Gifts of the Holy Spirit Bible Study

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THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

Bible Studies For Small Groups

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

Table of Contents

Study 1: An Introduction To The Gifts Of The Spirit 3

Study 2: Prophecy 17

Study 3: Supernatural Insight: Wisdom, Knowledge, Discernment: Part One 29 Part Two 45

Study 4: What To Do With Tongues? 55

Study 5: Supernatural Power: Faith, Healings, Miracles 65

Study 6: Gifts of Service: The Hands Of God 81

We would like to thank our volunteer editors, Mike Farley, Lori Johnson, Tammy Lind, and Susan Pavilkey for their invaluable assistance in preparing these studies. We also want to acknowledge Dr. Steve Robbins’ generous contribution of his time and expertise so that we might better comprehend and apprehend the Spirit’s gifts. Beth Crawford, General Editor

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1 Corinthians 12:1—13

By Beth Crawford

The gifts of the Spirit are not trophies, talents, traits or toys. The gifts of the Spirit are God’s supernatural expressions of love, caring, kindness, healing and concern—bestowed on us and through us. John Wimber

Spiritual gifts are like God’s power tools. Rich Nathan

It is clear that Paul anticipated a lively ‘charismatic’ church, in which every area of Christian life and ministry was deeply shaped by experiential awareness of the Spirit. … It is his vision of the church as a body continually open to the Spirit and regularly experiencing God’s intervention in varieties of gift—combined with his own pastoral example, oversight, and encouragement— which seems to have maintained this enthusiastic expectation and experience. … All authentic Christian church life—life that mediates the presence and power of God in a variety of ways — is charismatic in its truest sense. Max Turner

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, Today's New International® Version TNIV©. Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

3 AIM • To explain, identify, describe the gifts of the Holy Spirit and to inspire greater expectation and usage of them.

KEY VERSES

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. … All these are the work of the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” 1 Corinthians 12:7, 11

PREPARATION

The authors of this series suggest you read over the notes on “How to Teach the Bible in Small Group” and “Some Practical Suggestions for Leading a Small Group Discussion” in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ Small Group Leadership Training Manual if you feel your inductive study skills are rusty. Before you go over the Scripture text, pray that God would give you direction for leading your group and teach you something relevant. Then, read through the passage, keeping an open heart and ear to the Lord. Finally, work through the Bible study notes and questions below.

These studies contain more background material and information on the passages than any group will cover in a meeting. Therefore, use this Bible study as a framework for the discussion you lead in your small group meeting. This means you will need to

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (·). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to implement in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

The authors of this series are providing these questions and accompanying material for the leader’s benefit—to help reduce your study and preparation time; to supply resources for possible questions group members may raise; and to clarify some gray areas of doctrine that may be in your mind as you prepare. Obviously, we cannot exhaust any one subject in a document like this, so you may want to do further reading and discuss doctrine with your pastor. We highly recommend The New Bible Dictionary or The New Bible Commentary as excellent resources for further study.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc.

OPENERS

Have you ever had someone say, “You have the gift of…?”

Leaders can fill in the blank when asking the question, or leave it blank and let others reply with one or two word answers. For anyone not sure of what to reply, explain there are lots of areas of gifting people can experience. An alternate question for people who are not new to the church:

Optional: Have you ever taken our class on Discovering Your Ministry? If so, what did you learn about serving Christ?

Allow a brief response from several people.

Some of us have had career testing or counseling. Others just tend to be pretty self- aware. How many of us could list two of our own strengths and two weaknesses—but only two? How many of us could write down in a sentence what really excites or motivates us, or what we dream about doing for the kingdom of God?

Leaders may want to have group members put some of these on paper or a note card. Invite everyone to share one thing they feel is a strength or gift—without elaborating.

God has arranged us in His family, the church, in a way that is meant to make us all stronger by giving us different personalities, different likes and dislikes, and very different strengths and weaknesses. In this series of studies on The Gifts of the Spirit, we are going to learn about some of the ways God works through us to reach others with the good news of Christ and to help one another grow to be more like Jesus.

Before we get into the passage for our study today, we should define what we mean by the term, “the gifts of the Spirit.”

The gifts of the Spirit, usually translated in our English Bibles as “spiritual gifts,” refer to the different workings of God’s Spirit through Christians so that they may minister to others some measure of God’s grace (Mare, p. 1735, n. 1:7). Some Christians look at familiar New Testament passages and arrive at a list of 19 to 21 gifts (Robbins, “RE: a few more,” p. 1). Others believe the list of gifts is endless—since God’s Spirit is sovereign and creative in the way He impacts people to do the work of the kingdom. We see the New Testament lists as helpful but not exhaustive in mentioning the workings of the Spirit. Several of the texts are actually written to correct misunderstandings in specific churches rather than written as an encyclopedic teaching on the whole subject.

There is no one Greek word in the New Testament texts for “spiritual gifts.” There is the Greek word charisma and its plural form, charismata, which derive from the verb “to give graciously” (Turner, p. 264). The emphasis in these words is not on the gift as much as the giver’s generosity and grace—that is God’s generosity and undeserved favor (Turner, p. 264). The adjective pneumatikon must be added to indicate “spiritual” when describing the gifts (Turner, p. 265).

5 Throughout this series on spiritual gifts, we want to keep the Father, Son, and Spirit at the center, not our gifts or the giftings of others. We want our group to learn about the gifts as we study Scripture and also to grow in our ability to serve God through His giftings. This may require us to be more receptive to empowering from the Father and thus more expectant also that He will use us for His purposes. In this first study, we will look at what Paul said were the purposes of the gifts and the attitudes we should have as gifted people working together. At the end of the study, we can discuss how to “test our gifts” so we’ll defer questions about that until after we have covered the main points of the passage.

Pray that the Holy Spirit would increase your expectation of what He can do in and through you. Invite Him to manifest Himself and minister through greater gifting.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

This is background material for leaders. You may decide what to share with your group..

Paul visited Corinth and founded the church there between 49 and 51 A.D. (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 6). He stayed one and a half years in this city (Acts 18:11)—a much longer time period than what he had spent in many other cities in which he preached the gospel. Corinth was a strategic location for spreading the kingdom message and work. It was prosperous because the trade routes by land (north and south) and sea (east and west) from Italy to Asia passed through it (Madvig, p. 772). It had been a strong Greek city-state but was destroyed in 146 B.C. when conflict with Rome arose. In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar rebuilt it and many flocked to it because it offered so much commercial promise. It was a melting pot of Greek culture and Roman citizenship; wealthy merchants and laboring poor; freedmen and slaves. The religious climate included pagan temples, mystery religions, and Judaism. The church in Corinth reflected this eclectic mix, although this letter to the church implies there were more members from a Gentile rather than Jewish background and not many were wealthy (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 1—4).

Paul must have written an earlier letter to the church which is referred to in 1 Corinthians 5:9 (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 6). In reply three men from the church brought a letter to Paul (1 Corinthians 16:15—17), and some members of Chloe’s household also provided a report (1 Corinthians 1:11). The letter we now call First Corinthians is Paul’s response (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 7). Many have suggested that Paul wrote to correct divisions within the church— perhaps caused by misunderstandings between disciples who followed the teachings of Paul and disciples who followed more the teachings of Apollos, a teacher from Alexandria who came after Paul. But there is more evidence in the letter to suggest that Paul was dealing with a serious rift between the church and himself (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 6—10). One topic the church and Paul strongly disagree over seems to be the idea of what it means to be “spiritual” indicated by the Corinthians emphasizing speaking in unknown tongues (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 10). They seemed to think that they had already reached a higher spiritual plane, a “life in the age to come” indicated primarily by this gift. This false view of what it meant to be indwelt and gifted by the Holy Spirit may have caused a rejection of the human body or its importance, a denial of the future resurrection body, and a discrediting of Paul’s admittedly weak, servant-like ministry (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 10—15).

6 through 14, Paul wrote more to correct false notions of spirituality than to convey a precise doctrinal statement on spiritual gifts. Thus the gifts Paul mentions are representative of those the Spirit sovereignly gives (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 585), rather than the main checklist for every believer seeking to know how to be useful to the Lord. Paul’s famous chapter on Christ- like love was also a corrective for the pride and exclusiveness evident in attitudes expressed by some church members. In chapters 12 and 14, Paul tries to balance out the importance of gifts of the Spirit that are not merely for elevating one’s spiritual reputation. He encourages seeking gifts like prophecy or interpretation of tongues so that messages from God can benefit all hearers. While not opposed to praying in unknown languages, Paul points out the limits of who can benefit from this gift without someone interpreting them for the congregation and visitors.

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 12:1—13

1. Let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:1—13 aloud, dividing it into sections so that several people may participate.

Why is Paul writing this portion of the letter (v. 1)?

Why do some in the church need teaching or correcting in the area of spiritual gifts (vv. 2—3)?

Paul says he doesn’t want them to be ignorant. Many in Corinth were influenced by pagan religious experiences and needed instruction to help discern the work of the Holy Spirit from other sources, such as demons and the human spirits of the people speaking. Today, some people need teaching about spiritual gifts because they may have come from a non-Christian background or from a church that had taught various misbeliefs about the gifts, such as: • The “supernatural” gifts were just for the disciples or early church to help authenticate the gospel. Now they have ceased because there is no need for them. • Only emotional people embrace the sensational spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and healing. Rational, modern Christians focus on teaching, evangelism, giving, service/mercy, and administration. • Speaking in tongues is a sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and/or spiritual maturity.

2. What test should we apply to any spiritual motivation, speech, or action (v. 3)?

Honoring God should be the goal of everything we say or do. Few in our church would say outright, “Jesus be cursed,” but some things said and done by Christians today dishonor the Lord. One of the main jobs of the Holy Spirit is to bring honor to Jesus the Son (John 16:14—15). As He lives in us and works through us, Jesus should be praised or esteemed because of the holy and loving manner in which we revere Him, serve others, and conduct our lives. To contradict the Lordship or rulership of Christ by putting our agendas or egos first is to discredit the Lord and encourages some to curse Him and His people.

The Letter of First John also includes tests for what is from God’s Spirit and what is not. John wrote, “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that

7 acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. …” (1 John 4:2—3 a).

3. What words does Paul repeat in verses 4 through 6? What is his point?

Paul refers to “different” three times and “same” three times. He also repeats “but” three times to show the contrast between these terms. Paul wants to convey that no matter how differently God manifests His power or gifts, all of these are from Him and are meant to work in harmony together. As is often said, there is diversity within the unity of the Trinity, and this should be reflected in the church, Christ’s body, as well.

4. Who in the church receives God’s gifts (v. 7)? Why might Paul need to point this out?

Paul clearly states that every believer receives gifting from the Lord. Here Paul writes about the “manifestation” of the Spirit’s gifts. When Paul writes about the gifting of the Spirit, he indicates that while each person receives gifts from the Lord, how the Lord gifts and uses us may vary from one ministry situation to another (Wimber, “Releasing Gifts in Us,” p. 1). But Paul also says that some people may receive the same gifting on a regular basis rather than different gifts in each situation, and that those folks are “gifted” by the Lord in that particular way. Paul uses more than one Greek word for gift, but the one often translated gift in the passages on gifts of the Spirit, is charisma (singular) and charismata (plural). Both of these are related to the verb … “to give graciously” indicating that God is a gracious giver. The word “spiritual” is separate and must be added to mean gifts of the Spirit or “spiritual gifts” (Turner, pp. 262—267). We also recognize from the root word charis is that these are “…tokens of God’s undeserved love” (Nathan, p. 1).

The other words Paul uses to describe the gracious activities of the Spirit are • diakoniai or “service,” pointing to their purpose to serve others, not ourselves; • energemata or “working,” pointing to the power of the Spirit, not just human ability at work; • phanerosis or “manifestations,” pointing to the fact that the gifts make the Trinity [Father, Son, and Spirit] visible (Nathan, pp. 1—2).

Some Christians teach that God gives each of His children a special gift and each uses that gift exclusively. Once they discover their gifts, then folks are almost pigeonholed into certain service. While some people are used by the Lord consistently in certain ways, we also believe the Lord is sovereign over the gifts and may supply different gifts on different occasions. For example, the Spirit may give Mary a revelation that someone in the group is suffering from insomnia. Betty may reply that she is that person. Mary and Bill may ask Betty if they can pray for her. When they invite the Holy Spirit to come and lead their prayers, the Holy Spirit may give Bill a powerful anointing of a gift of healing and his prayers may bring great relief to Betty. Mary may also get a word of encouragement for Betty to share with her.

However, the next time the group meets, Bill might be the one who receives a revelation about someone with a backache while it is Betty who gets a fresh anointing from the Spirit to pray effectively for Sam’s bad back. In other words, we don’t want to limit the ways the Holy Spirit might anoint and use various Christians in our small groups or body.

8 • When have you been tempted to think God couldn’t use you? How would that restrict the power and potential of God’s Spirit released in your life?

5. Why are the gifts of the Spirit given to the church (v. 7)?

Paul writes that the common good, not the individual’s service or reputation, is why the Spirit gives these gifts. In every way that he can, Paul tries to remove the spotlight from the individual and focus on the Lord and His body, the community of believers. In the same way, try to keep your group discussing the text from a corporate, not individualistic viewpoint. At the end of the study, you will have the option to discuss how to “test gifts” of each person so defer questions about that until you have covered the main points of the passage.

• How do we sometimes approach spiritual gifts for our own purposes?

6. Though it is not an exhaustive list, Paul now writes about gifts that are evident when the believers gather (Turner, p. 276). Let’s go through Paul’s list, and name the gifts he mentions here. We can simply begin with verse 8 and read them off through verse 11. (Definitions below are from Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena,’” unless noted otherwise.)

• The Message of Wisdom: “The word of wisdom gives us God’s direction—to lead a group, solve a problem, discern God’s plan, or to please God with an ethical course of action. God shows us what He sees so we know what to do.”

• The Message of Knowledge: “The word of knowledge gives us God’s instruction by granting us Spirit-inspired insight into previously given revelation (usually Scripture). It causes us to recognize God’s voice and acknowledge His will.” “This definition emerges through a word study of the term “knowledge” in the New Testament, i.e., the Greek words gnosis and epignosis” (Robbins, “VLI Syllabus,” p. 3).

It’s possible that Paul begins with these two gifts that were terms of importance in Corinth, because the terms “wisdom” and “knowledge” are words that occur in other discussions in the letter. Note that neither gift appears in any other texts in the New Testament (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 591—593).

• Faith: “The gift of faith is the God-given anticipation (a mysterious surge of confidence) that God is about to act through a word or deed followed by its realization in spite of contrary circumstances.” Note these comments about the gift of faith as it relates to healing: “It is a gift; not a work. We cannot control it; but we can ask for it. Thus, there is no room for a negative judgment on those not healed. Faith is almost always present in someone involved in the healing situation (the one praying, the recipient, friend or relative, etc.)” (Robbins, “VLI Syllabus,” p. 3).

9 • Gifts of Healings: The gifts of healings are “the restoring of health and/or curing of illness by divine intervention.” “Note the plural, ‘gifts of healings,’ indicating a variety of ways that God heals, e.g., through physical restoration, deliverance, restoration of relationships, etc.” (Robbins, “VLI Syllabus,” p. 3).

• Miraculous Powers, or Workings of Miracles: “Workings of miracles are events in which people and things are visibly and beneficially affected in an extraordinary way by the power of God working through an individual.”

• Prophecy: “The gift of prophecy declares the heart of God in the power of the Spirit directed to the need of the moment (to a gathering of believers or to an individual)—bringing conviction (convicting those in sin, convincing the unbelieving, comforting the hurting, and strengthening the resolve of those needing encouragement in their godly pursuits).”

• Distinguishing between Spirits or Discernments of Spirits: “The discernments of spirits is the God-given capacity to recognize the source and significance of spiritual activity…[It is] Holy Spirit endowed recognition” of whether a source is divine (God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or an angel acting on their behalf), demonic, or merely human.”

• Different kinds of Tongues: “The gift of speaking in tongues is the God-given ability to praise Him in such an intimate and profound way that it exceeds our ability to do so in our own language. Thus, tongues serve as a devotional worship language that increases the worshiper’s awareness of her/his communion and intimacy with God.”

• The Interpretation of Tongues: “The gift of the interpretation of tongues is the God-given ability to put into words the unintelligible tongues that is the result from upsurges in the human spirit as it is excited by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. The content of tongues speech is identified in Acts 2:11 and 10:46 as ’praising God for His greatness and mighty deeds’.”

7. What word does Paul repeat throughout verses 7 to 11? How does verse 11 tie this section together? Why is Paul emphasizing the Lordship of the Spirit over the giving of the gifts?

Paul wants to emphasize the centrality of the Spirit by repeating that no matter how differently the Holy Spirit manifests Himself, He is the one who is working through the gifts and is the one determining how the gifts are distributed. Note that Paul keeps the focus on the Giver—the Holy Spirit, not the gifts or the receivers—us. This is a corrective for our pride, which can appear when we boast by showing off our gifts, or feel insecure and criticize our lack of importance. In either case, our eyes are not on the Lord but ourselves, which can create tension and disunity as we pull away from the Head towards our own interests.

10 8. What analogy does Paul use for the church in verse 12? What is his point?

Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ. This image illustrates that while we are all joined in Christ, and thus one unit, we are also very different and quite numerous. Many teach that Paul’s emphasis is on our unity, but if Paul is correcting the Corinthians wrong assumption that we all need to be alike (e.g., pray in tongues) to be truly spiritual, then he is emphasizing the importance of diversity (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 602). When Paul writes, “So it is with Christ,” he may be indicating the church, the body of Christ, but using a form of speech that refers to the whole of something by mentioning the part (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 603). As an example, we might say someone was studying “Shakespeare” meaning all his writings, not just his personal life, or a tour guide might say some land belongs to the “crown” referring to the royal ruler, not merely the jewelry that is worn on the head (Encyclopaedia Britannica.com).

9. What two pictures in verse 13 refer to how we are included in the life of Jesus through the Spirit?

The key to understanding what Paul is saying in verse 13 is the word “Spirit” that is repeated in each half of the sentence. Paul is probably using a “Semitic Parallelism,” two similar phrases meaning the same thing. Paul is NOT talking about water baptism and he is NOT implying a second experience of being baptized with the Spirit. Paul is using imagery here—baptism and drinking—to describe all Christians’ common experience with the Holy Spirit. He is most likely referring to salvation, when we are born again by the work of the Holy Spirit. This is what unites us—being converted from children of wrath to children of God by the gracious work of God’s Spirit. He says we are immersed in and filled up with God’s Spirit (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 604—606).

Your group members may disagree over what these verses mean. However, in the New Testament, when the dative case is used with the verb “baptize,” there is no indication that the Spirit is the agent of baptism. In other words, when the verb “baptize” is used with an object that is receiving or being acted on, the one doing the baptizing is not the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Holy Spirit is what one is being baptized into (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 606). Also the Greek preposition en, translated as “in, with, or by,” used in verse13, cannot be interpreted to mean that the believers were baptized in water resulting in the gift of the Spirit (Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 197).

While Paul sees the Spirit being received at conversion, he does not disregard further experiences of being renewed or empowered in the Spirit. He assumes this in using the present tense in several letters: Galatians 3:5, “Does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you…”; Ephesians 5:18, “be filled with the Spirit”; and possibly 1 Thessalonians 4:8, “who gives you his Holy Spirit” (Fee, Paul, the Spirit, pp. 200—202).

For Paul, the Spirit of God is what defines the Christian from the non-Christian. He sees the Spirit as the unifying factor among such diverse believers as Jews and Greeks (racial), slaves and free (social and economic). It’s unfortunate that our pride, mistrust, and lack of genuine experience in the Spirit has caused different branches of the body of Christ to argue about the work of the Spirit so much in the past 50 years (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 606—607).

11 APPLICATION

[Your primary application should be ministry time in which you invite the Holy Spirit to manifest His presence and release gifts or empower your group in a fresh way to use the gifts they have received. The following questions may not be necessary if your group seems ready to move in this direction. Whatever you do to end the study discussion, be sure to allow time for the Spirit to minister as He chooses. We recommend that you avoid just sharing prayer requests and then interceding for the people who asked for prayer. Instead, first wait on the Spirit to see what He wants to do in your group.]

• Since the Spirit imparts His gifts to be used in ministry, and our group is an excellent place to minister to others both inside and outside our church, how do you think we could increase our reliance on the Holy Spirit’s manifesting His power? How do you think we could mature in our use of His gifts?

• How do you envision the Spirit gifting us outside our usual meeting time so that we might advance God’s kingdom among others?

• For those who regularly struggle with the idea that God couldn’t use them or that they are not “gifted,” let’s take time to lay hands on them and break that lie and ask for a fresh anointing of God’s Spirit in their lives.

• How many have taken the class, “Discovering Your Ministry”? As a small group, we could sign up and take the class together.

Before the meeting, check the church’s website or call the volunteer coordinator to get the next date the class is offered. While this will require investing time in the class and follow up appointments, it could help mobilize people to serve both within and beyond the group. If the group decides to participate, leaders and core members should set an example of attending as well as encouraging others also.

WRAPPING IT UP

Because each of us came to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, and because He is the life in us that is eternally alive, seeing Him work in us and through us should be a normal part of our Christian experience. As we gather in small groups and as larger expressions of the Body of Christ, we should see the gifts of the Spirit released when we are worshipping and going about the business of the kingdom. This week, as you pause to pray, ask the Lord to give you more expectation of His working through His Spirit, and try to slow your pace so you are tuned in to what God might be leading you to do in His power. Above all, don’t neglect time with the Father that is centered on enjoying Him and His Words. His gifts will come as we regularly abide, humbly ask for empowering, and continue to seek to do His will on earth as it is in heaven.

12 APPENDIX A: LEADER’S NOTES

I. Leader’s Notes on whether the gifts have ceased today or not.

These notes summarize Max Turner’s chapter on “Cessationism and New Testament Expectation,” (The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts, pp. 287—302), except where attributed to another source.

Some evangelical churches teach that the “sign gifts” (i.e. those which seem more supra- rational such as prophecy, healing, and tongues) ended with Jesus and the apostles. Often they argue that these gifts were used as signs of God’s divine approval or endorsement of the ministry of Jesus and His immediate circle. They maintain that once the church was established, and the Scriptures were formed, there was no more need to attest to the authenticity of the gospel etc. Any claims to further miracles are therefore false, and should be rejected. They strengthen their argument citing 1 Corinthians 13:8—12 in which Paul says that prophecy and tongues will cease.

The main voice in the past century for this position was a well-respected evangelical theologian, B.B. Warfield (1855—1921), who taught at Princeton Seminary. He fought liberalism in the Protestant church and is well known for his book The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (published after his death). However, he also wrote Counterfeit Miracles in which he claims the gifts had ceased with the early apostolic age.

One can counter Warfield’s arguments in the following ways:

1. God did not restrict miracles to time periods when significant revelation was being given, and therefore cannot be limited to serving as a testifying sign for certain periods of history. For example, miracles occur in Genesis, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles at times that did not necessarily mark special revelation.

2. Healings and exorcisms were part of the announcement of salvation that Jesus made, and while they signaled the coming of His kingdom, they were not primarily for that purpose. They not only evidenced that Satan’s rule was being broken, but also were acts of compassion beneficial to individuals.

In the Vineyard, we say that Jesus both proclaimed and demonstrated the kingdom of God, and healings and exorcisms were part of the promise of the kingdom foretold by the Old Testament prophets. Jesus’ miracles were a foretaste of the power of the kingdom, not merely signs pointing to it [Author’s comments].

3. Miracles and sign gifts were performed through others in the New Testament besides the 12 Apostles and Paul. Not only did Ananias lay hands on Paul to help restore his sight and Cornelius receive a vision and speak in tongues, but also the New Testament refers to others in the churches prophesying, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, and praying for the sick (healing).

Steve Robbins cites the following among many Scriptural references of those who operated in the Spirit’s gifts: the 70 (Luke 10:1, 9, 17—21); Stephen (Acts 7); Philip (Acts 8); Agabus (Acts 11:28; 21:10—11); Barnabas (Acts 14); Philip’s daughters (Acts 21:9), etc. In addition, members of the churches of Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia,

13 and Thessalonica experienced the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Robbins, “VLI Syllabus,” p. 5).

4. Another text used by cessationists is Hebrews 2:3—4. Wayne Grudem, cited by Turner, says that Hebrews 2:3 does not limit those who heard the gospel and worked signs to the original 12 disciples. Also, Grudem does not see in verse 4 that the gospel no longer would have signs and wonders accompany it.

5. The main thrust of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:8—12 is that prophecy, tongues and even knowledge will end when the perfect comes. Scholars have debated the meaning of “the perfect”; Warfield and others believed it refers to the body of Scripture being completed. Thus, once the church had determined the canon [officially accepted books of the Bible], prophecy would cease. However, it is highly unlikely that Paul thought the Corinthians would read “the perfect” as some future canon of Scripture that would not be formulated for centuries! And, even with the body of Scripture being closed, there are many things that we still only know “in part.”

II. Leader’s Notes on how spiritual gifts differ from talents or natural abilities.

You may have someone in your group ask how spiritual gifts or workings of the Holy Spirit are different from our natural talents or abilities. Paul does not discuss this topic per se, so do not spend a great deal of time on the subject. Some reason that because God is sovereign, whatever He imparts to us is a gift (Turner, p. 278). But we believe that we should not reduce the work of the Holy Spirit through an individual to a natural ability. “If it comes from God and is an impartation of grace, it’s a gift” (Robbins, Conversation).

At the same time, we believe that gifts must be developed or matured, similar to natural abilities. In other words, when the Spirit gives a gift, the individual may still need training and oversight in how to use that gift. This is important for leaders to understand since there may be people in your group who expect a gift to operate supernaturally without any effort on their part. You may also find yourself or others wanting to shut down someone using a gift immaturely. Instead, an inexperienced person needs encouragement and direction to grow in that gifting (Robbins, Conversation).

Spiritual gifts may work hand in hand with an individual’s background or innate strengths. The Apostle Paul serves as a good example of this. While Paul would not say that the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8—10 are simply the result of natural talents, he certainly had abilities in his own life that were developed through study and training, and that later assisted him in fulfilling God’s call to evangelize and establish new churches among the Gentiles (Turner, p. 278).

14 III. Leader’s Notes on how we view giftings versus offices in the church.

These notes summarize statements by Rich Nathan (“Prophecy,” pp. 26—27).

Some churches embrace a theology of a “Five-Fold Ministry” based on gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11—12. However we do not teach this at Vineyard Columbus for several reasons.

1. In these verses, Paul probably only mentioned four kinds of gifted people in the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers.

2. These people operating with the Holy Spirit’s gifts help prepare the rest of the Body of Christ to do the works of the Kingdom, because all of Christ’s followers are called to serve or minister [Ephesians 4:12, 16].

3. The two offices or roles clearly mentioned in the New Testament are elder (1 Timothy 3:1—7; Titus 1:5—9; Acts 14:23) and deacon [1 Timothy 3:8—13].

4. We do not believe that Scripture indicates that someone who regularly prophesies has the office of prophet with a governing function in and beyond the local body as the Five- Fold Ministry teachings support. We may recognize that certain people function more often in a particular gift, but we prefer not to label individuals as “prophet,” “evangelist,” “healer,” etc. since we are all called to seek the gifts of the Spirit, to share the gospel, and to pray for the sick throughout our lives.

15 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fee, Gordon D. Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

---. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

Madvig, Donald H. “Corinth.” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 1: A—D. Rev. ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.

Mare, W. Harold. “1 Corinthians.” The NIV Study Bible: New International Version. Ed. Kenneth Barker. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985.

“Metonymy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2005. Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. 3 Sept. 2005.

Nathan, Rich. “Prophecy.” Staff Meeting. Vineyard Church of Columbus, Westerville, OH. 31 July 2002.

Robbins, Steve. Conversation with general editor. 19 October 2005.

---. “RE: a few more questions.” Personal email to general editor. 26 Oct. 2005.

---. “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena.’” Breakout Session. Breathe Festival. 22 Jul. 2005.

---. “VLI Syllabus for Physical Healing I.” Westerville, OH: Vineyard Leadership Institute, 2004.

Turner, Max. The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts In the New Testament Church and Today. Rev. ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998.

Wimber, John. “Releasing Gifts in Us.” Equipping the Saints. Vol. 7, No. 4 Fall 1993. Association of Vineyard Churches. Vineyardusa.org. Association of Vineyard Churches. 27 Apr. 2005.

---. Spiritual Gifts Volume 1. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.

---. Spiritual Gifts Volume 2. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.

16 GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

PROPHECY

1 Corinthians 14

By Mary Youtz

God didn’t lose His voice two thousand years ago. Rich Nathan

Those who hope to reap a strong prophetic ministry tomorrow must sow the seeds of brokenness and character today. …

The church awaits mature, broken, prophetic individuals whose focus is on the well being of the Body of Christ rather than the well being of their gift. …

Isn’t the greater part of prophetic ministry to lead others by our lives before we lead them by revelation? This is what the prophet Samuel did (1 Sam. 12:2b-4).

Though the Lord often appeared to Samuel and spoke to him, Samuel still had to grow up before God and man (1 Sam. 3:21; 2:26). We read that Jesus grew before God and man (Luke 2:52). This concept of maturing our gift, as well as our character, is not new…just ignored. If Jesus had to grow through that process, how much more important is it for us to grow through that process?

A good character allows people to trust and give us favor. As one’s character matures, it enhances the individual’s gift. After Samuel’s time of growing in favor, God carried out two important things. First, God let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground (become void). Second, the word of Samuel was revealed to all of Israel (1 Sam. 3:19; 4:1).

John Paul Jackson

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

17 AIM OF THE STUDY • To understand the gift of prophecy and its value to the church. To learn how to discern a prophetic message and to deliver it, and to raise the expectancy in group members that they can hear from God.

KEY VERSE

“But those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. … Those who prophesy edify the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:3—4

PREPARATION

The authors of this series suggest you read over the notes on “How to Teach the Bible in Small Group” and “Some Practical Suggestions for Leading a Small Group Discussion” in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ Small Group Leadership Training Manual if you feel your inductive study skills are rusty. Next, before you go over the Scripture text, pray that God would give you direction for leading your group and teach you something relevant. Then, read through the passage, keeping an open heart and ear to the Lord. Finally, work through the Bible study notes and questions below.

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (·). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to put into practice in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

18 We highly recommend The New Bible Dictionary or The New Bible Commentary as excellent resources for further study.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc. In this study, it would be wise to make up index cards or bookmarks with the Scripture references from Deuteronomy 18:18, Jeremiah 1:9, and 1 Thessalonians 5:19—22 since they are read in the course of the discussion. You could ask a few group members to locate these verses and mark them ahead of the formal meeting time so they can turn there quickly at the appropriate time.

LEADER’S NOTES FOR THIS STUDY

There are many differences of opinion regarding the gift of prophecy both in defining it and in the practical delivering of its content. Therefore it’s important for leaders to know what Vineyard Columbus teaches and why we do things the way we do.

At Vineyard Columbus, we believe that prophecy is available to all (1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1, 5, 12, 39). Scripture lists the purposes of prophecy as: • Edification, which comes from the Greek for “building the house,” • Exhortation, which literally is “encouragement,” but can include admonition [warning], correction, and conviction, and • Comfort or consolation (Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 12—13).

Sometimes a prophetic word will impact unbelievers with a sense that the living God is present in a meeting when He reveals the secrets of their hearts (1 Corinthians 14:24—25). Prophecy can also be used for teaching (1 Corinthians 14:31) and guidance (Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 12—13). However, John Wimber often cautioned the church against the “dial-a-prophet” practice of seeking guidance (Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 12—13). We prefer to encourage believers to develop their personal relationship with God so that they learn to recognize the ways He speaks or communicates with them.

The Lord wants people to walk dependently upon him. We do not want to adopt a dial-a- prophecy model for our congregations. Most of our guidance will come through our own scriptural meditation, the guidance of pastors over us, and our own listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. (Wimber, “The Biblical Basis for the Gift of Prophecy,” cited by Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 28)

Also, we do not designate individuals as “prophets” in the Old Testament sense of the word. See more on this idea in “Appendix A III. Leaders’ Notes on How we View Giftings versus Offices in the Church” in the first study in this series and in this study under question number two. Gordon Fee explains that the Greek text in 1 Corinthians 12 does not support the idea of a separate group of individuals in the church known as “the prophets.” Paul’s concern is for the way prophecy is functioning in the church—the way that individuals are prophesying—not with an elite band of people (Fee, pp. 694—695). We do not see that those prophesying in Acts and the Epistles were on equal footing with the infallible prophets of the Old Testament times (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 8). We do not yield governmental authority to those who prophesy unless they also are called to be an elder or pastor in a church. We don’t read in 1 Peter 5:5 to be subject to the prophets but rather, “Be subject to the elders or shepherds (pastors)” (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 18).

19 Finally, we believe that all prophetic words must be in agreement with and judged by Scripture. We encourage godly individuals with discernment to judge prophetic words before they are delivered in a large meeting, whereas we permit more of an experimental atmosphere in our small groups where individuals are known by the leaders and can be encouraged to test and grow in their giftings. Nevertheless, we would never treat a prophetic word as superior to the Holy Bible.

The quotes and explanations of theological issues in the leaders’ notes are to help answer questions about prophecy and its use. However, you do not have to read aloud or even share them in entirety with your group members. In general, try to keep your group focused on the verses in this study, and suggest that theological questions on other passages be kept to a minimum or discussed at another time. The primary point of this teaching is to equip group members to receive and give prophetic messages from the Spirit of God. Debating over other matters may be counter-productive.

If you or group members would like to read more about these or related issues, refer to the sources in the bibliography. Also, see the related study on the gifts of the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and discerning of spirits. To help avoid confusion about “the word of knowledge,” Dr. Steve Robbins’ clarification of this gift and the gift of prophecy is below (“VLI Syllabus for Physical Healing I,” p. 4):

The term “word of knowledge,” as used by Pentecostals and Charismatics throughout the 20th century, has not been well rooted in biblical and contemporary sources. The God-given ability to know what is going on in someone’s body or in their life is an aspect of prophecy. When Jesus asks the woman at the well (John 4) to go get her husband and the woman answers that she has no husband, Jesus said she was right because she already had 5 husbands and the man she was now living with was not her husband. The woman’s response was not, “Sir, I perceive you have a word of knowledge”; but, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet!” (John 4:19). It was always the prophet’s stock-in- trade to have supernatural insight into a person’s heart and life. This was true of various prophetic figures in the OT as well (Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, etc.). Compare 1 Cor. 14:24-25 for an evangelistic use of this kind of prophecy. So, what the Pentecostals and Charismatics have been calling a “word of knowledge,” we should really call “prophetic insight.” And what many Evangelicals call the “illumination of Scripture” or commonly, “That verse jumped out at me” or “God spoke to me through that verse,” is what Paul calls “the word of knowledge” (1 Cor. 12:8).

OPENER

Have you ever felt like God was revealing something to you? What did you do with that information? What effect did that have on you and on others?

Allow a few people in your group to share.

Would you call that revelation from God “prophecy”? Why or why not?

Ask for brief feedback. Don’t pass judgment on answers or try to teach at this point.

20 In this study, we will study prophecy’s purpose as well as how to receive and deliver prophecy. In order to be sure we are all discussing the same gift of the Spirit, here are two similar definitions for prophecy we have used in the Vineyard:

1. “Prophecy is the human report of a divine revelation. Prophecy is the speaking forth in merely human words of something that God has spontaneously brought to mind“ (Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy, cited in Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 6).

2. “The Gift of Prophecy declares the heart of God in the power of the Spirit directed to the need of the moment (to a gathering of believers or to an individual)—bringing conviction (convicting those in sin, convincing the unbelieving, comforting the hurting, and strengthening the resolve of those needing encouragement in their godly pursuits)” (Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts,” p. 6).

In the Vineyard, we believe that God has been speaking to people throughout human history. We find evidence of this in the Bible and in the records of Christian history right up to our day. Let’s pray and dig into Scripture to learn more about how God speaks and why He wants to speak to us today.

Pray that God’s Holy Spirit would be present to teach and to give His gifts to your group. Pray that he will help you understand the gift of prophecy and its proper use. Pray also that each person would experience His filling and grow closer to God through your study and ministry time.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This is background material for leaders. You may decide what to share with your group.

Paul had visited Corinth and founded the church there between 49 and 51 A.D. (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 6). He stayed one and a half years in this city (Acts 18:11)—a much longer time period than what he had spent in many other cities in which he preached the gospel. Corinth was a strategic location for spreading the kingdom message and work. It was prosperous because the trade routes by land (north and south) and sea (east and west) from Italy to Asia passed through it (Madvig, p. 772). It had been a strong Greek city-state but was destroyed in 146 B.C. when conflict with Rome arose. In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar rebuilt it and many flocked to it because it offered so much commercial promise. It was a melting pot of Greek culture and Roman citizenship; wealthy merchants and laboring poor; freedmen and slaves. The religious climate included pagan temples, mystery religions, and Judaism. The church in Corinth reflected this eclectic mix, although this letter to the church implies there were more members from a Gentile rather than Jewish background and not many were wealthy (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 1—4).

21 church and Paul strongly disagree over seems to be the idea of what it means to be “spiritual” indicated by the Corinthians emphasizing speaking in unknown tongues (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 10). They seemed to think that they had already reached a higher spiritual plane, a “life in the age to come” indicated primarily by this gift. This false view of what it meant to be indwelt and gifted by the Holy Spirit may have caused a rejection of the human body or its importance, a denial of the future resurrection body, and a discrediting of Paul’s admittedly weak, servant-like ministry (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 10—15).

This letter contributes several major teachings for the church in every era: a view of the kingdom as “already” but “not yet”; an understanding of ethics rooted in living between the ages and our growing into the character of Christ; and the church as the temple of God indwelt by His Spirit as well as the church as the body of Christ (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 16—19). In Chapters 12 through 14, Paul wrote more to correct false notions of spirituality than to convey a precise doctrinal statement on spiritual gifts. Thus the gifts Paul mentions are representative of those the Spirit sovereignly gives (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 585), rather than the main checklist for every believer seeking to know how to be useful to the Lord. Paul’s famous chapter on Christ- like love was also a corrective for the pride and exclusiveness evident in attitudes expressed by some church members. In chapters 12 and 14, Paul tries to balance out the importance of gifts of the Spirit that are not merely for elevating one’s spiritual reputation. He encourages seeking gifts like prophecy or interpretation of tongues so that messages from God can benefit all hearers. While not opposed to praying in unknown languages, Paul points out the limits of who can benefit from this gift without someone interpreting them for the congregation and visitors.

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 14:1—5, 23—26, and 29—33

1. Let’s read 1 Corinthians 14:1—5, and 29—33 aloud.

What does Paul mean by “prophecy” or “to prophesy” (vv. 3, 30)?

Paul states that prophecy is speaking revelation from God to other humans. He says that it is to strengthen, encourage, and edify [build up] the church.

All [Biblical] prophecy is based on revelation. In 1 Cor. 14:30, Paul wrote, If a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first remain silent. The [Greek] verb “to reveal” (apokalupto) occurs 26 times in the New Testament, and the noun “revelation” occurs 18 times. In every instance, the reference is to divine activity, never to human communication. Prophecy is not based on a hunch, a supposition, an inference, an educated guess, or sanctified wisdom Prophecy is not based on personal insight, intuition, or illumination. Prophecy is not based upon careful study of the biblical text. Prophecy is the human report of a divine revelation. (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 9)

2. What was the purpose of Old Testament prophecy? Let’s read Deuteronomy 18:18 and Jeremiah 1:9.

The main function of Old Testament prophets was to be messengers from God sent to speak to men and women with words from God. … [(Jeremiah 29:8—9)]. The authority of the prophets was not limited to the general content or just the main idea of their messages. Rather, they claimed repeatedly that their very

22 words were words that God had given them to deliver. … [See Deuteronomy 18:18; Jeremiah 1:9].

It is not surprising that we find Old Testament prophets very frequently speaking for God in the first person. … [See 1 Kings 20:13; Isaiah 45:5]. To disbelieve or disobey the prophet is to disbelieve or disobey God. … We do not find in the Old Testament any instance where the prophecy of someone who is acknowledged to be a true prophet is “evaluated” or “sifted” or “tested” so that the good might be sorted from the bad, the true from the false. Rather, what we find in the Old Testament is that every prophet is judged or evaluated, but not the various parts of every prophecy. (Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, pp. 17—23, cited in Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 6—7).

3. What are the purposes of New Testament prophecy?

Refer back to 1 Corinthians 14:3—4. Paul mentions the purposes are to strengthen, to encourage, to comfort, and to edify the church. You may want to refer to the purposes listed in the “Leader’s Notes” at the beginning of this study. Mike Burkett describes these as • To edify—[to] build up the hearer to hope, have faith, etc. • To exhort—to urge someone strongly. • To admonish—[to] correct. • To comfort—[to] bring home to the person the Lord’s care and sufficiency in a struggle or [difficult] circumstance. (“The Fruit of the Spirit and The Gifts of the Spirit,” p. 3).

Be sure that your group members understand the difference between the Old Testament and New Testament prophets and how we view prophecy today.

A helpful definition of the New Testament gift of prophecy is offered by Wayne Grudem as follows: Prophecy is the human report of a divine revelation. …

The practical result of this definition of prophecy is that we would recommend that prophecies not be prefixed with “Thus sayeth the Lord” or even pretend to speak directly from God, “I, the Lord, say to you….” But rather, prefixing prophecies with words like “I feel the Lord may be saying to us…” or “I think the Lord is wanting us…” or “I have a sense that God is suggesting something like….” (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 8).

4. What are the reasons the church needs this gift?

Re-read 1 Corinthians 14: 23—26, 29, 31. The gift of prophecy gives us an immediate sense that God is with us and wants to share what is on His heart to us. Prophecy can strengthen, instruct, or encourage the church. Prophecy can convict unbelievers and make them aware of God’s omniscience. It may help them believe in His activity today.

23 You could refer to the example of Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4:1—42, but group members would need to read that text on their own at another time.

5. How does the gift of prophecy work in conjunction with the Scriptures?

True prophetic words from God will always agree with Scripture. They may help open our hearts to applying God’s Word or encourage us to stand firm on something God has revealed in His Word. “Avoid using prophecies to establish doctrines or practices that lack explicit [biblical] support” (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 17). Several examples would be that someone believes he has heard from the Lord and tells everyone to get rid of their TV sets (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 17) or that two people in the church who don’t know each other should marry right away. Scripture is always our foundation for judging truth, and wisdom is needed to interpret it correctly and in context.

The Bible is the final and all-sufficient treasury of every doctrine or theological truth that God will ever give. As Grudem points out, the doctrine of sufficiency of scripture gives us confidence that we will be able to find out what God requires us to think or do in every area of doctrine and ethics. Nowhere in church history, outside of scripture, has God added … things [that]… he requires us to believe or do. Scripture is sufficient to equip us for “every good work” and to walk in its ways is to “be blameless” in God’s sight (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 17).

Please refer to other comments in the section at the beginning of this study titled “Leader’s Notes For This Study.”

6. What guidelines does Paul give for sharing prophecy?

Re-read 1 Corinthians 14:29—33.

Point out the importance of keeping order in a public meeting when people are sharing a prophetic word. Paul wants to avoid the frenzy or ecstatic prophesying sometimes characteristic of pagan religions. When Paul mentions that only two or three speak, he probably means only two or three at a time and then some judging or discerning of the message should occur. Some might take his instructions to mean that he is limiting the total number of revelations given at a meeting (Fee, pp. 692—693), but this is not the case.

In Vineyard Columbus, especially at our large congregational gatherings, we use these guidelines (Robbins, “Guidelines”): • We want to know the person and see the evidence of Christian character in the prophet’s life. • We test all words against Scripture and reject anything that disagrees with the Old or New Testament. • We want the word to be timely for the congregation, not just random Scriptures or truisms. • We expect the word to lift up not weigh down those listening. We do not “beat the sheep” or condemn people through prophecy. • The word should bring health and grace to the church, not confusion or disorder.

24 • In our large corporate services, we ask anyone with a prophetic word to approach a pastor and ask for discernment before sharing the word publicly. In a small group, you may be more informal about this, but we do not want to relax every standard. The small group is an excellent place for learning what is a true prophecy and how to deliver prophetic messages.

• What attitudes do you think a prophet should demonstrate in sharing a word?

Rich Nathan suggests these: • Be humble. If it is the Lord speaking, the Holy Spirit will put power on the words. • Be loving. Remember Paul’s chapter on love comes in the middle of his writing about gifts in the church. • Be submissive to leaders. The prophet is not the leader of the church and needs the leaders to weigh his/her words carefully. • Be self-controlled. See Fee’s comment above about “frenzy.” • Be normal. In the Vineyard, we value being “naturally supernatural” (Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 19—20).

7. How does God expect us to respond to prophetic words? Let’s read 1 Corinthians 14:29 and 1 Thessalonians 5:19—22.

Those who are judging a prophetic message, the “others” in 1 Corinthians 14:29, are probably the leaders of the church, not a specific group of people set aside just to judge prophecy. In our small groups, the members can probably make the judgment as a whole (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 25), provided they are following the Lord sincerely and living submitted to Him and His Word.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:19—22, Paul tells the church to • not put out the Spirit’s fire; • not treat prophecies with contempt; • test everything, referring to prophecies; • hold on to the good, again with regard to prophecies; • avoid every kind of evil.

Paul is clear that prophecy should be judged: “Test everything. Hold on to the good.” Sometimes people hesitate to do this either because they fear quenching the Holy Spirit or because they find confrontation uncomfortable. Others simply get so excited about God speaking that they fail to judge the content (Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 20—21). But Paul was glad that the Bereans “…examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11, cited by Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 21). Failure to judge prophecy properly can lead to despising or doubting the use of it, as may have occurred in Thessalonica (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 22).

Paul later tells the same church in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “to stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter” (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 23). Therefore, prophecy should be compared with Scripture. We do not teach that prophetic revelation will correct or supersede any passages of the Bible or historically held church doctrine. Instead, the Bible is our plumb line for prophetic words.

25 We should also apply the criteria Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 1 Corinthians 14. Does the word build up or tear down? Does it encourage or comfort, or bring despair and distress? Does the word confirm what God is doing or what the teaching has been on? If it seems disruptive, creates fear, disunity, doubt, or self-hatred, then be wary (Nathan, “Prophecy,” pp. 23—24).

The church should test the prophet’s character, too. We need to ask ourselves, does this person have a heart for God, exhibit holy character, consistently show love for other Christians, and have a submissive attitude toward the leaders (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 24)? None of us will achieve sinlessness in a practical sense until we are face to face with Jesus and changed into His likeness. Therefore, we are not requiring perfection before someone can prophesy. However, the Holy Spirit’s fruit will be evident in an individual’s life if love for Jesus and others is a primary motivation. So, take time to examine the person as well as the message. [Note the quote on the opening page by John Paul Jackson, from “Prophetic Reformation.”]

Additionally, note that the ability to receive a message from God should not necessarily assure you that the person has the proper interpretation or application of it. This may be an area that leaders have to help group members mature in. “Interpretation, like revelation, comes from God (Genesis 40:8; 41:16, 25, 28, 39; Daniel 2:28; 4:18). To gain interpretation, we need to pray and seek God” (Nathan, “Prophecy, pp. 10—11). Once we get a word from God, we may need to ask Him to reveal who the prophecy is for, when it should be given, how much of it should be given, and what will bring about the greatest good for the church as a whole (Nathan, “Prophecy, p. 11).

APPLICATION

Every group should take time to invite God’s Spirit to manifest His presence and give revelatory gifts. Before you do this, you may want to use one of the following questions briefly.

• What is the value of the gift of prophecy to the church today?

You may ask group members to list off the purposes of prophecy and summarize its importance. Remember that it can be combined with other gifts to bring revelation for evangelism, teaching or healing, and guidance for the church, etc.

• What things might a person receiving a prophecy need to know or mature in?

You could emphasize they need to know how to recognize God’s voice; how to interpret the revelation so as not to distort or change its meaning; when to give the prophecy; to whom the prophesy should be shared; and how to share a prophetic message. Steve Robbins humorously points out that mature prophets come from immature prophets (Conversation)!

26 • How can we receive revelation from God?

There are many different ways we can “hear” from God through our senses. (Some of the above are cited by Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena,’” pp. 3—4.)

• Through an impression in one’s mind of a word or group of words, similar to Teletype. • Through seeing words written in the air or superimposed on people. • Through a picture in one’s mind or imagination, which could be symbolic or realistic, such as the part of a person’s body that the Lord is indicating is in need of healing. • Through seeing spiritual forces as shadows on people. • Through a Scripture that comes to mind or seems to jump out from the page at us as we are reading it. • Through feeling someone’s pain physically although we are not hurt. • Through hearing God speak inwardly or audibly. • Through dreams. • Through visions [visual impressions that seem to be in real space while we are awake]. • Through other senses such as smelling something foul indicating something God wants to deal with such as an unclean spirit; through feeling cold, fearful, agitated, etc. • Through your intuition: knowing with a certainty what God is revealing.

• Let’s take some time to wait on the Lord and allow Him to speak to us. Although it may be unusual for us to be silent five minutes, let’s be quiet and gently invite the Lord to bestow His gifts on us for ministering to one another.

You may want to spend time in worship and then invite the Holy Spirit to manifest His gifts. As a leader, modeling comfort with silence is important for the rest of the group. Be prepared to wait to offer what the Lord has shown you so that others can take the risk of sharing and testing the revelation they think they’ve been given.

WRAPPING IT UP

Prophecy is “the human report of divine revelation” (Grudem, cited by Nathan, p. 8). It is a gift from the Father who communicates with His children for the sake of building and expanding His church. It is not aimed at helping us probe our psyches and understand ourselves better. It is not something only a privileged few participate in, although it is a privilege to hear from Almighty God. It is a gift from a loving Father to those whom He sovereignly chooses to use. This week, let’s not only listen for God’s voice, but also ask Him, “Father, what areas do I need to mature in so that You might be able to entrust more prophetic service to me?”

27 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burkett, Mike. “The Fruit of the Spirit and The Gifts of the Spirit.” Life of the Disciple Class: An Introduction to the Holy Spirit. Vineyard Church of Columbus, Westerville, OH. 11 May 2004.

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

Jackson, John Paul. “Prophetic Reformation.” Equipping the Saints. Vol. 7, No. 4 (Fall 1993).

Nathan, Rich. “Prophecy.” Staff Meeting. Vineyard Church of Columbus, Westerville, OH. 31 July 2002.

Robbins, Steve. Conversation with general editor. 19 Oct. 2005.

---.“Guidelines for Discernment of Prophetic Words.” Handout. Vineyard Church of Columbus, Westerville, OH. 6 and 7 Dec. 2002.

---. “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena.’” Breathe Festival 2005. Heartland Conference Retreat Center, Marengo, OH. 21—24 July 2005.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

Wimber, John. Spiritual Gifts Volume 1. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.

Wimber, John. Spiritual Gifts Volume 2. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.

28 GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

SUPERNATURAL INSIGHT: WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, DISCERNMENT

Part One

1 Corinthians 12:7—11, Acts 10 and 15

By John Ebert and Mike Farley

God, in Christ and through the Spirit, used Paul as his instrument to write using the gifts that God had bestowed on him.

The same Spirit who gifted Paul with insight into Scripture, as well as with wisdom from the mind of the Lord to direct the Corinthians’ actions, also inspired the hearers who were open and receptive to God’s instrument…. God inspired Paul to use words that performed certain actions in the world. For those who responded in a self-involving way, their lives and their world changed. As they endeavored to behold the face of Christ in the admonitions of Paul, they would progressively change into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:18).

Steve Robbins

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

29 AIM OF THE STUDY • To understand the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and discernment. • To recognize the gifts in action. • To encourage group members to value, share, and receive Spirit-given wisdom, knowledge and discernment.

KEY VERSE

“To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, … to another distinguishing between spirits, ….” I Corinthians 12:8, 10b PREPARATION

The authors of this series suggest you read over the notes on “How to Teach the Bible in Small Group” and “Some Practical Suggestions for Leading a Small Group Discussion” in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ Small Group Leadership Training Manual if you feel your inductive study skills are rusty. Next, before you go over the Scripture text, pray that God would give you direction for leading your group and teach you something relevant. Then, read through the passage, keeping an open heart and ear to the Lord. Finally, work through the Bible study notes and questions below.

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (·). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to put into practice in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

30 We highly recommend The New Bible Dictionary or The New Bible Commentary as excellent resources for further study.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc.

STUDY-SPECIFIC PREPARATION

This study is divided into two parts; cover it over the course of two consecutive group meetings. At the end of each study part, plan for your group to have a time to wait expectantly for the Holy Spirit to operate through His gifts. Keep a close watch on the time you spend discussing the topics so that you will have adequate time to experience the gifts of the Spirit, which we hope will include the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and discernment. Because we want to cover all three of these gifts, and because the gifts are not easily defined in Scripture, this study provides definitions of the gifts, rather than spending most of the available time in inductive study to develop definitions. The definitions are taken primarily from notes Steve Robbins, PhD, presented at the 2005 Breathe conference. Additional supporting information and Scripture references are provided at the end of each study part in Appendices A and B: Leader’s Notes. You should not try to cover the Leaders’ Notes content with your group, due to time limitations. The notes are provided to help you grasp the concepts more clearly as you prepare.

The purposes of the Bible study components of this study are to: • Provide gift definitions so we have a common basis for understanding. • Provide illustrations of the gifts in action so we can better recognize when they are operating.

The study components support the Application section, where the group takes a period of time to allow and encourage the Holy Spirit to operate through the gifts.

Please explain to your group that while we do not want to ‘force-feed’ Bible definitions, it’s important to complete the study in a timely manner in order to provide adequate time for application at the end. You can provide additional information from the Leader’s Notes appendix to those with whom you need to have continued discussions about the gifts.

OPENER

Why does God give His gifts to the church? It’s to help us carry out His mission—not to reward us. The following is an example of how the gift of prophecy and word of wisdom provided supernatural direction at a critical point in our church’s history. The story was told by Rich Nathan, Senior Pastor, Vineyard Church of Columbus: The following summarizes Rich Nathan’s recounting of how a prophetic revelation and a word of wisdom provided supernatural direction at a critical point in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ history.

In 1990, our church was growing rapidly, and we began a search for a larger location in the north end of Columbus. We settled on an athletic club that we were going to remodel. The club had a boxing ring in which Buster Douglas trained before he won the heavyweight boxing championship against Mike Tyson.

Around the time I was beginning negotiations with the owner of the athletic club, we had a prophecy conference…. A person who is strongly gifted in the prophetic was invited [to

31 speak]. I picked him up at the airport and dropped him off at his room. We had absolutely no conversation about our building search.

That evening, before the meeting, he said, “Rich, I have something to share with you at the end of tonight’s talk. I had the most unusual experience when I fell asleep today. I believe God has a word for you.” All evening I was anticipating the word. I was hoping it would be something like, “I am with you,” says the Lord, “to bless you in your purchase of this athletic club, and I’m going to give you a million dollars to pay for it because you are my son.”

At the end of the meeting, our conference speaker said to me, “Rich, when I fell asleep, I had a vision of your city. The Lord took me around to different locations and different churches in the city.” …Then he said, “The Lord took me to an athletic club. Inside this club there was a boxing ring.”

Now, there was no way this guy would know about our negotiations with the athletic club, or that there was a boxing ring in the club. He had spoken to no one. We had talked with no one in the congregation about our plans and thoughts, since our negotiations were very preliminary.

He looked at me and said, “The Lord says that if you purchase that athletic club, it will plunge you into an unbelievable legal nightmare. But don’t worry, I have a surprise for you.”

I thought, “OH NO!” This athletic club was my dream. The other leaders were really excited about it. We were already talking about how we were going to redesign it. We then prayed as a leadership team and the counsel I got was to proceed with extreme caution. Since the word was so specific, [we would] see if the Lord would reveal the legal nightmare. A few days later, our attorney advised me that we shouldn’t continue negotiations because there were several serious legal problems related to a previous foreclosure action on the property that could take years to resolve and obtain a clear title.

I thought: OK! Thank you Jesus for protecting your people from making a huge mistake. Thank you for speaking. Within two weeks a realtor called us up and said, “A piece of property just came on the market on Cooper Road. The owners are getting old and they are ready to sell it.” And so we bought one of the very last remaining large parcels of land within the outer-belt on the entire north side of Columbus. That’s how we came to this location. It was God’s voice. We discovered his will (Nathan, “Discover”).

Not many of us get such specific revelations from God, but we do receive messages from the Lord, whether we call them by their biblical names or not. Perhaps you have been in a small group meeting or on an outreach project and your group needed direction. Did someone get an idea of how to proceed and it seemed just the right advice to follow? Or you may recall a time when someone had a thought that helped resolve two opposing viewpoints you had not been able to reconcile before. Those are what the Bible calls “a word or message of wisdom” (Robbins, Conversation). Another kind of revelation from God can come when we are studying Scripture. Have you ever been reading a portion of the Bible when a fresh insight came to mind or a verse came alive to you? That experience is what is called “a word or message of knowledge” (Robbins, Conversation).

32 In this study and the next, we will examine three gifts of the Spirit—the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and the discerning of spirits. Traditionally Pentecostal Christians group together wisdom, knowledge, and discernment (called “distinguishing between spirits” in the New International Version) as gifts of illumination (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 590, n. 40). Similarly, John Wimber linked discernings of spirits with the word of wisdom and word of knowledge as supernatural insight (Wimber, p. 6). That’s why these gifts have been combined for these studies.

Pray that the Holy Spirit would teach you about His gifts and that He would give your group wisdom, knowledge and discernment.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This is background material for leaders. You may decide what to share with your group.

In 1 Corinthians 12:7—11, Paul is writing about spiritual gifts, but his purpose is not to precisely define a specific set of gifts. Instead, he is seeking to correct misunderstandings about the function and use of spiritual gifts. Since the Corinthians may have been treating spiritual gifts as marks identifying the spiritual elite, Paul teaches that these gifts are “signs of God’s free grace” (Hays, p. 210) and “all members of the community receive gifts of the Spirit, not just a few leaders or spiritually super-endowed prodigies” (Hays, p. 211). Whereas the Corinthians have been using spiritual gifts for their own personal benefit, Paul teaches that the gifts are “for the benefit of the community as a whole, not merely the private edification of the individuals who receive the gifts” (Hays, p. 211). Paul wants the Corinthians and us to understand that the Holy Spirit gives these spiritual gifts as the Spirit wishes (Collins, p. 456), so receiving a spiritual gift does not necessarily indicate any particular worthiness or commendation of the recipient (Collins, p. 453). The Spirit gives these gifts in order to build up the church (Collins, p. 450), not to draw attention to special or particularly deserving individuals.

Paul includes a list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7—11 to illustrate the wide variety of gifts that the Spirit might give and to show how each person might receive a different gift (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 587, 589, 590). Because he is just giving some examples, this list does not include all possible spiritual gifts (Collins, p. 451; Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 164). In fact, Paul includes six other, different lists of spiritual gifts within the next few chapters—12:28, 12:29—30, 13:1—3, 13:8, 14:6 and 14:26 (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 585, n. 12)—and there are more differing lists in Romans 12:6—8, Ephesians 4:11—12, and 1 Peter 4:10—11 (Collins, p. 451).

Because Paul’s intent is not to define specific gifts, it is probably futile to try to determine exactly what Paul had in mind for each gift (Hays, p. 211). In fact, there is probably some overlap between similar types of gifts, like healing and miraculous powers. This is particularly true for the various kinds of speech—wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues (Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 168). Nonetheless, trying to distinguish between the gifts Paul mentions can give us some insight into the variety of ways that the Spirit may work in and through us.

Wisdom is not mentioned as a spiritual gift outside this passage (Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 168). However, Paul discusses wisdom at the beginning of 1 Corinthians, so he probably includes it in this list because it is of particular interest to the Corinthians (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 591; Hays, p. 211). Paul also discusses knowledge elsewhere in 1 Corinthians, so this may have been an important topic for the Corinthians as well (Hays, p. 211). Note that although Paul does

33 not list them next to each other, both Pentecostals and John Wimber did, so we have kept those groupings for convenience.

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 12:7—11.

1. Read 1 Corinthians 12:7—11 aloud.

According to 1 Corinthians 12:7—11, why does the Spirit give gifts?

The Spirit gives gifts for the common good, the good of the body. One purpose of this study is to learn how to share a gift if it is operating through you, and to learn how to support and benefit from a gift if it is operating through a brother or sister in Christ.

We will study three of the gifts mentioned in this passage. Provide these definitions (Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts,” pp. 1—2) to the group as an introduction to the gift-specific sections that follow: • Wisdom—gives us God’s direction. • Knowledge—gives us God’s instruction. • Discernment—God-given capacity to recognize the source and significance of spiritual activity.

Definition of WISDOM

2. Let’s discuss the gift of the message of wisdom (v. 8). Steve Robbins (“Spiritual Gifts,” p. 1) provides the following information about the supernatural gift of wisdom.

Definition: The word of wisdom gives us God’s direction—to lead a group, solve a problem, discern God’s plan, or to please God with an ethical course of action. God shows us what He sees so we know what to do.

The gift provides comprehensive direction that is very important in any leadership role, and especially in the church and family.

Illustrations of the gift include: • Solomon’s insight: 1 Kings 3 (two prostitutes arguing over the baby). • James’ decision based on Paul & Barnabas’ testimony, the Old Testament prophets, unity of the church (Jewish sensitivities), and gift of wisdom. • John Wimber’s leadership: from 8 to over 400 churches, 1982—1997. • Rich Nathan’s leadership [e.g., guidance of Vineyard Columbus].

Generalizing from the above information and other Scripture (see Appendix A: Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Wisdom), we can define a message of wisdom as any Spirit-given insight that enables us to see things from God’s point of view. It can take a number of forms, such as: • Insight into God’s plan that gives “direction: to lead the assembly, to solve a problem, or to please God with an ethical course of action” (Robbins, Charismata, p. 199; see also pp. 186—187). • Recognition of God’s principles and values, as opposed to human principles and values.

34 The opener account of how God provided direction at a key point in our church’s history is a good example of the gift of wisdom in operation: God provided the gift of wisdom, which informed leadership decisions and prompted obedience.

We will look at an example of wisdom from Acts 15 in the second part of this study.

*Have any of you ever had God give you a solution to a problem you couldn’t solve on your own? Perhaps you thought you had to decide between the lesser of two evils until God supplied another idea?

Leader: The goal is for group members to hear from someone they know a short account about an experience where someone gave or received a word of wisdom in a group setting. It could be related to a person’s experience during the time related in the opener.

For Additional Information, see Appendix A: Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Wisdom.

Definition of KNOWLEDGE

3. Now we’ll move on to discuss the gift of the message of knowledge (v. 8).

Steve Robbins (“Spiritual Gifts,” p. 2) provides the following information about the supernatural gift of knowledge.

Definition: The word of knowledge gives us God’s instruction by granting us Spirit-inspired insight into previously given revelation (usually Scripture). It causes us to recognize God’s voice and acknowledge His will.

The gift provides specific understanding as God speaks through a particular passage, command, promise, or encouragement of Scripture. Reformers called this “illumination.” It is Spirit-inspired insight that brings edification through instruction.

Illustrations of the gift include: • Inspired teaching. For example, Romans 6, where Paul teaches the walk of obedience through the symbolism of the ordinance of baptism. • Paul’s insight into the shema [the Jewish Scripture proclaiming the one-ness of God in Deuteronomy 6:4] which he commented on in 1 Corinthians 8:6 and its implications for Corinthians eating meat offered to idols in 1 Corinthians10:19— 20.

Generalizing from the above information and other Scripture (see Appendix A: Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Knowledge), we can identify the following examples of “messages of knowledge”: • ”Spirit-inspired insight into previously given revelation either through the Scriptures or prophecy “from which one could teach and others could learn” (Robbins, Charismata, p. 199; also Fee, First Corinthians, p. 593). • Spirit-inspired teaching.

35 Illustrations of Knowledge in Operation

4. Read Acts 10:9—29 aloud.

Which verses in this passage illustrate the spiritual gift of knowledge?

Acts 10:9—16 records a vision that Peter saw. Although he knows it is from the Lord, verse 17 indicates that Peter does not know what it means yet. This vision is an example of prophecy (Robbins, Comments). Verse 19 contains another example of a prophetic revelation from God. The Spirit tells Peter that three men have come looking for him. In verse 20, the Spirit gives Peter instructions on what to do. His response is to obey the Spirit. Verse 22 indicates that Cornelius also received knowledge of God’s will through a supernatural revelation (Robbins, Comments). Like Peter, he responds by doing what the Spirit says.

In verse 28, Peter states that his previous understanding of Jewish law is that he should not be visiting a Gentile. However, as a result of a revelation from God, probably the vision recorded in 10:10—16, Peter has received a new insight into God’s view of who is pure. As a result of the revelation, Peter has come to Cornelius’ house—something he probably would not have done if God had not made this known to him. This is an example of a message of knowledge as teaching based on insight into previous revelation or Scripture. As a result of the revelation, Peter has a new insight into Scripture: he does not need to avoid contact with Gentiles in order to please God and God is concerned about the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Later, Peter will use this as a basis for teaching the church (Acts 15:7—11).

• Will someone who has experienced the gift of knowledge briefly describe a time when God caused a Scripture to stand out as you were reading, and you knew it was God speaking to you?

Leader: The goal is for group members to hear from someone they know a short account about an experience with the gift of knowledge. Sometimes you know that God is causing a verse or passage to have special emphasis so that we could recognize God still speaks to us, or so we would acknowledge and follow His will. An example of when Jesus opened the meaning of the Scriptures was with the two disciples en route to Emmaus (Luke 24:27, 32) and later with all His disciples (Luke 24:45, cited by Robbins, Comments).

For Additional Information, see Appendix A: Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Knowledge.

APPLICATION

• What is the value of the gift of wisdom to our small group and the church as a whole? How is the gift of knowledge helpful? What can we do to cultivate these gifts?

36 • The best application for this study is to ask the Holy Spirit to give us these spiritual gifts for ministry. Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to come and take some time to wait for Him to act. Then we’ll have an opportunity to share what we think He has revealed and respond appropriately.

Leader: If your group has little experience with spiritual gifts, briefly review the information under “Steps to Awareness,” below. Otherwise, begin your time of openness to see how the Holy Spirit will operate through group members.

If the group already needs direction from God about some issue or about pursuing some opportunity for mission/outreach, it would be great to seek the Holy Spirit’s direction for that. However, waiting for Holy Spirit without a specific topic can be good, too, because it gives the Holy Spirit freedom to guide the group in some new, possibly unexpected direction.

STEPS TO AWARENESS

People without much experience in spiritual gifts often believe that it will be obvious when the Holy Spirit speaks or acts, and that when it happens, they will be certain that what they are saying or doing is really from the Holy Spirit. (The prototypical introduction of a prophecy with “Thus saith the Lord” declares a certainty that discourages questioning!) Although the Holy Spirit does sometimes speak in ways that are unmistakably clear, it typically takes practice and experience to reliably recognize when the Holy Spirit is working. In addition, the Holy Spirit often directs different people in different ways, so each person may need to learn how the Holy Spirit works through them.

In order to help those who have little or no experience with spiritual gifts, it might be helpful to suggest the following three steps:

1. Perceive—The first step is simply to be aware, to quiet your thoughts and look, listen and feel in order sense how the Holy Spirit might be speaking or directing you. The Holy Spirit has been known to speak in a variety of different ways. The following list contains some examples, but the Spirit is not limited just to these. He may communicate in other ways, too: • Through an impression in your mind. • Through a picture in your mind. • Through a Scripture that comes to mind or seems to jump out from the page at you as you are reading it. • Through feeling someone’s pain physically although you are not hurt or ill. • Through hearing God audibly (words or sounds). • Through seeing spiritual forces such as shadows on people. • Through seeing words written in the air or superimposed on people. • Through dreams. • Through visions [visual impressions that seem to be in real space while you are awake]. • Through other senses such as smelling unclean spirits, etc. (Some of the above are cited by Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena,’” pp. 3—4).

37 2. Risk—Once you identify a message, a thought, a feeling or something else that might be from the Holy Spirit, you need to take the risk of sharing it with others. This can be uncomfortable because what you share may turn out not to be from the Holy Spirit at all. However, if it is from the Holy Spirit, then other people may be able to recognize and confirm this.

It is important to remember that God loves you and wants to speak and work through you. Yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit through a prayer like “Lord, I want to be used by you. Please guide me.” may be helpful when you start waiting to hear from God. If you continue to yield to God and seek Him, He will find ways to speak and act through you, and you will learn to more accurately recognize when it is God who is working in you.

If you think you have received something from God, but you aren’t sure, you might pray something like this: “Lord, I think you want me to share this message with that person. If this is not from you, please ‘close the door’ so I don’t have a chance to speak with that person. If this is truly from you, then please give me an opportunity to share this with them.” This doesn’t solve everything because you still have to sense whether God is giving you an opportunity or not. If the other person gets up and leaves immediately after you pray this, then God may be letting you know that you were not to share this. If the message is truly from God, then God may bring it to mind the next time you see the person and you can share it then. If not, then you can probably let it go. On the other hand, if you get up and leave immediately, then you may be allowing your own fear to prevent yourself from being used by God.

If you think someone is sharing a word of wisdom, knowledge, or discernment that is intended for you, then you assume risk in acknowledging that the word might apply to you. You can take a risk, too, by acknowledging that the word might be for you. If you are uncertain, then simply ask God if it is for you, and listen for His response. You can also seek mature Christian counsel to validate or invalidate it, but a word from the Lord for you should ring true in your own spirit.

3. Humble yourself—When you take the risk to share something that you believe you have received from God, you should do it with humility. Instead of saying “God told me this,” it is often better to say something like “I think that God might be saying this.” As Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 14:29, it is the responsibility of other believers to discern and confirm when a message is from God. You should offer what God has given you and accept instruction and encouragement from others (1 Corinthians 14:31), so that you can learn to better recognize how the Holy Spirit wants to speak and work through you.

Humility also applies to the other believers who are discerning, confirming, instructing, and encouraging those who share. Telling someone directly “that is not from God” is probably not the best approach in most cases. If you don’t really know whether something is from God, then it may be best to say nothing. If the Holy Spirit indicates to you that there is something wrong, you could try to gently suggest a correction, such as “I’m not sure how what you shared is consistent with this passage in the Bible” or “do you think God might be saying…” followed by an improved version of what they shared. Only if someone shares something that is dangerously misleading (“the Holy Spirit told me we should all bow down to Satan” or “I think God is directing you to poison yourself”) or if a person has developed a pattern of sharing things which don’t seem to be from God should you take a strong stance publicly against what is shared.

38 The main purpose for weighing carefully what someone said is not to protect the church from things which are not from God, but to help believers grow in their ability to recognize and respond to the Holy Spirit. So while care is needed in responding to things which are questionable, when someone shares something which seems to be from God, you should try to recognize and encourage them as well as accept and respond to what they have shared.

WRAPPING IT UP

Even if we are still learning the differences between the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12:8—10, we can use what we have learned today to ask for those gifts that will make Christ’s Body more mature. Messages of wisdom or knowledge and the gift of distinguishing between spirits, along with prophecy, help us understand the Lord’s will as we seek to love and obey Him. Studying these gifts might help us distinguish between them, but it is more valuable to broaden our understanding of the variety of ways in which the Holy Spirit may be working. The most important distinction is not among the various gifts, but between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and human or even demonic activity. So be sensitive to how the Holy Spirit may be working through you, risk sharing with others what the Holy Spirit has given you, and accept with humility the guidance of the Holy Spirit gives you through others.

APPENDIX A: LEADER’S NOTES ON THE GIFTS OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE

Use the Scripture and comments in this appendix as needed to clarify your understanding of the gifts in preparation for the study.

I. Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Wisdom

A. Mark 8:27—35 This passage helps illustrate the difference between human wisdom and the spiritual gift of wisdom.

Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Christ (v. 29). (According to Matthew 16:17, this in itself was made known to Peter by God.) However, he understands the role of the Christ in terms of human wisdom. From this perspective, the Christ is supposed to overthrow Roman rule, become king and make the Jewish nation the greatest nation in the world. It is all about power and glory, for Peter and the Jews. Peter cannot understand how the Christ could be rejected and killed and rising again makes no sense to him at all (v. 31). When Peter voices his objections, Jesus rebukes him for seeing things from a human perspective instead of from God’s perspective (v. 33). Only later, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is Peter able to see that this was truly God’s plan and to preach that salvation was made available to humans through the crucified Christ (Acts 2:4, 22—24, 36—38).

After rebuking Peter, Jesus gives more messages of wisdom, expounding God’s principles for life: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. While neither of these makes sense from a human perspective, with insight given by the Spirit, we can live out these principles and discover that they do make sense according to God’s plan.

B. 1 Corinthians 1:18—25

39 This passage helps explain what Paul means by wisdom.

Paul identifies two opposing kinds of wisdom in this passage, “the wisdom of the world” (v. 20) or “man’s wisdom” (v. 25) in contrast to “the wisdom of God” (v. 21).

The wisdom of the world is what people think you need to know and do to be successfully in life. It also implicitly defines what it means to be successful. For example, according to the wisdom of the world, having enough money for a comfortable retirement is important, so saving for retirement is something that a wise person would do. Human wisdom says that power is important, so you should either work to attain a position of power for yourself or build relationships with people in positions of power. Intelligence and persuasive abilities are other things valued by the wisdom of the world, so you should learn as much as you can, spend time with other intelligent people, practice your ability to influence others and befriend people with influence.

While the wisdom of the world may be effective in dealing with the world, it is ultimately foolishness because it is not able to bring us into relationship with God. “A God discovered by human wisdom will be both a projection of human fallenness and a source of human pride, and this constitutes the worship of the creature, not the Creator. The gods of the ‘wise’ are seldom gracious to the undeserving and they tend to make considerable demands on the ability of people to understand them, hence they become gods only for the elite and ‘deserving’ “ (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 73). Human wisdom glorifies humans; in order to bring glory to Himself, God chose the foolishness of the crucified Christ as the means of salvation for humans.

“It is hard for those in the Christianized West, where the cross for almost nineteen centuries has been the primary symbol of faith, to appreciate how utterly mad the message of a God who got himself crucified by his enemies must have seemed to the first century Greek or Roman [or Jew]. But it is precisely the depth of this scandal and folly that we must appreciate if we are to understand both why the Corinthians were moving away from it toward wisdom and why it was well over a century before the cross appears among Christians as a symbol of their faith” (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 76).

“To proclaim a crucified Messiah is to talk nonsense. Crucifixion was a gruesome punishment administered by the Romans to ‘make an example’ out of rebels or disturbers of the Pax Romana [a 200-year period of ‘peace’ across the Roman Empire that was based on harsh enforcement of Roman law]. As a particularly horrible form of public torture and execution, it was designed to demonstrate that no one should defy the powers that be” (Hays, pp. 30). Furthermore, the Jews knew from Deuteronomy 21:22—23 that anyone who was crucified (“hung on a tree”) was cursed by God (Collins, p. 92). So the crucified one was rejected by both humans and by God; how could such a one be God’s chosen? “Yet Paul’s gospel declares that the crucifixion of Jesus is somehow the event through which God has triumphed over those powers. Rather than proving the sovereignty of Roman political order, it shatters the world’s systems of authority. Rather than confirming what the wisest heads already know, it shatters the world’s systems of knowledge” (Hays, pp. 30—31).

Human wisdom supports human self-sufficiency and human attempts to control everything. The foolishness of the cross asks humans to give up control and trust in God (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 68). Human wisdom elevates the successful and shuns the failures. Although the foolishness of the cross separates those who accept it from those who don’t, it unites all who accept it as equals before God (Collins, p. 102). Where human wisdom says people should get what they deserve, through the foolishness of the cross, God forgives and welcomes sinners instead of

40 condemning them. Where human wisdom would treat inferiors as slaves who should fear and obey, through the foolishness of the cross, God makes people into disciples who love and trust Him (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 78). “The wisdom of the world” makes sense in terms of the values of the world. Because God has different values from the world, “the wisdom of God” negates the wisdom of the world and turns it into foolishness.

With the understanding of wisdom described above, we can define a message of wisdom given through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8).

The primary example of God’s wisdom that Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 1:18—25 is the cross of Christ. From a human perspective, this does not make sense; it is “a stumbling block” and “foolishness” (v. 23). The only way someone can accept “Christ crucified” (v. 23) as God’s means of salvation is if the Spirit gives them insight—a message of wisdom—to see and accept it. So the first message of wisdom that each is given through the Spirit is the enlightenment that enables them to receive Christ.

Generalizing from this, we might say that a message of wisdom is any insight from the Spirit that enables us to see things from God’s point of view. This might include insight into God’s plan, so it could be understood as giving “direction: to lead the assembly, to solve a problem, or to please God with an ethical course of action” (Robbins, Charismata, p. 199; see also pp. 186— 187). It might also include recognition of God’s principles, things that make sense in terms of God’s values. Because God’s values are often counter-intuitive to human logic, it can take a gift of the Spirit for us to be able to recognize and implement them.

II. Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Knowledge

A. Clarifying Terms: Word of Knowledge

Steve Robbins provides the following explanation (“VLI Syllabus for Physical Healing I,” p. 4):

B. 1 Corinthians 8:1—4 and 5—13 teaches us about the Gift of Knowledge.

In verse 1, Paul gives an example of knowledge: “we know that we all possess knowledge.” He gives two more examples in v. 4: “an idol is nothing at all in the world” and “there is no God but one” are both things that “we know”. Since either an idol is something or it isn’t and either there is one God or no gods or many gods, it appears that Paul defines knowledge as facts or information about reality. However, Paul also sees a problem with knowledge: “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (v. 1) (Collins, p. 312). This is a wonderful visual picture. Knowledge makes the possessor look bigger or more important, but there is little substance behind it. Love, on the other hand, builds something substantial, which looks important because it really is important (Hays, p. 145). Paul’s point is that, like wisdom, human knowledge feeds human self- sufficiency and pride.

In verse 7, Paul notes the claim in verse 1 that “we all possess knowledge” is not true; everyone does not know these things. Consequently, those who possess knowledge may consider themselves the elite who are more mature than “the weak” (v. 9). Even worse, by acting on their knowledge, those in-the-know may lead those who are weaker to do things they should not do, causing them to sin and resulting in their destruction (v. 11) (Collins, p. 323; Hays, pp. 142, 144).

Paul does not mean to say that knowledge itself is bad. Paul is concerned with what we do with our knowledge: do we use it to puff up ourselves or do we use it, in love, to build up others (Collins, p. 318)?

The 1 Corinthians 8 comments above help us understand more about the definition of a message of knowledge given by the Spirit.

The examples of knowledge that Paul gives are pieces of information. So one definition of a message of knowledge is factual information that could not be known apart from the Spirit (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 592—593). Charismatics and Pentecostals have often used the term “word of knowledge” to refer to “the revelation of secret information about an individual, their sins, a hidden trauma, a name, and an illness.” However, this sort of revelation seems to be more accurately described as prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:24—25) (Nathan, “Prophecy,” p. 15).

Another idea is based on the observation that “idols are nothing” and “there is only one God” are things that can be taught based on Scripture. From this, it has been suggested that a message of knowledge is a Spirit-inspired insight into previously given revelation either through the Scriptures or prophecy “from which one could teach and others could learn” (Robbins, Charismata, p. 199; also Fee, First Corinthians, p. 593). In this perspective, prophecy is a revelation that would be consistent with Scriptures and knowledge is an expansion or clarification of a Scripture or previous insight.

42 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collins, Raymond F. Sacra Pagina Series: Volume 7: First Corinthians. Ed. Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

Gempf, Conrad. New Bible Commentary, 21st Century Edition. Ed. Carson, D. A., et al. Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1994.

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Ed. F.F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

---. Paul, the Spirit and the People of God. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians: Interpretation: A Biblical Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997.

Ladd, George Eldon. A Theology of The New Testament, Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993.

Nathan, Rich. “How to Discover God’s Will for Your Life.” Sermon delivered at Vineyard Church of Columbus. 22/23 May 2004.

---. “Prophecy.” Staff Meeting. Vineyard Church of Columbus, Westerville, OH. 31 July 2002.

Robbins, Steven C. Charismata, Revelation, and the Authority of Scripture: A Theological, Philosophical, and Exegetical Study of the Implications of 1 Corinthians 12:8, 10. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 1998.

---.Comments on “Wisdom, Knowledge, Discernment.” 23 Oct. 2005.

---. Conversation with the general editor. 19 Oct. 2005.

---. “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena.’” Breakout Session. Breathe Festival. 22 Jul. 2005.

---. “VLI Syllabus for Physical Healing I.” Westerville, OH: Vineyard Leadership Institute, 2004.

Wimber, John. Spiritual Gifts Volume 2. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.

44 GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

SUPERNATURAL INSIGHT: WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, DISCERNMENT

Part Two

1 Corinthians 12:7—11, Acts 10 and 15

By John Ebert and Mike Farley

The discernment of spirits is the God-given capacity to recognize the source and significance of spiritual activity. Sources of spiritual activity can be divine (God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, angels), demonic, or human. Steve Robbins

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

45 AIM OF THE STUDY • To understand the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and discernment. • To recognize the gifts in action. • To encourage group members to value, share, and receive Spirit-given wisdom, knowledge and discernment.

KEY VERSE

PREPARATION

The authors of this series suggest you read over the notes on “How to Teach the Bible in Small Group” and “Some Practical Suggestions for Leading a Small Group Discussion” in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ Small Group Leadership Training Manual if you feel your inductive study skills are rusty. Next, before you go over the Scripture text, pray that God would give you direction for leading your group and teach you something relevant. Then, read through the passage, keeping an open heart and ear to the Lord. Finally, work through the Bible study notes and questions below.

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (·). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to put into practice in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

46 We highly recommend The New Bible Dictionary or The New Bible Commentary as excellent resources for further study.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc.

OPENER

If you have people participating in this week’s study who missed Part One, ask someone to re- read 1 Corinthians 12:7—11. Then ask if someone in the group can define the gifts of wisdom (v. 8) and knowledge (v. 8). This brief summary of the previous study will help you bridge to this second part on the gift of discernings of spirits with a final example of the gift of wisdom. Be prepared to briefly review the basic definitions from Part One of the study.

Then ask group members to share any experiences of receiving gifts of wisdom or knowledge since they studied Part One of “The Gifts of Wisdom, Knowledge, and Discernment.” Be prepared to share an example of when the Lord gave you wisdom or spoke through His Word to you if no one replies.

Use this time to encourage group members, even if they do not identify the gifts of the Spirit correctly, to continue to ask for the gifts that will build up the Body of Christ and enable God’s kingdom work to advance. While we want group members to know what each gift is and to mature in using the gifts, we hope to emphasize increasing expectation and use of the gifts. So, there may be times in which the gifts are handled immaturely or mislabeled. Demonstrate grace in correcting brothers and sisters so that they do not shut down and avoid taking risks in the group again.

Pray that your group grows in understanding, receiving, and using God’s gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and discernment so that the Body of Christ matures and carries on Jesus’ work in the world.

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 12:10, Acts 10:30—35, and 15:5—19.

Definition of DISCERNMENT

1. Now we’ll discuss discernment, the gift of distinguishing between spirits.

Steve Robbins (“Spiritual Gifts,” p. 2) provides the following information about the supernatural gift of discernment.

Definition: Discernment of spirits is the God-given capacity to recognize the source and significance of spiritual activity. Sources of spiritual activity can be divine (God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, angels), demonic, or human.

The gift provides Holy Spirit endowed recognition of the spiritual source behind an activity or event that could be the result of God’s work, but could also be the result of a demonic spirit or of human logic or human agenda. Because this gift can clarify our uncertainties, it can be seen in conjunction with what we think are the manifestations of other gifts—to identify their source or to confirm or deny the validity of their messages.

47 Illustrations of the gift include: • Recognizing the operation of the Holy Spirit. • Recognizing the operation of an evil spirit. For example, in Acts 16:16—18, Paul and others discerned that a girl was speaking by a spirit other than the Holy Spirit.

Based on the above information, related Scripture, and other authors’ understanding (see Appendix B: Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Discernment), we arrive at the following conclusions: • The gift can be given to evaluate many different phenomena. • Any spiritual gift of verbal communication can be subject to “distinguishing between spirits.”

Distinguishing between spirits, also called “discernment” or “discerning of spirits,” can be manifested in many different ways. For example, sometimes the Holy Spirit will show a word written over the face of a person or make a person appear transparent or opaque. Other times, the Holy Spirit’s presence is visible supernaturally, such as through a shining or glowing light around a person. Demonic activity is sometimes revealed by shadows or dark patches on a person’s face, or through seeing a shape superimposed over a portion of someone’s anatomy (Wimber, p. 7). Remember that these are only a few examples; the Holy Spirit may choose to reveal things in other ways, too.

Illustrations of Discernment in Operation

2. Read Acts 10:30—35 aloud.

How does this passage illustrate the spiritual gift of discernment and the gift of knowledge?

In verses 30—33, Cornelius recounts the supernatural experience that led him to invite Peter to his home. Because we already know the rest of the story, it is easy for us to accept that this vision is from God. However, this was not necessarily obvious to Peter as it was happening. As he mentioned earlier, Peter had been taught that associating with Gentiles would make a Jew unclean and unworthy to draw near to God (v. 28). Although the vision (vv. 10—16) and message (vv. 18—19) Peter had already received gave him some indication that God was behind the invitation from Cornelius, it was also conceivable that Satan was using Cornelius to defile Peter and discredit Peter’s ministry. Therefore, it was important for Peter to receive the gift of distinguishing between spirits ”in order to know whether Cornelius’ experience and invitation were truly from God or not. In verses 34—35, Peter states that he realizes that Cornelius’ invitation is from God, indicating that the Holy Spirit enabled him to discern the source.

Note that Peter’s statement in verses 34—35 might also be considered a message of knowledge because he now understands something about God that he did not grasp before. While this idea might have seemed new to Peter, it is actually consistent with what God had previously revealed in the Old Testament and through Jesus. Peter had not seen this before because the Jewish culture he had grown up in sought to preserve its distinctiveness by stressing the separation between Jews and Gentiles. Now Peter is learning that God had not rejected the Gentiles, but chose the Jews as a means of communicating His love to all people, both Jews and Gentiles.

• How many of you have felt or recognized the presence of evil or the presence of the Spirit of God? These are common experiences of the discernment of spirits. Can someone who has experienced the gift of discernment briefly describe an incident in which you were able to tell the difference between evil and God’s presence?

Leader: The goal is for group members to hear from someone they know a short account about an experience with the gift of discernment.

For Additional Information, see Appendix B: Leader’s Notes on the Gift of Discernment.

Illustration of the Gift of Wisdom in Operation

In the first study, we postponed looking at a Bible narrative of the gift of wisdom in operation in the early church. Our example of the gift of wisdom in Acts 15 is based on understanding the events described in the Acts 10 passages we looked at last time. Now that you have the Acts 10 background in mind, we’ll look at a related example of the gift of wisdom. The context is that some Jewish Christians came to Antioch where Paul and Barnabas lived, and began to insist that non-Jewish followers of Christ had to be circumcised like all Jewish males. Otherwise, they did not consider those non-Jews to be saved. Paul and Barnabas disagreed because this was adding a condition to being saved by faith in Jesus. Finally, the local church sent representatives to Jerusalem to ask the apostles and other leaders how to resolve this dispute (Acts 15:1—5).

Reminder: A key characteristic of the gift of wisdom is that it gives us God’s direction so we know what to do.

3. Read Acts 15:5—19 aloud.

What had Peter learned from the revelation he received in Acts 10?

As the church grew, and especially as Gentiles were added, a difference of opinion formed regarding whether or not Christians were required to follow the Law of Moses. The difference of opinion resulted in “sharp dispute and debate” (Acts 10:2). It’s probable the basis for the disagreement started even earlier, as some Jewish believers recognized there was no need to follow the law (Ladd, pp. 391—392). In Acts 15, the church is at a crucial point, and many were pressing for a form of what we would now consider legalism.

Acts 10 relates events that God used to demonstrate to Peter and other Christians who were Jews that: 1. He had indeed extended His grace to all people, just as He had promised. 2. All His people, Jews and Gentiles, are saved by grace.

This passage refers back to the events of Acts 10 as the basis for properly understanding what God is revealing about His heart for people and for the church, and as a basis for a larger understanding of how He has been acting throughout history.

49 4. How does this passage illustrate the gift of wisdom?

Although this passage does not specifically state that the gift of wisdom was operating, it shows the gift of godly wisdom and the proper impact and results of the gift.

It is difficult for 21st century Christians to comprehend “how compelling the argument unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved [Acts 10:1] would have been to the early Jewish Christians” (Gempf, p. 1088). Conrad Gempf goes on to point out (pp. 1088—1089) that the Jewish Christians of that day: • Did not have the New Testament or two millennia of Christian teaching and tradition. • Believed that the God of Scripture was the same God who sent Jesus, the Messiah. • Believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy and law. • Could easily have difficulty understanding how a person could accept Jesus while at the same time ignoring all the other things God said and asked in the Scriptures.

At the point in time described in Acts 15, the church critically needed clear direction from God. The direction came after Peter had summarized the events of Acts 10, including his receiving new insight through a word of knowledge.

The gift of wisdom is illustrated in the passage through James’ response to all the testimonies. As a result of what he heard from Peter, Barnabas, and Paul, James understood and stated God’s direction for the church (vv. 13—19).

5. What was the result of the gifts of wisdom in Acts 15?

The group became silent as they heard about all that God was doing among the Gentiles. This seems to indicate the Holy Spirit was at work in them, bringing the body to a common point of understanding that would allow them to accept the word He was about to deliver.

The church accepted and acted on James’ word of wisdom (Acts 15:22—34), summarized by Acts 15:19.

APPLICATION

• How does the gift of discernment of spirits help the church? How can we cultivate it?

• We don’t just want to be hearers of the Word; we want to be doers. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us these spiritual gifts for ministry. We’ll invite the Holy Spirit to manifest His presence, and then we will take some time to wait silently for Him to act. After a few minutes, we’ll have an opportunity to share what we think the Holy Spirit has revealed and respond to His direction.

Please refer to Part One of this study if you need more ideas of how to proceed.

WRAPPING IT UP

God’s gifts are designed to help us know His will and carry it out in our every day lives. We have spent two sessions studying the revelatory gifts of the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and the discerning of spirits. Each of these can be valuable to the Body of Christ so that we have the mind of Christ about questionable situations. But we mustn’t overlook the mindset of Christ Jesus, His love and humility, as we seek and practice His gifts. This week, as you ask for the Spirit of Christ to give you His gifts, also ask Him to cultivate more of the character of Jesus in you as well. And remember to pray for our group and our church family that we would be open to and utilize the gifts of the Spirit in a manner that builds up and builds out God’s people.

APPENDIX B: LEADER’S NOTES ON THE GIFT OF DISCERNMENT

Use the Scripture and comments in this appendix as needed to clarify your understanding of the gifts in preparation for the study.

I. Leaders’ Notes on the Gift of Discernment

A. Additional Acts references that illustrate the gift of discerning spirits (with gifts noted by Steve Robbins, Comments):

• Acts 5:1—10. Revelation that Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Spirit (prophecy and discernment). • Acts 8:23. Peter discerns Simon’s false spirit (discernment). • Acts 11:12—18. Apostles and brothers at Jerusalem discern that Peter’s experience with Gentiles is of the Holy Spirit (discernment and wisdom). • Acts 13:6—10. Paul, through Holy Spirit, recognizes demonic spirit of Elymas/Bar-Jesus (discernment). • Acts 16:16—18. Paul and others in the group discerned the girl had a spirit, resulting in the spirit being cast out of her (discernment).

B. Corinthians 4:1—5 explains part of Paul’s understanding of judgment or discernment.

Just as with wisdom and knowledge, Paul makes the point here that human judgment is not reliable. Only God can truly judge because only God can see what is in someone’s heart (vv. 4—5). Human judgment is based on external, visible factors. For example, we tend to evaluate the success of a church by how many members it has or the success of a missionary by how many converts they make. God evaluates success differently, by considering whether someone was faithful with the things with which God entrusted them (vv. 1—2). So a church with few members might be successful in God’s sight because they are faithful in bearing witness to Jesus even though others do not receive that witness. A missionary with few converts might be successful in planting seeds that someone else later reaps (John 4:35—38). Consequently, relying on human judgment to distinguish between spirits can lead us astray, because even Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13—15). That is why

51 “distinguishing between spirits” is a gift of the Holy Spirit; we need insight into God’s judgment in order to recognize what is truly from God.

C. 1 Corinthians 14:29—32 adds to our understanding of judgment or discernment.

The verb that is translated as “weigh carefully” in 1 Corinthians 14:29 is the same one that is translated as “distinguishing” in 1 Corinthians 12:10 (Fee, First Epistle, p. 693; Wimber, p. 6). Just as interpretation of tongues forms a pair with speaking in tongues, “distinguishing between spirits” can pair with prophecy. However, “distinguishing between spirits” can function in other contexts, too, such as evaluating messages of wisdom and knowledge or identifying demonic activity (Wimber, pp. 6—7).

Paul has already shown how wisdom and knowledge and judgment can all be corrupted when they rely on human capabilities. In same way, prophecy, too, can be abused when its source is human instead of divine (see for example Jeremiah 14:14, Jeremiah 23:16, Matthew 7:15—16). Consequently, he says that prophecy is not an independent source of authority—we should not accept a prophetic message from someone just because they claim it is from God. It is the responsibility of the church to judge prophetic messages to distinguish what given by the Spirit (Fee, First Epistle, p. 694). Because only God can judge rightly, it takes a gift of the Spirit to rightly distinguish the source of a prophecy—or a “message of wisdom” or a “message of knowledge.”

Because the Old Testament law condemns false prophets to death (Deuteronomy 18:20), the idea that prophets should be judged may cause some people to fear to speak anything from the Spirit in case it is really their own idea. However, Paul is clear that the purpose of prophecy is “that everyone may be instructed and encouraged” (1 Corinthians 14:31). This includes the ones who are prophesying. Prophetic messages are not to be judged so that anyone who speaks something that is a human idea can be branded a false prophet and condemned. Instead, prophetic messages are to be “weighed carefully” so that if anyone speaks a message, which is not from God, they can be instructed on how to better recognize revelations from the Spirit and the church can be instructed not to follow the human message. Furthermore, when someone speaks a message, which is from God, that person can be encouraged that they have heard from God and can be encouraged to listen and speak more. Also, the church can be encouraged to listen to and follow these messages.

The two passages above help us define the spiritual gift of “distinguishing between spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10).

Discerning of spirits may be defined as “the supernatural capacity to judge from a spiritual insight whether the spirit operating has a source that is human, demonic, or divine” (Wimber, p. 6). This is a fairly generic definition because this gift can be given to evaluate many different phenomena. Paul notes that it can be used to weigh carefully the words of prophets (1 Corinthians 14:29). However, any spiritual gift of verbal communication can be subject to “distinguishing between spirits,” including wisdom, knowledge and even tongues and interpretation of tongues. “Distinguishing between spirits” can also provide guidance when there is disagreement between people or conflict in a ministry setting. This gift is also useful in identifying possible demonic activity (Wimber, p. 7).

“Distinguishing between spirits,” also called “discernment” or “discerning of spirits,” can be manifested in many different ways. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will show a word written over the face of a person or make a person appear transparent or opaque. Sometimes divine anointing is

52 visible in the natural realm, for example, because others are drawn to the anointed person. Other times, anointing is visible supernaturally, for example, through a shining or glowing light around a person. Demonic activity is sometimes revealed by shadows or dark patches on a person’s face or through seeing a shape superimposed over a portion of someone’s anatomy (Wimber, p. 7). Remember that these are just examples; the Holy Spirit may choose to reveal things in other ways, too.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Please refer to the Bibliography for Part One of this study.

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

WHAT TO DO WITH TONGUES?

1 Corinthians 14

By Jill L. Anderson

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. Paul, 1 Corinthians 14:18—19

Tongues are primarily devotional language. [They] connect us with God intimately. With them, we praise God beyond what our own language can hold. Steve Robbins

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

AIM OF STUDY • To understand the purpose of the gift of tongues and its use in the church. • To clear up any misconceptions about the gift of tongues. • To encourage proper use of the gift.

KEY VERSE

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” 1 Corinthians 14:39—40

PREPARATION

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (····). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to implement in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

We highly recommend The New Bible Dictionary or The New Bible Commentary as excellent resources for further study.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc.

OPENER

The use of the gift of tongues has been widely debated throughout the history of the church. Some claim the gift has ceased to exist since apostolic times. Some claim the gift of tongues is a visible sign of having been baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit. What was your understanding of the gift of tongues before attending Vineyard Church of Columbus? How might your understanding of the gift have changed? How do you currently experience the gift being used in the church today?

Another option would be to share the author’s own story of how she and her husband received the gift of tongues. This is found in the Introduction [background material] below.

Pray that the Scripture study today would clear up any previous misunderstanding of the gift of tongues and reveal God’s intentions for the gift. Pray that the members of the group would be encouraged and equipped in their understanding of the gift of tongues.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

This is background material for leaders. You may decide what to share with your group.

What exactly is the gift of tongues? Scripture gives us two descriptive uses: known tongues, in which the language spoken was an actual language that could be understood and unknown tongues, an utterance that was unintelligible to its hearers (Nathan, teaching notes on Spiritual Gifts, pp. 6—8). The first example is the tongues that were spoken by the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). Here, Jews from all over were able to hear the message of Jesus spoken in their own languages by the disciples who had no knowledge of these languages! The latter example comes from Acts and describes two circumstances when believers are filled with the Holy Spirit and then begin to speak in tongues (Acts 10:44—46, 19:5—6). In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is referring specifically to unknown tongues.

Vineyard Church of Columbus defines tongues as the “God-given ability to praise Him in such an intimate and profound way that it exceeds our ability to do so in our own language. Thus, tongues serve as a devotional worship language that increases the worshiper’s awareness of her/his communion and intimacy with God” (Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts,” p. 4). The interpretation of tongues is “the God-given ability to put into words the unintelligible tongues that result from upsurges in the human spirit as it is excited by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration” (Robbins, “Spiritual Gifts,” pp. 4—5). Tongues without interpretation should not be used in public.

The Corinthian church that Paul writes to in chapter 14 was a church that had a pagan background (Prior, p. 192). “In the world of Corinth, there were many religions and cults offering different spiritual experiences, some of which involved the worshippers being carried away into ecstatic states and trances, and sometimes into various kinds of speech” (Wright, p. 182). The Corinthians apparently were becoming absorbed in supernatural things and were letting their pursuit of some gifts get out of hand. “Prolific, simultaneous, uninterpreted tongues speech and

prophetic speech (vv. 26—31) produced a disordered, unintelligible worship service that virtually prevented the growth of the congregation into Christian maturity and the evangelistic witness of the gathered group (vv. 12, 20, 22-25)” (Johnson, p. 259). Paul then focuses on the need for order in the assembly. He encourages gifts, like prophecy and interpreted tongues, to be used for the edification of the church, not for the individual believer. Paul always stresses “following the way of love” in the pursuit and use of spiritual gifts (v. 1).

Below is a summary of the important points of 1 Corinthians 14 taken from George Mallone’s Those Controversial Gifts, pp. 79—100). 1. Tongues speech is directed to God and not to man (v. 2). 2. Tongues speech is speaking mysteries in the spirit (v. 2). 3. Speaking in tongues edifies the person (v. 4). 4. Paul prefers prophecy to tongues (v. 5). 5. Tongues plus interpretation does edify the entire body (v. 5). 6. When a person prays in the Spirit the mind is unfruitful (v. 14). 7. Paul himself admits to being a tongues speaker (v. 18). 8. Tongues speech is a sign not to believers but to unbelievers (vv. 21—25). 9. Tongues for public use need the complementary gift of interpretation (vv. 5,13, 27— 28).

Another issue that will probably come up in this discussion is whether or not the gift of tongues is available to everyone. This has been a source of abuse in some churches where speaking in tongues has been promoted as a sign of Christian maturity. In 1 Corinthians 12:7—11, Paul explains that gifts are given to all, but not all are given the same gifts. “God will meet the needs of some through tongues. The needs of others he will meet by other avenues” (Mallone, p. 92). Mallone encourages Christians to be open to receiving the gift and asking for it (pp. 96—98).

How does one receive the gift? As with any gift, speaking in tongues is a gift you first eagerly desire and ask for. It is a gift, though, given by God as He chooses, having nothing to do with our performance or behavior. Tongues speech is also subject to our volition. It will not take over our mouth and begin to speak on its own. We must move our tongues and lips and speak the syllables given to us (Nathan, p.10).

My own experience with the gift of tongues may provide an example of how the gift is received. I was new to the Vineyard when Pastor Rich Nathan asked me if I spoke in tongues. I did not have the gift, and Rich explained a few basic principles and then laid hands on me and prayed for me. I did not receive the gift, but over the next several months, I began to “eagerly desire” it and pray for it—with no results. At an evening service, we were invited to come up to the front during worship if we desired the gift of tongues. My husband and I went forward for prayer. As usual for me, nothing happened! Rich prayed for me and then for my husband. When Rich laid hands on my husband, my husband immediately began speaking in tongues. I watched in amazement. Rich smiled, turned to me and asked me to keep praying for him. I noticed that my husband was experiencing cycles of intense praise and then repentance with the expression of tongues. It was a beautiful thing to see. Later, when we talked about it, I couldn’t help but experience some jealousy as I though my husband had not desired the gift as long as I had! How unfair was that! I thought. I began to wonder what I was doing wrong that God wasn’t giving me this gift. Fast-forward a year and again I was at a service, crying out to God silently for the gift. A woman laid hands on me, not knowing what I was praying for. She then said to me, “God says you will have what you desire when you know you have done nothing to earn it.” I guess I had been trying too hard. I was at a loss as to how not to earn the gift, so I simply stopped asking for it. Fast-forward another year. I was alone at the back of the church after a

service, waiting for my husband. The desire to ask for the gift of tongues resurfaced again and I simply said something like, “Jesus, if you want me to have it, I’d like it.” Remembering that Rich had explained I would need to move my tongue and mouth to speak, I did and found some unfamiliar phrases on my tongue. I was stunned. I doubted and questioned my sanity and whether this was really God or just my trying too hard. Over the next few days and weeks, I began to use the gift during my daily times with God until I became convinced it was for real. Fast-forward 11 years. I use the gift mostly during times when I don’t know how to pray. I find I want to pray in tongues especially when I am interceding for others.

For this study, we will be breaking down the passage into smaller, more manageable pieces.

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 14

1. Read verses 1—5. Take some time to compare and contrast the gift of tongues versus the gift of prophecy. Share your observations.

Tongues Prophecy Speaks to God v. 2 Speaks to men v. 3 No one understands v. 2 Strengthens, encourages and comforts others v. 3 Edifies self v. 4 Edifies the church v.4

• Paul says the gift of tongues edifies the speaker. If you have the gift of tongues, how have you been encouraged or built up by the gift?

“Tongues are primarily devotional language. [They] connect us with God intimately. With them, we praise God beyond what our own language can hold” (Robbins, Conversation).

2. In verse 5, Paul says that he would like everyone to speak in tongues, but he would rather we prophesy. Why?

Because prophecy builds up the church by strengthening, encouraging and comforting the members while tongues builds up the individual. Paul usually emphasizes the body of Christ and its health over the private concerns of an individual member.

Under what circumstance would the gift of tongues be as valuable to building up the body as prophecy?

When speaking in tongues is interpreted, it is able to edify the church, just like prophecy.

It doesn’t appear to be a common occurrence in our church for tongues to be interpreted. Ask group members if they have ever witnessed the use of the gift. True stories have the ability to increase our faith in things we don’t understand or have never experienced. There is a true story of a Christian woman who used tongues as a devotional prayer language. A Japanese family came to stay in this Christian woman’s home for several weeks. When the woman heard the Japanese family speaking, she thought it sounded like her prayer language. She approached the Japanese woman and spoke a few words of tongues speech. The Japanese woman recognized the words and asked the woman where she learned to speak Japanese. The Christian woman told her that God had taught her these words. The Japanese woman also interpreted the tongues speech. Prior to this occurrence, the Japanese woman had not been interested

in spiritual things, but began to attend a Bible Study when she returned to her country (Anonymous).

3. 1 Corinthians 14 follows the famous love passage in chapter 13. Read 14:1 again. How does Paul’s command to “follow the way of love” influence our use of spiritual gifts and specifically the gift of tongues?

Refer group members to 1 Corinthians 13:1—2. It is important that all we do be done in love, or are efforts will be unfruitful.

Why does Paul want people to eagerly desire gifts, especially prophecy?

Paul’s concern is the edification of the church. Spiritual gifts build up the church, thus we should desire them. “Tongues is not understandable (v. 2), hence it cannot edify the church (v. 4). Prophecy is addressed to people precisely for their edification (v. 3), and in that sense is the greater gift” (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 653).

4. Read verses 6—12. Paul uses three illustrations to describe the effect of unintelligible tongues (vv. 7—8). What are these illustrations and do they help you understand or clarify what Paul has already been saying? What is Paul making a case against (vv. 6—12)?

We won’t recognize a tune being played if the notes aren’t distinct and purposeful. We won’t know what to do on the battlefield if the trumpet doesn’t play the right notes/tune. If we don’t grasp the meaning of what is being said, it is as if we are hearing a foreign language. Paul is continuing to build his case against speaking unknown tongues in the church services.

Paul seems to be “going on and on” about the proper use of tongues. Why is he so adamant about this?

As noted in the introduction, the Corinthian church was characterized by their pursuit of the supernatural gifts. Their church services were chaotic and the members were holding their spiritual gifts as if they were badges to be displayed and showcased in the assembly. “The danger with those who are eager to use their new gifts in public is that they will forget the real point of coming together, which is that the church family as a whole should be ‘built up’” (Wright, p. 187).

5. Read verses 13—19. When we pray in tongues, Paul says the mind is unfruitful. Is Paul indicating that praying in tongues is useless?

No! The ‘mind’ is unfruitful because it doesn’t understand what is being said and therefore is not really engaged in any productive activity. We’ve already learned that praying in tongues has benefits, but intelligibility is not one of them, for the speaker or the hearer (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 668—669). When we pray with our minds, others can say “amen” to our prayers and be edified.

6. What is the solution, or what brings balance to practicing the gift of tongues (v. 15)?

In order to be balanced worshippers, we should make sure that we are using both our mind and our spirits when we pray and worship. Because of our differing personalities, some of us lean toward the use of gifts that “feel” like God is working in and through us. We want to experience God’s presence, and when we use the gift of tongues we feel closer to God. Others of us tend to lean toward intellectual pursuits; studying the Word and steering clear of “supernatural” things that make us feel uncomfortable. Paul helps us see the need for balance in our use of spiritual gifts.

7. Is Paul disparaging the gift of tongues in verses 18—19? What is his qualifying phrase?

No, Paul is not disparaging the gift of tongues. He is thankful that he speaks in tongues. His qualifying phrase is “but in the church.” In the church, Paul would rather speak words that edify.

8. Read verses 20—25. How does verse 20 relate to what Paul has been and will be addressing in the next verses?

When it comes to evil, there is no shame in “being ignorant, innocent or even naïve when it comes to knowing all the things that the twisted human mind can devise” (Wright, p. 193). When it comes to thinking, there is no excuse for remaining ignorant. Paul wants the Corinthians “to reflect intelligently about the whole problem of what should happen in the church’s public meetings” (Wright, p. 193).

9. What effect does tongues have on the unbeliever? What effect does prophecy have on the unbeliever (vv. 23—25)?

Tongues will cause unbelievers to think Christians are out of their minds. Prophecy may lead an unbeliever to conviction and repentance.

These verses are a bit confusing, as Paul seems to be contradicting himself. In verse 22, he says that tongues are a sign for unbelievers and prophecy for believers. Then in verse 23, he says the opposite. He describes an unbeliever hearing tongues and thinking the church members are out of their minds. He also says that when unbelievers hear prophecy, they will be convinced of their need for God. Which is it? The answer is both.

Paul quotes a passage from Isaiah 28 (and changes the wording a bit) to make the point that foreign tongues is a sign of God’s displeasure for unbelieving, rebellious Israel. The key word here and in verse 22 is the word “sign.” He says that tongues are a sign to unbelievers of God’s displeasure, meaning they will hear tongues spoken and not understand. Therefore, they will be at a disadvantage. The effect of tongues on the unbeliever is one of keeping them from repentance. Prophecy, then, or the effect of prophecy, is a sign for believers, of God’s pleasure and His presence in their midst (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 682—683). “Thus, tongues and prophecy function as ‘signs’ in two different ways, precisely in accord with the effect each will have on unbelievers who happen into the Christian assembly” (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 683).

10. Read verses 26—40. Paul sets up a list of guidelines for the use of spiritual gifts in the Corinthian gatherings. What verse sums up the purpose and reasoning behind the guidelines?

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (v. 33). Paul once again may be commenting indirectly on the worship services of the various cults and deities in Corinth. “The theological point is crucial: the character of one’s deity is reflected in the character of one’s worship. The Corinthians must therefore cease worship that reflects the pagan deities more than the God whom they have come to know through the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Fee, First Corinthians, p.697)

Leader’s Notes

The focus of this study is tongues, but if the passage on prohibition of women speaking comes up for discussion, here is some useful information. Scholars disagree on the interpretation of verses 34—35. Some believe the verses may not even be authentic, that they were written in the margin by a scribe and eventually placed in the text. Others believe these verses were written at the end of the chapter and later inserted into the current placement. And still others believe that the prohibition on women speaking during the assemblies had to do with the women’s disruptive speech during the church gatherings in Corinth. What we are able to conclude is that women are not forbidden from prophesying and praying because of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:5, “And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved” (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 699—708). While we do not follow the first century cultural norm for a married woman to cover her hair as a sign of modesty, we do apply the general Biblical principle that men and women should be dressed modestly in church. Likewise, while we do not restrict women from participating in worship services, we would counsel someone with questions not to interrupt the sermon to ask for clarification of some point but to ask at another appropriate time.

11. Summarize Paul’s teaching on the gift of tongues.

Tongues speech is directed to God. It is unintelligible. It edifies self. Paul would like everyone to speak in tongues. A tongue with interpretation edifies the church. Tongues without interpretation should not be used in public gatherings. Those with the gift of tongues should also pray with their minds. Tongues do not bring believers to repentance.

APPLICATION

• How has this study changed your view of the gift of tongues and its use in building up individuals in their private devotions?

• Do you eagerly desire spiritual gifts (v. 12)? Why or why not? Which gifts do you desire? Why?

Apathy is a huge deterrent in pursuing God’s kingdom here on earth. Take some time to discuss how we may be dropping the ball in the area of using spiritual gifts to advance God’s kingdom. Why don’t we desire more of the gifts?

If some members desire the gift of tongues, offer to pray for the gift to be released in them.

• Another application for our small group might be to ask ourselves: What is the real purpose of gathering together? How can we be sure we are meeting to build each person up and to do kingdom ministry?

Our focus for this study is the gift of tongues, but since 1 Corinthians still speaks to us today, we may want to take some time to discuss how we as a subset of the church are doing in the area of building each other up and encouraging one another to minister.

WRAPPING IT UP

1 Corinthians 14 gives us a clear picture on the use tongues in church services. Paul is concerned that the church be edified and that Christians actively seek spiritual gifts that build up the body. Tongues without an interpretation are not useful in public worship as they seek only to edify the individual. Tongues without interpretation will keep unbelievers from understanding the living and true God. Love for God and others should always guide us as we practice the gifts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anonymous. Personal phone conversation with the general editor. 11 Sep. 2005.

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

---. Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993.

Mallone, George. Those Controversial Gifts. Arlington, TX: Grace Vineyard of Arlington, 1988.

Nathan, Rich. “Spiritual Gifts: The Gift of Tongues.” Christ Community Church. Columbus, OH. 17 Sep. 1985.

Wright, Nicholas Thomas. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. 2nd Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.

Robbins, Steve. Conversation with general editor. 19 Oct. 2005.

---. “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena.’” Breakout Session. Breathe Festival. 22 Jul. 2005.

64 GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

SUPERNATURAL POWER: FAITH, HEALINGS, MIRACLES

1 Corinthians 12:7—11, Acts 8, 9, and 14

By John Ebert

If you really want to experience the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, perhaps the most important thing I can tell you is to put your confidence in Christ’s forgiveness, not in your own godliness or traditions. The power for miracles does not come out of our godliness; rather it was bought with the blood of God’s Son.

Jack Deere

Faith, Gifts of Healing, and Effects of Miracles (or Works of Powers) are the gracelets in which the supernatural power of God is seen. These gracelets are the acts of God, the divine energy of God which accomplishes a particular result … through an individual. There is often an interrelationship between these three gracelets. From the book of Genesis forward, God can be viewed as the One who acts in power in relationship to His people. John Wimber

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

65 AIM OF THE STUDY • To understand the gifts of faith, healing, and miracles. • To see the importance of faith, healing, and miracles for the church. • To encourage group members to recognize, value, and receive Spirit-given faith, healing, and miracles.

KEY VERSE

“To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers….” I Corinthians 12:9—10a

PREPARATION

The authors of this series suggest you read over the notes on “How to Teach the Bible in Small Group” and “Some Practical Suggestions for Leading a Small Group Discussion” in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ Small Group Leadership Training Manual if you feel your inductive study skills are rusty. Next, before you go over the Scripture text, pray that God would give you direction for leading your group and teach you something relevant. Then, read through the passage, keeping an open heart and ear to the Lord. Finally, work through the Bible study notes and questions below.

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (·). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to put into practice in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

66 We highly recommend The New Bible Dictionary or The New Bible Commentary as excellent resources for further study.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc.

OPENER

A woman in our church reported an amazing testimony of how God healed her primarily through the efforts of our soaking prayer ministry. She began receiving healing prayer in October 2003. Her main reason for coming was acute endometriosis, but her healing was unrelated to that condition. After receiving prayer at a Vineyard Leadership Institute class on healing, she had a cyst that had caused discomfort for a year or two rupture. The cyst was infected with a flesh- eating bacterium, and even after a couple of rounds of antibiotics, it did not subside. So, a three by three inch area of her skin was dissolving, causing a great deal of pain.

She went to see a specialist who indicated that surgery was the only way to get rid of the cyst, which was the source of the infection. The surgery unfortunately took some time to get scheduled, and the affected area began to grow larger and deepen.

In early December, she came to a soaking prayer appointment desperate for God to stop the pain and to give her peace so she wouldn’t feel like screaming every second. When the team prayed, God gave her a huge wave of peace. She felt cared for, loved, supported. She begged God to give her faith and endurance to make it through the entire experience. When the team finished praying, her pain was less and she felt emotionally and spiritually better.

After receiving prayer, she stopped by her small group meeting. All through her small group gathering, the skin over the cyst was very itchy. By the time she arrived home, the entire area was covered with a scab. In the morning, she began to clean the affected skin before covering it with a bandage for the day. To her surprise, the scab came off and underneath it was new skin. It was bright pink like a baby’s, except for one small spot that was red, where the skin had been most deeply affected. She was amazed and could only thank God.

She had an appointment with the specialist that day who was to give her something to help the skin heal. He was very surprised when he saw the change. Even though the doctor attends church and claims Jesus as his Savior, he was speechless for a few moments as she explained what had happened. He told her that God performs all healing; sometimes it just happens more quickly than others. While she was still at the physician’s office, a surgery appointment became available through a cancellation. The date was only a couple of weeks ahead and fit perfectly with her work schedule. That seemed like another answer to prayer.

The team prayed for her again the night before surgery. The surgeon had told her it was possible that the surgery would leave an open wound that could be as large as three golf balls. But, when she awoke from surgery, she learned that the incision was only two inches long. To treat it, she would simply have to apply antibiotic ointment to it daily and cover it with a small bandage. This was much less complicated than the expected post-op care. When she told the surgeon that God had healed her, he simply nodded and smiled.

Two weeks later when she went back to see the surgeon for a follow up appointment, the incision was completely healed. He told her that he had never seen incisions from that type of

67 cyst heal so quickly and cleanly, leaving such a fine, neat scar. He then sent a letter to the specialist detailing her remarkable recovery. When she later saw her referring doctor, he simply shook his head and said, “I have never seen anything like it.”

She says that participating in the extended healing prayer ministry has changed her life. Now she prays for others as well as continuing to receive prayer for her endometriosis. She states, “I have been so amazingly humbled by the fact that God chooses to use me as an instrument in the healing of others.”

Another church member who serves Christ in a Muslim country shared this testimony of God’s healing power in response to his prayers. One night a neighbor’s daughter interrupted his dinner with a tearful plea: “Come quickly! My daddy can’t breathe!” He had led her father to Christ three years before but everyone else in the household remained Muslim, and this man had been somewhat unstable in following Jesus. Nevertheless, they ran back about 500 yards to the neighbor’s home only to find him on the floor gasping for breath. His dark complexion was changing from red to purple. He was lethargic and not very lucid. Kneeling beside him, the missionary tried to coax some explanation of the problem from him, but he slipped out of consciousness. The missionary shouted his neighbor’s name, slapped his bare arm and chest, and demanded a coherent answer. Several relatives hovered about, sobbing and frantically fanning him with moist towels. The missionary felt the family’s fear and panic creeping over him also as the situation seemed to grow worse.

As the Westerner weighed the practical alternatives, the native man moaned weakly, “pray….” The missionary thought, “Of course, what [other] option is there?” So, he laid his hands on the neighbor’s chest and prayed out loud in the local language, keenly aware of the fact that the entire family was listening and that there could be positive or negative consequences. He first asked God for faith, then urged the airways to open and breathing to lighten in the Messiah’s name. He also prayed against the throat infection that he thought had swollen the airways shut. After what seemed like eternity, although it was probably less than two minutes, the man on the floor relaxed and began breathing calmly through his nose. Within a few minutes, though still weak, he was conversing with only mild effort, thanking God for answering the prayers for healing—and speculating about how nearly he had escaped death. The family began “buzzing” like bees, their adrenaline rush giving way to giddy laughter as well as tears of relief and jittery chitchat. All were amazed to see God immediately and tangibly answer a prayer. Two days later during a follow up visit, a relative who had seemed the least interested in spiritual things exclaimed to the missionary, “Wow! The prayer healed him immediately! Right before our eyes!”

Both of these stories are true and display the power of God operating through the prayers of His people. In this study, we are going to look at some Scriptures so that we can better understand some of the ways God wants to work through us!

Pray that the Holy Spirit would teach you about His gifts and that He would give your group faith and bring healings and miracles.

68 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This is background material for leaders. You may decide what to share with your group.

In 1 Corinthians 12:7—11, Paul’s purpose is not to precisely define a specific set of spiritual gifts. Instead, he is seeking to correct misunderstandings about the function and use of spiritual gifts. Where the Corinthians have been treating spiritual gifts as marks identifying the spiritual elite, Paul teaches that these gifts are “signs of God’s free grace” (Hays, p. 210) and “all members of the community receive gifts of the Spirit, not just a few leaders or spiritually super- endowed prodigies” (Hays, p. 211). Where the Corinthians have been using spiritual gifts for their own personal benefit, Paul teaches that the gifts are “for the benefit of the community as a whole, not merely the private edification of the individuals who receive the gifts” (Hays, p. 211). Paul wants the Corinthians and us to understand that the Holy Spirit gives these spiritual gifts as the Spirit wishes (Collins, p. 456), so receiving a spiritual gift does not necessarily indicate any particular worthiness or commendation of the recipient (Collins, p. 453). The Spirit gives these gifts in order to build up the church (Collins, p. 450), not to draw attention to special or particularly deserving individuals.

Paul includes a list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7—11 to illustrate the wide variety of gifts that the Spirit might give and to show how each person might receive a different gift (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 587, 589, 590). Because he is just giving some examples, this list does not include all possible spiritual gifts (Collins, p. 451; Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 164). In fact, Paul includes six other, different lists of spiritual gifts within the next few chapters: 12:28, 12:29—30, 13:1—3, 13:8, 14:6, and 14:26 (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 585, n. 12). And there are more differing lists in Romans 12:6—8, Ephesians 4:11—12, and 1 Peter 4:10—11 (Collins, p. 451).

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 12:7—11, and selections from Acts 8, 9, and 14.

1. Read 1 Corinthians 12:7—11 aloud.

How would you define the gifts of faith, healing, and miracles?

John Wimber grouped the gift of faith, gifts of healings and effects of miracles together under the category of supernatural power (Wimber, p. 8). Through these gifts, the Holy Spirit acts to bring about particular results. Often these gifts work together, so that the gift of faith enables someone to pray for healing or to command a miracle.

“The gift of faith is the God-given anticipation (a mysterious surge of confidence) that God is about to act through a word or deed followed by its realization in spite of contrary circumstances” (Robbins citing James Dunn, “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Phenomena,’” p. 3; see also Wimber, p. 8). Every Christian has faith, and all faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8—9). However, the gift of faith is a special measure of faith, sometimes thought of as “mountain-moving faith” (Matthew 17:20, 21:21; 1 Corinthians 13:2), through which God accomplishes extraordinary things (Collins, p. 454; Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 166).

69 Note these important comments on the role of the gift of faith in healing: “It is a gift; not a work. We cannot control it; but we can ask for it. Thus there is no room for a negative judgment on those not healed. Faith is almost always present in someone involved in the healing situation (the one praying, the recipient, friend or relative, etc.)” (Robbins, “VLI Syllabus,” p. 3).

The gift of healing “is the actual event of healing itself which a sick person receives. As there are many kinds of illnesses, so there are many different healing gifts. It is that event or progression which a person receives in the emotional, spiritual, or physical areas of life” (Wimber, p. 9). Note that in the Greek, the phrase is “gifts of healings;” both “gifts” and “healings” are plural. Thus, this is not a single gift that someone has, but a gift that is given repeatedly as God heals different persons with different afflictions.

“The Effects of Miracles are events in which people and things are visibly and beneficially affected in an extraordinary way by the power of God working through an individual” (Wimber, p. 9). As with Gifts of Healings, in the Greek, both “effects” and “miracles” are plural, implying a variety of gifts in a variety of situations. There is not a clear line between miracles and healings. A healing could be considered a miracle, but since Paul lists healings separately, miracles here are usually understood as supernatural working of God other than healing (Collins, p. 455; Fee, Paul, the Spirit, p. 166). Also note that the Greek word translated as “miracles” is dunamis, which means “power.” The key example of God’s power in the New Testament is the raising of Jesus from the dead (1 Corinthians 6:14) (Wimber, p. 9).

2. How is the “gift of faith” different than saving faith or the faith we live by every day?

Rich Nathan points out several important distinctions about the kinds of faith discussed in the Bible (“The Gift of Faith,” pp. 10—12): • “Christian faith is the willingness to orient your entire life around what you believe is true. It is not just intellectual assent. Christian faith is trust. It is confidence in God that says regarding God, ‘I am sure that you will not betray my hope. I am sure that you will respond to me, that you will take care of me, that you will provide for me in life and in death.’ Christian faith is, ‘I trust in you, God.’” • “There is Saving Faith [Ephesians 2:8—9]. You might say that Saving Faith is simply faith in the pardon of Jesus, faith in the person of Jesus, and faith in the power of Jesus. To be saved a person must believe that God has done in Christ what we cannot do for ourselves. God in Christ has accomplished forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation through Christ’s death for us on the cross. Saving Faith believes in the pardon of Christ, that all who come to Christ, with themselves and their sins, will be forgiven and will be declared innocent on the Day of Judgment. Saving Faith is faith not only in the pardon of Christ, but also in the person of Christ. To be saved you must believe that Jesus is God come in the flesh. You must believe that the baby born in Bethlehem, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, is Incarnate God come to rescue and save us. You must believe in the person of Jesus, crucified, dead, buried and raised from the dead.” • “And then there is what I would call Sustaining Faith. What the Reformers used to call “Persevering Faith.” It is trust in God’s faithfulness to the very end of the road, come what may, whatever life brings. I’m going to continue to trust in Christ. It’s what Jesus talked about in Matthew 24 when he said, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Sustaining Faith is believing in God even when I

70 don’t feel like it…. Even when life is not turning out my way. Even when my desires are thrown to the ground, yet will I trust in the Lord.” • “Saving Faith is a gift from God. Sustaining Faith is a gift from God. I don’t think either of them is what is meant by the gift of faith that Paul speaks to us about in 1 Corinthians 12:9, when he speaks about the spiritual gift of faith. There he’s talking about mountain-moving faith.”

3. Read Acts 9:10—19 aloud.

What method does God choose to use to heal Saul?

God could have healed Saul’s blindness on His own with no human intervention, if He had chosen to work that way. Instead, God chose to send a person, a Christian believer, to lay hands on Saul and pray for him. When this believer, Ananias, laid his hands on Saul, God acted to miraculously heal Saul (Acts 9:17—18).

4. How do you think Ananias feels about God choosing him to minister to Saul?

From what he says, it is clear that Ananias is reluctant to go to Saul and pray for him. Based on Saul’s reputation, Ananias thinks that if he goes to Saul as a believer in Christ, he might be arrested and thrown into prison or worse (Acts 9:13—14). Although God assures Ananias that Saul will be open to receiving prayer (Acts 9:15—16), Ananias might be happier hearing from other people that Saul has changed. Ananias probably wishes that God would choose someone else to send to Saul, or better yet, that God would heal Saul Himself without sending anyone.

However, Ananias does go and pray for Saul. He goes, not because he really wants to, but because he is obedient to God. Ananias has learned to recognize how God speaks to him and has learned the importance of doing what God says. Learning to hear from God is not part of this particular Bible study, but it is a vital part of exercising spiritual gifts. Because these gifts come from the Holy Spirit, we must use them as the Holy Spirit directs. They will not work effectively if we use them as our own personal powers. We are not superheroes saving the world, but obedient servants whom God invites to join His mission to save the world.

Because spiritual gifts are effective only when they are used to support what God is doing, there are two ways that we can exercise these gifts: 1. By acting in obedience to a specific word from God, in assurance that He will act as He has spoken. 2. By making a request of God that’s based on faith and an understanding of His general nature, but with uncertainty that He will act as requested.

In the example of Ananias and Saul, God reveals to Ananias beforehand that He intends to heal Saul. Because of this revelation, Ananias has more confidence in what God will do. His statement to Saul is more an announcement of healing than a prayer for God to heal (Acts 9:17). Ananias still has to have faith, but his faith is more in trusting that God has really spoken to him than that God will be able to heal Saul.

In other cases, we might not have a word in advance from God about what He intends to do. Another passage in this study, Acts 9:36—42, provides an example of this. Not having specific direction from God does not mean that we cannot or should not pray for

71 healing. We know that God is able to heal, and we know that God does not have to tell us everything He wants to do beforehand. We can always pray that God will heal someone. However, if we don’t have a word from God about what He intends, then we need to ask with humility rather than command boldly. If God chooses to heal through our prayers, then glory to God. If God chooses not to heal, then we should trust that He is working His best for the person in some other way. Even when we can’t see what God is doing, we should seek to bless the people we pray for and draw them closer to God through our prayers.

• Why do you think God chooses to work through people much of the time?

While some Christians might prefer that God leave them alone and just unilaterally intervene in other people’s lives to save and heal them, God has chosen to advance His kingdom through the obedience of those who trust in Him.

One reason that God chooses to work through people is that people are visible and tangible in this world and He is not. Saul was already aware that God was at work in his life because God confronted him while he was on his way to Damascus and told him so (Acts 9:3—8). The men who were with Saul knew that something had happened, but they didn’t understand what God said to Saul (Acts 9:7). God blinded Saul at that time, to prepare him for what would come next. If Saul had been healed of blindness directly by God, he might have started thinking that the blindness was all in his head or that the words about Jesus he thought he heard while he was blind were not really from God. In short, because God is invisible and speaks quietly, when we interact only with God, it is often difficult to be confident that it really is God and not just our own wishes. However, when Ananias comes to Saul and confirms to Saul the words that he heard from God (Acts 9:17) and then backs up those words by ministering God’s healing to Saul, that strengthens Saul’s faith that it really is God who is changing his life. Having another person intervene and mediate God’s healing tells Saul that it is not just something in his head, but that someone else is experiencing the same direction from God that he is. This may have increased Saul’s confidence in a way that a direct communication from God would not.

Another reason God chooses to work through us is that it helps keep our attention on God. If God always did everything Himself, without involving us in His work, we would tend to lose interest in standing around watching Him act. Then we would probably go off and start getting into trouble. For example, when you try to cook with children, you may realize that it’s easier for you to do everything yourself. However, if you don’t let them do anything significant, they can get bored and wander off, getting into trouble while you’re focused on the task. God lets us help with His work even though he could do it better Himself because it helps keep us from wandering off and doing bad things. It also helps us learn more about what He is like, helps us see what He is doing, and helps us praise Him for it.

Finally, God chooses to work through people because He loves us. God does not want to do everything Himself; He wants to share what He is doing with the people He made. Some people, like Ananias, may be reluctant to involve ourselves in God’s work because we fear some kind of loss, or that we will do something wrong, or that God will not do anything and we will look silly. However, God is not reluctant to involve us. God loves to share His good gifts with us and enjoys having us participate in His work because He

72 loves and values us. And He knows we won’t have lasting joy apart from doing His will (John 15:10—11).

5. If you were Ananias, how would you feel after Saul’s sight has been restored?

• How does that differ from how you would feel about praying for someone today?

6. Read Acts 14:8—10 aloud.

Who has the gift of faith in this passage?

The gift of faith is often active when God heals someone or when God does some miraculous work. Faith serves as the catalyst that gives someone the confidence to ask God to work.

We often think the person who prays for the sick is the one who has the gift of faith. (If we are praying, we wish we had the gift of faith!) Although the passage about Ananias does not explicitly mention faith, the way that Ananias announces healing to Saul seems to indicate that he has faith that God will heal Saul.

Sometimes it’s not the person praying or the person prayed for who has the faith, but others who bring the person to receive prayer. The best example of this is the friends who make a hole in the roof of a house so they can get a paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed (Mark 2:1—12; also see Matthew 8:10, 9:2, Luke 5:20, 7:9).

However, in this passage, it is the man who cannot walk who has the gift of faith (Acts 14:9). Similarly, sometimes when Jesus heals people, He points out that it is their faith that has made them well. For examples of this, see Matthew 9:22, 9:29, 15:28; Mark 5:34, 10:52; Luke 8:48, 17:19, and 18:42. Also note that Matthew 13:58 records an instance when Jesus didn’t do miracles because the people lacked faith.

While faith often plays a critical role in healing, it is important to remember that it is not necessary for someone to have faith in order to be healed. In particular, we should not tell people that the reason they are not healed is because they don’t have enough faith. After all, Jairus’ dead daughter, the widow’s dead son, and Jesus’ friend Lazarus who had been in the tomb three days had zero faith when they were raised from the dead! The gift of faith is something God gives us, not something we have to muster up inside ourselves. We come to God with whatever faith we have, and ask Him for what we want, trusting that He will give us what we need.

Do you think the man who cannot walk knows he has the gift of faith?

It is interesting that in this passage, while the man who is healed has the gift of faith, Paul is the one who recognizes that the man has faith for healing. Since there is no record that the gospel had been preached in Lystra before this incident, the man unable to walk probably had no prior experience with Christianity. Therefore, it seems likely that the man does not know that what he is experiencing is the gift of faith.

This is another illustration of why God chooses to use other people to mediate His healing power. If God had just healed this man without Paul’s involvement, the man would have had no opportunity to understand his healing was from God. Paul may have

73 helped this man recognize the gift of faith. By identifying and encouraging spiritual gifts in one another, we can help each other grow in recognizing and using these gifts.

7. Read Acts 8:38—40 aloud.

What happens to Philip?

After he baptizes the eunuch, Philip is carried away by the Spirit and appears in Azotus. While the Bible doesn’t indicate how long it took for the Spirit to move Philip from the desert road (Acts 8:26) to Azotus, it leaves the impression that it happens rather quickly—one moment Philip is baptizing in the desert and the next moment he is in Azotus. Since no one is healed, this event would be categorized as a miracle.

Some may find this event preposterous, but remember Jesus’ resurrection body could pass through closed doors (John 20:26—27), and He also could disappear (Luke 24:30—31). Derek Morphew suggests that these are examples of what our experience will be like in the Kingdom to Come (Morphew).

8. Who asks God to miraculously transport Philip?

Nobody asks God to do this; it is a sovereign decision of God to transport Philip. It may not even occur to Philip that God want him somewhere else. He may be thinking he should spend some more time teaching the eunuch about Jesus.

Why do you think God chooses to work that way?

The Bible does not tell us why God acts without any human request in this instance, so we can only speculate why God chooses to do this. Perhaps Philip is so focused on wanting to disciple the eunuch or his own success in evangelism that he is not listening for God’s next direction. Or maybe there is some unrecorded emergency in Azotus that requires Philip’s immediate attention. One thing we do know is that Philip is accustomed to receiving supernatural direction from God (Acts 8:26, 29). Unlike the man in Lystra, Philip probably recognizes that it is the Spirit of God that transports him from the desert to Azotus.

It is important that we pray to God and ask for Him to heal and perform other miracles. However, God is not under our control. God is not required to heal someone just because we ask. This passage illustrates another way that God is not under our control. God is free to heal or do something miraculous even if we don’t ask. Often, though, God chooses to wait for us to ask before He does something, so we should not hesitate to ask. We just need to remember God is free to respond however He chooses.

9. Read Acts 9:36—42 aloud.

What do the people of Joppa do when Tabitha dies that is different from what they typically did when someone died?

Normally when someone dies, we start planning a funeral. Washing the body is part of the normal preparations for burial (Acts 9:37). Even though “Lydda was near Joppa” (Acts 9:38), it is still ten or twelve miles away, about a three hour journey by foot (Fernando, p. 310; Haenchen, p. 339; Marshall, p. 179). Since a dead body starts to

74 decay and smell bad before very long, and since Jews normally bury the deceased before sundown, it is unusual for the people of Joppa to wait all day to see if Peter is going to come (Fernando, p. 310; Keener, “Acts 9:38”).

The reference to placing the body “in an upstairs room” is intriguing. In the Old Testament, there are two stories of people being raised from the dead (I Kings 17:17— 23 and 2 Kings 4:18—37) and in both of them the dead body is taken to an upstairs room (I Kings 17:19 and 2 Kings 4:10, 21). Perhaps the disciples in Joppa are thinking of these stories and are wondering if God will do such miracles again (Haenchen, p. 339; Marshall, p. 179).

10. What do they ask of Peter and how does Peter respond? What do you think Peter prays?

The people of Joppa only ask Peter to “Please come at once!” (Acts 9:38). Peter goes with them as they request. Given the miraculous result—that Dorcas is raised from the dead—we might expect that the people of Joppa ask Peter for a miracle. However, it is recorded only that they ask him to come. Similarly, although Peter comes to Joppa, he never promises a miracle. He only comes and prays.

The Bible does not tell us what Peter prays. Maybe he just asks God to bring Dorcas back to life. However, since the Bible does not indicate that Peter has any revelation or gift of faith about what God will do, perhaps Peter prays that God will show him what to do. Peter may send everyone out of the room because the noise of their talking and crying (Acts 9:39—40) makes it difficult for him to listen to the Holy Spirit and sense what God wants to do in this situation. Similarly, when we are praying for someone, it can be helpful to find a quieter place so we can focus on God and receive direction from God.

Interestingly, Peter has been in a situation similar to this before—with Jesus. In Mark 5:35—42, Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter back to life, and Peter is there to see it. Like Peter with Dorcas, Jesus sends all the people who are “crying and wailing loudly” out of the room. In Aramaic, the words Peter says to Dorcas, “Tabitha koum” (Acts 9:40), are almost identical to what Jesus says to Jairus’ daughter, “Talitha koum” (Mark 5:41) (Fernando, p. 310; Haenchen, p. 339; Marshall, p. 180). Jesus models prayer for His disciples, and leaders should continue in His footsteps. Invite others in your group to observe you (or someone else with experience) as you pray for healing. Encourage them to witness how the person receiving prayer reacts and how God responds. This can teach not only how to pray but also how to pray with faith expecting God to act.

11. How would you describe the faith exhibited by Peter and the people of Joppa?

Unlike the healing of Saul, neither the people of Joppa nor Peter receive any prior revelation from God that Dorcas will be brought back to life. And unlike the healing of the cripple, the Bible does not indicate that anyone receives the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit. Yet both the people of Joppa and Peter do have faith that God can do something miraculous.

When Dorcas dies, the people of Joppa do not immediately bury her, but they send for Peter and wait for him to come. They do not assume that God will not intervene nor do they demand that God do what they want. Instead, they look to God expectantly to see what God will do. Likewise, Peter comes and prays. He does not refuse the request to

75 come nor does he make any bold announcements about what God will do. He, too, acts as if God may do something miraculous, even though he does not know what God will do.

Sometimes, like Ananias and Paul in the earlier passages, we will receive a revelation or the gift of faith about what God is doing in a situation, and we will be able to pray boldly. Other times, we will not. The people of Joppa provide an example of how we should act when we do not have clear direction from God. We should not assume that God will not work at all. Neither should we pretend to have faith and order God to do our will. Instead, we should come to God in prayer, expecting that He will do something and seeking what He wants to do. We should provide God with an opportunity to act and then trust that He will respond.

Fernando recounts the practice of a tribal group in India that converted to Christianity. When someone in the group dies, the others pray for three and a half hours for God to raise that individual from the dead. If God does not raise the person within that time, then they prepare the body for burial. Fernando reports that seven people in this tribe have been raised from the dead (Fernando, p. 313). These people are expecting that God will work miracles among them, while not demanding that God do what they want all the time. May we have such confidence in God to ask and trust as they do.

APPLICATION

• How are the gifts of faith, healing, and miracles important to our small group and the church today?

• We don’t want to just talk about faith, healing, and miracles; we want to experience God at work. Let’s take some time to pray for one another and invite God to give faith and healing to us.

Ask if anyone in the group would like prayer and then pray for those people. If the group is large or several people ask for prayer, you might divide into smaller groups of two or three so that everyone has an opportunity to pray.

If the people in the group do not have much experience praying for healing, you might do a follow up study on the Vineyard Five Step Prayer model outlined below. More detail on this model is available in material from John Cook, Steve Robbins and John Wimber. The church regularly offers a class on healing—currently taught by John Cook—and you could also take your group to that class.

76 The Vineyard Prayer Model

This prayer model summary is taken from material used in the Vineyard Leadership Institute (Robbins, Healing the Whole Person 1, pp. 12—16) that is based on John Wimber’s teaching.

Why do we need to learn a model for praying for healing? There are a number of reasons why John Wimber, the founder of the Association of Vineyard Churches, proposed a Vineyard healing prayer model: • We want a model that reflects our values, i.e., the values of the Kingdom. • It gives us a track to run on. That is, it gives us a process or sequence of steps for praying for the sick. Otherwise we could get stuck or not know what to do next when someone requests prayer ministry from us. • It is simple enough that anyone can do it. It promotes the Reformation principle of the priesthood of all believers. As Wimber taught us, “Everyone gets to play.”

The prayer model consists of the following phases:

1. The Interview. This answers the question: “Where does it hurt?” or “What is wrong?” Or you can start out asking, “What would you like Jesus to do for you?”

2. The Diagnostic Question: This answers the question: “What is the root cause of the problem?” or “Why does this person have this problem?” Different kinds of sickness: - Sickness of the spirit: Caused by a person’s own sin. - Sickness of the body: Caused by disease, accidents, poor health maintenance, psychological stress, or spirit affliction. - Sickness of the emotions: Caused by being sinned against; may need help with forgiving. - Sickness of demonic affliction: Caused by demonic spirits harassing or afflicting the person in mind or body. - Sickness from alienation from relationships: Social brokenness that makes it hard for people to connect with healthy or redemptive relationships.

3. The Prayer Selection: This is where we decide how to pray. - Blessing. - Petition: Join them in asking God for healing. - Command/speak to the pain or condition. - Intercession: Pray on their behalf. - Rebuke the demonic.

4. Ministry Time: We pray and observe (look, ask, listen); watch the person for indications of what God is doing; and wait on God for impressions.

5. Post-Prayer Direction: - Help the person process and digest [what has happened]. - Directive: Make things right with another person; “Go and sin no more.” - Seek the Lord on one’ own. - Commit to a church or fellowship group. - Read specific scriptures: “Read and pray over the following Scriptures….” - Invite them back for more prayer at another time.

77 The following are tips from practical wisdom regarding using the prayer model: - Keep the interview brief. - Ask for the compassion of Jesus. - Ask the Holy Spirit to come; wait on Him. - Pray with your eyes open. - Don’t pray with too many words. - Pray with quiet faith. - Pray with authority. - Pray believing God will speak to you. - Pray taking risks. - Don’t be afraid to fail. - Ask the person how they are doing and what they are experiencing.

Physical phenomena are sometimes associated with the Holy Spirit’s activity. These phenomena should not be equated with the Holy Spirit; they are an individual’s physiological and emotional responses to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Our attitude should be one of balance and discernment. Examples of phenomena that are sometimes associated with the Holy Spirit’s activity include: - Shaking. - Stiffening. - Change of breathing. - Rocking, weaving, or acting drunk. - Laughing or crying. - Glistening, glowing, or perspiring. - Heat or coolness. - Fluttering of eyelids. - Rippling of skin. - Falling.

WRAPPING IT UP

Faith, healing and miracles are spiritual gifts through which God releases supernatural power. The gift of faith gives us confidence to invite God to act or even to announce that God will act. The gifts of healings and miracles are God’s intervention to correct something that is wrong or to do something that would otherwise be impossible. Sometimes faith and healing or faith and miracles are complementary–the gift of supernatural faith gives us boldness to receive the healing or miracle from God. Other times, we come to God with ordinary faith, simply knowing that God loves us and that God does act miraculously, and we ask God to heal or intervene without knowing exactly what God will do. Healings and miracles are gifts from God, not wages that we deserve. Therefore we cannot demand that God heal or do some other miracle. Yet God invites us to ask Him for what we need. We can be confident that God will give us what we need, whether through miraculous or ordinary means. We should come to God expectantly— asking for faith, for healing, for miracles—and watching to see His gracious response to our requests.

78 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collins, Raymond F. Sacra Pagina Series: Volume 7: First Corinthians. Ed. Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Ed. F.F. Bruce. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987.

---. Paul, the Spirit and the People of God. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

Fernando, Ajith. Acts: The NIV Application Commentary. Ed. Terry Muck. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998.

Haenchen, Ernst. The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary. Tr. Bernard Noble and Gerold Shinn. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1971.

Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians: Interpretation: A Biblical Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997.

Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. 1993. The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament. InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, Ill.

Marshall, I. Howard. The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Commentary: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Ed. R.V.G. Tasker. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980.

Morphew, Derek. “The Kingdom of God.” Westerville, OH: Vineyard Leadership Institute. 10 Oct. 2005. N. pag.

Nathan, Rich. “The Gift of Faith, Healings, and Miracles.” Sermon. Vineyard Church of Columbus. Westerville, OH, 1 Dec. 2002.

Robbins, Steve. Healing the Whole Person 1 – Physical Healing. Columbus, OH: Vineyard Leadership Institute, 2004.

---. Spiritual Gifts and “Phenomena.” Columbus, OH: Breathe Festival, 2005.

---. “VLI Syllabus for Physical Healing I.” Westerville, OH: Vineyard Leadership Institute, 2004.

Wimber, John. Spiritual Gifts Volume 2. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.

80 GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

GIFTS OF SERVICE: THE HANDS OF GOD

1 Corinthians 12:27—30; Romans 12:4—8; 1 Peter 4:9—11

By Mary Youtz

[Paul] …did not think of spiritual gifts as synonymous with the eye-catching and very physical; the charismatic Spirit came to expression characteristically for him in service, no doubt, often hidden from the public eye, in the humdrum maintenance of others in the basics of everyday living, as the Spirit of the crucified. James D. G. Dunn

Biblical hospitality… [fulfills] the two great commandments of the law of God—to love God and to love neighbor. … Biblical hospitality… has to do with welcoming the stranger. Biblical hospitality: … draws attention to the other person; … says ‘what’s mine is yours’; … places people ahead of things; … doesn’t try to impress others. It frees us from that burden and allows us to be genuinely ourselves…. Biblical hospitality puts an emphasis on doing and on loving and on serving. Stephen Van Dop

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger an invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”

The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:34—40

"TNIV" and "Today's New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society®.

81 AIM OF STUDY • To encourage and validate the various ways the Holy Spirit works. • To realize that gifts practiced behind-the-scenes are no less “spiritual” than gifts like prophecy, preaching, or working of miracles.

KEY VERSES

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.” 1 Peter 4:10

PREPARATION

The authors of this series suggest you read over the notes on “How to Teach the Bible in Small Group” and “Some Practical Suggestions for Leading a Small Group Discussion” in Vineyard Church of Columbus’ Small Group Leadership Training Manual if you feel your inductive study skills are rusty. Next, before you go over the Scripture text, pray that God would give you direction for leading your group and teach you something relevant. Then, read through the passage, keeping an open heart and ear to the Lord. Finally, work through the Bible study notes and questions below.

• Go over the questions and choose which ones you want to emphasize and which you will eliminate since your time is limited. • Note that the application questions are marked with a bullet (·). Rather than leaving all of these until the end of the study, ask one or two as you work through the passage so people are being confronted by Scripture’s truths and applying them to their own lives. • Pace yourself. If you find you are falling behind schedule and need to move ahead, you could summarize some of the passage and then go to the final questions. • Select one application question you will use with your group at the end. The question may have more than one part, but focus on the vital Biblical truth you want to encourage your group to put into practice in your final question. • Feel free to suggest that your group continue a discussion at the next meeting or at another informal get together. You want to leave time for worship, listening to God, and prayer ministry, so don’t feel you must cover every nugget of truth in a passage or allow each group member to share a mini-sermon on every question! • You may want to create your own introduction by using a personal example or current event that illustrates the point of the study. Your introduction and any background material shared should help lead the group members’ thoughts from the present moment into the text.

Also note that some studies advise the leaders to make copies of a handout or bring some helpful communication tool, etc.

OPENERS

Why do many Christians think some gifts are more spiritual or important than others? Does this agree with what God says in the Bible?

One of the purposes of this study is to correct any misconceptions about which gifts of the Spirit are “spiritual.” The opening question is designed to give the leader an idea of what the group members think about this issue. It is important to help the group see that “ordinary” activities, such as serving, helping, showing mercy and practicing hospitality (which are the focus of this study) are important to the Body of Christ and can be done under the blessing and gifting of the Holy Spirit.

What are some behind-the-scenes ways others serve in the church or in reaching out to those Jesus wants to touch? How do their gifts help the Kingdom of God advance?

Invite group members to share how they have seen the Holy Spirit gift others to serve the Body of Christ. These serving gifts can help open doors to people who may get involved in a small group or church even before they are saved. Ultimately, the serving gifts may bring spiritual growth to the Body of Christ as people are won to Christ or mature in their relationship with Him.

People operating under the Holy Spirit’s gifting could be stocking shelves at the food pantry, washing toys for the baby nursery, or assisting a family move to a new home. Service, helps, and mercy can include handing out blankets and a hot supper at a homeless camp, or visiting a lonely senior in a nursing home. Teaching could be volunteering in the children’s or youth ministries, while helps could be stuffing envelopes and bulletins at the church office each week. Those with the gift of generosity may delight in giving large amounts of their income to God’s work locally or through foreign missions, or serving and giving to crisis relief efforts. Whatever kinds of serving and giving Christians do, when the recipients experience some of God’s grace in the transaction, the Holy Spirit is at work (Robbins, Conversation).

This study quickly covers the gifts of serving, teaching, helping others, administration, giving, leading, showing mercy, and hospitality. It also gives the group a chance to discuss that gifts are not automatic but need to be developed. Part of a healthy small group is to be involved together in serving others. There are practical suggestions throughout the study for both the group and for individuals to start serving, which can lead to discovering and developing their gifts.

Optional: What else can “helps” and “service” gifts look like?

Here are two examples of serving from the author’s own experience.

Many people host a small group in their homes and organize social events for others. However, here are examples of two people who seem to have a particular gifting for hospitality and service. A woman who hosted a group made everyone who came feel welcome. She provided beverages, and had her house available half an hour before the

83 start time so people could come early and visit. She often suggested that the group meet on the fourth week of the month (which was optional) for a potluck meal or other social event. Sometimes she even cooked most of the meal! These extra nights allowed people in the group to get to know each other better and were probably a reason why the group grew during the time it met at her house. How did this woman develop such a knack for hospitality? It seems the Holy Spirit had gifted her, but she also used whatever gifting she had in serving others.

A home group that no longer meets still keeps in touch with an annual trip to various state park lodges for a weekend or week long vacation. Over the years, many have become good friends, even though there are some changes each year in who is able to participate. To make this annual event happen, one or two people consistently volunteer to spend a considerable amount of time arranging the various details—such as collecting money, scheduling the weekend, calling the lodge, copying maps and directions, etc. They willingly make numerous phone calls to let people know what is going on, and they get along well with many different personalities. Additionally, they seem to have enough faith to believe that all the details will work out. Their administrative efforts and service bears good fruit. These trips allow people who are not actively involved in small groups to meet others who help them get involved in healthy Christian fellowship. This interaction has led new people to grow spiritually and serve the Body of Christ, too.

INTRODUCTION TO STUDY

This is background material for leaders. You may decide what to share with your group.

Paul must have written an earlier letter to the church which is referred to in 1 Corinthians 5:9 (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 6). In reply three men from the church brought a letter to Paul (1 Corinthians 16:15—17), and some members of Chloe’s household also provided their report (1 Corinthians 1:11). The letter we now call First Corinthians is Paul’s response (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 7). Many have suggested that Paul wrote to correct divisions within the church— perhaps caused by misunderstandings between disciples who followed the teachings of Paul and disciples who followed more the teachings of Apollos, a teacher from Alexandria who came after Paul. But there is more evidence in the letter to suggest that Paul was dealing with a serious rift between the church and himself (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 6—10). One topic the church and Paul strongly disagree over seems to be the idea of what it means to be “spiritual” indicated by the Corinthians emphasizing speaking in unknown tongues (Fee, First Corinthians,

84 p. 10). They seemed to think that they had already reached a higher spiritual plane, a “life in the age to come” indicated primarily by this gift. This false view of what it meant to be indwelt and gifted by the Holy Spirit may have caused a rejection of the human body or its importance, a denial of the future resurrection body, and a discrediting of Paul’s admittedly weak, servant-like ministry (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 10—15).

This letter contributes several major teachings for the church in every era: a view of the kingdom as “already” but “not yet”; an understanding of ethics rooted in living between the ages and our growing into the character of Christ; and the church as the temple of God indwelt by His Spirit as well as the church as the body of Christ (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 16—19). In Chapters 12 through 14, Paul wrote more to correct false notions of spirituality than to convey a precise doctrinal statement on spiritual gifts. Thus the gifts Paul mentions are representative of those the Spirit sovereignly gives (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 585), rather than the main checklist for every believer seeking to know how to be useful to the Lord. Paul’s famous chapter on Christ- like love was also a corrective for the pride and exclusiveness evident in attitudes expressed by some members. In chapters 12 and 14, Paul tries to balance out the importance of gifts of the Spirit that are not merely for elevating one’s spiritual reputation. He encourages seeking gifts like prophecy or interpretation of tongues so that messages from God can benefit all hearers. While not opposed to praying in unknown languages, Paul points out the limits of who can benefit from this gift without someone interpreting them for the congregation and visitors.

In Chapter 12, Paul wants to widen the Corinthians’ idea of who is spiritual. First he states that anyone who acknowledges, “Jesus is Lord,” can do so only by the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus any orthodox Christian has the Holy Spirit and is therefore “spiritual.” Then he says the Triune Godhead is working together through the gifts, so that our unity and diversity reflects God Himself, implying it would be wrong to prefer we all were gifted alike. He goes on to list some of the gifts given to the church, again mentioning the work of the Spirit in giving these. He states that all Christians have the common denominator of the Holy Spirit, using the analogies of baptism/immersion and drink/absorption to repeat that all Christians have experienced God’s Spirit. He uses the body analogy to rebuke their notion of which gifts are of greater “spiritual” importance by stating that the parts of the human body that seem weaker or less presentable are actually indispensable and to be treated with greater honor. Finally he comes to another list of gifts including some that may not have been in the Corinthian view (Turner, pp. 267—269).

In verses 28 and 29, Paul mentions gifted people including those who help others and those who administrate. These may not have been even on the radar for the Corinthians who imagined they were more spiritual than most (Turner, p. 269). It seems Paul was trying to emphasize that helping, service, and other non-sensational gifts were not less important just because they seemed more like every day activities (Turner, p. 269).

Pray that the Holy Spirit will help each person see the importance of discovering, developing, and using the gifts God has given them to serve others.

STUDY THE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 12:27—30, Romans 12:4—8, and 1 Peter 4:9—11

1. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 12:27—28. Would someone volunteer to read these verses, please?

To what does Paul compare the church (v. 27)?

85 Paul compares the church to the physical human body. This analogy is not original since other ancient authors used it, but it is useful to demonstrate both the unity and the necessary diversity of the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit (Fee, First Corinthians, pp. 600—601). All through this chapter, Paul is emphasizing that diverse manifestations of the Holy Spirit are good, and therefore, the Corinthians should not tie value judgments of what is “spiritual” to any one gift (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 617).

Dunn points out that every time Paul writes of the Body of Christ, he always mentions the gifts of the Spirit operating through the believers: Romans 12:4—8; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:7—16 (Dunn, p. 734). “For Paul the body of Christ is by definition a charismatic community…. The congregation functions as Christ’s body when its members let the grace of God come to diverse expression through them” (Dunn, p. 734). He does not stress office or status but rather seems to say that “any word or action” which makes God’s grace concrete or real to the world is a “charism” or “means of grace” (Dunn, p. 734).

Dunn’s notes indicate that the Greek tense of the verbs in the passage is the present participle, which would refer to regular ministry (Dunn, p. 734).

• How does the image of a physical body shed light on the need for other brothers and sisters in Christ?

2. What examples of the Spirit’s gifts does Paul list in this passage?

Actually, Paul talks about the gifts in light of gifted people who function in the body. In verse 28, Paul refers to apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, those with gifts of healing, those who help others, those with gifts of administration, and those who speak in different kinds of tongues. In verses 29 and 30, he repeats some of these and also mentions interpreting tongues. Since you have discussed some of these in previous studies in this series, you do not need to spend too much time on the definitions of the specific gifts here. Rather, emphasize the fact that no matter what gift is mentioned, these people are serving together in the body of Christ with the gifting God supplies.

Ephesians 4:11—13 also mentions apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers who prepare God’s people for works of service. These gifted people seem to be trainers in the church (Robbins, Conversation) so that the members can do Kingdom works, help each other reach unity in the faith, and mature in Christ-likeness.

“Service comes as a result of divine prompting and is the spiritually sensitive recognition and response to a particular need within the community,” (Wimber, “Spiritual Gifts,” Vol. 2, p. 25).

If the question arises about the difference between giving help or teaching as a human effort versus a Holy Spirit inspired activity, you may refer to the Leader’s Notes in the first study in this series introducing spiritual gifts. In a nutshell, anytime the Holy Spirit is gifting someone to perform a service, the recipient will sense the grace of God at work (Robbins, Conversation).

86 3. In verses 29 and 30, why does Paul ask if all are prophets, all are apostles, etc? How does this discourage both comparison and competition among believers?

These verses stress the need for cooperation by repeating the word “all.” Paul wants to emphasize that not everyone can perform all the gifts and so we in the body need to work together using our different, unique gifts so all the gifts will be present and operating. Fee points out that instead of everyone having the same gift, such as speaking in tongues, “Diversity within unity is Paul’s concern…” (Fee, First Corinthians, p. 617).

4. Now let’s turn to another short passage Paul wrote to the believers in Rome about gifts of the Spirit. Would someone please read Romans 12:4—8?

How does Paul keep emphasis away from individualism (vv. 4—6)?

Paul writes of the necessity of all the members working together, using different gifts that God has given. God has given each believer one or more spiritual gifts but the context is the church, the Body, the community, not the individual. He says that the gifts are God’s grace in action, not something resident within each person that can be pulled out at any moment (Dunn, p. 725). The idea that each person has something to contribute is also in 1 Peter 4:9.

5. What does Paul tell us to do (vv. 6b—8)?

Paul commands us to use our spiritual gifts, not just display them as prized personal possessions (Dunn, p. 726). The goal is that as individual believers begin using their gifts to help others, the following will result:

God gifts each member of His body with various workings of His Spirit so that each can contribute to the strengthening of others and the community as a whole. As each person submits to God and utilizes the Holy Spirit’s gifts, the body matures and is better prepared to carry out the mission of the Kingdom of God. Individuals also learn to love, appreciate, and honor one another. And, the harmonious workings of the community attract those who are without an eternal relationship to Jesus Christ, often causing them to consider receiving such a great salvation and joining the people of God (Nathan & Crawford, “Definition and Explanation of Christian Community,” p. 2).

This idea may be the most important in the study to convey to your group. It is often difficult to see the importance of one person’s contribution to a large church; however everyone’s gifts are needed for the church to function effectively. Since there are likely to be people in your group who are not involved with either an established ministry or in the habit of noticing and meeting the needs of others they regularly see, it is also important to discuss the effects of people using their gifts on a larger group. Stepping out in faith and developing gifts also leads to spiritual growth for the individual.

6. What gifts does Paul mention in this passage?

In this passage, Paul mentions prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, leadership, and showing mercy. While some of these sound like activities even a non-Christian may do, remember that Holy Spirit inspired words and actions convey a sense of God’s grace [undeserved favor] to the recipients. Instead of feeling ripped off by the so-called giver’s selfish or hidden agenda, the person who has been ministered to feels blessed (Robbins, Conversation). Operating by the gifting of the Holy Spirit has a quality of reaching out and expressing God’s immense love that lifts up, encourages, and strengthens others. And when people are truly thankful for the opportunity to serve someone else who has no means of repaying them, we see God’s immeasurable love expressed in those who are freely giving their time, energy, talents, compassion, etc.

The gift of encouragement is “a very important gift. It is used to lift up, build up, and stir up the saints. It also overlaps with prophecy in the area of prophetic exhortation (‘congregational prophecy’). A gifted counselor… or someone who is gifted to advise someone to take the following steps to work on an issue often operate from this base” (Robbins, “RE: encourage/exhort”).

Several gifts related to leadership appear in the 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 passages (Robbins, “RE: back for more”):

The Greek word for “administration” in 1 Cor 12:28 is kubernesis, which means “helmsman,” i.e., one who is at the helm of a ship and guides it.

The Greek word for “leading” in Ro 12:8 is proistemi, which means one who stands in front (of a group)—connoting leadership.

There is no conclusive evidence telling us whether these are the same thing or two different things. I would …include these under the gift of “leadership.” Interestingly, the Hebrew phrase behind “let the discerning get guidance” in Prov 1:5 is translated “let the discerning acquire a helmsman” in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) [a Greek translation of the Old Testament]. The word for “helmsman” there is “kubernesis” just as it is in 1 Cor 12:28.

This leads me to conclude that the gifts most needed by leaders (leadership gifts) are “wisdom” for direction and “kubernesis”/”proistemi.”

7. The last passage we will study is 1 Peter 4:9—11. Let’s read these verses aloud. What gift does Peter talk about in verse 9? What attitude are believers to have when using this gift?

Peter talks about offering hospitality to other believers. You may want to refer to the quote on the title page for some points about hospitality that goes beyond entertaining friends and looks to the needs of others. The context in this passage is Peter talking about the nearness of Jesus’ return, and the need to live with right priorities—level thinking, prayer, and love for others in the community of faith (Davids, pp. 155—157).

88 Hospitality is mentioned four other times in the New Testament (Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Hebrews 13:2) and implied elsewhere (Selman, “Hospitality,” cited in Davids, p. 159). Providing hospitality was a qualification for being an elder or being enrolled as a widow (1 and 2 Timothy; Titus). Jesus mentions it as a reason for rejection or acceptance at the final judgment (Matthew 25:34—45). Traveling Christian teachers, prophets, and apostles were given free room and board during the time they were serving in an area. But by A. D. 100 in Asia, it had been limited to three days room and board to prevent abuse. Many Christians lived from day to day without a surplus, so this kind of hospitality was a call to give sacrificially. Thus, Peter asks that it be done without complaining (Davids, p. 159).

8. In verse 10, what directions does Peter give for how to use God’s gifts? How should Christians view the development and use of spiritual gifts?

God’s gifts are for serving others, not ourselves. Believers should be good stewards, or managers, of their gifts, which the New International Version translates as “administrating God’s grace.” If your group members are not familiar with the concept of stewardship, you could share this definition: “The steward was the person in a household (often a slave) who was responsible for managing the [owner’s] property and business, including what was needed for the family members, slaves, and hired laborers” (Michel and Reumann, cited by Davids, p. 160, n. 37).

Peter generalizes that God has given each person a gift. But it’s not clear if Peter means God gives specific gifts to individuals or that the Spirit works through each born again believer (Davids, pp. 159—160). Nevertheless, he encourages believers to use whatever gifting the Holy Spirit imparts, whether one consistent working or any one of the ways the Spirit manifests (Davids, p. 160). “But it is clear that Peter is speaking about spiritual endowments, not natural abilities. Also, like Paul, he believes such gifting is not for display or self-glorification or even personal development, but for service (1 Cor. 12:5), or, as Paul would say, for the building up the body of Christ (e.g., 1 Cor. 14:3-5, Eph. 4:12)” (Davids, p. 160).

While Christians don’t have a choice about the gifts they receive, unless it is by asking for “the greater gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31), “Christians …can and do control if and how the gift is used. Spiritual gifts are not autonomous entities outside a person’s control, but abilities that the Spirit gives and that a person must grow in and use, putting them into service. Thus, the Christian is a ’steward‘ of a gift. …Thus the Christian in Peter’s view is simply a household slave who has control over a certain part of God’s property, a gift. The shape of this gift will not be like that of another Christian, for it comes from ’God’s varied grace’…. But all alike are simply administrators of that which belongs to God; it is not theirs, but they are responsible for how it is used. They ought to be ‘good stewards’” (Davids, pp. 160—161).

Point out that gifts are developed or matured, similar to natural abilities. This is important since there may be people in your group who expect a gift to operate supernaturally without any effort on their part. It can also be important for those who want to shut down someone using a gift immaturely. Instead, an inexperienced person needs encouragement and direction to grow in that gifting (Robbins, Conversation).

89 9. What two categories of gifts does Peter mention in verse 11? How are we to use those gifts?

Peter mentions speaking gifts and serving gifts. We are to speak as if what comes out of our mouths are God’s own words, thus implying a care to listen not only to what God says, but who the message is for, when we are to deliver that message, and how we are to avoid misinterpreting or twisting the meaning of those words. When we serve, we are to rely on the strength that God supplies, again being sensitive to how and to whom God would have us minister. Peter reminds us that the result of our speaking or serving is that God would be praised rather than drawing attention to ourselves or bringing shame on the name of Christ.

• With the abundance of needs in our church, city, nation, and world, how can we avoid burnout in serving others?

The best way to avoid burnout or compassion fatigue is to listen to the Father. This was what Jesus did, so we should imitate Him (John 5:19—20, 30). By regularly spending time with God, reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, and sometimes fasting, we have the opportunity to receive impressions of what is on His heart and on His agenda. Without this, our words, works, service, or efforts to use giftings may be self-motivated, fruitless, and meaningless. They certainly won’t be expressions of God’s grace to others.

Based on the Greek meaning of the word “supplies,” Davids points out that “…God has ordered the job done; God will pay the expenses, be they material, physical, or emotional. He ‘backs up the act’ of the Christian who is being a good steward of his gifts in dependence on him” (Davids, pp. 161—162).

APPLICATION

• What value do the spiritual gifts in this study have for our group and the church? How can we mature in using the gifts God the Spirit gives us?

• How has this study helped you see the importance of developing and using spiritual gifts?

90 • How can our group develop a service-oriented outlook? How could that help us rely on God for gifting and help us mature in the gifts He gives us?

You may want to suggest the group members start (continue) looking for and responding to needs they notice in the small group, among other friends, and church members. Leaders can also suggest a project that the small group could participate in that might stretch individuals beyond their usual comfort zone. Every small group can find opportunities to serve by checking with the Small Groups Ministry staff. A leader or delegated representative can locate specific outreach events on the church’s website, in the church’s magazine, or in announcements sent to the small group leaders by email.

In addition to stepping out in service, your group may decide to attend the church’s Discovering Your Ministry class. This class is offered several times a year and is a good way for people to become more aware of areas of gifting. The class also suggests ministries in the church that people may serve in.

• Some of us may not have seen ourselves gifted by God for service in the Body of Christ, or it may have been a long time since we have engaged in such activity. Let’s take time to bless and affirm each person as gifted by God for serving others.

WRAPPING IT UP

Each of us can expect to be gifted and used by God in the Body of Christ. But it is important that we cooperate with His Spirit in maturing and using His gifts. In the next week, let’s pray for one another and ourselves that God would help us see when and how He wants to use us. Let’s pray for faith-filled lives so that we boldly step out and risk serving the Lord as His Spirit prompts us. And, let’s pray that each of us is open to whatever step is appropriate.

91 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Davids, Peter. The First Epistle of Peter. Gordon Fee, general editor. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

Dunn, James D. G. Romans 9—16. Word Biblical Commentary. Volume 38. Waco : Word, 1988.

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987.

Nathan, Marlene & Beth Crawford. “Definition and Explanation of Christian Community.” Community Bible Studies for Small Groups. Westerville, OH: Vineyard Church of Columbus, 2004.

Robbins, Steve. Conversation with the general editor. 19 Oct. 2005.

---. “RE: back for more.” Personal email to the general editor. 26 Oct. 2005.

---. ““RE: encourage/exhort.” Personal email to the general editor. 25 Oct. 2005.

Turner, Max. The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts In the New Testament Church and Today. Rev. ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998.

Wimber, John. Spiritual Gifts Volume 2. Used by permission, Sean & Christy Wimber, at dointhestuff.com.