The Gifts Are Not Perfect

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

The Gifts are not perfect.

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The gifts are not always perfect in manifestation, because they are manifested through an imperfect channel: men and women. The Spirit of God flows through us as water flows through a pipe. Sometimes as the Spirit of God flows through us something from our own personality gets mixed in with the divine flow. (After all, God uses personalities.).

God doesn't put a premium on ignorance or education, but He has to use the vessel as it is. I have seen the anointing of the Spirit of God upon one who is educated, cultured, and refined, and I was greatly blessed. On the other hand, I have heard interpretations of messages which included such words as "hain't," "ain't," "you'uns," and "we'uns." Those giving the interpretations could not go beyond their capacity. They used the best vocabulary they had. It was the Spirit of God in manifestation, but it was not a perfect manifestation.

A minister tells that in one of his services the interpretation of a message in tongues was: "My little children, don't be scared. But if you are scared, I don't blame you, because sometimes I get scared myself." Although this was not a manifestation of the Spirit of God, it does not mean that the dear one who gave it was not a Christian. 

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It does not even mean that she wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit, She wanted God to use her, but she was just speaking out of her own mind. Many times we let such manifestations scare a lot of good people off instead of giving people the right teaching. We need the operation of the gifts in our congregations. We need  everything God has provided, but we need to follow God's instructions for the proper use of these gifts so that "all things be done unto edifying" (1 Cor. 14:26).

Some excuse their spiritual excesses by saying, "I couldn't help that. The Holy Spirit made me do it." They blame the Holy Spirit for their being out of order. But the Holy Spirit, through Paul, has given us instructions so we know how to be in order.

Although we may be inspired to speak—we may have a message in tongues and interpretation, or even a word of prophecy—it is not always wise to jump up at any time. If our inspiration comes at an inopportune moment when it would not be edifying, then we should hold our peace. At the right time we can give what we have.

Many times when attending fellowship meetings and camp meetings where I was not the speaker, I could have spoken with tongues but didn't. The leaders of the meetings were men who knew God, who were filled with the Spirit, and they could give the message themselves. There was no need of my butting in from out in the congregation. In a large gathering if someone speaks in tongues or prophesies from the congregation, few hear it. If it comes from the platform, however, everyone hears it, and it is edifying.

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The inspirational and the revelation gifts are a product of both God and man. It isn't all God and it isn't all man. This is where many have missed the blessing of being filled with the Spirit. They could have spoken in tongues many years ago.

Some have said to me, "If I had known that I had a part to play in it, I could have talked in tongues 25 years ago. I had an urge to say something that wasn't English, but I thought if I spoke that out, it would just be me doing it. I have been waiting for the Holy Spirit to talk with tongues all these years."

However, He doesn't really talk with tongues. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Holy Spirit ever talked with tongues. Instead, we read that the Holy Spirit gives you utterance, and you do the talking. That is what happened on the Day of Pentecost: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and [they] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). He gave them the utterance; they did the talking.

After hearing this preached, some people have asked me, “Why didn't someone tell me? I have been afraid to talk in tongues—afraid it would just be the flesh.” But when you talk in tongues, it will be you in the flesh. God said He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Everyone who ever talked with tongues was in the flesh, but he was inspired by the Spirit.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( The Gift Of Prophecy )

The same thing is true with the inspirational and revelation gifts of God. They are a product of both man and God.

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

The Gift Of Faith

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

THIS IS HOW THE GIFT OF FAITH IS MANIFESTED. 

You see an object and you know that your own faith is nothing in the case. The other day I was in San Francisco. I sat on a car and saw a boy in great agony on the street. I said, "Let me get out." I rushed to where the boy was. He was in agony through cramping of the stomach. I put my hands on his stomach and prayed in the name of Jesus. The boy jumped, and stared at me with astonishment. He found himself instantly free.

 The gift of faith dared in the face of everything. It is as we are in the Spirit that the Spirit of God will operate this gift anywhere and at any time.  When the Spirit of God is operating this gift within a man, He causes him to know what God is going to do. When the man with the withered hand was in the synagogue, Jesus got all the people to look to see what would happen. 

The gift of faith always knows the results. He said to the man, "Stretch forth thine hand." His word had creative force. He was not living on the line of speculation. He spoke and something happened. He spake at the beginning and the world came into being. He speaks today and these things have to come to pass. He is the Son of God and came to bring us into sonship. He was the first fruit of the resurrection and He calls us to be first fruits, to be the same kind of fruit like to Himself.

There is an important point here. You cannot have the gifts by mere human desire. The Spirit of God distributes them severally as He will. God cannot trust some with the gift, but some who have a lowly, broken, contrite heart He can trust. 

One day I was in a meeting where there were a lot of doctors and eminent men, and many ministers. It was at a convention, and the power of God fell on the meeting. One

humble little girl that waited at the table opened her being to the Lord and was immediately filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues. All these big men stretched their

necks and looked up to see what was happening and were saying, "Who is it?" Then they learned it was "the servant!" Nobody received but "the servant!"

 These things are hidden and kept back from the wise and prudent, but the little children, the lowly ones, are the ones that receive. We cannot have faith if we have honor one of another. A man who is going on with God won't accept honor from his fellow beings. God honors the man of a broken, contrite spirit.

 HOW SHALL I GET THERE? So many people want to do great things, and to be seen doing them, but the one that God will use is the one that is willing to be hidden. My Lord Jesus never said He could do things, but He did them. When the funeral procession was coming up from Nain with the widow's son carried upon the bier, He made them lay it down. He spoke the word, "Arise!" and gave the son back to the widow. He had compassion for her. And you and I will never do anything except on the line of compassion. We shall never be able to remove the cancer until we are immersed so deeply into the power of the Holy Ghost that the compassion of Christ is moving through us.

~ Smith Wigglesworth ( Ever Increasing Faith )

William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible