A Word about Wisdom Personified

Today I want to share a word about Wisdom Personified as I comment on Proverbs 1:20-33:

Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

"How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.

Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. 

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.

Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster."

Wisdom Personified

As we consider this passage from Proverbs 1, we need to recognize that God used many different literary genres in the Bible. The fact that God could use literary devices to reveal His message to people should not be a surprise. After all, if humans can write poetry and prose, and if we can use metaphors, similes, parables, drama, and satire, why would we be surprised that God does also? God is far smarter and more sophisticated than we are and we are made in His image and His likeness. God is the Master Communicator and He knows how to speak with His people. In our passage for today, God used the technique of personification to teach about wisdom and folly.

We must be clear that although wisdom is personified in this passage, Proverbs 1 is not referring to the Greek god of wisdom Athena. In verse 29, King Solomon tells us that the foolish rejected “the fear of the LORD.” Wisdom here does not point to itself but to God Almighty. Wisdom is not a god in the Book of Proverbs, but it represents seeing things from God’s point of view.

So, what lessons can be learned from our focal passage for today? 

First, wisdom is available to all who would receive it. Wisdom is not some special gift or knowledge that is only available to a select few, no, it is available to all comers. In fact, we see wisdom depicted as standing in the busiest part of the city, crying out to all that will hear and receive the blessing of the fear of God. This vignette reminds me of a principle I was taught about the physical location of churches. 

It is common to see a sign at a crossroads, a busy intersection, or an exit from a highway which points the way towards a church which is hidden away in a neighborhood out of sight of the main roads. An expert in the field of church building design told me, “If you have to install a sign to point someone to your church, you should have built the church where you are placing the sign.”

Wisdom does not need a sign to point to it. Instead, God has taken the initiative, as He always does, to offer wisdom to all who would partake. Paul, in Romans Chapter 1 tells us that there is enough truth revealed to us in nature to cause us to seek God and His ways. This same truth is presented to us in our passage today.

Next, we see that it is foolish to reject wisdom. Those who do so are simple-minded and they reject knowledge. They are arrogant in their ignorance and they are proud of their rejection of the fear of the Lord. They have refused to hear wisdom and they have rejected it even when it was presented to them.

A Luddite is the term which is used to describe a person who willfully rejects the use of modern, labor-saving technology. The term originated with the bands of English textile workers who destroyed machinery in cotton and woolen mills that they believed was threatening their jobs. While they may have had a point, they were judged by society to be backwards, unsophisticated,  yokels and that is the connotation of the word as it is used today.

A Luddite blindly and viscerally rejects modern technology; in the same way, the foolish blindly and viscerally reject the fear of God and His Wisdom. What is the result of this obstinacy? In a word, disaster!

Disaster is the result of going one’s own way and ignoring the path of wisdom. Consider the terms used to describe what the foolish reap from their stubborn rejection of wisdom: calamity, panic, distress, anguish. To use a well-known phrase, "They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.” In the midst of that storm, the foolish will seek the help of God, they will finally see wisdom, but it will be too late. The human consequences of sin are real, and they will be experienced. Humanly, once the dice are cast there is no taking them back. We will reap what we sow. 

The good news, however, is that there is hope in addition to our temporal reality. As this passage concludes, “For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them;  but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.” Or as James put it, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

When our children were still in high school, one of their friends had a part-time job at a pizza restaurant. We often saw him standing by the road waving a banner with the meal deal of the day, trying to attract new customers to the establishment. God presents wisdom in the same light; holding high a banner in the middle of main street, offering a blessing to all who would partake.

Are you willing to partake of the blessing of wisdom?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Demonic Wisdom

Today I want to share a word about Demonic Wisdom as I comment on James 3:13-4:8:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is dread of disaster. 

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Which Type of Wisdom?

My wife and I often remind each other of  sayings that we have heard over our lives together. We use them to punctuate life events or to give ourselves a reason to laugh over a situation we are facing. 

One of those sayings comes from the John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd film “The Blues Brothers,” in which they were told by a waitress that the establishment where they hoped to play blues music had “Both kinds of music: Country and Western!” 

Well, I guess you had to be there . . .

When we look at wisdom from the Scriptures, we most often study God’s Wisdom, and we should. We must note, however, that there is another type of wisdom which is the total opposite of God’s type. James refers to this type of wisdom as  earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. In our focal passage for today, we see that both types of wisdom want our allegiance, and that James teaches us the ramifications of following demonic wisdom.

The first thing we will notice about demonic wisdom is that it is 180 degrees out of phase with God’s Wisdom. It is as far as the East is from the West! God’s Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. This is a wonderful word picture! Contrast it with demonic wisdom, however; which is bitter, jealous and full of selfish ambition, grasping and covetous, and quarrelsome to the point of murder! God’s Wisdom is light, but demonic wisdom is full or darkness!

Another aspect of demonic wisdom is that it is wasteful and it is the epitome of poor stewardship. Instead of being a wise manager of what God gives us and using those resources to bless Him and to do His ministry, and also to bless our families, communities, and churches, we waste God’s bounty on our own lusts and passions. Those who follow demonic wisdom are walking in the steps of the prodigal son, and the end result will be the same!

We also need to note God’s Holy Jealousy which is revealed here. God created us and He loves us. He was gracious to us and He sent His Uniquely Begotten Son to pay for our sins and to restore us to fellowship with Him. God paid a high price for His love for us, and He will not stand for His people cheating on Him with the world in an adulterous relationship with demonic wisdom. This is serious business to God and it should be a serious issue for us as well!

Finally, as I said above, it doesn’t end well when we are friends with the world and when we adopt demonic wisdom as our philosophy. The Prodigal Son fell far and he fell hard because of his dalliance with the ways of the world. The same is true for us today, but there is also good news!

We Must Choose Wisely!

As James tells us, 

“But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

As the old saying goes, “A word to the wise is sufficient!” To quote another movie, this time an Indiana Jones flick, “You must choose . . .  wisely!”

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Doing All Things Well

Today I want to share a word about Doing All Things Well as I comment on Mark 7:24-37:

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.

Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go--the demon has left your daughter." So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.""

Doing All Things Well

Churches often send questionnaires to potential staff members. Along with logical questions about personal testimony and doctrine, some of the questions can seem a little strange at times. One pair of questions I saw once asked in succession: How would you describe yourself? How would your peers describe you?

Now, the first question in that pair was very logical but I am not too sure about the second! The pastor who received that questionnaire answered it: “I hope my peers would agree with my description of myself, but I think you will have to ask them!”

It would be fascinating, though quite possibly embarrassing, for us to know what our peers actually think of us. We do know, however, what the people who walked with Jesus thought of Him: "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Wow, would to God that everyone who looked into our lives would say, “He has done everything well!”

The thing I have come to understand, however, is that the definition of “doing all things well,” can differ, depending upon who you may be talking to. As one pastor who moved from a large city to a rural area once told me, “When I was in [the big city], if a church held a community outreach event it had to be absolutely excellent. If it wasn’t done to a very high standard, people had many other churches to choose from, and they would just go down the road to the next offering. Here, people are not as concerned about how well you do an event as much as they see that you care enough to do the event.” This is similar to the catch-phrase, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

So, what about Jesus? Why did He seem to be “hiding His light under a basket?”

Simply this, Jesus did not come to heal people. He came to seek and save the lost souls of this world. He “came to the Jews first, and then to the Greeks” as Paul says in Romans 1.

He had a mission to accomplish, but that did not prevent Him from being kind and loving those who did not understand that mission. In truth, no one alive at that time understood His mission, and so Jesus had to be patient with all kinds of people, Jews and Gentiles, His disciples and His critics, those seeking salvation and those seeking miracles.

We should live our lives so that people will say that we do all things well as we serve God. It is a difficult balancing act to pursue a mission, while at the same time relating to people who don’t understand your mission, but Jesus did it, and since He sent us to the Holy Spirit to empower our ministry we can, too. 

As the advertising slogan goes, “If it were easy, anyone could do it.” Seek the help of the Holy Spirit, and while it will probably never be easy, it can be done!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Greatest Gift of All

Today I want to share a word about the best gift of all as I comment on 1 Corinthians 13.

This is the last of four episodes in which we have explored the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

Previously we have looked at how Christians are empowered by the Spirit for ministry, and we have also discussed the free gift of the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts He gives us. The last time we were together we explored the sign gifts.

All of God’s gifts to His children are wonderful, but the best of all, according to Paul is the gift of loving people the way God does. In 1 Corinthians 12:31, Paul instructed the Church at Corinth, 

But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way. 

THE WAY OF LOVE:

Love, while probably the most common topic for movies, books, and songs, is also one of the most misunderstood topics of those literary genres.  An example of this is the infamous line from the movie Love Story:  "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Huh? What does that even mean? 

A better way of describing love was told to me by a Warrant Officer in my National Guard unit years ago. He had just lost his mother to a long and difficult illness, and he said to me with tears in his eyes, “Chaplain, no one ever loves you like your mother.”

Love is also often a precious commodity in the church.  It was for good reason that evangelist Vance Havner once said: "You can be as straight as a gun barrel theologically, and just as empty spiritually."  

Paul taught the Corinthian church and us about God's love.

LOVE ENRICHES:  

 Verses 1-3 say:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

There is only one goal for God's type of love. It isn’t to get something in return for the love given. It isn’t to make a show of bestowing love. It is solely intended to enrich to one loved.

My brother-in-law once said, “Now that we don’t farm the way we used to when we needed large families to all the work we do today with machines, there is no logical reason to have kids; you have them to give love to them."

Paul, who was quite gifted in ministry and leadership made a powerful point here: It does not matter what gift you if you don’t have love. You may be a great leader but without love you will be ineffective. You may be a great supporter but without love your support is useless. You may do miracles but without love they'll just be a sideshow. A skilled surgeon who doesn't care can cause death just like one who isn’t skilled.

 God is our Model of enriching love by: 

• Creating the world.

• Sending His Only Begotten Son.

• Sending His Holy Spirit.

• Preparing mansions for us in Heaven.

LOVE EDIFIES:

Verses 4-7 say:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

To reach its goal, love must act; love is not a feeling, it is action. We may not feel affectionate about someone you but can still love them because love is a behavior, not an attitude. In our youth group in my home church, we had a saying, "You don't have to like me, but you do have to love me."

 Love acts in the best interest of the one who is loved. Love does not lose patience and it allows for mistakes. Love gives the benefit of the doubt, and it doesn't jump to conclusions. Love is empathetic and helps us feel the way others do.

God is our Model of enriching love in action:

• When we hated Him, He loved us.

• When we slandered Him, He gave us His truth in the Bible.

• When we abandoned Him, He chose us.

 The truth is that God loves us even better than a mother does.

LOVE ENDURES: 

Verse 8 tells us:

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

 Verse 13 also affirms this idea:

 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love has a goal, a method, and a guarantee. True love will never end. Infatuation, lust, and affection fade, but love doesn't. You can't really fall out of God’s type of love because while our abilities and gifts will end; love won't 

Love will never end because it is a gift from God. This kind of love comes only from God, who is our Model of enduring love. God is eternal, and so is His love. We must turn to God for this type of love.

LOVE GROWS WITH EXPERIENCE: 

Verses 9-12 teach us:

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Loving like this is not a natural act. Naturally we are selfish, and self-centered. Naturally we prefer it if other others don’t succeed (less competition for us). In our natural state, we would make this hell on earth. All we have to do to prove that is to point the ethnic cleansing that took place in Hitler’s Germany, in the former Yugoslavia, and in Rwanda. 

Loving like this is not a natural act so it takes time to learn to love like God does. We must be taught and nurtured, and we must practice, and make mistakes. We must grow in the Lord. 

For all of this we need: to be transformed by God, by being saved in Jesus. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome our own weakness. We need the willingness to be taught and corrected. 

Paul is our model of growing love. In Him we see the power of God to place the love of God in our hearts and the practice of God’s love in our lives. 

He went from being an accomplice to murder and a persecutor of the Church to becoming the first Christian missionary and to writing half of the New Testament including this treatise on love we have examined today.

Paul could not have such an amazing life change without the power of God, which He gave to Paul through the Holy Spirit. I am grateful that this same gift and same power is available to us, God’s people today.

CONCLUSION:

Seek the gift of loving the way God does. It will bless Him! It will bless you! It will bless those God puts in your life! What better gift could we want? 

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Sign Gifts

Today I want to share a word about the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit and I continue commenting from the Bible about the Gifts of the Spirit.

So far we have dealt with the origin and purpose of the Holy Spirit as well as the origin and purpose of the gifts of the Spirit. Now we need to look at the sign or miraculous gifts because these gifts are the cause of much confusion.

The three sign gifts that seem to cause the most trouble are the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and healing. We will discuss each of these, but we will begin by looking at how and when God uses miracles.

God’s Use of the Miraculous:

We must begin our consideration of this subject with a very basic fact: God created the Earth and the earth and all that is in it comes from God.

 

Equally important for our discussion toy is that God created the world to work in an orderly fashion. We know that the Sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, even when we can’t see it because of clouds. This is the way God designed the world and it is the way the world works almost all of the time.

The fact that God created the world and that God gave it rules by which it runs is the foundation of modern science. The earliest scientists were men of great faith who believed that the world was a place of order that worked the same way every time. All they had to do is observe how the world works and they could then predict the outcome of an experiment. The problem today is that scientists have made the earth a god and placed it above humanity whereas our God made people His stewards over the earth. Despite this, modern science has its beginning in Christian faith.

What then do we observe? Almost all the time the world works exactly the way God designed it to work. Miracles are not common, nor are they necessary. If we observe how nature works and if we are good stewards of nature, then we will be blessed by nature.

Remember again that God owns the Earth so He can change how nature works. When you create something you own it. When you own something, it is under your control. If your own a house you can paint it a different color. If you only rent a house, you must ask permission to paint it. God does not need to ask permission.

When He decides to, God can change how nature works. He does not do this very often. When he rested on the seventh day he said the world he had created was ‘Very good!” He likes it to work the way it normally works. At certain times and instances in history, however, God changes the way nature works. We call these acts of God miracles. They don’t happen very often, but they do happen.  The Bible records many miracles in both the Old and New Testament. Even in the Bible, however, miracles did not occur every day. What does this teach us?

God Uses Miracles to Confirm Developments in His Revelation:

A review of the Bible revels that God uses miracles in brief periods in the history of His relationship with His people. For example: 

• He used them to validate Moses. 

• He used them to establish the Jews in the Promised Land. 

• He used them to validate the ministry of the Old Testament Prophets. 

• Jesus did miracles because He is God. He used them more the bless people than to validate His ministry. His miracles did testify to Him as the Son of Man, however.

• He used them to establish the New Testament Church. 

• He used them to validate the truth of His Holy Word.

It is apparent that God uses miracles to show that something new is about to happen. He uses them to show the next step in His enteral plan. So, what is the next major event in God’s plan? From what we know, the end times would seem to be next. I believe that the end times will see an outbreak of the miraculous.  For example, when Jesus comes for us we will meet Him in the air! Certainly that will be a miracle!

God does continue to act in people’s lives, but He made nature to work in a certain way and He likes the way it works. Therefore we should not expect an outpouring of miracles until He is ready to advance his plan to the next phase.

I believe then place that God works in extraordinary ways is on the mission field. I do believe He uses miracles to validate His Word where people have never heard it before.  In contrast to that, when people have God’s Word in the midst we know it is powerful. It is a Two-edged Sword and it convicts us of our sin.  God’s Word does not need miracles to be effective. If works its own miracles in our hearts!

The Sign Gifts:

What, then, should we make of the sign gifts? I believe that while these are still valid gifts, God does not use them very often today.

Let's begin our survey with the Gift of Tongues, because this gift seems to cause the most confusion.

In Acts 2, Gods used tongues to present the Gospel to Jews gathered from all over the Roman world for Pentecost. They each heard in their own language. Some have called this the gift of hearing. These were known, human languages. It would be like me speaking in English and you hearing in Spanish, but without an interpreter!

In 1 Corinthians, Paul indicates that a person might speak with the tongues of men or the tongues of angels. Some believe this means that there is a prayer language that we can use in private prayer with God. If so, Paul does not explain how this works. Paul does however explain God’s purpose for tongues: 1 Corinthians 14:22 says, 

“Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers.” 

Again, God validates His Word by use of miracles such as tongues. 

Paul also insists that what is taught in church must be understandable by the people. He said in 1 Corinthians 14:18-19 that,

“I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

Paul also told the church at Corinth not to prohibit speaking in tongues. However, he did tell them to regulate tongues by having an interpreter: 

“If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God (1 Cor 14:17-18).”

The most important thing to Paul was for God’s Word to be used to edify the church. Speaking in unknown tongues does not do that, even if it is a human language or a heavenly language. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:8, 

“Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?”

Finally, remember that Bible does not teach that we must speak in tongues to show we are saved.  The Bible does not teach that you must speak in tongues to show you are Baptized with the Holy Spirit. Tongues is one gift among many, and Paul teaches it is not the most important one.

Next, let's consider the Gift of Prophecy:

This gift is clearly Paul’s favorite. It is the only gift that is included in all three of his lists of Spiritual Gifts. He told the church at Corinth that if they prayed for a gift, it should be prophecy.

Prophecy is one of the speaking gifts and it works to build up the church by sharing God’s Word. The gift is not defined by Paul, but he does describe how it works in 1 Corinthians 14:3, 

“The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. “ 

So is this really a sign gift? According to Millard Erickson, a prophet is one who speaks forth for God. In the Old Testament that often included revelations of the future plans of God, but not always. 

John the Baptist is considered a prophet, but he is recorded as quoting from the Old Testament. God did prompt him to preach repentance, but he was not predicting a new thing, only reminding people of truth from God.

According to Wayne Grudem, prophecy happens when a person has a message from God put upon their heart. They are convicted of God that they must tell this message, but it can never be something that contradicts Scripture.  

Modern day prophecy cannot include foretelling a new future, because we believe the Canon of Scripture closed with the Revelation of John. The next great event on God’s calendar has been predicted. When the End Times come to pass there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth. Those who are alive and remain will be taken into heaven and remain in God’s presence unto eternity. Until these things come to pass what more new things does God need to tell us?

Prophecy, then, is the forth telling or proclamation of a message from God, based on his Word, guided by His Spirit for the purpose of strengthening, encouraging, and comforting God’s people. So to me, prophecy seems similar to the gift of discernment in many ways. So is prophecy a sign gift? You be the judge!

The last sign gift we will consider is the Gift of Healing:

This gift is only mentioned once. Paul includes it in his list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. It is probably like the gift of working miracles Paul mentioned which close to healing in this list 

We have already discussed God’s use of miracles. He does them when He wants to and for His own reasons. Does God heal today through miracles? Yes, but he doesn’t do it every time and, in truth, He did not heal everyone in the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul admits, 

“Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Like many other gifts, Paul did not teach us how the gift of healing worked.  He merely states the gift exists but give us no other information.

We were taught by James, however, how to minister to those who are sick. He said, 

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5;13-16).”

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the man who was beaten had oil applied to his wounds. Oil was used as medicine in Biblical times. Many teach today to pray for the sick and also to give them medicine.

In Bible times people believed that sin caused illness. Jesus taught that all illness does not come through sin. We understand this better today because science has taught us about bacteria, viruses, and genetic disorders.  Often we get sick because the world is not perfect the way God created it to be. Mankind’s sin has marred God’s perfect creation and so we all get sick. Getting sick does not always mean, that you have committed some specific sin.

Some illnesses do some from sinful habits, however.  Abusing drugs, abusing alcohol, overeating, and not getting exercise can make us sick. We need to repent of these both physically and spiritually to get well.

Let me share from my past ministry three examples of healing:

• My wife and I went to church with woman whose brain tumor disappeared after our congregation prayed for her.

• We served on the mission fiend with a man whose shoulder pain was eased after we joined with some colleagues to pray for him and anointed him with oil. He was able to wait several months for corrective surgery.

• Finally, in a church where I was the pastor, a woman whose cancer treatments made her ill fell into a coma. Our church prayed earnestly for her, but she died anyway. She was healed when she went to be in heaven with her Lord and Savior.

Conclusion:

So, in conclusion, it is difficult to be dogmatic about these sign gifts. I tend to believe that in most cases where the church is established, and Christians have the Bible and the empowering of the Holy Spirit that God does not use the sign gifts very often. On the other hand, on many mission fields, where there is no church and where the Bible is not readily available, I believe God may choose to activate the sign gifts more.

God is still the Great Physician, and I believe He still heals miraculously, and I also believe He wants us to take advantage of the medical knowledge He has given us the ability to acquire and use.

Like Paul, I also believe that one day most gifts will cease, and only the greatest gift of all will remain. We will explore this gift the next time we are together.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Gift of the Holy Spirit

Today I want to share a word about the Gift of the Holy Spirit as I continue in a series commenting on the Gifts of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit gives us power for ministry. He does this by giving us spiritual gifts. If we take this literally, then every Christian must be a charismatic!

The root word for “charismatic” is “charism,” which means “free gift” in Greek, and we have all received the free gift of the Holy Spirit from God!  The issue is not whether we all have a gift from God, because we all do. The question is whether or not we understand these gifts and how they operate. That is what we will try to do today.

The Nature of the Gift of the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is God, and His gift of the Holy Spirit comes out of His Nature:

• God is good and He always gives good things to His people.

• God is supernatural and His gifts have supernatural power.

• God reveals Himself to us; He gives us the knowledge we need. We have the knowledge we need to have about Spiritual Gifts.

The free gift of the Holy Spirit is a blessing that is unique to those in God’s Family. God gives good gifts to all people, but the best gifts He reserves for those who love Him, those who have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for their sin. Much of the gift of the Holy Spirit is observed in our lives through the Gifts of the Spirit.

Origin and Purpose of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

The Spiritual Gifts come to believers when they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit gives at least one spiritual gift to every believer.

Ephesian 4:4-7 says, 

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Romans 12:6 says, 

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”

No special anointing or second Baptism is required.  When the disciples of John received the Holy Spirit and then spoke in tongues it was not a second baptism of the Spirit because they had not yet been become followers of Christ. When they were saved, they received the Holy Spirit for the first time, the same way we do today.

The Bible also tells us that the purpose of these gifts is to build-up or edify the church and to glorify God.

Ephesians 4:11-13 states, 

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

1 Peter 4:10-11 says: 

So, how do these gifts work? Some theologians believe that the Holy Spirit empowers our natural talents. Some believe that spiritual gifts are abilities given by God that are totally unnatural to us. Some believe it can be both, but the Bible does not really tell us which is true! What is important is that we have been given gifts to use. How they work is not nearly as important as the fact that God gives each of His children the power to do some kind of ministry, either to speak or to serve as Peter says.

The Gifts of the Spirit must be Exercised in Humility:

Paul instructed the church at Rome this way:

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:3-5).”

Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

We must not use our gifts to build our reputation or our standing in the church or community. We must use our gifts for their intended purpose, which is to edify the church, the Body of Christ on earth, and to glorify God. This applies to all gifts, but in particular to the sign or miraculous gifts.

Biblical Lists of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

We only have four places in the New Testament that record gifts of the Holy Spirit.

• Romans 12:6-8: prophecy, service, teaching, giving, encouragement, leadership, and mercy.

• 1 Corinthians 12:8-30: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, teaching, apostleship.

• Ephesians 4:11: apostleship, prophet, evangelists, pastor, teacher.

• 1 Peter 4:10-11: speaking and service.

In these lists we find some important things to note: 

First, Peter neatly categorizes the gifts for us into speaking and serving. 

Second, some teach that the list of Ephesian 4:11 is a list of offices not a list of gifts. Since the power for this work is from the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the work is to edify the church, this may be a distinction without a difference. 

Nowhere in the Bible does it say these are all the gifts that the Spirit bestows. There may be others, but at the same time there is no place in the Bible that it says there are more. 

Prophecy is the only gift that is included on all three of Paul’s lists, and both Paul and Peter emphasize the attitude of the one exercising the gift more than they do the individual gifts themselves.

For example, 1 Peter 4:8-11 says, 

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Also Paul told the church at Corinth to “eagerly desire the greater gifts,” and then he showed them “the most excellent way” which is of course, love (1 Corinthians `13).

Individual Experience of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

How does one know what gift they have from the Holy Spirit? This can be harder than you might think, since we see no direct teaching from the Bible about this subject.

Romans 8:16 says,

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” 

This indicates that the Spirit teaches us spiritual things and thus the Spirit will inform us of the gifts he has given us. We also can ask the Holy Spirit to give us a gift, but Paul tells us it should be one of the greater gifts. We also know from experience that our pastors, friends, and counselors can give us insight into the gifts they see in us.

Regardless of what gift we have, we are to be good stewards of the gift of the Spirit as well as the Gifts of the Spirit.

The emphasis in the Bible is on using the gifts we have been given. For example, Paul instructed Timothy, 

“Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you (1 Timothy 4:14).”  

The implication here is two-fold: a gift becomes more effective when it is regularly used; also, a gift can wither and become useless if it is not used. The bottom line here is that knowledge of our gifts is not as important as using them! The Holy Spirit gives us gifts and the power to use them to bless God and God’s people.

The Duration of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

We must realize that our spiritual gift may not last forever. Paul tells us that most gifts will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10 says, 

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

What will remain in the end are faith, hope, and love, and Paul says that the greatest of these is love. Love must guide our use of the gifts, and we will talk more of this later.

We also know from history that the sign gifts seemed to cease after the First Century. These gifts were not seen often after the death of the last Apostles and the church ministered for centuries all over the world without the sign gifts being a prominent feature of our work. Therefore, many believe that the sign gifts have ceased to be given. Of course, the development of the Charismatic Movement in the 20th Century challenged the idea that the sign gifts had ceased. Charismatics believe that the sign gifts are normal, and required to demonstrate your salvation. Again, we will talk more about this in the future.

Conclusion and Summary: 

• The Holy Spirit Gives gifts to all Christians for ministry.

• The purpose of these gifts is to glorify God and the help God’s people become mature.

• There are four lists of gifts in the Bible: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. There are two basic types of gift: speaking gifts and serving gifts.

• Some gifts are miraculous gifts or sign gifts. There is disagreement about whether these gifts have ceased or not. 

• We must be good stewards of our gifts by using them for ministry.

• What will remain in the end are faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. Love must guide our use of the gifts.

Join me again next time when we will explore the sign gifts.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Being Empowered by the Spirit

Today I want to share a word about being Empowered by the Spirit as I begin a short series in which I comment on what the Bible teaches about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are central to the ability of God’s people to love Him and be on mission with Him in the world. Without them we would lack the power to serve God, but before we get to the core issue of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we need to address a couple of points.

First, the information I am bringing to this series is based on the Bible. I have studied the Bible as well as the writings of several learned commentators, and I am confident that I have good, reliable information to share with you, but I am in no way presenting myself as a learned professor. I am learning along with you!

Second, we need to begin every story at the beginning, and so we need to lay a solid foundation for our study of this subject. For this reason, I will begin our work in this area by reviewing the coming of the Holy Spirit and the role He plays in empowering our ministry.

The Revelation of the Holy Spirit:

The Bible reveals to us one God in Three Persons. God reveals Himself to us through His Word and His Word tells us that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father God is prominent in the Old Testament. Jesus the Son is prominent in the Gospels. The Holy Spirit is prominent in the Book of Acts and the Epistles.

The wholeness of God is seen throughout the Bible, however.

The coming of the Spirit was foretold in the Old Testament; for example Numbers 11:24-29 says:

So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again. However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

1 Samuel 16:13-14 tells us:

So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.

In Isaiah 61:1 we read:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

Jeremiah 31:33 reveals to us God’s plan:

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Joel 2:28 also tells us:

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

We see from these and other Old Testament verses that the Holy Spirit was at work during the time before Christ, but the Spirit did not fall on all of God’s people. Only selected leaders were filled with the Holy Spirit in Israel. 

We also see, however, that God’s clearly intended the Spirit to come upon all His people at the time and place of His choosing.

The coming of the Spirit was introduced in the Gospels:

In Mark Chapter 1, John preached to the crowds about Jesus saying, 

“After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit was seen descending on Him like a dove and after His baptism the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan.

In Luke 11 Jesus taught the Disciples about prayer and ended by saying in verse 13, 

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

During the Festival of Tabernacles in John 7 Jesus announced that the Holy Spirit would empower the ministry of His followers:

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The longest teaching from Jesus about the Holy Spirit is found in John 14, beginning in verse 16:

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 

He also said, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Finally, Jesus’s final words in Acts 1:4-8 included instructions about waiting for the Holy Spirit:

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The Coming of the Holy Spirit:

The coming of the Holy Spirit is a major sub-theme in the Book of Acts. In fact some have called this book, the Acts of the Holy Spirit. In Acts we see that the Holy Spirit came down to all the major peoples of the world:

The Biblical world had three races: Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. The Holy Spirit first was given to Jews in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit was given to Samaritans in Acts 8. The Holy Spirit was given to Gentiles in Acts 10. By Acts 10 all these major races had received the Holy Spirit. In each instance when the Holy Spirit came upon the representatives of one of the three major races, a sign was given: speaking in tongues.

In Acts 19, the disciples of John were evangelized by Paul. They had no knowledge of Jesus, and they had never given their lives to him. Once these disciples had been saved, they received the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues.

After the time that Holy Spirit came upon these four categories of people: Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles, and the disciples of John, speaking in tongues never accompanied a conversion experience in Acts or the rest of the New Testament. This is important to remember for our future discussions.

By the end of the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit had come into the church and the church was spreading across the known world.

The Work of the Holy Spirit:

So, what does the Holy Spirit do in our lives?

The Holy Spirit puts God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5) and he gives us hope through the Spirit (Romans  15:13).

The Holy Spirit bears its fruit in our lives: 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Holy Spirit is the seal and the evidence of our salvation. Ephesians 1:13-14 says, 

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

According to 1 Peter 1:2, the Holy Spirit also works to sanctify us so that we can be obedient to God. Without the Holy Spirit, we would be like the Children of Israel: we would know what is right, but not be able to do what is right. Paul refers to this in Romans Chapters 7 and 8.

The Holy Spirit also gives us the power to have joy in suffering (1Thessalonians 1:6) and He helps us guard the truth we have been given through being taught God’s Word (2 Timothy 1:13-14). And, of course, the Holy Spirit inspired the written Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and He gives us gifts for ministry (Hebrews 2:4).

1 John 5:6 says that the Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ and that the Holy Spirit is truth.

Conclusion and Summary: 

• God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been active across the entirety of the history of God’s people.

• The coming of the Holy Spirit was foretold in the Old Testament, by John the Baptist, and Jesus Himself.

• During the time of the Book Acts, the Holy Spirit came upon all the major categories or races. The sign that was given when this happened was speaking in tongues.

• There is no record of individual people who received salvation from Christ speaking in tongues as a sign after all the major categories or races of people had been given the Holy Spirit. 

• The Holy Spirit empowers us to obey God and to minister in His name, and he also give us the power to grow and mature in Christ. The Holy Spirit bears His fruit in our lives and makes us fit for God’s Kingdom.

• The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministry.

The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministry. Such a simple sentence with such massive implications. We are truly empowered by God Himself, though His Spirit in our lives to partner with Him in ministry. How awesome and how awe inspiriting is that?

I will be back soon with a word about both the Gift and the Gifts of the Spirit.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt