Transcript
Speaker: Alright guys, so thanks for joining this evening. um Today will be our third installment out of three on gifts. um The gifts that Holy Spirit gives to the church to equip the church to do good works.
Speaker: To make the church, and not an institution, but the people, stronger more like Jesus in their thinking, in their words, and in their actions, and how well they show love.
Speaker: um And also to push back the forces of evil that do everything they can to steal, kill, and destroy life.
Speaker: So today we will look at the remaining gifts. Um, the first day we looked at prophecy because it's probably the most misunderstood gift, so I thought it needed that time.
Speaker: Last week, we looked at five of them together, um and this time we're going to look at the other 15. So in total there are 20. Um, and then next week, which will be the last Wednesday of the month, we'll have our normal prayer Wednesday.
Speaker: which on a practical level gives me time to make the future teachings. But spiritual level, it does help us remain focused on Jesus. But it's not about works.
Speaker: It's not about doing, doing, doing. It's all about him. um So come with your needs, come with your prayer requests, um come with requests for other people in your world, and we'll be praying for those together. And um also for Christians who are persecuted and killed in their own countries as well, the persecuted church.
Speaker: All right, the spiritual gifts.
Speaker: First Corinthians 12, 12 to 14 says, there is one body, but it has many parts.
Speaker: But all its many parts make up one body. It's what we call the body of Christ, Christians, the church.
Speaker: It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit, Now, when people hear the word baptize, people think of different things.
Speaker: Some people think of, you know, putting a little bit of water on a baby's head. That's not what we're talking about here. Some people think about adults going to the beach and going underwater for three seconds.
Speaker: That's not what we're talking about here. Some people picture fire on top of your head. That's not what we're talking about here. When the Abbasal Paul talks about baptism of Holy Spirit, he is specifically talking about salvation, okay? In other parts of the Bible, baptize means different things. That's a big theological discussion.
Speaker: But for Paul, it actually means on the inside, it's like your old man, your old wife went underwater, drowned, it died, now a new person lives. You're a new creation. So he means salvation.
Speaker: And so we were formed into one body. So if you believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive your sins, to wash them all away, and it worked.
Speaker: You are a part of his body. He lives in you.
Speaker: It didn't matter whether we were Jews, because most believers in the Bible are Jews for for most of the Bible story. Gentiles, basically everybody else, every other nation.
Speaker: Slaves or free people. You might wonder, why would Paul say that? Because in Corinth, in ancient Greece, You had free people and you had slaves. So he's talking about everybody.
Speaker: We are all given the same spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. it has many parts. So every Christian is a part of the body of Christ.
Speaker: You might be a thumbnail. You might an eyeball. You might be an eyebrow. You might be an eyebrow. You might be some dandruff, which I'm hiding with my hat.
Speaker: You might be a back hair but or a kidney cell. We're all part of the Bodsy and we all have a part to play.
Speaker: So at some points in your life, Holy Spirit will give all of his kids gifts. Some get one, some get more than one. It's his decision. You can ask him, but it's his decision.
Speaker: It doesn't mean he has favorites. He doesn't. He loves all of you equally. Uniquely and differently, but equally.
Speaker: Don't look at people who have lots of gifts or big platforms and think, oh, they're definitely a Christian because of their platform. Oh, God really loves them because of this. don Don't even think like that. Don't fall into comparison.
Speaker: We're all different. We all have a different journey. We all have a different lane in life. We you all have different things to do. So don't start comparing yourself with other people.
Speaker: That just creates division.
Speaker: Don't look for gifts as proof that someone is a Christian, which a lot of Christians do. Again, you fall into comparison, don't do it.
Speaker: But the gifts Holy Spirit gives all come from the same Holy Spirit. And he only gives good, perfect, pleasing gifts. So last week we looked at the fivefold ministry, the five offices in the body of Christ, the five governance or governmental positions.
Speaker: They're important, but they're not more important than the ones we look at today. The ones we look at today, normally you don't get paid for them.
Speaker: Normally they're not on YouTube videos. Normally people don't go, oh wow, look at how generous you are. oh It doesn't matter. Don't discount, don't disregard, don't elevate some and disregard some.
Speaker: They all come from Holy Spirit. And he will give them to any child or adult, man or a woman, or nationality that he chooses to.
Speaker: It's all his decision.
Speaker: There are three different groups of gifts. Miraculous gifts, enabling gifts, and team gifts.
Speaker: We'll look at the miraculous ones first.
Speaker: Apostleship, tongues, interpretation, miracles are obviously miraculous, but but and healing. Now we looked at apostles last week.
Speaker: They're ones who are sent out. In the Bible times, you had to have seen the resurrected Jesus. Holy Spirit specifically chose you, and wonders and signs followed you wherever you went.
Speaker: Nowadays, i try not to use the word apostle. um But for those who do it just means you're a messenger. You're running around telling people about Jesus.
Speaker: But very often you will notice miraculous signs um or miraculous works following these children of God. Their faith level is usually very strong.
Speaker: But it's another one. is speaking in other tongues. Now by tongue, i don't mean you get two or three organs in your mouth, that would be weird, but it means the languages.
Speaker: It's when someone begins to speak in language that they'd never actually learned before or had never studied. ebs Why? it could give you the opportunity to minister to someone in that language I remember running a youth event once and a woman, a pastor, um she's my aunt actually, she went over to a Brazilian teenager and my aunt was praying and just went la la la la la la la la la la
Speaker: and next thing the teenager from brazil said hu pastor you be portuguese um my aunt said no but but but actually Holy Spirit supernaturally gave her the ability to speak Portuguese to the Brazilian teenager, so she could understand everything. 1 Corinthians 13 says that even angels have languages, which is very, very amazing. um There are different tribes of angels. They have different jobs, different roles, different functions. And they each tribe has their own language, the same way each race or nationality has a language on the earth.
Speaker: And sometimes you might hear, if if you see and hear angels, you can hear them speaking in their own language. They can speak your human languages too, of course.
Speaker: um But sometimes people will also speak in angelic languages. And sometimes in a group setting, someone will begin to speak in a different language.
Speaker: um And if understood, interpreted or translated, God will give valuable information to everybody in the room.
Speaker: So another gift connected to that one is interpretation. This is when God supernaturally gives somebody the ability to interpret a language that's being spoken.
Speaker: So if you're in a room, and next thing you hear someone begins speaking in the Greek language, for instance, you will sit there, but you will hear it in your first language.
Speaker: And when everyone else is like, huh? What is Holy Spirit saying? I don't understand. You can say, oh, well, actually he's saying la la la um la. la la la la
Speaker: um And also it's to communicate the message of tongue speaker to everyone else so that everyone can understand. There are times in a group setting where God will just speak to you specifically. he just wants to do something in your life that day.
Speaker: There'll times you'll pick a few people, and then there are times you you'll have a word for everyone in the room.
Speaker: But interpretation is not just a gift about languages. God can also give you a gift. of the interpretation of dreams, visions, and numbers. um This is a gift he's given me. I've had it since 2017. literally have thousands of dreams, mine and others, ah interpreted. And um on YouTube, i do if you look up Brandon Thomas Merritt, I do have a playlist of dream interpretations. I haven't put Manny there in a while but on Monday nights I'm actually teaching them to another group, so I will actually um
Speaker: do put those teachings on the playlist soon. Dreams are fun, because whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, whether you love Jesus or you hate him or you've never heard of him before, God can still speak to everyone in a dream.
Speaker: The front door of someone's heart might be shut, but with a dream, he can find the back entrance to their heart. And when people understand their dreams, it can absolutely turn their life around forever.
Speaker: And another gift he gives are miracles. Miracles means power. through God's ability, might, and strength.
Speaker: Moral power and excellence of soul. to have a healthy soul. Not one crippled or paralyzed by trauma or issues or times when you were bullied or treated badly, but just a healthy soul, a healthy mind, a strong will.
Speaker: um A strong, encouraged heart.
Speaker: Miracles are extraordinary events. And very often, they're actually more related to unbelievers who are around, the unsaved, people who don't know Jesus. Because when they see something, and when they see a miracle...
Speaker: and they can't explain it, they go, oh my goodness, Jesus, Israel. If a Christian sees a miracle, they go, yay, God's good. Woo hoo, amen, hallelujah. Renounce a person. but but but They throw themselves on the cross of Calvary and they do not let go. That's my salvation.
Speaker: More miracles in my life, Jesus. um They're deeds that reveal God's glory. And they prove what his messengers are saying.
Speaker: If people talk about Jesus every day, but you never see the proof, you never see the authentication, you never see the evidence, people might be slower to believe.
Speaker: And there are a few examples of miracles in the Bible. Now, okay, Bible's a lot, but here are a few. One of them, Think of like, you know, it's tissue for your nose. that's true Or an apron, something you wear, know, when cooking the dinner.
Speaker: There are times in the Bible when people would touch these and they would get healed. Or they would, if let's say one of Jesus followers held a tissue, they could throw it on a sick person and the sick person would get well.
Speaker: buts Topsy-turvy, upside down logic. It can involve driving demons out of people. We looked at demons a little bit in part one of this series, but they are coming. We'll look at them again soon.
Speaker: And a miraculous healings. People who are sick in the body or in the soul getting healed in Jesus' name.
Speaker: And then there are gifts of healing. It doesn't say a gift, it's gifts, plural.
Speaker: This means that for different people, Holy Spirit might give them a gift of mental healing. That they'll go to someone with maybe psychological problems, and that person will be well.
Speaker: Or God might give someone a gift of emotional healing. So when people have a broken heart, their heart gets restored.
Speaker: God can give people gifts as spiritual healing. Again, if they're carrying around demons or something, and then they walk into the same room as you, and the demons are gone.
Speaker: See Sabina, such a revelation. It is Sabina, it's incredible, right? I only saw this yesterday when reading the Bible. It's not gift, there's an S there. I was like, obviously, sure, of course.
Speaker: ah Physical healing. um That can look different. It could be touching a paralyzed person and then they walk. Or if you are a pharmacist, God might just give you words about new medications to create.
Speaker: It can be, can assist in the physical, you know, making pharmaceuticals. Or it could just be spontaneous, miraculous. You touch someone and they're well.
Speaker: um And we also see acts of healing with the power of God to destroy the work of sin, the work of evil, or even the work of devils in human bodies.
Speaker: There's one man actually, well, two men actually, they were together. um They were naked, so you can imagine the kind of lifestyle that they lived. And they lived in a graveyard an area called the Gedarins.
Speaker: in ancient Israel. And Jesus saw them and they actually had thousands of demons living within them. A human soul is very big.
Speaker: i mean, you might only be, you know, ah five feet, 11 inches or something, but a human soul is gigantic. And these two men had thousands and thousands of demons within them.
Speaker: But when Jesus came to them, were told that they were in sound mind. He healed them, because the demons had been making them like self-harm, like they were scraping themselves against rocks, it was awful.
Speaker: But he healed their bodies, and he gave them sound mind. Their mind was at 100%, crystal clear clarity, no more trauma, no more addiction, no more bondage, totally healed.
Speaker: Okay, the neighboring gifts. Alright, I know those five are pretty heavy. um i know I've gone through and quite quickly. Are there any questions on those five at the moment?
Speaker: Or everyone good to move on?
Speaker: like to ask is there any scripture that supports like you say in present day you wouldn't necessarily call those people apostles they would be more appropriately called messengers but is there scripture to say that that's word that kind of exists even after the resurrection of jesus for people living in present day who haven't met him who haven't seen him and who haven't physically seen him post-resurrection uh super question that uh yeah just hang on a second um
Speaker: Yep, okay, so great question. So for those who didn't quite catch it, um she asked, um apostles in the Bible were originally those who let it literally saw Jesus.
Speaker: Today, someone might say that they're an apostle, but they haven't actually seen Jesus. Is that okay? So let's say Jesus is called an apostle in the Bible.
Speaker: and Obviously, the 12 apostles he went around with were apostles. Then Judas hung himself. um So he was replaced with Matthias.
Speaker: and And then Paul, yes, Jesus had risen to heaven, but Paul miraculously saw him. But if you look at the last three columns or three rows, Barnabas, Andronicus,
Speaker: Junia, a woman. Ladies, whoop whoop. Female apostles exist. ah James, Silas, Timothy, Aphroditus.
Speaker: Apollios, two who don't have names, two who don't have names. Jude, John Mark, Luke, Titus, possibly others in 1 Corinthians 15. um You look at the first three rows, they're the ones who saw Jesus.
Speaker: The bottom three rows are called apostles, but they didn't actually see him. They may have had a dream or a vision, but they didn't actually meet him in the physical, shall we say.
Speaker: um So that's why, personally, I normally call the first three rows apostles. um For people after that...
Speaker: Apostle, it's okay, but I would normally say a messenger and because for the first three rows, miracles followed them wherever they went.
Speaker: You don't necessarily see miracles following the last three rows everywhere they went. So it's possible that the role or the function of the apostle changed our little bit. So I would normally call people today a messenger rather than apostle.
Speaker: um Because plus people have pride. People can get arrogant. And someone might say, I'm an apostle. Believe me, because I'm an apostle. And I don't like that.
Speaker: So i just think it's a bit safer to use the word messenger nowadays.
Speaker: Thank you. That clarifies that. yeah And you had the slide ready for it.
Speaker: a good teacher anticipates questions. yeah Thanks a lot. No worries.
Speaker: All right, guys, the next group are enabling gifts. These are gifts to enable you, to help you to live a triumphant, strong, powerful, successful life in your walk with Jesus.
Speaker: These gifts are faith, discernment, knowledge, and wisdom.
Speaker: For these ones, I'm just gonna make myself fit on the screen if i can.
Speaker: Yep, there we go. All right. For Christmas, my sister Tracy got me a Marvel mug. And you see the writing is in black. Yeah, white mug, black writing.
Speaker: But this is a super special, awesome, amazing mug that when you fill it with hot water, Hopefully I have not let the water go cold and this works.
Speaker: Okay, so no matter to get there.
Speaker: But as it gets hot,
Speaker: Earth's mightiest heroes begin to appear. the Avengers, the Hulk, Captain America, Black Panther and all those.
Speaker: As a Christian, you are the Mug. You're a vessel for Holy Spirit. He lives inside you regardless.
Speaker: There is no magical prayer to make him live there. He's already there, regardless what anyone else tells you.
Speaker: But you can be a Christian and still be a silly Billy. You can be a Christian and still make some very silly decisions. Make decisions that you used to make before you became a Christian.
Speaker: That's why we have the spiritual gift of enabling. It's to enable you to look like Jesus, to look like the multicolored wisdom of God, so that wherever you go,
Speaker: show his color, you show his vibrancy, you show his character, you show his knowledge, his wisdom, his understanding.
Speaker: His personality.
Speaker: So the enabling gifts of faith, discernment, knowledge, and wisdom help set you up to win. Now, faith.
Speaker: Faith is required to be a Christian, right? You have to trust that when Jesus died on the cross and said, I'm doing this for you, i'm doing this for love, I'm washing away any wicked thing you've ever said, thought, or done, it's finished, the price is paid.
Speaker: You need faith to say, yes, Jesus, I believe you, you're not a liar, you're not crazy, you're not a madman, it's legit. But there is a gift of faith as well.
Speaker: And the gift of faith is a gift that empowers you to believe for a super special, awesome, amazing things.
Speaker: That when you pray, you expect miracles as a matter of course. No matter what happens, your faith your so your confidence in God, is unshakable.
Speaker: The world can shake.
Speaker: Political systems can fall down. Economies can crash. Murder rates can go up. And still, you do not waver. You do not bend. You still know that God is absolutely good.
Speaker: Working all things together for good. He will turn... all things beautiful in their time, and you will see his power and his extraordinary promises and presence in the land of the living, and you will overcome every challenge.
Speaker: That is a very hard thing to maintain. ah It's a gift. But in the Bible, and in Hebrews 11, were given the Hall of Fame and for some of the Bible heroes in particular, who exercise faith just amazingly.
Speaker: One of them is in Genesis 4. There were two brothers, Cain and Abel. Cain was religious. He was like, oh God, look at what I grew. Look at my fruit. Look at my vegetables. Aren't they so amazing? You know I did this all by myself. I planted the seeds. I watered them every day. i grew them.
Speaker: It was all me, me, me, me. me me me
Speaker: His brother Abel was different. His brother Abel knew that the only way to get forgiveness in those days was to sacrifice a lamb, to sacrifice a perfect animal.
Speaker: It was a prophecy, because Jesus is the Lamb of God.
Speaker: or in Genesis 5, there was a prophet called Enoch. Enoch had so much faith in Jesus
Speaker: that Jesus just took him home. The Bible does not say he died. He didn't. Two people have never died. One of them is Enoch.
Speaker: um He was just walking with Jesus one day in the book of Genesis, and he was gone. People looked for him and they couldn't find him because Jesus took him up to heaven even though he never died.
Speaker: That's how amazing his faith was. best ah
Speaker: Then you have Genesis 6 to 8. There's no record of rain in the Bible up to this point. But Jesus said, Noah, rain is going to fall.
Speaker: And the seas underneath the seas, the map, are going to start rising up.
Speaker: There's going to be a flood. It's going to destroy the world. Build a boat, get on the boat with your family, and between two and four of every kind of animal, and I'm going to look after you and you will repopulate the human race.
Speaker: I'm sure people said he was crazy. I'm sure he had half built the Ark and someone destroyed it and he had to start over again. But he kept on doing it.
Speaker: And the human race is alive because of that day.
Speaker: Then we had a family. Abraham, his son Isaac, and Abraham's grandson Jacob. They were told that God was going to give them a country.
Speaker: It's called Israel. Spoiler alert. The country did not exist. when God told them to take a walk. And everywhere they put their foot would be the country Israel.
Speaker: They did not have a map. They did not have a plan. They just had to go where he told them to go. But remember last week when I showed you um a little picture of the new Jerusalem coming out of the sky in the new earth?
Speaker: with the beautiful um pearl and gemstone foundations. Abraham had a vision of that back then. all the way back in Genesis, he knew what God would do at the very end of time.
Speaker: His wife was Sarah. Sarah was about 90 years old. That's nine zero. And she'd never had children. But God said, you will have a son.
Speaker: And you know what she did?
Speaker: She laughed. And you know what Jesus said in the most dramatic line the Bible? Why did you laugh? My Lord, i did not laugh.
Speaker: Yes, you did laugh. And then roll the EastEnders theme tune. ten done did itdada un done But you know what? She had that baby. but but
Speaker: In Genesis 22...
Speaker: Abraham told that son, Isaac, come on, let's walk up this mountain and here, carry some wood. And you know, are we picturing Jesus on the cross already?
Speaker: And Abraham was told in a test to kill his son. And Abraham said, okay, my son is supposed to have lots of descendants according to promises of God.
Speaker: If I kill him, that can't happen. Maybe God's going to resurrect him. So Abraham was going to kill him so he could be resurrected. But, you know, God is God. So he said, Abraham, stop. It was just a test. You passed a test.
Speaker: But Abraham literally believed that a child born miraculously could die and come back to life again. That's what happened to Jesus, right?
Speaker: Mary was a virgin they had a baby, who got killed, and came back to life three days later. Extraordinary faith. Oh my word, Brendan.
Speaker: It also shows that um the last one that you mentioned, that the relationship between the father and the son and the father would be the one who would bring this about. It's the father's will. Wow. and Wow.
Speaker: Absolutely, because... So often, let's say, with the the salvation story, yes, the devil was manipulating the Roman Empire and the political and religious establishment in Israel. Of course he was.
Speaker: But the reality is, Father God knew that the death and resurrection of Jesus was the only way to save us. So God being in control...
Speaker: still let it happen. It was still his will for for Jesus to die and be raised again. and the very same way with Abraham, yes, it was hard. Yes, his hand was probably trembling. I'm sure he was freaking out. I'm sure he was terrified and grieved and sad.
Speaker: But still, it was still being obedient. It was still, you know, in his mind, the only way. so yeah, it's amazing. The parallels are just fabulous. Someday I might just do a teaching on and Entirely just on Old Testament pictures of Jesus. It's just phenomenal.
Speaker: ah In Genesis 27, we have Isaac. That's Abraham's son when he's a lot older. And he puts a blessing i On his two sons.
Speaker: and One of them is Jacob, and he prophesied that Jacob will become Israel, but the father of the nation of Israel.
Speaker: In Genesis 49, when Jacob is very old and he's in his deathbed, but he begins to prophesy blessings over his sons.
Speaker: They weren't just lovely words because he was going to die. He believed them, he spoke these blessings in faith.
Speaker: His son, Joseph, said in Genesis 50, 25, when the nation of Israel were living in Egypt because of a famine, he said, someday you will return to the promised land. Someday you will go back to Israel.
Speaker: Take my bones, my skeleton, and bury it there. I want to be buried in my home country. Again, he wasn't just saying this to sound poetic.
Speaker: He had faith that he would return to their home country. 300 years later, sir in Exodus 1, man-woman had a baby, special baby boy, and they looked at their child and they said, God has a special destiny for this one.
Speaker: So they protected him. While Pharaoh the king was killing every baby boy. They could be put to death by the sword. Or thrown into the river Nile to drown.
Speaker: or get eaten by crocodiles and hippos.
Speaker: But that baby boy grew up. He was called Moses. And he led his people, the nation of Israel. out of slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea, and towards the Promised Land.
Speaker: It wasn't easy. God had to send plagues against the Egyptians. They were slave drivers. They were the wicked empire of the day.
Speaker: so in Exodus 12, Moses killed a lamb, and he put its blood over the doorpost, the wooden doorpost.
Speaker: So when a plague came, if you had the wooden doorpost covered in blood, the plague would not hurt you, but it would hurt your enemies.
Speaker: And when Jesus was on the cross, wooden posts, and his blood was on the wooden posts, we got saved. Saved from God's wrath and anger, from destruction, from evil.
Speaker: Instead, we became children of God.
Speaker: One of the most phenomenal movies I've ever seen is The Prince of Egypt, and it doesn't get any better than this. Exodus 14, the Red Sea, lit in two, so the Israelites could cross over out of the land of bondage, out slavery.
Speaker: And it's important it's called the Red Sea, and they had to cross the Red Sea because Jesus died on a cross, and his red blood poured out of his head and his hands, his feet and his body.
Speaker: In Joshua 5, the Israelites had to take down an enemy, the walls of Jericho. The walls of Jericho, it was impenetrable.
Speaker: They were so wicked, so evil, and their defenses so great But the Israelites just walked and walked and walked around it silently. And then they shouted how good God was. And the walls came tumbling down.
Speaker: By faith, one family survived. A prostitute named Rahab. She threw a red cord out of her window. Red like the blood of Jesus.
Speaker: Her family were with her. And when the walls came down, she and her family survived. um The walls of Jericho have been excavated.
Speaker: And historians tell us there is one part of the wall that was still standing. That is where she lived.
Speaker: And then we have more stories in the books of judges of heroes who had to go to war. um Gideon, Jephthah, Samson. They literally had to battle wicked, evil enemies using their faith and never giving up.
Speaker: Heroes like Barak.
Speaker: But one of my favorite stories 1 Samuel 16 of David and Goliath. where Goliath was a giant, massive, unbeatable, apparently.
Speaker: And David, just a short teenager,
Speaker: but you put a stone in the sling and he said, my God is gonna save my people from you today. Threw the stone Goliath fell down dead and David cut his head off.
Speaker: And how have we survived the giant of death and evil? Because on the third day, Jesus threw away his stone and he came out of the grave.
Speaker: And 1 Samuel 1 also talks about, it's 1 to 26th. um also talks about a great hero called Samuel. Samuel was a child who was given a prophetic gift, a seer, um back when this was incredibly uncommon.
Speaker: um But he was a child and God spoke to him and said, Samuel, the priests in your country are evil. And I'm going to deal with them.
Speaker: They're evil. They are doing things that women, they should not be doing. and And they're turning people away from from faith.
Speaker: So actually, Eli was the high priest of the day. And the Bible says he was so fat that he sat on a throne outside of the holy place.
Speaker: He was a priest, but he thought he was a king. And while there were poor people, he was getting fat on all of their food and all their money. And Samuel, as a child, had to speak to the religious establishment and tell them this.
Speaker: This is not OK. God is not happy and he's going to deal with this problem.
Speaker: Are there more stories about faith in the Bible? Absolutely. But I think this is a pretty good variety. Faith for the miraculous, faith to go against religion, faith to go against your enemies, faith to survive impossible odds.
Speaker: Another great gift in the enabling category is discernment. This is the discernment of spirits. Sometimes someone will say something and you think, eh, right?
Speaker: If you have a gift of discernment, you can tell if they're just speaking from their own mind, their own logic, their own rationale, their own experience.
Speaker: If they're speaking something demonic, right? that's Or if they're speaking something that's from the Holy Spirit, but it's true. i can think of a situation once where i'm a pastor a friend of mine and was at a church meeting. and She was very early, no one else was there, um at night time. And she went to the bathroom, and next thing a man walked into the building.
Speaker: and he just walked up and began playing with the instruments on the stage. But this pastor felt terrified. Holy Spirit said, do not go, do not say hello, do not say you're here, hide in the bathroom.
Speaker: So she was like, what? So the pastor hid in the bathroom and next thing the man walked into the women's bathroom.
Speaker: Began turning on off the lights.
Speaker: Then he walked back into the auditorium and began playing with the instruments. And then the woman took out her mobile phone and called someone who lived nearby to come. It was another woman, but when there were two women, it would be okay.
Speaker: So the friend arrived, the pastor came out, and they had a conversation with the man, and then more people arrived. Two hours later, someone came up to the pastor and said, you see that man over there?
Speaker: His face, his photograph was in the newspaper this week. He's a rapist and he just got out of jail a few days ago. But Holy Spirit had told her, don't say hello, don't greet him, hide.
Speaker: That's discernment. Holy Spirit telling you who or what you can trust and who or what you need to avoid. It can literally be life and death.
Speaker: Super important.
Speaker: Then we have the word of knowledge. The word of knowledge is when God tells you something, ah fact, and you could not possibly have predicted it.
Speaker: um I was someone who called me once um who was just in a very, very confused state. And I just said butterflies.
Speaker: And you know sometimes you say something you're like, why did i say that? I just said butterflies. she was like, oh, thank you, Brendan. ah And I said, hey And said, oh, Brendan, when I think of butterflies, I think of angels. I love butterflies. They're my favorite creature. Oh, I feel so happy now. And I said, oh, you're welcome. but but and Or again, i've I've written some books.
Speaker: Shameless plug Go To The Unsaid, which is also called The Panopticon or Reckoning. In these books, which I wrote in 2011, I wrote that world leaders were going to manufacture a crisis.
Speaker: They would tell people not to leave their houses, not to leave their communities, not to leave their areas. And those leaders would do everything in their power to make people hate their culture, hate their society, lose confidence in their traditions, in their culture, in their customs.
Speaker: And they would create crisis, crisis, crisis, and crisis to try to destroy the world. Well, I think we can all agree that that happened, right? I didn't know that when I wrote it in 2011.
Speaker: But God just began speaking, okay, this will happen, this will happen, this will happen, this will happen, write it I couldn't have justified it. I didn't know.
Speaker: But God will sometimes just give you words, and even if you cannot explain it, you'll just know that it's from God. That's a word of knowledge.
Speaker: A word of wisdom often comes after a word of knowledge. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Yeah?
Speaker: Wisdom is not putting tomatoes in your fruit salad. Very different flavors. Gross. Knowledge is what you know.
Speaker: Wisdom is making good decisions based on what you know. The practical application. What you do with that knowledge.
Speaker: So for example, I might talk to a woman and God might just tell me relational trauma, emotional baggage.
Speaker: And I just say, okay, Francielli, God's telling me you have emotional baggage, relational trauma. You've had way too many boyfriends and it's always gone bad, huh?
Speaker: And she's, oh, Brendan, how did you know? And then i might say, okay, you know what? You need to start making and better decisions before you start your next relationship.
Speaker: How does he treat his mother and his sister? How does he treat his family? What are his plans? Does he have a job? but but If he doesn't, don't date him.
Speaker: He's too similar to your ex-boyfriends. Okay, that's wisdom. So knowledge is what you know. Wisdom is making good decisions with what you know. and there'll be times when Holy Spirit will just put a word in your mouth and you'll just speak a very specific word into that situation, into that circumstance.
Speaker: That's a word of wisdom.
Speaker: All right, so four there in that group. Are there any questions or comments on those four? are they all good?
Speaker: No, these and don't seem to have been difficult. Okay, great. Hold up, can I ask? Sure, go ahead again.
Speaker: When you were talking about disarrangement... Yep. Can disarrangement be also like just feeling like something is off? I can't tell what is off, but I just feel like... and Yeah.
Speaker: Anxiety. I'm not talking about demonic anxiety. I'm but i am talking about... Discomfort.
Speaker: you you You might just feel... low There's something with person. You have a weird shiver feeling. he got Kind of. It's still anxiety, but but but it's not like... that
Speaker: Yeah, well, I was going to make you, let's say... Afraid. In. they the horrified. Terrified. Paralyzing.
Speaker: but yeah But there will be times when. Someone one might walk into a room. immediately you shudder. You create your shiver. You cringe. There's something you detect about that person. And you say okay.
Speaker: I'm keeping my distance from that person. And you might not always. Know why. a And I know for myself over the years, especially when I was younger, i thought, God, am I just really judgmental?
Speaker: Do I just hate people? I just write them off like, ew, o No. Hi, Brendan. Bye, you. brendan Are you having a good day, Brendan? I was. Walk away. And I used to think, what's wrong with me, God? Do I just really, really deeply hate people?
Speaker: But I didn't know discernment was a gift. And listen, if you're doing that for everyone in your world, yeah, you're judgmental. But if it's just at certain times or certain places, certain spaces, certain individuals, certain things, it might not be a person. It could be a book. It could be a song. It could be a TV show.
Speaker: You might just go... do move Trust it. Trust that that's Holy Spirit telling you no And listen, he might say no to you and yes to someone else.
Speaker: I mean, if it's a person, they do need Jesus. So someone else might be better prepared to help them. But because of your journey, where you have been through, where you are, where you're going, he might tell you just walk away.
Speaker: um Or if it's like a a song, for instance. You might hear one playing on the radio when you're driving your car. And you're going to go... And you might just feel the Holy Spirit saying, turn it off.
Speaker: And you know what? Maybe, actually, the lyrics mean something very nefarious or sinister. Or maybe it was written by someone who, let's be honest, let's look at the entertainment industry.
Speaker: Pedophiles. Rapists. Sleep with me, you'll get a promotion. Right? um So maybe actually the lyrics are fine, but it was written by someone with a wicked evil heart.
Speaker: And God does not want that playing in your car or in your house. That can all be discernment, yeah. So Holy Spirit can also just say one word.
Speaker: Like, let's say you meet a person and you are talking to this person. Sure. And you feel like, oh. And then you hear manipulation.
Speaker: But that's one word. Sure. Manipulation. But before that, you are already like, oh. Something is off. i don't know what is off, but something off.
Speaker: I tell you here, manipulation. So that is also discernment. Absolutely. And I would say with the gift of discernment, when you for those people that God gives it to, in the early stages, it's very easy just to feel like you're super judgmental or hateful.
Speaker: But eventually you'll notice a pattern. And you'll realize when you get the feeling and you do the right thing, good things happen. When you get the feeling and you ignore the feeling, bad things happen.
Speaker: And eventually you'll know when you're being judgmental and when it's discernment. But it could be someone's talking to you and the back of your head, manipulation, manipulation.
Speaker: And you're like, okay I cannot trust this person. They're actually lying to my face right now. But with every gift, you grow.
Speaker: most times they're not 100% developed straight away. they develop and get stronger as the person develops and gets stronger. Exactly. Thank you, Brendan.
Speaker: Sorry. All right. Any more questions on the enabling gifts?
Speaker: Nope. All right. Okay. Now we get to the long list for today, which are team gifts. Hi, Brendan. I have one question. Go for it. When the Bible says the gifts of the spirit are irrevocable, they include all of these, right?
Speaker: Great question. Yes. um The Bible does say the gifts of Holy Spirit are irrevocable, and that refers to every single gift. They can be the ones from the first part we looked at, which is on prophecy.
Speaker: um It can be the fivefold ministry, um the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher.
Speaker: um But also, yes, um the miraculous enabling and team gifts. Irrevocable for those who don't know. means that if God gives you a gift, you will have the gift forever.
Speaker: um If you don't use it, it might be weaker than other people's. If he gives you a gift, but you consistently make terrible life decisions, it will not mature to the degree the degree that it should.
Speaker: But even... For people who are Christians and the Holy Spirit gives them a gift. But then they walk away from Jesus. Or they fall into deep deception.
Speaker: Maybe he made them a prophet. But they choose to be a fortune teller. Because they prefer fortune. They want more money. Hello. Or maybe he made them to be a teacher.
Speaker: But instead they decide to teach... and mad, insane, wicked, anti-biblical hocus pocus, because more people will believe it, they can still have the gift.
Speaker: Even if they choose live life of evil, he will not take their gift away. Yeah, so true. And that's for all gifts. Thanks. You're welcome. And that is why I said at the start, actually, don't assume that because someone has a gift...
Speaker: and that they're Christian, and don't assume that some gifts are better than others, okay? It's all all gifts from the Holy Spirit. What you do with the gift will depend on God's purpose for your life and your character.
Speaker: um So some people might have a big platform, And they might say lots of things in a loud voice and things happen when they move their hands, but they might actually not be in a very good place with Jesus.
Speaker: So that's where we need to make sure we're always reading the Bible. So no matter what we see, what evidence or counterfeit evidence, we'll say, okay, that's from God or that's not from God.
Speaker: or just pray for the gift of discernment and you'll know automatically.
Speaker: All right then, for the team gifts, and meaning you'll often do these with other people and for other people and around other people and to support and build up and encourage other people.
Speaker: We've got 11 gifts, evangelism, prophecy, teaching, Exhortation. Now, no one knows what exhortation means, I'm going to change that word to encouraging.
Speaker: Shepherding, which is being a pastor, a deacon, an overseer, presbyter. Lots of names. They're all the same thing. Serving.
Speaker: Mercy showing. That's an interesting one. Giving. I'm not just talking about money, don't worry. Administration. helping and leadership.
Speaker: So we looked at evangelism last week.
Speaker: We also looked at prophets a little bit last week, but two weeks ago in lots and lots of detail.
Speaker: We looked teaching last week.
Speaker: So let's look at encouragement today.
Speaker: Encouragement in the Greek is the word paraklesis. It means to urge someone, to encourage them, to give that person joy.
Speaker: You're calling upon people to follow the truth of God. Sometimes it might involve correction, but it's always designed to build people up.
Speaker: When someone is weak in their faith, to give them strength.
Speaker: When someone is going through a trial, just a horrible time to give them comfort, to motivate people into action.
Speaker: And encouragement is good in counseling, discipleship, mentoring, and also preaching the word of God. There's one guy in the Bible that his name was Joseph, but literally nobody calls him Joseph.
Speaker: In fact, if there were 100 Christians in a room, I asked him this guy's name, I'm guaranteed no one would say Joseph, but his name was Joseph. But he was given the nickname Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement.
Speaker: Because wherever he went, people left encouraged with a skip in their steps. um There was a man called Saul, renamed Paul, who actually arrested Christians in the first century.
Speaker: And they got killed, persecuted. But that murderer had a vision of Jesus. And Jesus said, why are you persecuting me?
Speaker: What you're doing to my people, you're doing to me. And Saul was like, oh my word. It's God. It's Jesus. He's real.
Speaker: Most of the 12 apostles but avoided this murderer like the plague. They were like, oh my goodness. He's talking about Jesus, but we know he killed our friends.
Speaker: Barnabas said, Paul, you're my buddy. You're my friend. You're my pal. I believe that yes, you were a murderer, but now you're someone new. God has done an incredible transformation in your life. It's legit. It's authentic.
Speaker: I believe in you. and I'm going to help you do the work that God has for you because he has a super plan for you. That's the gift of encouragement. May I ask?
Speaker: Yep. Is this man the same who holds up? There was Peter. a man named Barnabas.
Speaker: And Paul was like you hypocrites. ah Because this Barnabas and Peter, um when there were Jews, those people.
Speaker: And when there were Gentiles, oh, they were eating with them. oh But oh, oh my, now those Jewish people come and like, no, no, no, we can't eat with ah Gentiles because they are not, their main, male part was on him, and me here you know.
Speaker: And, hadn't gone with that yeah. So when um Paul was calling them out of it, why is this man, the same man, Barnabas?
Speaker: um Very possibly, because it could have happened about the same time. So for those who who don't know the story Neitz is referring to, um the Jews were very easy to identify physically um because they all got circumcised.
Speaker: They got the top of the penis snipped. um Gentiles, non-Jews, didn't. um So Peter, who had been one of Jesus' best friends,
Speaker: He and the 12 apostles mainly focused on teaching the Jews about Jesus. Paul and Barnabas mainly focused on the Greeks and the other nations.
Speaker: um And at one occasion, yes, Peter knew that non-Jews could come to know Jesus. Of course he did. But on one occasion, they were having a big group event and Peter was sitting with the Jews. he was like, I don't want to be seen with the Greeks. What if the Jews get angry with me? Oh,
Speaker: And you know what, it sounds crazy, but I have been in churches before. i have. Where the Irish were sitting on the front row, the Africans were taking up an entire quarter by themselves, ah the Americans had two rows in the middle, the continental Europeans were at the back, and I remember thinking, oh my goodness, if Jesus walked in here today,
Speaker: this This is wrong. This is wrong. um People ideologically and then physically put up barriers, even international barriers between each other in a church. I've seen it. I've been there.
Speaker: And Paul just got so angry. And he shouted at Peter in front of everybody. And he said, enough is enough. This is a joke. You're a leader in the church, for goodness sakes. Are you seriously accepting and participating in this?
Speaker: And credit where credit's to, Peter said, actually, Paul, you're right. I made a big made a big mistake here. And then um they amalgamated better.
Speaker: But it's ah not just a Bible thing. It can happen absolutely anywhere. I've seen it with my own two eyes. Okay, then the next...
Speaker: gift in the team category is shepherds or pastors. Again, we looked at those last week.
Speaker: um Then we get to serving. Serving means to provide practical help, both physically and spiritually.
Speaker: In Greek, it literally means waiting a table, like you're a waiter in a restaurant. But it means ministry, relief, support.
Speaker: It can also in Greek mean the work or the service and that went into worship and temple duties. Now, we do not worship Jesus in temples today. We are a temple of Holy Spirit, which is so much better and easier.
Speaker: and But basically, the practical things that need doing. and a church needs cleaners. I've been a church cleaner for five or six years, maybe seven.
Speaker: Now that people travel to church by car, you need someone to man the car park to make sure there's order. That people are safe. That they can, as many people as possible, can get to church and leave again.
Speaker: ah Kids' church. Not everyone in kids' church has a teaching gift necessarily, but they still have a heart to see the children grow spiritually. Or church creatures.
Speaker: Small things on the surface, but my goodness, they have a big impact on people. If you go to a church with no greeting team, it immediately feels less friendly.
Speaker: You immediately feel more apprehensive, more anxious. If the car park is crazy, you would just drive it out the car park again. So the servers are the ones who, in my opinion, actually keep the church running, basically.
Speaker: um Another one of their roles is spiritual leadership and teaching. Not every server in a church can teach, but it's part of the gift.
Speaker: At least to teach to a degree, to an extent.
Speaker: It emphasizes the role of helping people and assisting people within the Christian community. Yes, loving everyone is important, but you are part of one body.
Speaker: So your focus, first and foremost, is your own family and then your church family.
Speaker: For these roles, these jobs, humility, being humble, not seeking elevation, but being happy where God has you. You become less, he becomes greater is so important.
Speaker: And also the willingness to do a lot of this with a voluntary attitude. It's what in Greek is called the Lord's in-birth persuasion. Like the Lord's encouraging you from the inside to get involved in helping people.
Speaker: It's a beautiful gift. Not one that's appreciated enough, but a beautiful one.
Speaker: Then we have mercy showing. This is an interesting one. Because normally when you think of mercy... If you don't think of the song, you got me begging you for mercy. see yeah yeah The next thing you might think of is if you hurt somebody and you are in the wrong, you are the villain of the story.
Speaker: but And they want to get revenge. You go, mercy, show me mercy. Yes, I did you wrong, but please don't kill me. Yes, I crashed my car into your wall. Please don't call the guards.
Speaker: But that's not what it means here, actually. um Because that's that's forgiving people. And we we're all called forgive people.
Speaker: But this mercy is not about forgiveness. It's a gift. Forgive people is a command. It's an instruction. Mercy showing is a gift.
Speaker: And it means to look at people who need comfort. and to identify with their pain. To grieve with people as they grieve.
Speaker: To identify what they're going through. Not to identify what they're going through and say, oh yes, Tina, your husband is a big sack of scum. He's so bad. I hope he dies and never know the touch of woman again. Okay, that's that and that not Christian.
Speaker: but to show compassion to people in those circumstances. To show sympathy, sensitivity, because you want their pain lessened and you want them whole, healed, and rest restored. To have pity on people, to love them deeply, to show them grace, to show them favor,
Speaker: to have a deep sense of empathy for those in need who are suffering and a desire to see them well again. in life, you might fall flat on your face seven times.
Speaker: Mercy showers pick you up eight times. And they show God's covenant loyalty mercy. Because when you let God down, his love still remains.
Speaker: When you screw up and have a really bad day, week, month, year, decade, his love still pursues you. That is something not every person can do, but a mercy shower can.
Speaker: Giving.
Speaker: Giving means to impart. To release material resources to further the work of the church.
Speaker: Now, when a lot of people hear giving, they automatically think of money. And yeah, it's part of it, sure. and here is the thing. We can all give.
Speaker: financially, to the plans and purposes of God. course we can. We can give to a certain person who blesses us, a certain ministry that blesses us, at church family we've chosen to belong to, a charity who's doing work we can't, but we want to help them. We can all do that.
Speaker: But the gift of giving, you give on that another level. But it's not only about money. It could be material. It could be teaching materials.
Speaker: I once visited someone's house. I was canvassing and for a politician, a pro-life politician in Drogheda. um And I knocked on someone's door and they saw you the the badge and they recognized my face and they said, oh, you love the children. And I said, children are class, they're great.
Speaker: And next thing they gave me, I don't know how many resources to teach kids church. I was like, oh, okay. You still want to take a leaflet?
Speaker: That's what a giving person does. They'll give things that are for the practical application and benefits of others.
Speaker: But they also share spiritual gifts and knowledge. um You know, very often after these chats um and together, you know, my my I get texts on my phone like, Brendan, thank you so much, you know, for that.
Speaker: I'm teaching you give, thanks for that word, that encouraged me, I never knew that, now I do, thanks a million. And not always, but I will very often respond, thank you so much for choosing to be generous with your words.
Speaker: Because that is giving. It's so easy for us to think giving is money, money, money, must be funny a rich man's world. But actually, what about your tongue?
Speaker: Are you quick to give a kind word? Listen, there are two things I don't believe in. Income tax and toll bridges. But even when I'm at a toll bridge and you have to pay 2 euro 30 so your car i can get to the city 20 minutes faster, the little woman in the box, I'll still smile.
Speaker: Thank you. Have the best day now. God bless. Bye. I could look at her and say, you work for the government. You are a scammer. You're stealing my hard-earned dosh. But I don't.
Speaker: I smile with a smile of Jesus. It might be fake, but I still smile. And I'll still say something polite. To be generous with your gifts, generous with your words, generous with your knowledge.
Speaker: Sometimes I see people going through a terrible situation and i might see someone who has the answer. Someone who's been through that themselves.
Speaker: Someone who has hard-earned, long-learned experience.
Speaker: Not helping at all. They have so much knowledge and they let it go to waste rather than share it. But a giving person will say, hey, listen, I've been there. Let's meet for coffee, yeah? I can give you two hours tomorrow and I'm going to tell you how I got through this.
Speaker: I'm going tell you what I did that I should not have done. What I did that worked. What you're going through, it took me 10 years to get over.
Speaker: For you, going to take 10 weeks. Yeah? I don't want you to lose a decade. That's being given. administration.
Speaker: an administration gift. is when Holy Spirit gives you a special gift of organizing, promoting, and leading. If you think of a big group church setting, a fellowship with dozens upon dozens or hundreds or thousands of people, without a gift of administration, it's going to be chaos.
Speaker: People need the gift of administration and they need to be released. in that administration. That's when they know what the objective is. They know what God wants.
Speaker: And I'm not talking about people plotting and planning and running church like a business. I don't believe in that at all. But knowing what God's plan is, God's aim, God's objective and maneuvering people, and strategizing, and promoting people, and delegating tasks, so that the projects of God are done, done well, and done with excellence.
Speaker: um Administrators, look for volunteers. And if they see you sitting in a church building, and you have been there for 20 years,
Speaker: and you have only ever warmed a seat and then left again, the administrators will find you and they will give you a job to do based on the gifts God has given you. They're very good at mobilizing people, getting people to work together to achieve a very specific aim, purpose, or plan of God.
Speaker: The 10th gift, the second last one for today is helping.
Speaker: Now we can all help to some degree, but there are those who have a specific spiritual gift to aid, give relief and give support.
Speaker: Specifically with this gift, in tangible, physical, practical ways. With serving, you can help physically, but also in the mind, in the emotional realm, the mental realm.
Speaker: Helping, especially physical. You enable the church to operate effectively and compassionately. Both are necessary.
Speaker: If your church just runs effectively and efficiently and practically, you might be ignoring people's hearts. If you spend so much time focusing on people's hearts, you'll never get anything done.
Speaker: but but So at helping, both are necessary. And they're are designed to meet needs. The first time we see a real great helper in the Bible is Eve.
Speaker: Now, she wasn't called Eve originally. She was just called woman. And Adam was not called Adam. He was called man. So think if you know when guys talk to each other, you know, hey, bro, well man what's up, man? are things, man?
Speaker: That's literally what their conversations were like. Only if a man talks to woman that way, woman, make me a sandwich, she slaps him.
Speaker: But she didn't have a name. Her name was woman. So it was like, hey, man. Hey, woman. That was a great sandwich, woman. Cheers, man. Here's a cup of tea. That's what they called each other originally.
Speaker: And when she was made in x in Genesis 2.18, we're told that she was made to be a helper. Adam lived a phenomenal life.
Speaker: As soon as he was made, he was prophetic. He knew good and evil. He could walk. He could talk. He could rationalize. He could believe. He could dream. he could get swept up in the adventure that God had for him.
Speaker: When the woman was made, It was the same. She was created to assist him. She didn't sit at home all day making the dinner while he went to adventures.
Speaker: They were called to do the adventure together, to work together in unity. And Genesis 1, 26 tells us, then God, that's Jesus specifically, the word of God, then Jesus said, Dad, Holy Spirit,
Speaker: How about the three of us make mankind in our image? Let's make humans in our likeness. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, a physical body, ah soul, will a living spirit, tripartite beings,
Speaker: so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky. Now the word birds there means everything in the sky, including pterodactyl, dinosaurs and dragons, if they ever existed.
Speaker: um Over the livestock. um So i cows, cattle, sheep, and all the wild animals. And over all the creatures that move along the ground.
Speaker: Some translations say the creeping things, that they'll even dominate demons. They'll step on demons and trample on evil.
Speaker: God wanted both of them to work together in this. So don't think of a helper as someone who's just assisting in the background, doing the donkey work that no one else wants to do.
Speaker: now It's active. It's physical. It's dynamic. It's necessary.
Speaker: And then the last of the 20 Holy Spirit gifts is leadership.
Speaker: With the gift of leadership, it means to rule, to preside over, or to have management in the church.
Speaker: If you're a leader, Do not be like Eli. Remember I'd spoke earlier about Samuel the prophet, the little boy, and he had to speak against the priests.
Speaker: And Eli, the fat priest, sat on a throne. Imagine. Imagine being a man of God and making a throne for yourself. Sitting on a throne outside the tent of meeting.
Speaker: No, that's not what leaders do. You're not there to lord it over people. You're not better than people. If you're a leader, you are there to serve people diligently.
Speaker: With your energy, with your love, with your time. a leader does not make you better than someone. It makes you more self-sacrificial. You give more.
Speaker: You donate more. You invest more. You spend more. It costs you more.
Speaker: The word leader in Greek actually means to steer a ship.
Speaker: You're guiding it. You're carrying this ministry, this church, this occupation, and everybody involved in it is your responsibility.
Speaker: How you do that? You rule with wisdom.
Speaker: You need to know things first. And then, okay, what's the best decision based on what I know?
Speaker: You need grace. Because God's kids are crazy. And they will drive you nuts. And they will drive you mad up the walls. So you need to go,
Speaker: Jesus has forgiven me. I'm good with God. I have forgiven them. They are good with me. Show them that grace, even when they don't deserve it.
Speaker: We looked at the fruits of the Holy Spirit a few weeks ago. If you're a leader, we need to see the fruit. We need to see evidence of your generosity, of your kindness, of your humility.
Speaker: Again, being a leader does not mean you get to be arrogant. You still be humble before God. It's not your ship. It is his. You might run a fellowship.
Speaker: It is still God's.
Speaker: Your job is to look after his sheep. You know, what does a shepherd do? a shepherd leads his sheep in a certain direction. When one stupid sheep jumps into river or gets his head stuck in a bucket, am or a wolf, a lion or a bear comes after the sheep, the shepherd's job is to help the sheep, to protect the sheep, um to fight against other beasts to save the sheep.
Speaker: They're all markers of a leader.
Speaker: It also involves i'm calling out errancy. When people believe something that is just wrong, it actually involves saying, yeah, that's that's that's not okay. that That's not right. No, no.
Speaker: This is the truth. Yes, there are times... when someone will believe something wrong and you just have to patient with them. Sometimes people don't need to know what you know.
Speaker: they need to know that you care. But there comes a point when if they really want to be mature in their faith and strong theologically, or they want a role that's high up and involves impacting many people,
Speaker: then a leader will have to say, listen, you said something last week. Did you believe that? Did you misspeak or is that actually what you think? Oh, you think that.
Speaker: Why do you think that? Okay, thank you. You know what? That's not actually quite correct. Let's look at the Bible together, okay? What you're saying, okay, you're talking about this here That was a very different context. That was a very unique situation or that was in the Old Testament. But actually, you see here, Yeah? When Jesus found to the church?
Speaker: Yeah, that's what we believe. That's f for us today. So you can take practical advice from this one, but never say that again. That's just wrong. People will give out about you online. This is what we've... There are ways about it.
Speaker: But part of leadership involves calling out bad doctrine and correcting people in time.
Speaker: And lastly, is possessing the ability... to discern true spiritual needs from felt needs. That means there'll be times when you will think, oh, so-and-so needs this. Oh, this is an issue. Oh, this is a need. so-and-so wants this.
Speaker: You're always gonna have people who want something. But what does Holy Spirit want? Sometimes people think they want something, but actually it wouldn't be very good for them.
Speaker: Or it would be a temporary solution. So you need to know what Holy Spirit wants. Again, um I launched my currently mini, but very powerful church there on Sunday.
Speaker: um On Saturday afternoon, an idea of what it would look like. On Saturday evening, someone called and said, Brendan, I need help.
Speaker: And I, do you have prayer friends? And I said, yeah, actually I do. And they're coming to my house at 11am tomorrow. I'll see you there.
Speaker: And we spent four hours just listening to that person, sympathizing, loving, Praying, breaking things off, washing her in the word of God, giving her a soul soak, a word spa.
Speaker: um There was what I felt the need was. But there was a need Holy Spirit sent to us in particular that day.
Speaker: So we always need to be sensitive to him. Because yes, other Christians are your family, but they're his kids and he knows them best.
Speaker: Okay guys, and that marks the 20th out of 20 gifts. Are there any questions, comments, thoughts, or the likes on these bad boys?
