of the mystery religions who claimed to represent a god or gods and to have supernatural powers. Unbelievably, some of their dramatic and bizarre practices were mimicked in the church. People do not counterfeit what is not valuable. Satan counterfeits the Spirit’s gifts because he knows they are so valuable in God’s plan. One of the chief evidences of the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthian Christians was a lack of discernment. Today, we see the same lack of discernment in churches across America. We have been brought up under the teaching of tolerance, and acceptance. As a result, anyone’s opinion is as valid as another. We perpetrate all types of evil, and we simply say that, “We were lead by the Holy Spirit to our actions.” We MUST understand that the Holy Spirit will never lead us to do what God has already forbidden in His Word. John 14-16 clearly reminds us that Holy Spirit will only direct us in the Way of the Lord, and will NEVER exalt Himself in the process. If you are considering a path, that is clearly contrary to the Word of … READ MORE

1 Corinthians 12-14 focuses on spiritual gifts, and perhaps no area of biblical doctrine has been more misunderstood and abused, that this area. Yet no area of doctrine is more important to the spiritual health and effectiveness of the church. Apart from the direct energizing of God’s Spirit, nothing is more vital to believers than the ministry of their God-given endowments for Christian service. Years ago, there was a push to give everyone a gift analysis test to determine what their primary Spiritual gift was, unfortunately, what that has done, is it has caused people to sit by passively, when asked to serve, because the ministry they are offered does not fit into their “primary gift”. We must always remember that God does not use the gifted, He enables the available. The Ability to do the work of God is directly related to our willingness to serve the Lord in whatever capacity that we are directed. God gives that ability. Gifts are not just randomly assigned by God at salvation, and then we are given the responsibility to “discover” which gifts we have. The Spirit of God energizes us to do the work of the ministry, as the church recognizes … READ MORE