Come Hungry
Life in the Spirit
Come Hungry
Life in the Spirit:
In the Individual - Holy Spirit as Person – Partner - Power
In the Church – everyone has a spiritual gift – has a place to fit in
This morning I want to talk about special gifts given by the Spirit for the benefit of the whole church.
1 Cor 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
1 Cor 12:8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
1 Cor 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
1 Cor 12:10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
1 Cor 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
Word of Wisdom – not wisdom in general – but a special work of the Holy Spirit through an individual – to speak wisely in a particular situation.
“In a difficult or dangerous situation a word of wisdom may be given which resolves the difficulty or silences the opponent.”
- Acts 6:9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)--Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen,
- Acts 6:10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
Word of Knowledge – not knowledge in general – a special work of the Holy Spirit through and individual – a knowledgeable saying – a special utterance revealing something unknown through any others means than the Holy Spirit – its purpose is to serve the community of believers – the church
- Acts 5:3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
- Acts 5:4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
Power gifts
Faith – This is not saving faith, or daily life faith – this is a supernatural faith given by the Holy Spirit – that enables Christians to believe for the extraordinary and miraculous
1 Cor 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
The gift of faith often leads to the next gifts
Gifts of Healing – work of the Holy Spirit to restore physical health supernaturally
Miraculous Powers – divine interventions apart from healing – miracle – Wonder inspiring works of all kinds
Speaking Gifts
The next four gifts are 2 pairs
Prophecy – Distinguishing of Spirits
Tongues – Interpretation
Prophecy – It is not so much foretelling as in telling the future as it is forthtelling. Delivering the message of God. It is a spontaneous, intelligible utterance, usually delivered in the assembly of believers.
Distinguishing of Spirits – the assessment of prophetic utterances. The ability to discern between the human, divine, Satanic
- 1 Th 5:20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.
- 1 Th 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.
- 1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Speaking in different kinds of tongues – speaking in languages unknown and unlearned by the speaker – “kinds” human identifiable languages and spiritual language
Interpretation of tongues – interprets or translates a message in tongues for the edification of the church
1 Cor 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
- These gifts all come from the Holy Spirit
- He gives them to whomever he wants – just as he determines.
Thus ends the teaching portion of the Message.
For the last couple of weeks I have been having some problems with my stomach.
Whenever I go through something I begin asking God what I can learn from it.
Not why is this happening
Not God did you cause this
But God what are you going to teach me through this
I’m not hungry – It is not natural – It is natural to be hungry for food.
At various times – the thought of food would make me sick.
Are you hungry for the things of God?
If you are not hungry then there is something wrong.
It is not normal or healthy for a Christian not to be hungry for the things of God.
I used to think that materialism was the god of our nation.
Now I think it is something more – Comfort.
We live, we work, we play for comfort
We adjust our schedule, we adjust our budget.
We cater to our children’s every whim so they will be comfortable.
Jesus did not come to make us comfortable but to challenge us to do with will of God.
- To Know him
- To Grow in our walk with Him
- To Serve God and his church
- To Go into all the world and preach the gospel.
We will see the moving of the Holy Spirit: The gifts of the Spirit, the infilling of the Spirit when we are hungry.
You don’t need a word of wisdom or knowledge if you live your life knowing it all
You don’t need a miracle when we have everything we need
You don’t need faith when you have more than you need
You don’t need the Holy Spirit to come and shake up your life because: “I’m comfortable the way I am.”
You’ve got to come hungry.
Are you hungry for the Word of God
Are you hungry for the Ways of God – wanting to live for him more
Are you hungry for God – to spend time with Him
Are you hungry for Worship - God has been so good I can’t wait to gather with the people of God to sing his praises.
Are you hungry for Church - Church is better when you come hungry.
The music is better
The preaching is better
The building is better
The offering is better
The announcements are better
The prayer is better
Statitistics tells us the pastor has to speak 5 times before he speaks to the whole congregation.
That means it takes five weeks for everyone that calls Malaga Assembly of God their home church to attend at least one service.
If you are a once in five weeks Christian – you might not be – you certainly aren’t hungry for the things of God.
Have you yielded to the God of this country: comfort?
Or are you hungry for the things of God.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.
Are you hungry today?
Are you hungry for more of God?
That is when we will see the move of the Spirit.
That is when the gifts will begin to flow.
All the teaching, all the study, all the theology in the world doesn’t matter if people don’t come to church hungry.
Come Hungry.
He will fill you up.
Get out there and do the will of God.
You will be hungry for more of Him.