The Gifts of the Spirit, Part 5

Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to the Archie Hardy Ministries program. I'm Sharon Ottz thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's teaching by my father, Brother Hardy, is exciting and informative so make sure you get each episode of this outstanding exposition on the gifts of the Spirit. Thank you, Jesus. Glory. The Lord is good. When?

All the time. The Lord is good. Hallelujah. Okay, last week we left off in the gift of faith and this is one of the greatest gifts of all out of the power gift. Faith is the greatest gift out of the power gifts and we said last week that the power gifts come under the heading of faith and these other four healing miracles, prophecy and discerning of spirits work according to the measure of our faith. In fact, the first three, faith, healing and miracles, are so close you don't even know when you're going out of one into the other.

Really so close and we'll examine it as we go on further. We gave the definition of faith. Faith is that supernatural surge of confidence which the Spirit causes to arise within a person in a particular situation of need and challenge and which gives him an utter certainty and assurance that God is about to act through a word or an action to miraculously supply the need and give the victory. Hallelujah. All right, the gift of healings and I want you to know that it's plural.

It's an S on each one of them. How many say amen? Gifts of healings. Which means that you don't have the gift of healing per se. Nobody has the gift of healing. The gift of healing would mean you have God's healing power in resident or on you at all times that you could use it at any time, anywhere to heal any disease.

No one has that. We have gifts of healings. Remember the word gifts is what?

Huh? Comes from the word what? Charis is what? Grace. What is one meaning of grace? Enabling power and divine ability. You put the MA on it, it becomes charisma.

How many say amen? MA means result or portions of grace. Enabling or divine ability. Charisma means you get portions of this divine ability and in the case of healing it manifests itself in what? Portions of God's enabling power to heal the sick. You get a portion at a time for an individual sickness for that moment and when you release it you don't have it anymore.

How many say amen? So the gifts of healings are portions of enabling grace producing physical healing. They are given by the Spirit for a specific cure at a specific time and as there are different illnesses there are so many different healing gifts. The gift is yours only as you receive it to give to a person as the Spirit directs. When you've given it no longer you have it until the Spirit gives you another portion of healing for another specific disease. How many say amen?

They are portions. Remember charisma means portions and the gifts here means charisma. Portions of healing power. How many say amen? That power just comes on you like faith. This power comes on you and you release it. How many say amen? Gift of miracles which means acts or mighty acts of power.

They work in tandem. Backbone faith. A lot of times healings or miracle healings take when Jesus reached in the mud and made a mud pack and put it on that man's eyes.

Why do you think he did that? The Bible said he was from birth born and didn't see. He was born an incomplete creation. So what Jesus did he was doing a whole lot of things when he made a mud pack on the ground and placed it in that man's eyes. My Lord if he had eyes and you throw mud in his eyes he's going to be blind as a bat. How many say amen? In fact if you've got two good eyes and God puts mud in your eyes you love well go blind said he'd get eyes. But what it was this man was an incomplete creation and Jesus made eyeballs to prove that he was from the beginning from everlasting to everlasting and he was the one that made the first eyes in the man Adam.

How many say amen? And he sent him to the pool of Siloam which is being sent and when that man washed away the excess mud he got two beautiful eyes and he came seeing. Now that was a miraculous healing.

See that took a miracle because it had to create an organ. So you're floating out of faith, healing, and miracles. You almost don't know when you're going out of one and the other just like I showed you in the Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, work of the tandem. So you go from one into the other. How many say amen? And in these power gifts here huh you're going from one to another.

You don't know whether it's the charge of spoken word. You don't know if it's a portion of healing that you feel the release of the power or whether it's a creative act. Now miracles are not just limited to healing. Miracles is an intervention, an orderly intervention into the regular operations of nature.

It includes the power to recreate. A miracle means that God can do anything contrary to the law of physics. When Jesus walked on the water it was a miracle. When he multiplied the food, the fishes and loaves, it was a miracle.

How many say amen? When he created these eyeballs it was a miracle. And then when he raised the dead that's a gift of miracles. Also it takes the gift of miracles to cast out devils. Two ways you cast out devils. One, these signs shall follow them that believe.

In my name shall they cast out devils. Faith in the name of Jesus or the gift of miracles. Acts 8 6 and 8 it says that the people with one accord gave heed unto things which Philip spake hearing.

How many say amen? Hearing, get that word, and seeing the miracles which he did. Now what was the miracle he heard?

The next part of the verse says for unclean spirits crying with loud voices came out of many that were possessed with them. They heard the miracle. It takes the gift of miracles to cast out devils. How many say amen? And also he healed the sick and he said and many taken with palsy and that were lame were healed and there was great joy in that city. See the two gifts, miracles and healing working? How many say amen?

A man that's got a deliverance ministry, those two gifts worked. You're flowing out of one, casting out devils, you're laying hands on the sick, they're getting healed. You're speaking the word of faith and they're getting healed. How many say amen?

How many can see how they flow together? And faith is the determining factor. God can give you a word of knowledge that somebody is sick and if you don't have faith you don't call them up or if you don't have faith you're not gonna pray for them.

How many say amen? So these gifts float back, work back and forth one with another. Another manifestation of miracles is Acts 19 11 and 12 said and God wrought, God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul so that handkerchiefs or aprons were taken from his body to the sick and it said that the unclean spirit went out of them, departed from them and the diseases left them. That was a special miracle because of demon spirits included, healing and casting out devils. Another manifestation of miracles to heal was Peter's shadow in Acts 5 12 and 16. Remember that his fame went out, that the miracle power was working in him and what did they do? They lined the sick of the streets wherever it would come and wherever his shadow hit on what happened they got healed. Miracle working healings.

So these three are going back and forth out of faith. You don't know whether it's a faith healing, you don't know whether it's a regular portion of healing or you don't know whether it's a miraculous healing and particularly I don't care just so to get healed. Whatever way you want to do it Lord, let us speak it, how many say amen, let us release the healing power by laying on hands or let it be a miraculous manifestation of healing. Cast out the devil, get people healed, get them delivered, how many say amen. God's still in the saving business, God's still in the healing business, God's still in the miracle worker business, he can't cease because that's his nature. God can't stop doing the things that belong to his nature anymore and you can stop doing it.

How many say amen. All right then we have next the gift of prophecy and prophecy is a lot of times gets confused with the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. We're going to differentiate between the two. Prophecy is inspired speech which means that it's nothing premeditated. It is spontaneous, Spirit inspired, intelligent messages orally delivered in the General Assembly intended for the edification, exhortation and encouragement of the people of God, the church. 1 Corinthians 14 3 said, but he that prophesies speaketh unto men to edification, exhortation and comfort. Prophecy is the greatest gift of the utterance gifts and to Paul prophecy is the greatest gift of all and the reason why it's the greatest gift of all because it has the ability to build up the church to encourage the church and comfort the church. In the first Corinthians the 14th chapter Paul said, for as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts seek that you may excel to the edifying of the body of Christ. The New Testament gift of prophecy mainly operates in the church service to edify and comfort and lift up the church of God.

How many say amen. It includes foretelling. Under the Old Testament the gift of prophecy was mainly foretelling. Foretelling means predicting. Forthtelling means just to speak forth under divine inspiration. Under the New Testament the gift of prophecy is mainly forthtelling. The foretelling or predicting comes in the office of a prophet. How many know there is a difference between the gift of prophecy which everybody can prophesy and the office of the prophet and all are not prophets. First Corinthians the 12th chapter the 28th verse said God has set some of the church first apostles secondary prophets thirdly teachers and so on and then he says are all apostles are all prophets.

No. Everybody is not in the office of an apostle. Everybody's not in the office of a prophet but everybody can prophesy. Speak forth words of edification, exhortation and comfort. That's the whole gist of first Corinthians 14 showing it's better to prophesy than speak in tongues unless you interpret because if you speak in tongues all you're doing is building yourself up but if you prophesy you're building the church up and God wants to use the gift to what? Build the church up.

Now edify and we could bring it over into English you know an edifice of building. Edify means to spiritually uplift and advance. So one of the functions of the gift of prophecy is to spiritually uplift and advance. The second is is exhortation.

You exhort the people in the message to do certain things. That's kind of the gift of faith. Hang on in there. Don't get weary in well-doing. Don't throw your hands up.

Don't quit. Huh? And then the third avenue of the gift of prophecy in the New Testament is to comfort people. The comfort the church. How many say amen? When God wants to bring something to predict he uses the office of a prophet because they were established in that office and accepted of the people and they'll more readily accept the prediction. All prophecy must be tried.

How many heard me? All prophecy must be tried to see whether it's of God or not. Why? Because you can prophesy out of your own heart. Didn't God say in Ezekiel, woe unto the prophets that prophesy out of their own heart that have not seen a vision?

How many say amen? You can speak out of your own heart and not direct inspiration of God. When you speak out of your own heart you've already premeditated the message.

There's certain churches not trying to throw anything off on them because I believe they were sincere but sincerity in your ignorance doesn't change the matter that you're ignorant and bringing false doctrine or false teaching. Try to teach people how to prophesy. Now you cannot teach people how to prophesy.

That is a divine gift that just happens. The Lord's been using me in the gift of prophecy for 46 years and I never went to a school to learn to prophesy. How many say amen? Because number one, what you get is the gift of prophecy and the gift is a spirit. I've been trying to hit that to you the whole time when I'd come to the word spirit. How many say amen?

I've been trying to emphasize it. For Paul said in 1st Corinthians the 14th chapter and the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. How many say amen?

Is that right? The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. And then in Revelation the 19th chapter he said and the testimony of Jesus is what? Say the word spirit of prophecy.

How many say amen? In fact you're going to see as we go on that out of the nine gifts seven are spirits. They are the divine enablements that God has put in your life.

The other two are power to heal and do miracles. And when God wants to operate that gift spirit in you he anoints it. You by faith let him operate. You control that gift spirit.

He lies right here. How many say amen? And when God wants to use tongues interpretation of prophecy he comes right on up and he's in your mouth and anointings on your hearts palpitating and you've got to do it by faith and say the first word thus saith the Lord and then the spirit takes your mouth. Acts 2 4 and they all were filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak then the spirit gave them what to utter. How many say amen?

Some of you got a kind of foreign look on your face that's why I wanted to try to bring it out more. How many say amen? So to Paul the greatest gift is prophecy. It's the only gift that God said to covet. Didn't Paul say covet to prophesy? He said I would let you all speak in tongues but I'd rather that you want prophesy. Covet to prophesy.

Why? Because it's the greatest gift to build up the entire church by edification, words of edification, exhortation, and comfort. Where the gift of healing will only really bless that person that's receiving it.

Totally. Some people while people are getting healing miracles are out there non-plus. Their minds wondering. How many say amen? But prophecy has the ability to lift the whole church up. When I've watched, remember some Sunday mornings the prophecy comes and then all of a sudden after it's over with the whole church is just raising their voice in praise and thanksgiving.

How many say amen? So prophecy is supernatural utterance inspired by the Holy Ghost for that moment to bring a word of edification, exhortation, and comfort. It's not a skill that you can learn. You can't go to Bible school. You can't go to anyone that's prophesied and say now teach me how to do it.

You know what I'm gonna tell you is to seek the Lord see if he gave you the gift and then if he's got the gift when the anointing comes on to operate the gift they'd have enough faith to say thus saith the Lord and let him take over and say it. It's not inspired preaching. It's not teaching.

Huh? It's inspired utterance that comes from God right then and there. You're learning as the congregation is learning.

You have no idea of what you're saying ahead of time. If somebody said well suppose I hear a couple words ahead of time that's the word of knowledge. How many say amen? You get a little word of knowledge and then a whole lot of prophecy because after you saved a few words God gave you those few words to help pump your faith up. You might be a little low in faith so he gave you a few of those words so you could start it and then here comes the inspiration and you're saying words that you never heard.

They're rolling out. How many say amen? See the difference between prophecy and the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge is the delivery and how it's received. Remember I told you the word of wisdom and word of knowledge you had to have no faith for those gifts.

All you got to do is have an ear. It's spoken to your word of knowledge and a word of wisdom and you receive it. Where the faith comes is whether you're going to repeat what you've received. Now when you speak what you received you are now speaking by knowledge and not by inspiration.

How many is following me as I thread it? How many say amen? But when the true gift of prophecy comes in operation the anointing comes on. Somebody said how will I know when to prophesy? If you've got the gift you'll know when God wants to use you. That anointing will set on you. That spirit won't come up. I want to get activated and then when you say thus saith the Lord that's all you say that you're knowing you're saying and out comes what thus saith the Lord. Amen? Hallelujah. And then because it's working again in this group that faith is the head.

He's the greatest of all of these five. Huh? You do it according to the measure or the portion of your faith. So you got a portion of the word for we know in part.

Is that right? Is that what he said in 1st Corinthians 13 9? We know in part we prophesy in part. Romans 12 6 says let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith. How many say amen? Like I said last week if you got a little bit of faith you say thus saith the Lord and then you don't say nothing else. If you don't have no faith you don't even say thus saith the Lord. So you prophesy according to the proportion of your faith and according to the anointing and flow. When the anointing and flow begins to recede and stop then you shut up because whatever else comes out will be you. How many say amen?

Is that all right? Now everyone can have the gift of prophecy and that's why it's so great. But everyone is not a prophet. And when you get in the opposite of a prophet then you are God's spokesman. The word prophet means he that sees for God hears for God and speaks for God.

And the gifts of the prophet will operate. Everyone that has healing and miracles is not an apostle. How many say amen?

Huh? But the signs of the apostle are all signs wonders and miracles. How many say amen? But everybody that does a miracle and works a sign isn't necessarily a prophet. I mean an apostle.

How many say amen? Philip went down to Samaria. They gave heed to the things which he spoke seeing and hearing these miracles. He only was sick and casting out devils but he couldn't lay hands on anyone to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That belongs to the apostolic office and they had to gain Peter and John to come down to lay hands on.

How many say amen? This gift of prophecy has to be judged to the source where the message is coming from and the content by what is said. Therefore its partner gift, discerning of spirits, works in conjunction with prophecy.

Discerning of spirits. This is the pair with prophecy. It works in conjunction with prophecy. It's a test of prophetic utterances and it's a control against its abuse. First Corinthians the 14th chapter, the 29th verse said, Let the prophets speak two or three and let the others judge. I want you to keep this word two or three in your mind.

Foul it because I'll bring it up later. It's a very important part. How many say amen? First Corinthians the 14th chapter, a lot of theologians and commentators believe that God is limiting the gifts of prophecy and tongues and interpretation. When he's not limiting it, he is regulating them because the Corinthian church, the whole church was just coming in and everybody's speaking in tongues at once. Paul said the unbeliever and the unlearned are saying you're out of your mind. How many say amen? And if all the church would come together and we would all speak in tongues and that's all we did and go out, we didn't do anything but edify ourselves. How many say amen? So the 14th chapter, the 1st Corinthians, God's going to regulate the gifts and I'll be getting into it a little further on. He said, Remember I told you whenever a sentence starts with led, what is it 99% of the time?

A command. He's not limiting, he's telling led two or three prophets speak. Amen. What an insightful and timely teaching by God's servant brother Hardy on the gifts of the Spirit. Thank God that he has endowed his church, the body of Christ with these nine marvelous manifestations of his Holy Spirit to bring forth mighty works of healings, deliverance and revelation to his people and also as a witness to others that they might believe on his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the early church in Acts went forth preaching and teaching the gospel, God worked with them, confirming his word through mighty signs and wonders. How much more do we today need the gifts of the Spirit in this age of counterfeit supernatural manifestations by the kingdom and prince of darkness. This teaching is vital to our understanding for every believer and answers the question unequivocally and scripturally are the gifts of the Spirit for today and who may operate in the gifts, how and when. You will understand the operation, the purpose and the function of the gifts of the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, prophecy and discerning of spirits and how these gifts often work in tandem with each other as well as the power gifts of faith, healings and working of miracles.

And finally, you will understand the gift of diverse tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues and what the differences between the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues given to the individual for his own personal edification and the gift of diverse tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues that operate in the church assembly. This complete in-depth teaching on the gifts of the Spirit is available on a double CD set and can be yours for a live love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer 304. Our mailing address is RG Hardy ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or order online at RGHardy.org. That's RGHardy.org. Again, the offer number is 304 for the gifts of the Spirit, a double 2CD set for your love gift of $15 or more. Our mailing address, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Nott saying maranatha.