Robert Morris — Is He Charismatic?
Okay, so, I want you to turn, though, now, to 1 Corinthians 12. Turn your Bibles 1 Corinthians 12. We're in a series called "The God I Never Knew". Talking about the Holy Spirit. Can I just ask you, are you enjoying the series? I think it's fantastic. We've been answering some questions about the Holy Spirit. And last week was, "Is He is Pentecostal"? And I enjoyed that message, sharing that with you. This week I like the title, too. This week I've entitled the message, "Is He Charismatic"?
So, what I'm trying to do in this series is take away the miscommunication about the Holy Spirit. Another way to say it is, fear. I mean, a lot of people are actually afraid of the Holy Spirit. And that's horrible. So, 1 Corinthians 12, look at Verse 1. It says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant". Now, here's the reason I wanted to talk about this verse just for a moment. A lot of believers are ignorant about the Holy Spirit. Now, He didn't say stupid. It doesn't mean stupid. It just means that you haven't been taught. If you're ignorant about a subject, you just have not been taught about that subject or you've been taught misinformation.
He says, "Spiritual gifts". This word "Spiritual," is the Greek word pneumatikos. Pneumatikos means empowered by breath or wind. Look at the first part of it, pneumatic. You probably sometime heard about a pneumatic drill or something. It means it's powered by air. Okay. "Now, concerning spiritual gifts". Let me say it another way. Now, concerning gifts that are empowered by the breath of God. And we'll say it one more time because it's got to really catch you. You've got to catch this. Now, concerning gifts that you can only move in if you allow the Holy Spirit to breathe in you. That's what He's saying. Those are spiritual gifts.
The words, "Now concerning," just to give you — again, a little Bible lesson here. They're in 1 Corinthians six times. The reason they're there is because Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church before 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians is actually the second letter that he wrote. We don't know what happened to the first letter. I personally think that the Lord said to him, "That's not getting in the Bible, buddy. You're going to have to get better if you want it to get in the Bible". So, he writes a letter and then they wrote one back. First Corinthian 5, he says in the epistle, "Earlier letter that I wrote you," and in Chapter 7, it says, "In the — now concerning the letter you wrote me". And this is all in 1 Corinthians, alright?
So, when it says, "Now concerning," he's answering the question that they had. Did you all follow all that. I know this isn't a Bible college class, but I just wanted to give you a little background here. So, "Now concerning spiritual gifts and I don't want you to be ignorant". Okay. I want to say the same thing to you. I don't want you to be uneducated about spiritual gifts. I can't do it all in one message. You need to know that. So, we have other classes. You need to take classes. You need to learn. You need to study. But, many, many people have no clue how many gifts there are or how they work.
And I'll just tell you, I put the gifts into four categories of gifts. Okay? There are the motivational gifts. And those are in Romans 12. You have one of those, they motivate you. There are the manifestational gifts, which we're going to talk about today. They're in 1 Corinthians 12. There are the ministry gifts. They're in 1 Corinthians 14. And there are the ministerial gifts in Ephesians 4. Those are not gifts of the Holy Spirit, they're gifts of Jesus, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. Again, I don't have time to go into all that. So, we're going to talk about the manifestational gifts of the Holy Spirit today, charisma of the Lord. All right?
So, 1 Corinthians 12, look at Verse 7. There are nine manifestational gifts of the Holy Spirit. "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one". Just a question, I've asked you this before, but it's really important, are you an each? Yes, you are. So, these are for you. All nine of these are for you. "Is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom," this is one of the gifts, "through the Spirit, to another, the word of knowledge, through the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the impart," pardon me, "to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each".
One more time, are you an each? Okay. "To each one individually as He wills". Now, let me explain something about this. You don't have one of these gifts. Don't go around telling people, "I have the word of knowledge". Or, "I have the word of wisdom". You don't have any of them. The Holy Spirit has all of it. And He distributes to each one for the profit of all. You can minister in the gift of the word of knowledge at any time that the Holy Spirit allows you to do that. So, I've heard people say, "Well, I have this". No, you don't. The Holy Spirit does. He has all nine of these and He manifests, the word "manifest," means to make known, He makes them known through each one, everyone as He wills for the profit of all. Alright?
So, what I did was, there are nine gifts, many theologians do this, we divide them into three categories. That works out well for me, because a good sermon always has three points. So, it's going to work out great. Alright? So, here's the first category and the first three gifts. The discerning gifts. I'm going to go through three gifts that are what we call the discerning gifts. And I'll go through each of them, but they're, just so you know, the word of knowledge, word of wisdom, and discerning of spirits. These are discerning gifts.
So, let me give you the word of knowledge first. Here's what a word of knowledge is. A word of knowledge is to know something specific without having learned it by natural means. To know something specific without having learned it by natural means. Now, because I'm going through nine, I can't do like I would normally do. I could spend a class on each of these. But, Jesus moved in these gifts because He moved with the power of the Holy Spirit. When He was talking to the woman at the well, He said, "Go call your husband". She said, "I don't have a husband". He said, "Well, you said that right, because you've had five and the one you're with is not your husband". Okay. That's a word of knowledge.
Now, what many people would say is, "Well, He was Jesus and Jesus knows everything". You have to remember though, He laid down His divinity and He picked up His humanity. When Jesus was on this earth, He ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit. He came out of the wilderness and the power of the Spirit. When He was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him. He said, "I cast demons out by the Spirit of God". So, He moved by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's the second one, a word of wisdom. This is a divine answer or solution for a particular event. A divine answer or solution for a particular event.
In John 9, this man gets healed and they said, "We don't even know where this guy's from". And He said, "Well, this is a marvelous thing. You don't know where He's from, yet He opened my eyes. He said, since the beginning of time no one has opened the eyes of someone born blind". And then he says this, "If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing". And you know what happened, they couldn't answer him. That was a word of wisdom. I mean, God gave him a wise answer. You need to go to — start going to prayer and let the Holy Spirit speak to you about. Would that be okay? Because He knows a lot more about your business than you do, by the way. Okay.
So, and here's the third discerning gift and it's discerning of spirits. Discerning of spirits means to be made aware of the presence of a demonic spirit. To be made aware of the presence of a demonic spirit. This happened when there was a girl following Paul around and saying, "These men are servants of the Most High," but she was a fortune teller. And you say, "Well, she's saying the right thing". Yes. But, he didn't want a witch confirming their ministry. So, he knew it was a demon. He turned around and cast the demon out of her just like that, because he was aware. He became aware.
Now, I want you to look at this for a moment. Discerning of spirits. This gift is called discerning of spirits. Now listen to me carefully. It is not called discernment. It's called discerning of spirits. Now, listen. There is no gift of discernment in the Bible. Look and see. We're supposed to be discerning. We're supposed to have our senses trained so we discern good and evil. We're supposed to discern. Not saying that's wrong. I'm going to make a statement and it's going to get some of you, so just laugh about it with the rest of us. Okay? But most people that I've met, most, not all, but most, that I've met, that say, "I have the gift of discernment," actually have the gift of criticism. Boy, I saw some nudges. Wasn't that — praise the Lord. I started some fights. So — alright.
Now, listen. You may be a discerning person. But, you don't have the gift of discernment. There's not a gift of discernment. The reason I say criticism is because people seem to say, "Well, I have the gift of discernment," and they're actually very critical and very judgmental of other people and they think that their opinion is God's opinion. And they blame it or validate it on, "Well, I have this gift from the Bible". Well, I'm just letting you know, that gift's not in the Bible. But there is a gift of discerning of spirits, and I just discerned that some of you have a critical spirit. So, Okay. But let me ask you this, would it be alright with you if the Holy Spirit showed you a demonic or evil spirit that was coming against your marriage and you prayed against that? Or coming against one of your children? Or coming against your business? I'm telling you, I'm talking to some business folks. All right, let's keep going.
Here's number two. The second category. The declarative gifts. The declarative gifts. Under here would be prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And, again, we'll go over each one of them. Prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. In other words, all three use the tongue to declare. Alright? First of all, prophecy is a message of encouragement from God through a person. A message of encouragement from God through a person. Now, please hear me. One who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation and comfort. It never says correction. The spiritual New Testament gift of prophecy is encouragement. You will see many, many times the word, "encouragement," or "encourage," used with this.
Here's why I say this. It's because, again, many people say, "Well, I have the gift of prophecy and they think that they can correct other people and tag, "Thus says the Lord," on the end of it. And I'd like to warn you about saying, "Thus says the Lord," when the Lord didn't say. Scripture is 1 Corinthians 14:31, notice this, "For you can all prophecy". I don't ask you to do this a lot, but I just wanted to today, could you repeat the word, "all". Because this is the Bible. "You can all prophecy". You can all prophecy. "One by one that all may learn," I want you to notice the word learn, "and that all may be encouraged". It doesn't say corrected. It says, "that all may be encouraged". It also says, "All may be learn".
Prophecy's a learning. We learn. We learn to hear God's voice and we learn to speak it in an encouraging way. And I know that you probably heard some prophecies that they just weren't God, you know. I understand that. People are learning. I heard about a fellow in Alabama and he prophesied — he said, "Thus says the Lord. I know your scared. Sometimes I get scared myself". Well, that's not God. I know this is not good grammar, but God don't get scared. Okay. But, he was learning. He's trying to say, God was saying, "Hey, I know how you feel". But, He don't get scared. Alright? So, we're learning.
So, I'll say more about prophecy in a moment, because I'm going to link tongues and interpretation of tongues to prophecy and you'll see why in scripture in a moment. The next is tongues. Tongues is a message from God in a language unknown to the person through whom the message comes. Tongues is a message from God unknown to the person through whom the message the message comes. Now, I'm going to spend a whole message on tongues in two weeks. The next two messages will be the last of this series. You don't want to miss the next two weeks. Alright? But, we're going to talk about. This is talking about the manifestation of tongues, not a prayer language. So, we're going to talk about a prayer language.
So, the next one is interpretation of tongues. This is understanding and expressing the thought or the intent of the message in tongues. Understanding and expressing the thought or the intent of the message in tongues. Now, I have a scripture, but I'm trying to give you all time to write down the, you know, write the definition down. I know some people want to. So, let me say something. It's the interpretation of tongues, not the translation. It's the interpretation, not translation. You say, "What's the difference"? Oh, it's a very big difference. Interpretation is expressing the thought or the intent of what the person just said. Translation is word for word.
The U.N. doesn't have interpreters. They have translators. That's because if somebody says something about a bomb, they want to know exactly what he said about a bomb, not what you think his intent was, but what his intent actually is. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like when I travel overseas, I don't have translators. I have interrupters. Pardon me, interpreters. I was in Poland preaching one time and this — the interpreter didn't show up. And this guy said to me, "I am learning English, I will interpret for you tonight". Well, I didn't have another choice. So, I was speaking, I'd say a phrase, he'd say a phrase. I'd say a phrase, he'd say a phrase. And then about every five minutes, he would say, "Wait a minute," no, no, he would do like this, I remember, he would go, "Oh". And then he'd say, "Just a moment".
And then he would talk for like three or four minutes and then the whole church would go, "Oh". So, I got to wondering, "What was he actually saying"? Like I would say, you know, "Jesus' blood is the propitiation of our sins". And he might have said, "I don't know what he just said". Okay. So, let me show you a verse here about prophecy and the interpretation of tongues, alright. First Corinthians 14, it's probably just one page over, if you want to look at it, Verse 5. It says, "I wish you all spoke with tongues". Now, I just want to stop for just a moment. That's in your Bible. And you say, "Yes, but Paul wrote that". Paul wrote that, but he didn't author it. The Holy Spirit authored it. This Book was God-breathed. God breathed the phrase, "I wish all of you spoke in tongues".
Now, that's pretty strong. I just like to say, no matter what your religious background is, you're going to have to come to grips with that scripture at some point. I wish all of you did. Then I want to show you the rest of it, because, again, we have so demeaned this gift of tongues and interpretation. Look, watch this. He said, "I wish all of you spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied. For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues," I've had a lot of people quote that to me. But watch the very next word, "unless — unless, indeed, he interprets that the church may receive edification," or strength and building up. Okay.
Do you understand what that said? The one who prophecies is greater unless it's interpreted. If it's interpreted then it's the same. That's what he's saying. See, you don't have to know theology to understand this verse, but you do need to know grammar. So, don't tell me the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless it is interpreted. And here's what he's saying, "I wish you all, I wish you all spoke with tongues and I wish all of you prophesied". Why? Because it is encouragement. Here's what he's saying, I wish all of you would encourage each other". Well, that was better than you thought. Let me just say it again. "I wish all of you would encourage one another". Alright. So, interpretation, not translation, not word-for-word". Okay.
So, someone might give a short message in tongues and someone might give a long interpretation. Or the other way around. There may be a long tongue and then a short interpretation. And people abuse that to try and invalidate and say, "Well, see, it's not true because that was a short message and this was a long one". No, again, it's not word-for-word". It's interpretation. It's trying to express the thought or the intent of what was — what the person understood by the Holy Spirit.
All right, let me give you an illustration. If you asked my son, "How was your day"? I'm talking about James, now. If you ask James, my son, "How was your day"? His interpretation of his day was, "Fine". That is all you will get. If you ask my daughter, "How was your day," she'll say, "Well, I woke up about six. I'd a little bit of a sinus headache. I think it's because there's something in the air. But, I had great pancakes this morning. Really good pancakes. Both the girls slept well. Of course, Kate got up twice and Addie got up one time. But they are sleeping through the night now. I stayed up work late. I was working on a new message. Have I told you about the new message, Dad"?
Okay. You better have some time. Because her interpretation, are you following me, of her day is going to be long. My son's interpretation of his day is going to be short. So, you can have a long interpretation. By the way, I said, you know, my son says, "Fine". Sometimes he doesn't even use words. We were at the table one night, had all the family over, and we were going around talking and I said, "Hey, James, how was your day"? This is what he did. He went. And then I said to him, "Hey, did you have that meeting you were supposed to have today"? He said. Kept right on eating. So, I said, "How was the meeting"? And, you know, God marries us to the perfect woman? His wife, Bridgette said, "Use your words, honey". Okay. These are the declaratory gifts.
Here's the last category, the dynamic gifts. The dynamic gifts. The dynamic comes and this would be faith, healings, and miracles. Okay. Dynamic comes from the Greek word from Acts 1:8, it's inside other places, too, but that's the one we're familiar with. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you". Power is the Greek word, dunamis. We say, dunamis is the way we would say it. But dunamis the way it would be pronounced. And it means power, but it means explosive power. For instance, there's another word we get from this and that is dynamite. That's what it means, "You shall receive dynamite when the Holy Spirit comes upon you". Power. So that when you're witnessing, this power just explodes out of you. That's what He's saying.
So, here are these three. Here's the first one, faith. Faith is a supernatural impartation of belief and confidence for a specific situation. Now, I'm not talking about faith in general, I'm talking about this manifestational gift of the Holy Spirit is a supernatural impartation of belief and confidence for a specific situation. Let me say it this way. Would it be alright with you, if you were going through a difficult time and the Holy Spirit just gave you faith that you're going to get through it? See, what I'm trying to tell you is the Holy Spirit's good and His gifts are good. Don't be afraid of Him and don't be afraid of any of His gifts.
Here's the second under the dynamic gifts, gifts of healings. Gifts, plural, of healings, plural. Gifts of healings are supernatural endowments of divine health. Supernatural endowments of divine health. I read this summer a biography of Oral Roberts. And I know people have good and bad, and I understand that. And so, just for a moment let's forget whatever you've heard or whatever you feel personally. But one of the reasons that he preached healing is because he was healed. When he was 17-years-old, he had tuberculosis and at that time, they did not know of any person that had been healed from tuberculosis. It was a death sentence. There was no vaccination and he was going to die.
And his uncle or his brother, I've read two different accounts, but took him to a meeting to be prayed for. And he was lying in the backseat, he was — from weeks within dying, and the Lord said to him, "I'm going to heal you tonight, but I want you take my message of healing to the world and I want you to build a university where young people can be trained in a Christian atmosphere". And he built, of course, Oral Roberts University, ORU. So, but that's why he preached healing. So, whether you like him or not, the reason he preached healing, it's because he got healed.
And let me just say this, I know many people had this negative connotation, "Well, we shouldn't talk too much about healing". Okay. People have that connotation until you — they get sick or someone in their family gets sick. And it's not a bad thing if God heals you. That is not a bad thing. That's a good thing. And this is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And again, this doesn't mean that you have a gift that you go around and everyone you pray for gets healed. This means that you get healed. This is — gifts of healings, plural, it means every one of them is important to God.
And here's the last one, working of miracles. Working of miracles, divine intervention that alters our natural circumstances. Divine intervention that alters our natural circumstances. How many of you, at some time in your life, have experienced a miracle? Would you put your hand up? Now, keep them up for a moment. Look around. Isn't that amazing? Okay. You can put your hands down. How in the world would we ever believe that God quit doing miracles? Let me just say something. There's no way He can stop doing miracles, because He can't stop being God. And God is a miraculous God. When He gets up in the morning, He does a miracle. If He wants coffee, He says, "Let there be coffee". That's the way He gets His coffee. He is a miraculous God. He did miracles all through the Old Testament, all through the New Testament. Why would He have ever stopped? And let me just say something. If you've been saved, you've had a miracle. You've had a supernatural intervention in your life that altered your circumstances.
So, I want us to not be afraid of these. Any believer can move in any of these anytime when the Holy Spirit empowers us. God is a God of miracles and He's also a good God that gives His children good gifts. The Bible says, "That every good and perfect gift comes from the Father". And that's where the word charismatic comes from that we talked about that God is a God who gives us gifts and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are absolutely nothing to be afraid of, but they are gifts that help us to live the Christian life here on this earth.