Do Not Be Ignorant About Spiritual Gifts

First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 1. I want to leave just one verse in your mind, and I now ask the Lord to renew this passage in my spirit so that I may preach it as though it were the first time today, even though I preached it this morning in English. It is a call, a warning, a challenge, an invitation from the Holy Spirit to the people of God. It says:

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”

Receive that as though the Holy Spirit himself were speaking into your life. “I do not want you, Lion of Judah congregation—and put your name there too—to be unaware, or we could say, to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts.”

And that is precisely the title of this sermon: Do not be unaware; do not be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. And then I am going to develop that idea a little further. But what I want to begin with now is the following: God wants—and I am going to put it in positive terms—God wants us to know the elements of the Christian life. God wants us to be knowledgeable about the things of the Spirit. He does not want us to be naïve, to be like children who are ignorant of the things of the Spirit. Rather, he wants us to be informed, knowledgeable, educated, and skilled in the elements of a mature life in the Spirit.

Whenever I have spoken about this particular verse, I have always offered a clarification, and it is this: Paul is using a term that is much broader than what the Spanish translation here suggests by “spiritual gifts.” The word Paul uses in the original Greek, which has been translated into Spanish as “spiritual gifts,” is the word pneumatikon. Say pneumatikon with me. You have now made yourselves experts in the Greek language.

Do you see a word there that you have heard before in Spanish? Neumático. What is a neumático? A tire. Do you know why a tire is called a neumático in Spanish? Because it has air. The tire is filled with air. Language is beautiful; linguistics is very interesting. We say neumático without knowing that we are saying it is something filled with air, because in the original Greek the word is pneuma, which is also the word used for spirit.

So Paul says, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant concerning the pneumatikon. That word has been translated as “spiritual gifts,” but the word is much broader. This word pneumatikon, if we are going to be very specific and technical, is the neuter plural in the original Greek, and it is better translated as “spiritual things.” That is the idea. Pneuma means “of the spirit”; “kon” is the neuter, which is neither masculine nor feminine. It could simply be rendered “the spiritual things,” the things of the Spirit, the matters of the Spirit. That is what Paul is saying.

They asked, what does pneumatikon mean? Things of the Spirit, matters of the Spirit. And because he goes on to speak about spiritual gifts throughout the rest of his discourse, they said, well, let us translate it as “the gifts of the Spirit.” But I sometimes think that what happens there is that in translation, which is a science in itself, something is occasionally lost: when you choose one word, you lose another possible meaning of that same word.

It has helped me greatly to understand that what Paul is saying is: I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant concerning the things of the Spirit, the matters of the Spirit, spiritual things and matters in general. And then, having said that, he proceeds to develop what he means a little further. He speaks about the gifts of the Spirit, about the diversity of the gifts, and about the fact that the gifts are manifested in many different ways, but the Spirit who manifests them is one. In the body of Christ there are many different gifts: some people have gifts of healing, others have the gift of preaching, others the gift of teaching, and others the gift of evangelism. There are gifts of tongues, while others are gifts of the interpretation of tongues, prophecy, miracles, wisdom, and special knowledge. But all those supernatural manifestations are produced by one and only one Spirit, not by many different spirits.

So Paul begins by saying, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant concerning the things of the Spirit. Then he begins to develop that and to offer some ideas about how a person can be ignorant concerning the Spirit and how that can be corrected. One of those forms of ignorance is thinking that whenever a person manifests a gift of the Spirit, it refers to a special spirit.

You know that, for example, in the Catholic world—and I say this with great respect—there are saints for everything. There are saints for butchers, saints for women who are looking for a boyfriend, saints for truck drivers, saints for whatever you can think of, and saints for those who are sick. There is Charity; there are virgins for everything: the Virgin of this, the Virgin of that, Charity of El Cobre. It is like a proliferation of saints, each with his or her own specialty. And that—again, I say this with respect—comes instead from a pagan mentality that thinks each spirit has a specialty and manifests itself in only one way.

And Paul says, no, that is not how it is. Now, why was that important? Because Paul was preaching to people who came from a pagan world in which there were many different spirits and many different gods: gods of nature, gods of sexuality, gods of the family, gods of wine, and a great many different gods. Paul wanted to correct that kind of ignorance and lead that Corinthian congregation into a clear understanding of the mysteries of the Spirit.

So he says, look, there are different... We speak about the different gifts found in the church, and that is true, but do not go around saying that they are different spirits, because the Spirit of God is one. There is only one Holy Spirit, but he manifests his power in different ways and through different gifts. Yet he is one Spirit. In the same way, there are people in a church who have different virtues of the Spirit, but they are all part of one body.

The person who has a prophetic gift should not think, “Wow, I am really something.” And that person should not think that the usher, who may have a gift of service, is inferior because all he does is serve Holy Communion and welcome people. No, it is the same Spirit, and everyone is part of the same body.

Paul is speaking about diversity and unity at the same time. So his point was: look, brothers, think deeply about the things of the Spirit. Do not think superficially. The Spirit is profound and diverse in his manifestations, and there are different gifts, but everything is part of one thing. We must love one another, serve one another, and understand that every part of the body is tremendously important.

In our church, for example, there are people—and I was not going to mention any names, simply for no particular reason—there is one person who, many times, when we pastors arrive to visit someone in the hospital, has already been there for quite some time: Sister Maira. Why not say it? To whom glory is due, well, amen. Sometimes, when you arrive at the hospital thinking that... Sister Maira Rodriguez—but the shock troops have already been there ahead of you. Why? Because she has a spirit of service and of a missionary toward the sick, toward people who are... And there is also a group of brothers and sisters who often accompany her. They are always there as shock troops, paratroopers. They arrive and do not even take off their parachutes before immediately beginning to minister in a home or wherever they may be. How wonderful.

Because they have a gift of ministry, of service. Others have a gift of preaching, teaching, pastoring, or whatever it may be, but it is all one and the same Spirit. And the ministries of the church must be carried out with that attitude of supernatural provision from God. When we minister to the brothers and sisters, we must do it with that sense of... “Wow! At this very moment, I am handling the power of God, and God is allowing me to channel his power.” And we must do it with that spirit of sobriety, consecration, holy fear, and also humility, knowing that we do not deserve it and that it is only by the grace of the Lord.

Therefore, no one should boast because the gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifested in his or her life. On the contrary, we should stand in awe that God would use us in that way. We must always give him the glory, and we must use the gifts in a very holy and reverent way before God. What Paul wanted, then, was to correct the Corinthians’ naïveté and lack of good judgment.

And God wants us, brothers and sisters, to be well-informed and well-educated concerning the things of the Spirit—many things of the Spirit. Over the course of a year of preaching, we speak here about so many different things. That is why we have chosen these weeks, these Sundays, to speak specifically about the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is an aspect of every Christian’s maturity, and we want this church to be well-balanced and well-instructed concerning the fundamental things of life in the Spirit.

I do not want there to be one group of Christians who understand these things and another group who are like innocent little rabbits in a wild forest, being attacked by the enemy because they do not know how to use the tools of the Spirit to defend themselves when they need to do so or to live effective lives in the Lord.

This teaching about the Holy Spirit that I am carrying out, in which Gregory has joined me on a couple of occasions, is part of the instruction you need, because the Lord does not want us to be ignorant concerning the things of the Spirit. God does not want us to be childish in our knowledge of the things of the Spirit. And just as I refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, there are also so many other things connected with that aspect.

You know that there are many churches—Pentecostal churches, for example—that know about the Holy Spirit and practice the life and energy of the Holy Spirit, yet are often just as ignorant, in another way, as churches that are not filled with the Holy Spirit. They lack other aspects of knowledge and complexity concerning the Holy Spirit.

There are churches that are filled with the Holy Spirit, where God manifests himself in their services and where healings take place, but many times there are also divisions, spiritual abuse by leaders, all kinds of grumbling among the brothers and sisters, a lack of wisdom concerning how to raise children, and a lack of knowledge about what holiness truly is. Many times, holiness turns into religiosity and legalism. At times there is an emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but there is not enough emphasis on the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Ouch!

What is the fruit of the Spirit? Humility, love, gentleness, kindness, patience, and the joy of the Lord. You know that a person can be filled with the Holy Spirit and still be weak in many other areas. There are churches that can be very anointed while lacking certain balancing aspects. A church that thinks only about power, power, power, and does not think about love—as I preached a few days ago, God has not given us a spirit of cowardice but of power, love, and self-control, or a sound mind, as it says in the original Greek. And sometimes there are churches that are childish. They seek the power of God, and to their credit there is blessing in that area, but in the area of the fruit of the Spirit, there is lack and deficiency. And God does not want us to be ignorant of how complex and balanced the power of the Holy Spirit is.

Look at the church in Corinth. This very church to which Paul writes, from which I quoted that verse, was a church that had many gifts of the Spirit. For example, look there at First Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 7. It says:

“...so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ...”

That is, it says that you do not lack any gift. In other words, they had gifts of power, knowledge, wisdom, and signs. It was a Pentecostal church. But look at what Paul says later, in verse 10:

“Brothers, I appeal to you by the name of Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same judgment, because I have been informed concerning you, my brothers, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ ‘I follow Apollos,’ ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

Notice that it was a church filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, but it also had many divisions and quarrels within it. And Paul says, this cannot be; there must be a balance. There are churches that think that because they already have the manifestation and power of the Holy Spirit, they have reached the summit, and they neglect character, harmony, love, kindness, and patience.

So that is also a kind of ignorance about the gifts and about the moving of the Spirit among God’s people. And there has to be a balance. In chapter 12, Paul speaks about spiritual gifts, and in chapter 13 he speaks about the preeminence of love, and he says, if I speak in human and angelic tongues and have no love, I become like sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I had prophecy and understood all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I had all faith, so that I could move mountains, if I have no love, I am nothing.

So, when we preach about the gifts, there has to be a complete balance; there has to be the complexity befitting the Kingdom of God and the things of the Holy Spirit. There has to be a counterbalance between one thing and the other.

In chapter 14 of First Corinthians, Paul speaks about when the church gathers in a meeting like this one, where the Holy Spirit is also present, but care must be taken in how the strength and power of the Holy Spirit are handled in a public setting, which is different from how they are handled if you are at home, in your bathtub, and you enter into a state of blessing and are worshiping the Lord while you bathe.

It is one thing when you are peacefully at home, or with a group of familiar brothers and sisters who are mature in the Spirit, in a family service, in a small worship gathering. There you can let your hair down—jump, leap, sweat, do whatever you want; if you are all comfortable with one another, there is no problem. Now, when you are in the context of the body of Jesus Christ, in a meeting like this one where there are all kinds of people, there are visitors, there are people who come from a very liturgical and four-square background, there are elderly people, there are people who have had bad experiences with the Holy Spirit in other churches, there are people who are novices, who do not yet know God and are seeking, there are people who come with a critical and skeptical attitude toward the church, and in that environment where there is so much diversity—in fact, we have a group of people whom you do not even see when they are here. Do you know who they are? Those who are going to watch this program on the internet. That is another congregation; they watch it in different parts of the world, and they are watching what is happening here and are also part of this assembly.

So, one has to take all those people into account when the Holy Spirit is manifesting, because one must be careful not to offend, not to scandalize, not to provoke thoughts that the devil sometimes uses to confuse novices and newcomers who do not know about the things of the Spirit. So one has to be considerate of the other brothers and sisters.

That is part of being a member of the body. What happens if you hit your index finger with a hammer? Your whole body feels it, yes or no? What happens when someone in the church is out of tune, so to speak, in the Spirit? The whole body feels it. So one must be careful to discern the body, the Bible says. When one is in a congregational meeting, the manifestations of the Spirit must be conditioned by the collective context, unlike when you are in a very small group or are alone at home worshiping the Lord however you wish. It is different.

That is why sometimes, as I always tell you, there are brothers and sisters who think that when I call for discipline at some point in the Spirit, or bring a moment of exuberance in the service to an end or whatever it may be, they think, “He is cutting off the Spirit.” But no, it is that the pastor is discerning the interests of the collective body, and as senior pastor one is thinking, okay, now it is time to do this; it is time to do that. Or someone is caught up in their own personal celebration and is not discerning the other things that are happening, and does not realize that they are sometimes becoming a stumbling block or an obstacle to others, and so that order has to be established.

Or there are people who are sometimes simply having a nervous breakdown and think that it is the Holy Spirit moving. And then one also has to help that person and guide them toward an awareness of the body, because it is very different when the Holy Spirit is manifesting in general.

And that is why Paul, in chapter 14 of First Corinthians—you can read it later on your own time—speaks about the order befitting the manifestation of the Spirit when we are in a general meeting, where one has to abide by other considerations that will not necessarily quench the Spirit. There is a fine line between grieving the Holy Spirit and simply maintaining the order befitting the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is a very fine line, because many times there are indeed pastors who want everything to be absolutely by the book, very orderly, very controlled, very coordinated and entirely choreographed, and when a moment comes in which God truly wants to bless and manifest Himself, they immediately quench it. And that certainly is not of God, and that is called grieving the Holy Spirit.

But when it is simply a matter of maintaining order in a charismatic Pentecostal church so that this may continue to grow and manifest itself whenever there is a blessing, then it is all right to set certain limits. When Paul says, for example, that the spirits of the prophets are disciplined and under the prophets’ control, what does that mean? It means that many times there are Christians who say, “No, because the Holy Spirit entered me and I could not control it, and a shout burst out of me, and this and that.”

Paul says, “No, that is not how it is.” Within the order of the service, you can say, “You know what? Perhaps this is not the moment, and I am going to worship God, but I am going to worship Him in a more controlled way that does not interrupt the service and does not monopolize everyone’s attention.”

Now, if God moves, as He did on Wednesday, for example, there were times of a Pentecostal free-for-all. Glory to God for that. Everyone there was drunk in the Spirit, and it was a celebration. Amen. In that setting, look, if you want to jump up and down in place 24 times per second, amen, do it; do not worry, because we are all caught up in the same thing. But in a moment of quiet or something like that, if you do the same thing you do when everyone is caught up in the same thing, you are going to stick out like a… like a sore thumb, as they say in English; you are going to stand out a great deal.

So, what may be very appropriate in one context may not be so appropriate in another context, and you have to discern both things. For example, many times in a meeting—let us say that right now you discern something in someone who is in the congregation, and God shows you something about that person—I have seen in other congregations, for example, someone who receives a prophetic intuition from God at a given moment, and suddenly they spring up like a jack-in-the-box, interrupt the service, and begin to say, “God tells you this and that: that you must repent, that you are going to go to hell if you do not do this or if you do not do that.”

And you have to ask yourself, “Okay, Lord, You have given me that revelation, but I have to respect that person’s dignity and privacy. I am not going to embarrass them, and at the proper time I may approach that person, at an appropriate moment, and say, ‘Look, while I was here in the service, God told me something about you.’” Or you can also say, “Look, I think God told me this, and this is what I saw in my spirit, and now I advise you to meditate on it and, if it is from God, confirm it.” And that is all you need; you do not have to say, “My child, thus says the Lord to you now: repent.”

You can use natural, normal language, and the content and the timing are what will matter most. Perhaps that person will receive it better than if you humiliate them before the entire congregation. The same thing happens, for example, when there is a demonic manifestation. Personally, I am not the kind of pastor who believes that when an evil spirit manifests itself in the middle of the service, I have to go over immediately. That sort of scene where, many times in a church, someone manifests a spirit during a time of powerful worship, and everyone rubs their hands together and piles on top of that individual, because wow, how wonderful that a demonic spirit manifested itself. The service comes to a halt, everyone crowds around the person, the service has been interrupted, and the next 20 minutes are spent rebuking the demon.

And that is what the demon loves: drawing attention to itself and interrupting the service, instead of our saying, “Okay, it manifested itself,” establishing the Lord’s order, taking that person to the back to protect their dignity rather than embarrassing them, and then ministering to them privately and quietly. In any case, if the person was demon-possessed, they have been demon-possessed for a long time; they can wait a few more minutes to be ministered to.

That spirit has been alive for many thousands of years and can wait a little longer to be dealt with. That is part of spiritual maturity, because one goes on learning; one gains knowledge about the things of the Spirit. That is why I do not want you to be ignorant about the subtleties, about the complexities of the Holy Spirit.

The first time in our church, when we began to seek the Holy Spirit, a demon manifested itself in the service. We ministered to that person, but the spirit did not come out. Then, one night during a prayer vigil, the spirit manifested itself again. We finished the service, took her to the back and, frankly, we spent about five hours fighting that spirit. It was what I had seen: “I rebuke you, and I rebuke you”; spirits related to character manifested themselves, spirits of different things, but the spirit would not come out. We were there until about three in the morning, and I have said that the spirit left because it was tired, not because we rebuked it. It simply said, “You know what? I have better things to do. I am going somewhere else so they will leave me alone.” I do not think it was because we were so effective, but that is what we had seen: that it is a free-for-all and a fight there, and that is how it becomes…

I later learned, with time and by reading and educating myself in the things of the Spirit, that many times the most important thing is, first, to conduct an interview and an assessment: to question the person, investigate, and learn where that manifestation comes from, because there is always an entry point through which an evil spirit enters a person’s life. We always, in some way, allow an evil spirit to enter—some practice, some attitude, something hidden, some generational curse, some defiling experience—but there is always a door that is opened to Satan so that he can enter a person’s life.

And I have learned that it is very efficient first to interview the person in a quiet place, talk with them, ask the Lord for discernment, pray, and then removing that spirit is like pulling a loose tooth: it comes out gently. Once the person has been led to confess and acknowledge it, the devil no longer has anything to hold on to, and then he leaves gently. And you do not have to suffer so much or come out of there with your hairdo undone and your mascara running down your cheeks and all that sort of thing. It saves a great deal of time.

I have learned that many times, in the counseling office, I sit down, declare the presence of the Lord, say certain things, and demand that the spirit come out in the name of the Lord, and I sit there quietly drinking a Coca-Cola until it becomes impossible for the spirit to remain, because it has already been given a spiritual command, and that spirit then has to leave.

If there is something there, it will come out in the name of the Lord, because Christ is powerful. Why? Because, brothers and sisters, if a person is demon-possessed and does not renounce what led them to become demon-possessed, that spirit will never come out. In fact, if it does come out, it returns with seven more, and that person’s situation becomes worse. It leaves for a while to go drink a Coca-Cola and then comes back again with seven others more evil than itself. First there must be deliverance; the strong man must be bound; that which gives him the right to be there must be bound. Then you can save a great deal of time, and it is something definitive. It is different; it is the science, the judo of the Spirit.

And that is why Paul says, “I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, about the things of the Spirit,” but rather that we should be mature and profound in the things of the Spirit. There is a great deal of ignorance in the Christian world in this area. There are people who believe that everything consists simply of accepting Jesus Christ and that they do not need anything else. “I accepted Christ, began going to church, give my offering, go on Wednesdays, enroll in the discipleship course, and now I am fine.”

Remember that there is a dimension of the Spirit called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is very important, and that is what the church of Jesus Christ needs to know. We are giving these teachings so that you may understand that you have to seek more; you have to seek more deeply. You will remember my teaching about Moses, who was ministering to the Lord—yes, greatly used by God in his ministry—but he said to Him, “Lord, I want to see Your face; I want to have a deeper experience with You.”

And I encourage each one of you: if you are not sure that you have experienced that fullness of the Holy Spirit, take advantage of one of these opportunities. Go to a spiritual gathering, come forward when we invite you, seek more, and one of these times you will see that you will be filled with the baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit. That idea of power is present in every area of Pentecostal life.

Paul says that these things… the Gospel does not consist of words, but of the power of God. And we have to go deeper in that direction. There are so many different elements of a powerful life in the Spirit that we need to understand. How many of us understand, for example, spiritual warfare? That is what I was talking about here a moment ago.

That is one area of the life of power: spiritual warfare. You need to know about spiritual warfare. You need to know about the complexities of spiritual warfare. The Bible says that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. And Paul says, be sober and watchful, because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion.

Very recently I had an experience right here in the church with someone who is very dear to us. This person has been with us for a long time, knows the Lord, ministers in the Lord, and many other things; but at one point, because this person was afflicted by certain things, I realized that there was another dimension to it. I thought it was purely psychological, but at a certain point I realized that it was not, that there was a truly demonic dimension to that evil, to that affliction over matters that should not be disclosed too much. But the understanding God gave me at that moment helped me minister in a different way, in a way I would not have done if I had not understood certain things about how the Holy Spirit works.

One of the things… a person who is under demonic oppression often cannot say the name of Jesus Christ, for example; it is difficult for that person to say that name. And so that is one way you can know that there is something there that is more than simply something emotional or mental. Then you can detect that and minister accordingly. There are situations in our spiritual life, in our family life, in which we discern, wait a minute, this is not just my mind, this is not merely a matter of psychology or of my family, or whatever; no, this is a spiritual affliction, and I have to engage in spiritual warfare.

There are depressions that are purely physical, material, hormonal, or chemical, and there are depressions that are demonic in origin. There are sexual bondages and mental bondages that are purely rooted in family background, past practices, and experiences we have had, and they are fought through psychological means, good spiritual hygiene, confession, and other things. But there are other spiritual addictions that are demonic in origin and require fasting, prayer, and crying out to God, and they have to be confronted spiritually, with the weapons of the Spirit.

Do you remember the story of the disciples when they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration? When Jesus comes down with his disciples, there at the foot of the mountain is a father whose son is afflicted by a demon, and the disciples have been battling that demon, trying to cast it out, but they do not have the knowledge or the depth they need to do it, and they were unsuccessful; they could not cast out the demon.

When the Lord arrives, he ministers to the young man, and the spirit immediately comes out. Afterward, the disciples are left terrified, and they go to the Lord and privately say to him, “Lord, what happened? Why couldn’t we cast out that spirit, while you cast it out so easily?” Do you remember the Lord’s answer? He told them, there are spirits that come out only through fasting and prayer.

Why? Because the Lord had a life of fasting and prayer, and his life was strengthened and reinforced. Even the Son of God submitted to a regimen of fasting, prayer, and seeking the power of God. That is a mystery, because if he was God himself and is God himself, why did he fast? Why did he pray? Why did he seek the power of God? Because in his human condition he needed the power of God. And he submitted to a life of spiritual discipline.

That regimen of fasting and prayer gave him effectiveness when the time came to wage war. That boy was not suffering from a neurosis; it was not schizophrenia that he had; it was not mental insanity; it was demonic possession, and it was a particularly resistant spirit that required a certain level of authority.

How many of us practice fasting and prayer in our ordinary lives as disciplines to strengthen ourselves? No, we think that belongs to the Old Testament, that it is legalism. No, Paul practiced fasting. Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. We are not more powerful than any of those great figures of Scripture. We need to… take half a day from time to time, take a full day, fast partially, however you can, but set aside time, because there are battles in our lives, and the times in which we now live—with a demonized culture such as the one we inhabit today—require people who are strong in the Spirit.

Especially if you work and move in polluted environments. If, for example, you move in the world of the social sciences today, if you work in the Department of Social Services, the Department of Public Health here, the Department of Education, the schools, and all of that, let me tell you, you inhabit a very oppressive environment and need to strengthen yourself. You need extra vitamins, and you have to remain filled with the Spirit and strong in the Spirit.

If you are going through a struggle in your spiritual life, you need to fast and seek the Spirit of the Lord, because your struggle is not merely emotional or cultural; it is a struggle… Today, as Christians struggle in this world, which has forsaken God more than ever, we need people who understand the mysteries of the Spirit, of the life of power in the Spirit.

And the Lord does not want you to be ignorant about these things. Fasting is needed more than ever. There are battles in our lives that we have to fight with additional weapons. The word of the Lord says—and you have heard it many times—our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

More than ever, we live in a time like the time of the Corinthians, a time when pagan gods were everywhere, demons ruled society and culture, and Christians needed to know the power of the Holy Spirit. We are living in a time worse than the time of the Corinthians. There are demons of greater power and greater manifestation in the twenty-first century than in the first century, and we need to know about that aspect. As never before, we need the energy of God’s power because we inhabit an environment that tires and wears us down more than ever.

So, in that context, fasting is important. Prayer is important. Our children have to be covered with the blood of Jesus; we have to pray for our marriages and for the health of our mental lives. The devil wants to destroy marriages, wants to destroy ministries, wants to destroy churches, and the reality is that more than ever we need the power of fasting, the power of warfare prayer—prayer offered with an attitude of spiritual warfare—and to put on the armor of the Spirit. Paul says, therefore put on the full armor of God, because we live in dangerous times.

And God does not want us to be ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s techniques of warfare. So I have spoken to you about spiritual warfare, I have spoken to you about the importance of fasting, and I have spoken to you about aggressive prayer. Another manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit is specifically the gifts of the Spirit. Here in First Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul speaks about different gifts.

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the Spirit is the same. And there are different kinds of ministries, but the Lord is the same. And there are different kinds of workings—verse 6—but it is the same God who works all things in everyone.”

And then he speaks of the different gifts: a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, a word of faith, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues. He mentions 9 gifts here, and many Pentecostals say, well, there are only 9 gifts. We speak of 9 gifts. But no, he simply provided a sample, a sampling of the gifts.

Potentially, the number of gifts the Holy Spirit has for his people is infinite, depending on the situation in which a person or the people of God find themselves. For example, I believe that one of the gifts—because there are actually several lists of gifts in the Bible; this is not the only list—is the gift of service. I do not hear many Pentecostals speaking about the gift of serving, but that is a gift. It is right there in the Bible. There is the gift of leading. I am not entirely sure what that is, but it is like a gift of leadership. There are people to whom God gives a gift of leadership, and wherever they go, they immediately assume leadership, or people give it to them because they have an authority that inspires confidence and inspires people to follow them, and people immediately recognize and discern it. That is a gift like any other.

Do you know what one of the most important gifts is in this time, in the twenty-first century? In my opinion, it is the gift of counseling, the gift of giving counsel. I believe that is a gift. It is the gift of speaking an apt word that discerns what a person needs and goes directly to the heart of a situation, without needing 20 psychiatric sessions, as you sometimes see with psychiatrists, who need 45-minute sessions over the course of 3 years to figure out what is troubling a person.

I believe that when God gives the gift of counseling, very often, in just a moment, through a word or an insight, one can go to the very heart, to the core of a situation, and give a word that strikes precisely where it is needed, and that word clears things up, breaks bondages, and brings blessing. Or it may be that over a longer period—yes, God also gives that wisdom and that ability—a person gradually draws that poison out of a marriage or an individual and then ministers the power of the Holy Spirit to bring healing to that person.

But in the twenty-first century there is so much neurosis, so much madness, so much mental and emotional illness, because the environment in which we live is so harmful to mental health, that I believe all of us are crazy to one degree or another. Go ahead and laugh; that is only a joke. But it is true: nowadays everyone is a little anxious, a little depressed, a little strange, because the world in which we live is a very sterilizing world, and we need that freshness of the Holy Spirit to fill us and bless us. We need God to give us spiritual discernment so that we can go to the Lord, to the Spirit, and often find healing ourselves.

But I believe that the gift of counseling is a precious and much-needed gift at a time in human life when neurosis is everywhere, because the farther societies move away from God, the more power the devil has to fill and contaminate us.

So, the gifts of the Spirit are important. I was telling the brothers and sisters at the 9 o’clock service this morning—and, if Meche and the sister will allow me for a moment here, I am not going to say… I always say that I am not going to mention the person’s name, and I end up saying it. But a sister—and correct me if I heard correctly what you told me—said that about a month ago, a sister from the congregation came up to Meche at the end of the service, gave her a prophetic word, and told her that she had seen her standing in front of a white casket. Correct me, because I am standing here, and the person who said it is also here, so… this is true. She told her, “Sister, I saw you crying in front of a white casket.” And Meche, who knew the background of that prophetic word, immediately understood what it meant.

Now, if I am correct, you had previously purchased a casket in preparation for… It had been 4 months… 4 years. Four years earlier, in preparation for the death of their mother, because she had a progressive illness, and not wanting to leave it until the last minute—by the way, here is a little something extra for you—do not wait until the last minute to make funeral arrangements. If you need to plan certain things in advance, do so, so that you will not be scrambling at the last minute. That is not a lack of faith; it is simply knowing that we all die and that it is wise to make provision for those things. That is free; I am not going to charge you for that advice.

Four years earlier, they had reserved the casket with the funeral home, and, if I have not misunderstood, it was white. Meche herself had reserved it, and it was a white casket, which I was able to see when we were in Puerto Rico for the funeral of Meche’s mother. When Meche heard that prophetic word from this sister—that she had seen her crying before a white casket—she immediately understood that her mother’s death was imminent and that the Lord would take her at some point. I believe that also helped prepare her for that moment.

That is a gift; it is the gift of prophecy, a prophetic gift, a gift of knowledge—call it whatever you want. But many times, as God prepares his children, he gives us a word that prepares us for certain things. And those gifts operate in a church where there is spiritual understanding, where there is sound education, where there is sound teaching, where God’s people are invited to remain open to the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit, and where the Holy Spirit is glorified; then the Holy Spirit manifests himself.

And the gifts begin to grow more and to manifest themselves more because the Holy Spirit is being glorified and is being invited to manifest Himself. At the end of the 9 o’clock service, a young woman came up to me and said, “Pastor, when I arrived here, I could barely walk because of pain in both of my legs.” She is an usher, and she came here by faith with that severe pain in both of her legs. And she told me, “A brother from the congregation came and prayed for me, and I immediately began to feel warmth in both legs, and I was completely healed, and I was able to finish the service, and I feel totally restored.” Because the power of God is real.

And I know that there are many people here who are healed; all the time I hear that God has done something in one way or another, and who knows how many miracles… One day, when we are in heaven, we will know about all the miracles of healing, deliverance, and illumination that God performed among His people. And that is why we have to testify about these things; in this congregation, God continually does many wonderful things.

And if you are open to the gifts of the Spirit, if you live your life with a healthy expectation—understand, it is not that you manufacture the gifts, it is not that you see gifts in your soup, no—it is that you remain open, that you move and breathe the Holy Spirit in your life, and that you are open. When God wants to manifest Himself, you receive Him because you are open; you know that the gifts are real, you pray for the Lord to manifest Himself, you keep your life healthy, you fast, worship, read the Word, and live a supernatural life. Because what you expect is what you are going to receive.

If they tell you in church, “No, the gifts have already passed away; that was for the time of the Apostles,” and you believe it, that is how it will be. A nail in a wall will be more active and alive than you are in your spirit, because you will be dull, clumsy, and closed off, and God does not go where He is not invited. But when a church appreciates and blesses the gifts of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit grows stronger.

You know what the Bible says: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. How is He grieved? Gregory spoke about that, I believe, last Sunday. There are many ways to grieve the Holy Spirit: with a vengeful spirit, resentment, impurity in your moral conduct, abuse of others, pride—so many ways—unbelief, denial of the power of God, and neglect of the things of the Spirit. All those things grieve the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit feels rejected, feels neglected, feels despised, feels unappreciated and disregarded. So that grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit.

There are churches where the Holy Spirit is not spoken about. In fact, there are churches where people speak against the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And that is terrible because there is a warning not to despise the gifts of the Spirit.

First Thessalonians, chapter 5. This time I do remember. And with this I am coming in for a landing, if the brothers and sisters on the worship team could get ready. There is an invitation for God’s people to cultivate the gifts, and in your own life, brother, God invites you to appreciate the gifts of the Spirit. They forgot to tell me—I told them to let me know—but I forgive them because I am a merciful man. I went a couple of minutes over, but that is all right because we have Holy Communion, and we are about to finish.

Brothers and sisters, according to what we believe, practice, praise, and invite, so it will be in our lives. If you continually hunger for the Holy Spirit, if you cultivate the gifts of the Spirit, if you are seeking for the power of God to move in your life, if you understand the things of the Holy Spirit, if you know the mysteries of life in the Spirit, and the subtleties and the subtle—and sometimes powerful—instruments of the Spirit, then your life will be adorned with those manifestations and those expressions of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And our attitudes toward the Holy Spirit are also very important. Whether we believe or do not believe, expect or do not expect, confess or do not confess, appreciate or do not appreciate, despise or value—according to what is within us, so will the manifestation of the power of God be in our lives. I leave you with that word from the Apostle Paul in First Thessalonians 5:16:

“Rejoice always”—do you know that joy is a spiritual weapon? The Word says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. That is subtle: that you cultivate the joy of the Spirit and that it be a spiritual weapon. Oh, yes, it is. When you worship the Lord, when you feel the joy of the Spirit, that activates the power of God in your life. But Paul says:

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything”—how many know that gratitude is a spiritual weapon? Gratitude breaks chains. When you give thanks to God even in the midst of your tribulation, there is power in that gratitude because it is sacrificial gratitude; it is gratitude in the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says, day by day, give thanks in everything; there is another passage. Gratitude is a spiritual weapon.

It says, “…give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus,” and look here, verse 19: “Do not quench the Spirit.” On the contrary, we must fan into flame the fire of the Spirit. There are congregations, there are individuals, who quench the Spirit by saying that all of that has passed away, that it is not for this time, and this and that. I would say it is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Whoever says that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not manifested in our time, I believe, is grieving and blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. And he is robbing his congregation of the opportunity and the privilege of living a life overflowing in the Spirit.

For me, these sermons I am preaching are not only meant to educate you, by the way; they are meant to glorify the Holy Spirit. And to restore Him to His place in the midst of our life as a congregation. I know that I proclaim this word as a hymn of worship to the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. I want the Holy Spirit to know—I want You to know, Holy Spirit—that we value Your presence, and we value Your ministry, and we value Your gifts and Your moving among us, and that we want more of You among us.

Receive this word as a word of worship and exaltation of Your person, Third Person of the Trinity. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies. When a person prophesies, do not despise it, do not look at it as… no. What it says is: Test everything and hold fast to what is good.

If someone prophesies something to you, listen respectfully, because that person is making an effort to obey the Lord. Listen respectfully; it costs you nothing. Then go home, ask the Lord for discernment, judge in the Spirit what the person said, discern what was said, and if there is some good content in it, keep it in your heart. Ask the Lord for confirmation. Because not everything people sometimes prophesy is one hundred percent correct; sometimes there is a little mixture of things. But test everything and hold fast to what is good.

That is the origin of that passage. I know that it applies to other things, but its origin is this: when you hear a prophetic word, test it, and whatever is sound and from the Lord, keep it and hold fast to it; and whatever is not, let it go or let it soak, and may the Lord give you clarity later. Because perhaps afterward, what that person meant by what they told you will come to light. There are prophecies that you understand at the time, and three years later, the little light comes on: “Ah, that is what the Lord meant.”

That is life in the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, do not be ignorant; let us not be ignorant concerning the things of the Spirit. Amen.

Bow your head for a moment, and let us receive this very special moment. Give thanks to God; as a congregation, let us seek more of the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord to manifest Himself more and more in our lives. May this church be a place where the daily bread is the manifestation of the power of God and His gifts, His miracles.