When we buy a Lego set we see the picture on the box and determine that the pieces inside will all fit together and make that three dimensional model. We open the box and see lots of pieces all over the place and then have to follow the directions to assembling the model. Some people rush in and start on their own, without directions. Some people separate the pieces according to type and then proceed to the directions. The people most excited about putting together the lego model don’t look at the directions, they dive right in. The people who want to make sure they do it correctly analyze the pieces and the directions. We all take one of these approaches to the free will gifts and favors of the Holy Spirit. We either excitedly dive in without a knowledge base or we methodically examine the freewill gifts and favors to understand them. Last week we looked at the breakdown of the gifts and operations that Paul wrote to us. This week we will determine their usages before we move on to operating these free gifts for the laity.
The context of Paul’s letter is that Corinth was holding a church potluck or a love feast, but some people were eating ahead of everyone else. For example we might set up the pot luck at 5:30 and eat at 6:00, but some were claiming they were hungry and were eating while the setup was still taking place. Paul says to stop that rude behavior and eat at home if you are hungry. Also the misconception entered in that the love feast was communion, to which Paul explained that communion is not a church potluck. Paul then also addresses the gossip that went on at the potluck regarding the free gifts and favors of the Holy Spirit ministered by certain people. Paul calls the people operating the free gifts spiritual brethren. By calling them spiritual brethren he does two things; one he sets them apart from the crowd as spiritual compared to the majority as carnal, second he identifies them as brethren noting they are just like them but knowledgable in the gifts. This shows a level of maturity that the laity can have. Now instead of people murmuring about the people ministering as if they were idol worshippers who should be marked and avoided, Paul tells the Corinthian church what it is these brothers are doing. He lists and separates the gifts with incredible detail.
1 Corinthians 12:1 “But about the spiritual brethren, not wish you not to know.”
1 Corinthians 12:4 “But variety free gifts they are but the same Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:5 “And variety service they are and the same Yahweh”
1 Corinthians 12:6 “And variety operations they are but the same Elohim the operative all in all.”
1 Corinthians 12:7 “But everyone given the manifestation the Spirit towards the bring together.”
1 Corinthians 12:8 “That truly for by means of Spirit give logos sophia (word wisdom) but another different logos gnōsis (word knowledge) downwards the same Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:9 “But another different kind (eteros) faith in the same Spirit but another different free gift healing in the one Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:10 “But another different energēma dunamis (operation power) but another different prophecy, but another different judicial estimation spirits but another different kind (eteros) genos glōssa (kinds/race unacquired tongues) but another different explanation unacquired tongues”.
1 Corinthians 12:11 “But all these things operate the one and the same Spirit distribute one’s own, each one just as intends.”
Another Different- Allos: Wisdom, Knowledge
Another Different Kind- Eteros: Faith
Another Different- Allos: Healing, Miracle Power, Prophecy, Judging Spirits
Another Different Kind- Eteros: Unacquired Languages
Another Different- Allos: Explanation of Unacquired Languages
The first thing we should take note of is that there are nine operations directed by the Holy Spirit. The way Paul explains it is interesting. The first two things Paul lists are wisdom and knowledge. These two are similar and go together. Then Paul says that there is a different kind of free will gift, faith. It is not like the first two or the next four. He then lists healing, miracle power, prophecy, judging spirits. These four work together, but they are dependent on faith, the other different kind of free gift. Paul then says that unacquired languages are another different kind of free gift. Paul then says that the explanation of unacquired languages is another free gift, but it is dependent on the different kind of gift of unacquired languages. Let’s explore.
The Holy Spirit gives wisdom and knowledge to spiritual brethren for whatever need people may have. Both wisdom and knowledge are thoughts dropped into our mind that we speak forth to give others understanding. These are things that we cannot know by what we see and hear, but it is behind the scenes information that the Elohim knows. In other words, we are getting a download from the Holy Spirit regarding spiritual information otherwise unattainable. Wisdom and knowledge are used together or separately for the benefit of the laity.
We might be in a small group Bible study and someone asks for prayer. We might feel impressed by the Holy Spirit to say something to that person. A funny story here. Years ago I taught a spiritual warfare class and afterward someone asked for prayer. She was flying across the country to a difficult situation, we all prayed. Someone said, “I keep seeing “grace”, “grace”.” The person taking the trip said “that is great, the Lord is giving me grace for my trip”. She flies from one large city to another large city connecting on the way to her final destination and a young girl gets on the plane in the seat next to her. Her name is Grace. The lady knew exactly what to do, she spoke the word to Grace the entire flight, gave her a copy of David Wilkersons Promises to Live By and told her about his church which was not far from where she was going to be. She prayed with her. This is an example of a word of knowledge. There was nothing prophetic such as a ‘girl named Grace will sit next to you on flight number ### and she needs a booklet” the word was simply “grace”.
Sometimes it seems like what the Holy Spirit would inspire us to say isn’t important but we cannot make that determination. The funny thing is the word of knowledge was not for the lady who asked for prayer, it was for Grace. Grace was the one who needed to be reminded about Jesus.
The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge are not something we are responsible for after we speak it. It is the responsibility of the person we are speaking to. In other words we do not need to pray every day for the word we spoke to someone to come to pass or be activated. It takes no power or authority on our part aside from simply speaking what the Holy Spirit wanted spoken. If someone has a need and we feel inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak wisdom we are not responsible if the person doesn’t follow the advice of the Holy Spirit. Many times people do not.
Faith is next on Paul’s list. Without internal faith the Holy Spirit cannot work the next four operations in us. Faith is the internal knowing of the working of the Holy Spirit inside of us. By faith we can do whatever the Holy Spirit suggests. It is not something that we can impart into another it is only imparted by the Holy Spirit. It is the solid foundation that we have to heal the sick and cast out demons. We are confident in the voice of the Holy Spirit and we act as directed because we have Spirit given faith.
There is inside faith and outside faith. Outside faith is something we build upon. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that we grow in faith, from faith to faith, credence to fidelity, acceptance to loyalty.
“Righteousness for Elohim uncovered (apokaluptō) in us, from out of faith into faith just as written ‘but the just live from out of faith’”, Romans 1:17.
https://musingsofawinsomeheart.blogspot.com/2021/07/little-faith-law-of-faith-from-credence.html
We grow in our understanding of the Elohim and we continue to grow. Our growth shifts from small trust to stable persuasion. Because we believe Jesus is Messiah, we live as he asked us to. We are loving to others, we are kind, we are compassionate, we serve, we give, and we commune with the Elohim. This is outside faith that grows and builds.
The operation of eteros faith is faith on the inside, meaning we have faith that the Holy Spirit will do what we are told to do. If the Holy Spirit wants us to prophesy, we know that the Elohim will fulfill that prophecy. We know it because we have the supernatural operation of faith. All we do is speak the prophecy, the Elohim does the rest. This is not just confidence in a wistful hope of “someday”, it is confidence as if we were sitting next to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit says we are going to heal that person now.
If we don’t know the voice of the Holy Spirit we will not have supernatural faith. It takes dedication on our part to pursue the ministry to the saints. If we are unwilling to help anyone, we won’t be hearing from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not giving spiritual brethren operations for their own benefit. In fact the spiritual brethren are sticking their necks out helping people. When the foolish unlearned Christians are scared of the power of the operations of the Holy Spirit, they attack the spiritual brethren, like at Corinth. The spiritual brethren are called names, cursed, kicked out of their churches, all for helping the laity. This is the same treatment that the prophets all experienced. To be clear, the spiritual brethren bear a burden of working for the Holy Spirit while being ostracized by other Christians as well as non-Christians. The spiritual brethren are the ones talked about at church social pot luck dinners as not being right with the Lord, as they did in Corinth.
The spiritual brethren will hear others say that they are casting out demons with demons. People will say that they operate witchcraft because people are getting healed. These non-spiritual brethren are simply foolish and unlearned, but like the foolish and unlearned Pharisees they condemn what they themselves do not understand. Again, it is the Holy Spirit operating a variety of free will gifts and favors to the laity, through spiritual brethren. What do spiritual brethren receive for these efforts? Nothing, at least not today. The spiritual brethren will endure being hated and persecuted by other Christians and never promised anything in return, nor do they receive anything for their ministry to the body of Christ on earth, but there may be rewards in heaven.
Faith is corrupted by wishing. Faith is our understanding of an expectation of something which will happen that has not happened yet.
“But persuasion is understanding expectation, deeds proof not seen.”
https://musingsofawinsomeheart.blogspot.com/2020/12/understanding-expectation-our.html
We do this both on the inside and the outside. We are persuaded that Jesus is going to call us up, we are persuaded that Jesus is coming on the Day of the Lord, we are persuaded that Jesus is the Messiah. That is the outside faith, the persuasion that our mind and our heart agree on these facts. The inside persuasion is spiritually activated in both the mind and heart when the Holy Spirit gives us the revelation. I am persuaded by what the Holy Spirit says now in this instance, such as the Holy Spirit telling us to lay our hands on someones broken arm and command its healing. All we have to do is act. Similar to Peter and John, passing the lame man at the temple gate and then one day Peter telling the man to rise up and walk. We have the internal spiritual faith to just do whatever the Holy Spirit says.
This is different than wisdom and knowledge because we can say whatever logos we are told to say and not necessarily have the faith that it will come to pass in someone else’s life. Such as telling someone of an event to be wary of, logos wisdom, or that someone is going to be a great statesman in a few years, logos knowledge, both are logos, but we, the spiritual brethren do not need to have the faith to carry out those words. They are spoken to the individual and the individual is responsible for the things that the Holy Spirit spoke to them. In some ways it is like prophecy in foretelling, but it is not incumbent upon the spiritual brethren to have faith.
Prophecy is activated by our faith. It is making public certain things directly from the Holy Spirit. In the time of the first century, prophets gave very specific prophecies, names, dates, times. If they spoke incorrectly they were ashamed and some committed suicide. This is the reason people held the office of a prophet in high regard. They never missed, so to speak. Today we call people prophets or prophetic who tell us P.T. Barnum vague generalizations and along with some showmanship, we are sold. “There will be storms in the south” is not a prophecy or a prophetic word, it is a weather statement of the obvious. Now if this weather statement came with a date, a time, and a specific location, we could judge it, but if it is not specific we can discard it. This is the free will gift of prophecy operated by spiritual brethren, distributed by the Holy Spirit.
There was a crazy idea that rattled around the body of Christ in the early nineties where people would say they were giving “personal prophecies”. It was nothing more than certain people trying to make a name for themselves (and probably some income) telling the laity what they wanted to hear. I knew someone who went to one of these personal prophecy groups. The woman was in financial trouble, she lost her job and had to sell her house, so she went for a personal prophecy and told the people her situation. A couple had lowballed an offer on her house and she didn’t know what to do. Someone’s prophecy was to sell it cheap and God would bless her. She sold but then needed a place to live. She only had a little money left over but she wanted to rent an expensive house. She went for a personal prophecy and someone told her to rent the expensive house and God would cover her expenses. After a few months she was out of money, with no job, and was being evicted. The woman had friends who spoke against the advice of the personal prophets, but the personal prophets told the woman her friends just didn’t believe. In hindsight however we see that the friends were the wise ones. The idea that people identify as a prophet doesn’t mean they are prophets. Through her entire ordeal the woman kept going back to the personal prophets, like a fortune teller, and over and over they kept telling her what she wanted to hear. None of this was truly prophecy. None of it came to pass. We can see the lack of fruit and the outcome. The Elohim was actually telling her something different but she didn’t want to do what was hard, finding a job. Prophets should live or die by their prophecies.
Wars of the Jews 1:3:5. (78) And truly any one would be surprised at Judas upon this occasion. He was of the sect of the Essenes, and had never failed or deceived men in his predictions before. Now, this man saw Antigonus as he was passing along by the temple, and cried out to his acquaintance (they were not a few who attended upon him as his scholars), (79) “O strange!” said he, “it is good for me to die now, since truth is dead before me, and somewhat that I have foretold hath proved false; for this Antigonus is this day alive, who ought to have died this day; and the place where he ought to be slain, according to that fatal decree, was Strato’s Tower, which is at the distance of six hundred furlongs from this place, and yet four hours of this day are over already; which point of time renders the prediction impossible to be fulfilled.” (80) And when the old man had said this he was dejected in his mind and so continued. But, in a little time, news came that Antigonus was slain in a subterraneous place, which was itself also called Strato’s Tower, by the same name with that Cesarea which lay by the seaside; and this ambiguity it was which caused the prophet’s disorder.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 549.
Prophecy is declaring a decree. The office of a prophet is the office of a spiritual brethren who declares decrees. A decree is an official order, it is a judicial judgment, and it is a command. Prophecy is detailed, specific, accurate, and always fulfilled. Satanas has muddied the waters of prophecy so much that we take prophecy as a suggestion, then read into the words of the prophets from the Bible that same cloudiness, as if it is a suggestion. The words of the prophets were sure words. I dare our modern day prophets to have the level of integrity of the Biblical prophets.
Prophecy in the church is different than the decree that a prophet makes. There are still no vague generalizations in prophecy in the church but prophecy can be foretelling, edification, exhortation, comfort, or commission. If someone prophetically lays hands on another person for a prophetic word it is not so vague and generalized that the person doesn’t know how to deal with it. For example, if a person prophesies “You will do great things for God”, there had better be some specifics because that is not a commission or an exhortation. What things? How will they happen? A person hearing this may run off in their own direction believing that whatever they are doing it is ‘great for God’. The specificity is what matters.
In 1985 someone at a conference in another town spoke a prophetic vision over me. I was unsure of it because the words used were not churchy words. It was about a piece of spiritual armor. I prayed about it and asked for more information. I understood the armor of God, I understood its use, but what do I do with this knowledge? I prayed that God would show me. At that time a hotel was being built in the a town I lived in. A few days later I heard on the radio that the new hotel was opening soon. The name of the hotel was the spiritual armor in the prophecy. That specific prophecy was validated by the naming of the hotel. It was a most unusual name for a hotel as this was a mining town and everything in this town was named after precious minerals, not armor. Ten years later, to the month, someone prophesied over me with more details. They had no knowledge of the previous prophecy. They didn’t know anything about me. That exact spiritual armor was the first thing mentioned in this prophecy. The specificity of this armament was not something that could be confused or contrived. It was so specific there was no mistaking it. Those words are never used in Christianity, in the Bible, or in spiritual warfare, especially in 1985. They are simply not common language. In fact most people don’t know what it is. Certainly the Elohim knew.
Paul uses the same ideas of spiritual faith, favors, and prophecy in Romans.
Romans 12:6 G2192 But having G1161 G5486 [2favors G2596 3according to G3588 4the G5484 5favor G3588 G1325 6being given G1473 7to us G1313 1diverse]; G1535 whether G4394 prophecy, G2596 let it be according to G3588 the G356 ratio G3588 of the G4102 belief;
“But have favor (charisma) downwards, the through favor (charin) the give us varying whether prophecy downward the proportion the faith.”
Paul says to use the varying gifts given to you by favor if you are told to prophesy, then prophesy proportionately by supernatural faith.
Healing is the same favor, needing faith to operate. We have to say what the Holy Spirit wants us to say, not what we want to say. Even if a subject is sensitive, we still have to minister the words that the Holy Spirit wants. This is the most important point as to whether we can successfully minister healing to someone. Many people study the way other men ministered healing, especially those who lived during the times of healing revivals. While that is a good start it is not how we minister to others. We minister to others by direction of the Holy Spirit, not how someone did it one hundred years ago. While healings seemed more prominent in those days, they did not have the advent of medicines and medical technologies to help people. People went to a faith healer before they went to a hospital. At that time people only went to the hospital to die, not to get healed. The Holy Spirit can still heal people today, using spiritual brethren operating the free gifts, directed by the giver of those gifts, the Holy Spirit. If one does not know the Holy Spirit, one cannot utilize the gifts.
There is no magic word or magic phrase that heals people, and yet there is a wrong way to use the gifts and the name of Jesus, as Jesus told us in Matthew 7. The wrong way is to use the name illegally, without knowing Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. The right way is any way that the Holy Spirit tells us to do it. Peter said “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk”. Paul wrapped a young man up, embracing him, and said “his life is still in him”, don’t make a big deal, and went back to preaching. It wasn’t until the next morning after breakfast when Paul left town that the young man got up, alive and well. There is no right way, there is the Elohim’s way.
The same principal applies with judging spirits. We need internal faith to trust the Holy Spirit’s words as to what demons are present in situations. Sometimes people are acting demonically like Elymas the sorcerer. Paul called him out as being “full of all subtilty and mischief, child of the devil, enemy of all righteousness”. Paul had the faith to discern that Elymas was a child of the devil. He then uses miracle power by saying to Elymas the sorcerer, “The hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind not seeing the sun for a season”. Elymas was immediately blind. The operation of judging spirits and miracle power working together, directed by the Holy Spirit, was for the benefit of Sergius Paulus and his staff. Paul called down a miracle by internal faith and what the Holy Spirit was speaking. Sometimes in deliverance ministry we just start casting out whatever demons we think are there. That is what Sceva’s sons did. They tried to cast out demons saying “by Jesus who Paul preaches”. This is an illegality. They did not have the direction by the Holy Spirit to use Jesus’ name. We should not do this as Jesus pointed out by casting out one demon he will go find friends and bring seven more evil demons back to a cleaned and swept house. The person needing deliverance has to be ready to keep the demons out.
In the body of Christ we have all sorts of ideas about sending demons to hell or the abyss. The judging of spirits is a judicial process. Yahweh Elohim has judged whether they are to be sent somewhere specific or just out to wander dry places. This part of the ministry is not up to us. Once again we are not to do any of this on our own. It is for the benefit of the laity that we judge spirits. If it is the will of the Holy Spirit then we pronounce the sentence from the Elohim that the Holy Spirit tells us to.
These four free gifts, healing, miracle power, prophecy, judging spirits, work together for the benefit of the laity. They are intertwined when ministering to someone, or may be separate when simply entering a situation the Holy Spirit wants us to be aware of. If we minister healing, we may also have to judge spirits and utilize miracle power for that person, and we may wrap up ministry with a prophetic word for that individual. We could also walk into a room and be told of the demons present and be told to call down judgment on the leading individual, like Elymas.
The variety of operations is directed by the Holy Spirit which means we have to know the voice of the Spirit of the Elohim. The Holy Spirit communicates with us in different ways. We might “see" an image or a “clip” of something we are to speak to. This is dependent on the individual spiritual person. If two people are ministering together both will receive the revelation from the Holy Spirit at the same time. Yes at the same time. Although one person may see something differently than the other person, both will know and understand it at the same time.
Specifically dunamis, or miracle power, is activated by internal faith, that calls something into being, or changes something, by the supernatural power of the Elohim. The instant mending of a broken bone is dunamis. The instant relief from demonic possession is dunamis. So is a city wall falling down when the musicians sound the trumpets. When Jesus said that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we could tell a mountain to be moved and cast into the sea, he was not talking about wishing, begging, whining, he was talking about internal faith to command dunamis at the mountain to move it. Will the Holy Spirit ever ask us to move a mountain into the sea? We don’t know. There is no precedent for it, but if the Holy Spirit says it, it will be done. How many people have yelled at mountains to exert their own power over it and then walked away discouraged? This would be an illegality. If it is our own power it will not work. If it is according to the Holy Spirit, it will. Jesus says that he did miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus utilized the direction of the Holy Spirit we should too.
Miracle power only works when the Holy Spirit says to do it. It is not by our external faith it is by internal supernatural faith. Phillip was told by the Holy Spirit to speak to an Ethiopian Eunuch about Jesus being the risen Messiah. Philip then baptized the Eunuch. When they came out of the water, the Holy Spirit seized (harpazo’d) Philip, and took him to Azotus. Philip was transported, supernaturally. This is dunamis, miracle power. Philip simply had the internal faith and was obedient, the Holy Spirit did the miracle. The distance between Gaza and Azotus is about thirty miles.
Our second eteros gift is genos glōssa, another different kind of kinds of unacquired languages. This is an eteros operation because it works differently than the other gifts. There is no understanding of the words spoken before they are spoken, or after they are spoken. Kinds or genos are the languages of men or angels. Unacquired languages are languages we do know or have not learned. If I could speak different languages because I learned them, it would not be unacquired languages. The word “tongues” has a mystical connotation, as if our tongue is moving about by itself without our controlling it. The tongue is subject to our own will, whether we open our mouth or not is up to us. We have to move our mouth, our lips our vocal cords, but the words spoken are not words we know. If my native language is English, but I want to speak Spanish I have to think about the words I want to translate from English to Spanish. Tongues/unacquired languages is not translating. It is simply speaking words we do not know out loud, so that the Holy Spirit declares the mysteries of the Elohim on the earth. Who can understand these words? Angels, demons, fallen principalities and powers, Satanas, Dracōn, and on the off chance it is a language of men, people. Just like in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost men from Galilee spoke as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance and other men from seventeen countries heard, in their own languages, the megaleios, magnificence of the Elohim.
The word used in Acts 2:4 for utterance is the word apophtheggomai. Apo means “off”, “from” or “away from”. Phtheggomai is also a compound word which comes from pheggos, “light” “splendor” or “brilliancy” and phēmi “declare”, “speak”, or “say”. What this tells us is the Holy Spirit gives “from light declare”, or “away from splendor speak”, or "off brilliancy sayings”. These are all prepositional phrases, the word apo is a preposition, the word pheggos is the noun, and the word phēmi is the verb. The Holy Spirit gives light sayings, out of the mouths of the spiritual brethren. This is what unacquired languages is, from splendor speaking, or from light declare. It may not only be speaking splendor and brilliancy, but on this day of Pentecost in the temple courts, it was magnificence to the hearers.
The Holy Spirit does the speaking, we use our mechanics of speech, not knowing what is being said. This is why Paul lists unacquired languages as an eteros operation. It works differently than when the Holy Spirit tells us what to minister to in a sick person, or what to command to come to pass, or a word for someone. We do not know what the words are going to be, we hear them for the first time when they are spoken. We may have several different languages we speak in, all while not knowing what they are. We could be speaking one kind of language and then the Holy Spirit switches to another kind of language. As faith is a different kind of operation working on the inside, unacquired languages is a different kind of operation working on the outside. Paul assures us that no one is cursing Jesus by the Holy Spirit when speaking in unacquired languages.
The last operation is the interpretation of unacquired languages. Sometimes the spiritual brethren speaking the unacquired language is asked by the Holy Spirit to interpret, and sometimes someone else is asked by the Holy Spirit to interpret. And yet at rare times someone may have actually understood the unacquired language and interpret it. The interpretation works like receiving a word or knowledge or wisdom, the Holy Spirit inspires it and we speak it. It is the operation of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the operative.
We see the wisdom Paul had to lay these gifts out for us and help us understand how the Holy Spirit may work in each of us. There are so many variations in each of these operations of favors that we should be cautious not to reject the Holy Spirit or speak blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is unforgivable. Again the spiritual brethren are not receiving accolades for operating these favors on behalf of the laity. Instead the spiritual brethren are treated poorly by many in the church because they are foolish and unlearned. However if someone is receiving accolades, and is celebrated as a great prophet or a great healer, we should be wary and make full proof of the fruit. It is not the desire of the Holy Spirit to elevate spiritual brethren for serving the laity. The greatest leaders should be the greatest servants.
We have unpacked our Legos and are ready for our model, we know the pieces before us and we are ready to build. It is hard to learn, or unlearn, and relearn. The Holy Spirit wants us to know how to operate these free gifts so that our brothers and sisters can be healed and then do the same, go out and heal. But we want to remember that healing is not the end goal, it is not the focus of our Christian walk. Making disciples is our commission. One way to make disciples is to teach our brothers and sisters to become spiritual brethren. Spiritual brethren are an elevated position in the Body of Christ for the benefit of the Body of Christ. We are the spiritual brethren we have been waiting for.
