The Gifts of the Spirit, Part 6

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. 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 a 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. First 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 what? Edifying of the body of Christ. The gift, 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? 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. 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 speaking in tongues at once. And 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'd all speak in tongues and that's all we did and go out, we didn't do anything but edify ourself. How many say amen? So the 14th chapter, the first Corinthians, God's going to regulate the gifts and I'll be getting into it a little further on. He said let, remember I told you whenever a sentence starts with let, what is it 99% of the time?

A command. He's not limiting, he's telling let two or three prophets speak. How many say amen? He's commanding two or three prophets to speak and I want you to hold on to two or three in your mind.

How many say amen? So discerning of spirits is the watchman of the group. It's to distinguish amongst the three sources of operation. How many knows there's three types of spirit in the world operating? When we come into service, there's three types of spirits trying to operate and get your attention, trying to get you to all think they're God. One is the Spirit of God, which is the real spirit. The second one is demons, imitating spirits. First John 4, one said, beloved, believe not every spirit.

Notice the word I'm hitting you with again and emphasizing what? Spirit. But try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are going out into the world. You see the prophet is speaking by a spirit and there are many prophets got false spirits prophesying.

Am I getting through to you? Hereby we know the Spirit of God. Now here's one way to judge to see if the prophecy is a demon spirit or God's spirit. The third spirit is man's spirit. You can easily tell whether it's man's spirit or a demon or the Holy Ghost.

Very easy. It won't be anointed. It'll be sound and brass and a tinkling cymbal. If it's anointed, which means it's energized by a power, it has to be either God or the Holy Ghost or a demon, either the Holy Ghost or a demon, a false spirit. How many say amen? And the way that we can tell whether it's a false spirit without the gift of discerning of spirits is by doctrine. And remember in 1 Corinthians the 12th chapter, the second verse when we said that anyone speaking by spirit, if it says Jesus is anathema is what? It has to be a false spirit and only under anointing can someone say Lord Jesus because if he's under anointing, a demon will not say Lord Jesus. Someone that's not anointed can say Lord Jesus but he's not speaking by the Spirit. All right, by doctrine.

Many false prophets have gone out in the world. Hereby we know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus is coming to the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus is coming to the flesh is not God but that Spirit of Antichrist.

Wherefore we have heard that it should come and even now already is in the world. You are of God little children and overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore they speak of the world and the world heareth and we are of God and he that knoweth God heareth thus and he that's not of God heareth not of us. Hereby we knew the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error.

So we can tell the false spirit. John's big problem was what? Gnostic. He didn't believe Jesus. Christ wasn't human. It had total humanity in flesh.

Remember I brought it out in the beginning. They were denying that Jesus had a human nature. That's the Antichrist spirit. And if they will not hear the Word of God then they are the Spirit of error not of the Spirit of truth. And then the gift of discerning of spirits. Because some are little wise little demons.

I will show you one. The Spirit of Pythian. Remember that little woman that was a fortune teller and sorcery? That Spirit of Pythian in the Greek is Pythian it means to bring oracles, to prophesy. Remember the Greek world was full of oracles, full of prophets, full of supernatural or spiritual utterances.

There wasn't nothing new. And they got to the place that they were accepting every utterance as God from their Gentile background. And Paul had to tell them no, no you got to judge the utterance. If they deny that Jesus is Christ and say that he's just a natural man and the eon was Christ.

If they deny that he didn't have a human body and a total human nature, that's not the Spirit of God. That's an Antichrist. That's a false spirit. How many say amen? So this demon that was using this girl to bring for utterances. How many say amen?

We're trying to get the people to think she was of the true spirit by saying a little bit of truth. See, you see that the devil will use a whole lot of truth and then stick the little lie in. See you might have a good plate of food but that little bit of arsenic is going to kill you. And anybody that goes fishing puts bait on the hook. Somebody said, maybe that's why I ain't getting no fish.

I mean if you got the hook out there, that fish isn't dumb. You got to put some bait on it and the devil will bait you with a lot of truths. How many say amen? See half the truth is a whole lie. Half of the truth is a whole lie. You're going to speak the truth, nothing but the truth and all of the truth. If you don't speak to all of the truth, then you're not speaking the whole truth.

So you got a little lie in there. And she went on trying to get the people's attention. I've been telling you I'm a prophet and I'm telling you now, here these are men of God going to show you the way of salvation. Paul said I had enough of this stuff and turned around and said, devil come out of her. And out he came and she couldn't prophesy no more because the Spirit was gone. How many say amen?

Is that all right? Jesus said in the Gospels, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they have raving wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. It's another way you tell anyone manifesting a gift, whether to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Any spirit that's calling attention to their self or lifting up another man is not the Holy Ghost.

Can I say that again? Every spirit that's lifting up the person that's talking or some other human is not the Spirit of God. Jesus said when the Holy Ghost comes, he will not speak of himself.

Now if he's not going to speak of himself, he sure ain't going to speak of no man. But he shall glorify me. The Holy Ghost glorifies Jesus. And anybody up here supposed to be under an anointing say, I, me, I, me, I, me. That's not the Holy Ghost.

That's I, me. How many say amen? How many hears me? But the gift, the discerning of spirits which means it's different ways and I've been bringing out different ways that you discern. But when the gift of discerning of spirit operates, that gift comes up and looks out of your eyes.

That gift spirit. I've had that gift spirit come up out of me, look out of my eyes and look into the person and let me see the actual spirit that's in them operating. I can see the demon spirit. He lies here and when he wants to come up, he comes on up and takes the face and God has let me see the very demon spirit. The gift the spirit of discerning comes up, he looks out of my eyes, I look out of his eyes looking out of my eyes and I see that demon spirit. And the Lord lets me see it by its characteristics whether it's a line or some other animal and then by me seeing that spirit in that animal form, I know the characteristics and how strong it is. How many say amen?

How many hears me? But when that gift comes on you, you begin to see right in the spirit world God pulls the curtain back and he'll let you see the very spirits operating. You can tell by doctrine, you can tell by their fruits, but when the gift the spirit comes in, he looks right at you and you see the spirit operating whether it's man's spirit. How many say amen? You see I can look out when that anointing gets on me and I can look out in the congregation and I can see whether you have a fearful spirit. So can a demon look out and see it. And when he detects you have a spirit of fear, then he sees an open door to jump on you. How many hears me? Or I've seen him so proud I could see the spirit in him.

You know, stuff. You better look out because you're supposed to look on your feet for the word is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. How many say amen? You can see the little proud spirit, then you can see the lustful spirit. I can actually see the spirit watered in their mouth. And after the gift of discerning of spirits works any length of time, you don't have to see the spirit.

You can look at the person and see the characteristics of the spirit before he manifests. How many say amen? Hallelujah. The final two of the gifts. The two that involve tongue and tongue means language. Diverse kinds of tongues.

I want you to notice and follow this in your head. It's in plurals. Means species of languages and interpretation of tongues. Diverse kinds of tongues. You do not get one tongue. You do not get one language in this gift.

You get diverse languages. How many understand this point? You don't get one tongue. And I kept telling you, remember, let the prophet speak to a three.

How many say amen? And you're going to find out that when you speak in tongues you're supposed to speak in two or three tongues. That is why you get diverse tongues and not one tongue.

Diverse different species of languages. And we're going to find out why in this most misunderstood gift of all and one of the ones that's most hated by the devil. I believe he fights tongues more than anything of the supernaturals that God has. One reason it's a sign of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If Jesus is still in the tomb which means he hasn't risen and if he hasn't risen then he hasn't received the promise of the Father and poured out the Holy Ghost. If he has risen from the dead and not in the tomb and poured out the promise of the Holy Ghost like on the day of Pentecost then every time you speak in tongues you're saying, he is risen, he is risen and he lives forevermore.

Bad singing, good revelation. Every time you speak in tongues you're saying he's risen he's not in the tomb. All right the gift is in the plural in both words. This means a person receives not one tongue or language but a plurality of tongues. This is a very important point for God always witnesses his word in two or three witnesses. Second Corinthians 13 one said this is the third time I've come to you in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. God witnesses his message in two or three. That's why we got Genesis, that's why we got Exodus and we got Deuteronomy. Let me notice what Deuteronomy means.

Deuteronomy due is two and anonomy is law, the second law, the second witness. That's why we got three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke that are telling the same thing. How many say in that? John's telling you about the deity of Jesus but Matthew, Mark, and Luke are giving you the same miracles the same messages the same parables and such because in the mouth of two or three witnesses. How many say in that?

Is that all right? Now we're going to go into the usage of the tongue. Tongue is used as a sign. The Holy Spirit used the gift of tongue as a sign to the hearer on the day of Pentecost.

This was to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah as quoted in 1st Corinthians 14 21 and 2. It is written in the law and I think that's Ezekiel 28 11 with men of other tongues and the lips will I speak to this people yet for all this will they not hear me say of the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not. But prophesying serveth not for them that believe but for them that believe. Tongues are for a sign. And in the church services tongues broken out during the preaching part are out of the order unless they are interpreted. The saints don't need a sign.

I don't need a sign. What I want is edification, exhortation, or comfort. Give me a prophecy. How many say amen?

Is that all right? On the gift of tongues the Holy Ghost anoints and gives the word to speak forth by the believer. Acts 2 4 showed that. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them the utterance. Whenever the Holy Ghost wants to use the tongue to bring a message in the church he anoints the speaker and tells him what to say. How many say amen? Then the companion gift because interpretation cannot function without tongues.

See how there are a team? If there's no tongue there's nothing to interpret. How many say amen? So the interpreter is to give the interpretation of what was said in divers tongues.

More than one, at least two, and at the most three. How many say amen? The Holy Ghost puts the anointing on, that activates the gift of tongues spirit, and tells that spirit what to say in two or three different languages.

How many say amen? Jesus also promised the believer would speak in tongues as a sign and proof of his resurrection, Matthew 16 17. These signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils and they shall speak with new tongues. Every time you speak in tongues, like I said, you're saying he's risen. God wants to use this gift to the church.

The Holy Ghost, like I said, anoints the gift spirit and tells the gift spirit what to speak in two or three languages. It's a sign to the unbeliever in the attendance, but it's no good to the rest of the church until it's interpreted. Paul 1st Corinthians 14 5 and 13 said, I would that you all speak of tongues but rather that you prophesy for greater is he that prophesyeth than he that speaketh with tongues except the interpret that the church may be edified.

Greater what? Greater benefit to the church, not a greater person. Greater benefit because the speaker in tongues only edifies himself with a prophesier edifies the whole church and himself. Tongues is no purpose at all to the church without the interpretation. One interpreted, it's equal to prophecy.

How many say amen? Regulation of the gift of tongues and prophecy. Now here's where we come into the most misunderstood part about gifts and prophecy. In 1st Corinthians 14 27, Paul here regulates how a tongue message should come. Remember that God always witnesses his word in two or three witnesses. 2nd Corinthians 13 1, this is the third time I'm coming to you, in the mouths of two or three witnesses show every word be established.

How many say amen? Now let's let's pick it up and read what he has to say. 1st Corinthians 14 27, if any man speak in an unknown tongue, and notice the unknown is in italics.

How many see the slant print? You've got a King James version. And the unknown means it's not in the original. All it says in the original Greek, if any man speak in a tongue. And here the translator is trying to interpret it that it's unknown to the speaker. It's a language he doesn't know. It's a supernatural language. How many say amen?

It doesn't mean it's not known somewhere in the universe. How many say amen? How many is out there? You follow me?

Okay. If any man, and I want you to notice it's man, singular. Forget about interpretations now. Let's think of the gift of tongues operate, right? If any man speak in a tongue, he is commanded to be what? He's commanded to do what?

Let it be by two or the most three. You don't bring a message to the church with one tongue. You bring it with two or three so that in the mouths of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. Do you see that there? He said if a person singular feels God moving on him, this bring a tongue message. He's to speak that tongue message in two or three of the species of languages that God gave him.

As a witness that God demands in two or three witnesses. See it? How many sees it? If any man speak in a tongue, I'm going to leave by no now, let it be by two or the most three and that by course. And in your syllabus I told you that the word that by course means anna maros.

Anna maros. This is a prepositional phrase and it means speak a part in a tongue or one tongue and then a second part in a different tongue and then a third part in another tongue. He's to speak in two or three tongues, one part in one language, one part in another language, one part in the third language.

How many sees it? If any man speak in a tongue, don't let him speak by one but let him speak by two or the most three and that by course, one after another. 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 and 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 difference is 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 love gift of ten dollars 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 fifteen dollars or more. Our mailing address P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying Maranatha.