The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul List God’s Hierarchy in the Church Part 2

1 Corinthians 12:28-31 “Thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” KJV

Paul continues to list God’s Hierarchy in His Church and comes to the third in rank being the teachers. This English word teacher or teachers Paul uses here is translated by the Greek word didaskalos which means an instructor or one who teaches concerning the things of God expounding the Holy Scripture in a systematic interpretation or explanation in the proper context it was originally written. During the days our Lord Jesus walked the earth all of the Jewish Rabbis were often referred to as “teachers” and this is exactly the way one of them (a man named Nicodemus) referred to our Lord Jesus with this word (didaskalos) in this passage, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him’” (John 3:1-2). The person who is gifted by the Holy Spirit as a teacher is primarily opening up the Word of God to fellow believers in our Lord Jesus Christ in order to instruct them on the aspects of the Christian life as revealed in the New Testament epistles and letters. The office of the teacher and his responsibility is not to bring the believers in Christ together in order to make them feel good, but rather he is to work diligently in the Word of God to make disciples, pupils, students, or learners of Christ and every believer that sits under his teaching is his student.

Paul said it in this manner writing to the Ephesian believers, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13). Paul declares by these words he wrote here to the Ephesian believers that the teacher’s job is to accomplish three (3) things in the life of every believer who sits under his teaching: The first job of the teacher is the perfecting of the saints and the English word perfecting Paul uses here is translated by the Greek word katartismos which means complete furnishing or equipping. We know that we send our children to schools in order that they would learn so they will be able to make their way in this world. Likewise when a person comes into the kingdom of God, they need to be instructed or taught the “ways of God” found in His Holy Word and this is the function of the office of the teacher. The teacher provides instruction form God’s Word to the saints so they can be equipped or prepared secondly for the work of ministry. I must say that all of my childhood I thought that it was solely the job of the Pastor to seek to see lost men and women saved or in the true way I looked at it was that it was the Pastor’s job to get people to come to church.

Paul declares here that it is the teachers job to instruct the believers or Christ Body to do ministry work or in other words to labor with serious effort as Christ official server or attendant seeking to witness the gospel of grace to every creature. Thirdly the teacher’s office and the work therein are for the edifying of Christ Body. The English word edifying is translated by the Greek word oikodome which means the act of building, building up; metaphorically it means the act of one who promotes another’s growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, and holiness; the building built up is Christ Body. It is the teacher’s heartfelt desire to instruct from the Word of God only and present truth from the Word of God that every individual disciple of Christ will be built up into complete spiritual maturity. The next office or the fourth (4) in rank is miracles. The Apostle Paul declares that God does give some in His Church this gift the working of miracles or the Greek word dunamis which means strength and power or a miracle itself. The fifth (5) in rank is the gift of healings and somewhat overlaps with the office of miracles. The sixth in ranking is helps which is most likely the work of deacons and deaconesses in the church.

The seventh (7) in ranking is governments and these are those that serve as elders or bishops or some other lead role within the Body. Last or eighth (8) in ranking as listed here by Paul is various tongues and Paul wanted to make this list and its rankings from God’s viewpoint because these Corinthian believers had so elevated the gift of speaking in tongues, even in their worship service that Paul wants them to understand how it ranks in importance and he will in more detail write to them clarifying this matter in Chapter 14. Paul concludes by doing what he is so brilliant at doing as he surely has learned well from our Lord Jesus by asking questions to put an emphasis on the point he is making and that is none of them were given every one of the gifts by the Holy Spirit, but each one of them can exercise their spiritual gift under the control of the Spirit and motivated by the love of God which Paul declares to be the “a more excellent” way. The English phrase “a more excellent” is translated by the Greek word huperbole which means a throwing beyond others; figuratively superiority, excellence, pre-eminence, supereminence, beyond measure, or far more excellent. Paul wants these Corinthian believers and us to understand completely that God’s Love is the Engine which drives the Bus carrying these spiritual gifts.

“Preaching is teaching with a tear in the eye.” Jack Hyles 1926-2001

“The man who is going through with God to be used in healing must be a man of longsuffering. There is a fruit of the Spirit that must accompany the gift of healing and that is longsuffering.” Smith Wigglesworth

“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.” Augustine

“A preacher should have the skill to teach the unlearned simply, roundly, and plainly; for teaching is of more importance than exhorting.” Martin Luther

“In God’s Church there should be order, structure, and precision because everything He creates operates by His Pre-Ordained Designed Precision (and we are “new creations”), the animal world and the horticultural world testify to this eternal truth.”  Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul List God’s Hierarchy in the Church Part 1

1 Corinthians 12:28 “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets” KJV

Paul having completed his list of the gifts earlier on in this chapter and how they are to be employed by every individual believer for the good of the entire Body of Christ working harmoniously like the different members of a human body, Paul now details for the Corinthian believers God’s pecking order in the operation of the church. Like every good organization or company must have a structure of leadership, so that it can run smoothly and not chaotically or with confusion, so has God the Father set in order a hierarchy in His Church that it would work out His Purposes on the earth void or empty of confusion because He is not the Author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33) as Paul is going to lay out in much more detail for these Corinthian believers and us in Chapter 14 of this epistle or letter. The Corinthian believers were coming together as Paul has already written to them turning the Lord’s Supper into a party and not the reverent and observant service our Lord Jesus meant it to be for every believer, of every generation, in every church. The problem that caused this occurrence and the many others Paul has already addressed in this letter thus far to them is their miss-understanding of God’s Order and His Structure in His Church, for these believers did not appear to be under any strong leadership at all and it appeared to be that everyone was doing as they pleased without having to answer to anyone above them in position in the church.

Paul declares that God the Father “has set” in order in His Church the following offices and this English phrase “has set” is translated by the Greek word tithemi which means appointed or ordained. Therefore, this reveals that every true Church of God has men appointed or ordained and that is fixed or established by the order or command of God and not some human selection committee such as a deacons board, but if any selection committee or deacons board is in communion, consultation, and receiving counsel from God the Father, then He will direct their selection to the man or men He wants to serve His Purposes in His Body as the Prophet Samuel was so led as declared in the discourse of Scripture in 1 Samuel 16:1-13. Now with this truth etched in his heart and mind, Paul writes that God the Father’s Hierarchy is “first Apostles” and the English word first is translated by the Greek word proton which means foremost (in time, place, order or importance). The English word apostles is translated by the Greek word apostolos which means a delegate, a messenger, one sent forth with orders specifically applied to the twelve apostles of Christ and in a broader sense applied to other eminent Christian teachers of Barnabas of Timothy and Silvanus and also Apollos.

The Apostle Paul even placed Apollos on the same level as Peter and himself when he wrote these words to the Corinthian believers, “So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) and he continued on to write this, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2) and with these words, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other” (1 Corinthians 4:6).

Whether Apollos was an appointed or ordained Apostle (not one of the twelve) or not, it is clear that Paul regarded him of equal authority with him in the declaration or proclamation of the gospel of grace and of expounding the Word of God (at that time only the Old Testament) as was Timothy, Barnabas, and others. Martin Luther even went as far to suggest that because of Apollos’ great knowledge of the Old Testament that he might have been the writer of the Book of Hebrews, perhaps not so far-fetched at all. It is clear in the Scripture (from the Lips of our Lord Jesus Himself) that the 12 Apostles appointed and ordained by Him will be given special, superior, and supreme honor in His Eternal Kingdom as declared by His words here, “Then Peter said to Him, ‘Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matthew 19:27-28).

The second in rank in the Church of God is the office of prophets and this English word is translated by the Greek word prophetes which means a foreteller or inspired speaker or writer or poet; an interpreter of oracles or of other hidden things, one who moved by the Spirit of God and hence his organ or spokesman, solemnly declares to men what he has received by inspiration, especially concerning future events, and in particular such as relate to the cause and kingdom of God and to human salvation; one who is moved by the Holy Spirit to speak, having power to instruct, comfort, encourage, rebuke, convict, and stimulate their hearers or readers. As our Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit was working through men as documented and recorded for us with this example by Dr. Luke, “Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius” (Acts 11:27-28).

Paul charged or commanded Timothy with these words to fulfill his office of God’s ordained Prophet, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:1-2). The writer of Hebrews (Apollos?) makes it clear that those placed in the Hierarchy of God in His Church have a great responsibility with those positions as he declares with these words, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17).

“As God has made evident distinctions among the members of the human body, so that some occupy a more eminent place than others, so has he in the Church. And to prove this, the apostle numerates the principal offices, and in the order in which they should stand.” Adam Clarke

“Is God the Father appointing “Apostles” in His Church today? The answer is not as our Lord Jesus gave authority to the original 11 plus Paul at the beginning of His Work through them on the earth, but rest assured He still has “sent ones” and whether He gives them the “title Apostle” or not does not matter and although none of them in any generation will ever sit on one of the 12 thrones, they will be and are in every generation placed as leaders in His Church by Him and will be judged or held accountable for their faithful, trustworthy, uncompromising, truthful, and loving guard or watch over our Lord’s true sheep. It does not matter what we call them today.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Likens Christ Mystical Body and its Function to the Human Body

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Paul now turns the focus of his letter to the function or employment of all of these gifts of the Spirit in our Lord Jesus’ Mystical Body by comparing His Body to that of any human body. Every person has a body and understands (to some degree) the function of the individual parts of their body. Surely someone who is not a physician does not understand what their internal organs do, but they can understand what their eyes, ears, hands, fingers, feet, or legs do every day. Paul being very practical and simplistic with this analysis says, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14) and he does so in order that the Corinthian believers and us today might grasp that our Lord Jesus expects His Body to operate as one.

The reality of our new birth is what unites true believers because we have the same nature of God (the Holy Spirit) dwelling in each one of us and God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are eternally united and so must His children be (despite the differing races), and this is why our Lord Jesus prayed the following words to the Father in the Garden before He was arrested, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23). Paul declares that our gifts are to be exercised and used as a part of Christ Body just as in the human body the hand picks up items and takes them to the mouth so that the body can be fed physical food to strengthen it and nourish the entire body, including the hand.

Paul wants to make it clear that he as an Apostle with many gifts of the Spirit is no more important than any one of the Corinthian believers with only one gift, for Paul declares that that one brother or sister in Christ Body and his or her one gift and its function or employment is as important as the Apostle himself with his many gifts as he says it in this manner speaking of the human body, “If the foot says, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body” (1 Corinthians 12:15-20).

Paul’s point is simple and clear and that is no normal functioning human body has its limbs or members working against one another but quite the opposite they are always working together doing their part or what they were created or designed to do for the good of the whole body, therefore, Christ Body made up of many individual parts have been gifted by God the Holy Spirit to exercise their gift for the good of the Head (Christ) and the entire Body (believers). Paul now wants to squash the envy, strife, and the many divisions that are manifested in this Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 3:3) that has propelled them to elevate the gifts and the people with them they deemed more relevant, important, or beneficial to the church and the gifts that are outwardly more flamboyant and flashy that brought about attention from non-believers (in their case and the way they were it was negative attention (1 Corinthians 14:23)).

Paul uses this example to show them how absurd and silly they were in neglecting every member of the church and his or her gift by saying, “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:21-25).

Every one of the Corinthian believers and us today are fully aware that when we hurt our foot or our arm or even our pinky finger which seems to be minor or insignificant compared to say the heart or lungs, but when even the smallest part of our body is hurt or sick it directly effects our whole body and so it is with our Lord Jesus’ Mystical Body as Paul declares with these words, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:26-27). The human body is not a disjointed bunch of members that can be taken or left, but every part of the human body externally and internally is vital and crucial to the proper and healthy function of the whole body and so our Lord Jesus wants His Body to be attached to the Head (Him) and every member serve and function employing their gift or gifts as directed by the Head (Christ) and energized, enabled, and empowered by the Spirit.

“The use of gifts must never be dictated by personal ambition or the desire for selfish gain. As every member of the physical body is united to the head by two sets of nerves, the afferent, which bring to the brain the slightest sense impressions, and the efferent, which bear to the extremities the commands of the mind, so is every member of the Church, even the feeblest and most distant, bound to his glorious Lord. The head of the swimmer is in one element-the air-and the members may be in another-the water-yet the head is able to control and co-ordinate them; so with the unseen Christ and His visible Church on earth. He must direct and use us. We have nothing to do with the work He confides to others, and must concentrate on that which He wants to achieve through us. If this means co-operation with other members or service to them; if it means hidden obscurity or temporary disuse, we must be equally content. It is for Him to do as He will. There is no room for envy or jealousy; they must give place to loving fellowship and mutual help, and the quiet peace and rest which come from recognizing the good pleasure of the Creator.” F. B. Meyer

“Paul uses an easy to understand illustration to correct these Corinthian believers in their distorted view of how their church should function in employing their spiritual gifts for Christ Glory and the proclamation of the gospel and for edifying and building one another up, even they who Paul called carnal in this letter could understand this illustration and surely it proved to make the necessary corrections needed by what Paul wrote to them in his entire second letter and specifically these words sum up the whole of the second letter, ‘I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you’ (2 Corinthians 7:16).” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

            

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul List nine (9) separate Gifts given by the God the Holy Spirit to Believers Part 3

1 Corinthians 12:10-11 “To another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” KJV

Paul continues on in his writing and comes to the seventh of the nine (9) being the gift of “discerning of spirits” and this gift of all of the nine (9) is at the top of the list for me (next to the previous one prophesy) in terms of importance and every born again believer should earnestly in prayer seek this gift from God the Holy Spirit. The English word Paul uses here discerning is translated by the Greek word diakrisis which means the act of judicial estimation and to be perceptive or the ability to differentiate between that which is false from that which is true and the power or influence from the Holy Spirit to mark out the false as different and not from God. This gift is so vital for every true believer to seek in prayer, because it will empower each one of us to keep away from the devil working in people to sabotage our walk with our Lord Jesus and lead us into error and sin which grieves the Holy Spirit and brings reproach to our Lord Jesus’ Name. There are vast numbers of people in true Christian churches that are not sheep but instead are goats and consequently they are still under the control of the evil one.

The Apostle John wrote way back 1,900 plus years ago these words, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world” (1 John 4:1-3). The Apostle John declares with these words that even as far back as when he first wrote these words there were many “spirits of antichrist” or “false prophets” out and about in the world he lived in. Fast forward to today all of those years that have gone by how much more are there today multiplied many people who claim to speak for God, but in reality they are agents of satan. As we documented in the last study how Paul was confronted by the slave girl (Acts 16:16-21) and he (having the gift of discernment) new immediately that this was satan speaking and not our Lord Jesus Christ and this is what we as individual believers and the collective body need today to be able to mark out the false believer from the true believer as also Paul wrote to Timothy warning him of this very thing and urging him to be discerning (2 Timothy 3:1-17). Paul in that entire chapter of his letter to Timothy was not speaking of those outside of the visible church, but on the contrary he was speaking of those inside visible Christianity that have a form of godliness, but without the power of godliness and these are the ones he urged Timothy to mark out, make a distinction, or recognize them as having the phony or false spirits as in the example of the Pharaoh’s magicians Jannes and Jambres.

The eighth of the nine (9) is the gift of “tongues” which is perhaps of all the nine listed here by Paul the most miss-understood. Paul had this gift of the Spirit and he also wanted the Corinthian believers to have this gift and to use it appropriately as we will learn in detail after we have climbed that great mountain peak of the identifying of God’s Love in Chapter 13. The English word Paul uses tongues is translated by the Greek word glossa which means of uncertain affinity; the tongue; by implication a language (specifically one naturally un-acquired). When Paul spoke with “tongues” he was speaking another language that he had never learned through study as God the Holy Spirit empowered, energized, and employed the use of his tongue to communicate the Word of God to others. On the day of Pentecost when those disciples who were in the upper room began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance they spoke in the various languages of the lost men and women who were in the city to worship or to conduct business, and they lived in the city, but here is what Dr. Luke records was the result of their speaking, “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?’” (Acts 2:5-8).

Now when these disciples who were in the upper room were speaking in all of these various languages (Acts 2:9-11), they had no idea or clue what language they were speaking or what they were even saying for that matter because nowhere in this chapter does any text ever declare the disciples knowledgeable of what language they were speaking for as Dr. Luke records it was the Jews who spoke these various languages that made it known to everyone what the languages were and what they spoke about (Acts 2:11). The ninth of the nine (9) is the gift of the “interpretation of tongues” and the English word interpretation is translated by the Greek word  hermeneia which simply means the translation of what has been spoken in the various languages. This Greek word hermeneia is perhaps where we get our English word hermeneutics the study of the methodological principles of interpretation of the Bible. Peter when he began his sermon on that day of Pentecost was speaking in his language of Aramaic or Hebrew and the text does not declare that anywhere during this sermon Peter interpreted what the disciples said to the crowd or was Peter speaking in those various languages at this time and interpreting what he said (Acts 2:14-47). Paul is going to clarify for these Corinthian believers and for us the proper way this gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues is to be used in the context of the Church of God in 1 Corinthians 14. It is God the Holy Spirit who determines what gift will be given to what believer and how that believer will actuate his or her gift for the benefit of Christ entire Mystical Body.

“What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?” Leonard Ravenhill

“To discern spirits we must dwell with Him who is holy, and He will give the revelation and unveil the mask of satanic power on all lines.” Smith Wigglesworth 1859-1947

“God can perform wonders, but so can evil spirits imitate! How crucial for us to distinguish what is of God from what is not of God. If one has not died to his emotional life but earnestly seeks sensational events, he will be easily duped.” Watchman Nee

“Notice that the allotment is made by the Holy Spirit acting Sovereignly as He will, 1 Corinthians 12:11. We are not informed when it is made-perhaps it is at the moment of our regeneration or adoption-but it is important to bear in mind that our gifts will probably correspond with our natural endowment. Hence our Lord tells us that to every man was given according to his several ability, Matthew 25:15. Mark the allusion to the Divine Trinity: the same Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:4; the same Lord, 1 Corinthians 12:5; the same God, 1 Corinthians 12:6. The Spirit directs, the Savior is the channel of supply, and the Father is the fountain of all.” F. B. Meyer

“Now when we see today some of the dramatic and radical and outrages things of people barking like dogs or howling like wolves or laughing uncontrollably or crawling around on the floor and acting drunk, we can be certain that this behavior is not the result of any charisma given to a person by God the Holy Spirit and in truth none of that type of behavior is ever seen manifested or visible in the New Testament epistles or letters.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

 If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…