Gifted! - Lesson 5: A Big Picture View of the Gifts

All right. Well, I'm excited about getting started tonight and just have debated and not struggled, I wouldn't say, but just, I guess I could say kind of struggled about what I want to share tonight because there is in me this, this boiling over, I guess, in a negative way, but that I really want you to understand that the gifts that are in you, God wants out and that the Holy Spirit wants to do things through you that are divine and supernatural. But I feel like that there is this, this big picture need that we need to see. And I think sometimes what happens, and especially in the West, the Western church, we have lost sight of what the church really is. And so tonight, what I want to do is I've just titled tonight's lesson, the big picture view of the gifts. And, and so as we come to this and here's what I did, I really, in fact, I'm going to pray for us before we get started because you know, the Bible says that the things of the spirit are spiritually discerned. And so here's what I'm going to ask is for us to just open ourselves up and say, God, I want you to go beyond my intellect and I want you to speak into my spirit. And then through that, what you speak here, bring clarity into my mind. And that's, so we're going to just start that way. Can we do that? So father, we come in the name of Jesus and Lord, you know that, um, uh, I just know how you began to unveil these things to me many, many years ago and have continued to, uh, let me see the world that we live in, the plan that you laid out before the foundation of the world in, in a light that, um, I never learned in a class or from a book, but Lord, as your spirit is guided. And so I, I know that, um, you said that the things of the spirit are spiritually discerned and, uh, the, the mind of the flesh, the natural mind cannot accept the things of the spirit. And so Lord, just right now as your children, Lord, we come and we put off the old self. Why don't you just do that? Say, Lord, I'm going to put off my old self. Lord, we pray to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. So Holy Spirit, I'm asking you to just begin to renew our minds and then speak into our spirits that will bring clarity into our minds in the truths that you have laid out in the scripture, but have been many times overlooked or avoided or even, um, maligned, uh, by, uh, the church and by theologians and by, um, even pastors, uh, for, for many, many years. And so I just pray you just guide us, Lord Jesus, you promised this. And so you'd guide us into all the truth. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well, again, I just want to repeat this because I've said it over and over, but the goal

of the course is real simple. This time we're together to help believers understand and unleash the gifts of the Holy Spirit into our fallen world for the building up the body of Christ. We want to understand it, but we also want to unleash it. And, and, and I'm just going to say this is just kind of, as I was just have been in prayer, been asking God yesterday, I, I sat down with him and literally God gave me nothing. I mean, he just wouldn't say nothing because he was stirring something. You ever have that happen where he's stirring your spirit and he's, he's keeping the waters kind of cloudy. You can't really see what's there. And then today, as I was just this morning, I was just spending time with the Lord and just really early this morning as I was, he began to start bringing that clarity. And then by noon, he just kind of laid it all out for me. So this is a fresh off the griddle, I guess you'd say. But I'm convinced that most believers have little, especially in the West, have little to no clue as to who they really are in Christ. I believe that the Christian religion has literally blinded us to the relationship we have with Christ and the power of God that really dwells in us. And as such, what's happened to us, we've developed a gospel that is at best anemic and, and lacks power and does nothing more than gets us a ticket to one day go to heaven. Whenever God says, I have a purpose for you and I am asking you to join me in the plan that I laid out from the beginning. And when a believer begins to see that in their spirit, suddenly you don't just kind of want to know about the gifts. You see that without them you cannot function in the purposes God has laid out for you. And so we're going to look at some of that tonight. Now listen, I'm not blaming you. I want to say this for most of us here, I'm not blaming you. I do blame pastors and teachers. Not one time whenever I was in seminary, not one time did any teacher teach on the work of the Holy Spirit. I learned Greek, I learned Hebrew, I learned Latin, I learned all sorts of things about theology. I can tell you about eschatology, I can tell you about Christology, I can tell you about

all sorts of things. I took a class on the doctrine of last things. I can tell you those things. I can tell you things about Calvinism and Arminianism. I can tell you what the Puritans taught. But not one time did anyone teach about how the Holy Spirit is released through a believer. And it wasn't just my seminary. It's across this nation. And so we have pastors with degrees that don't even understand the basic principles. And even in that, we come down to a place where we don't even have, not only do we not have it taught, we don't even believe what the Bible says. And I want to show you what I mean by that as we go, and I'm going to try to hold myself back a little bit, all right? But okay, okay. I'll just say this. I'd say we're kind of like children looking at the world and coming to conclusions from a child's viewpoint. It's like, I've told you this before, it's like one of my boys, whenever we were driving down the road and he was talking to his brother and they were in the back seat talking, and we went by this farm and had all these cows out there, and there were those white cows, you know, and there were the black cows and all that. And my little four-year-old son said, well, you know, the black cows are where the chocolate milk comes from. Now from a four-year-old's view, that's what happens. Here's the sad thing. We have Christians that are coming from a childish point of view and into the things of the world, things of the kingdom, and we're coming to conclusions that, well, if we see a black cow and a white cow, obviously milk comes from, white milk comes from a white cow. We do that in the spirit world.

So whenever we come to these things, we come not really seeing what the scripture says, but just kind of embracing a half-hearted way and then saying, well, I just don't understand all that stuff. When in reality, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you says he is going to guide you into all the truth. All of us, he wants to do it. So tonight, I'm just going to take, we're going to do a panoramic view, and here's what I thought I'd do. Hey, since it's, you know, yesterday we had the space station astronauts come home. I thought, well, hey, you know, they had a view of earth that's different from ours. And I know here's what's happening. You're doing exactly what I did when I saw that picture. There is no way on heaven or earth that I would do that. But here's what I want to say. When you look at what God's plan is from God's perspective, you start seeing things different. All of a sudden, Genesis starts making sense, and believe it or not, Leviticus actually can start making sense. And you're going to start finding that what Ezekiel says actually does make sense, and it fits within a bigger picture. And Daniel wasn't just making up stories, but he was actually a part of a bigger plan. And whenever we come to even what it says, and we're going to look at this just a minute, in Luke chapter 2, whenever it says, in the days of Caesar Augustus, we're going to say there was a plan God had in place, and we're going to look at that. And once you get to see it, I believe that what's going to happen is you're going to say, I'm in, because that's where I am. And actually, you might say, well, how in the world did you get here? Well, I want to tell you how I got here, honestly. I didn't get here from seminary. I got here from what I taught last semester. When I started dealing in the demonic, and started seeing things that was weirding me

out, I had two choices. I could either run and avoid it, or I could go to Scripture and find what the Bible says. And when I went that way, all of a sudden, my Bible just came alive. making sense in scripture that before didn't. And so as we come to this, let me just share some of these things. Let me just say it, I've got it all out there for you because I thought it'd be better to do it this way. We were created for relationship with God and to have dominion or rule on earth. That's, you guys know that. That's not a, it's not a new statement, but I thought we might as well start there because you've got to start with what was God's original intent. You know, whenever he made us, Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27 says, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So you and I have a purpose that's bigger than what we have ever dreamed could be possible. We are not simply these, what even our nation is trying to say, just these flesh, biological, evolutionary happenings,

but you have a divine purpose. You have been molded and crafted by God. It's bigger than what we think. And we, you know, and you may say, well, I don't, you know, I just don't think I'm all that. It don't matter what you think. It matters what God says. And we need to see that and we need to come to that. Now that brings me to the second thing. And that is this, we'll never understand this until we first understand that. Second thing is we lost both relationship and dominion in the fall of Genesis three. That's why the fall in Genesis three is cataclysmic. It has literally a universal destruction that takes place. And we need to know that and we need to see that. Now, whenever we think about that, you remember what God said to Adam. He told him, he said, man, you can eat from anything in this garden except one thing. What he said would happen to them when they ate from it? They would die. Now we know that they ate from it. They did not die physically, but we died spiritually. Our relationship with God was severed. No longer did we have that divine connection. Not only that, but we lost dominion. The Bible tells us that that dominion was given over to Satan. Says it this way, remember the temptations?

You've heard me teach these things, but I'm trying to bring it together. And temptations, whenever Jesus was out in the wilderness, those 40 days in his wilderness, he was being tempted by Satan. You remember what Satan said to him? And he said this in Luke chapter four, verses five through six says, the devil took him, talking about Jesus, up and showed him all the kings of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory. Now look what it says, for it has been delivered to me. When did that happen? Genesis chapter three. And I give it to whom I will. In other words, it's mine. Now we know that the earth is the Lord's and everything in. In other words, we don't live in it. Remember what I've told you, I've told this before. We don't live in a dualistic universe. God's God, but underneath him, there is a war going on between two kingdoms. That's what I talked about this last semester. You've heard me teach it many times. And so as we come to this, we know that the fact is that God has literally, has given to us this incredible opportunity for divine relationship and authority and dominion, but it was lost in the garden in the fall

and it was given over and we lost that relationship and we lost that dominion. And so Satan says, and it has it here, and we know that this is true because if what he says was not true, he said, well, I thought everything he said was a lie. Well, it wouldn't have been a temptation if it wasn't true. Before it to be a temptation, it had to be a true statement. And so as we look at that, we see this. Let me go on to the next thing. And that is that our loss has held humanity in bondage to Satan. I did put that in your stuff, didn't I? Okay, good. I got to looking at it and went, oh no, did I put it there? Because we were created to worship God, but now we are disconnected. Now this is important. You gotta get this, okay? We began worshiping other gods. You and I have been created with this innate desire to worship something, even if it's self-worship. We are just, it's why religion is so powerful. It's why even people who claim to be Christians can be so. Mean and ugly it's because they have bought into a religious system not Christ But a religious system. I always say that has the bumper sticker of Jesus on it And so as we as we look at this we need to see this bondage that's here These other gods were false gods. In fact in first Corinthians chapter 10 Paul declares that they are demons Humanity's worship became so perverse and I've taught on this, but it was it was so perverse that where it says in Genesis 6

He says where the the sons of God is talking about angels Came together sexually with the daughters of men That was humans and they begin to have all kind of sexual relations and the immorality became so bad that God himself said That man's thoughts are only evil continually They are just literally to a place of degradation. That is so horribly evil that he decided to press reset But Noah found favor and So God flooded everything pressing reset But even in that if you go back and read in Genesis chapter 9 After the after the flood whenever Noah and his family are out there God says I'm not going to do this anymore. But then he says still man's got an evil heart We still have because of a fall and because of the the sinful nature because of the fall and then the Bible tells us After that that it talks about the fact that that all of us come from those three sons of Noah Shem ham and Japheth and so we know that what God told them in Genesis chapter 9 is he said this he said Okay, here's what I want you to do To those to Noah and his in his family. He said I want you to be fruitful and multiply and do what? Fill the earth, right? I want you to go fill the earth But you see man had another plan. You see man decided even that moment. I'm not gonna follow God We're gonna follow these continue to follow these false gods And so you come to Genesis chapter 11 and you find in Genesis chapter 11 verse 4 that it says that mankind did this it says Then they said come let us build ourselves a city and a tower With its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole you see what they said We are rebelling against we are not gonna do it God's way God had a plan But we're not gonna follow God's plan. So God comes down confuses their languages We all know this and Disperses them across the earth. Now. Here's what happens in this moment?

God gives humanity over Okay, you want to follow them gods? Go right ahead. I'm gonna let you follow them And so he disperses mankind by languages over the face of the earth In fact in Deuteronomy chapter 32 in the Song of Moses We read in that psalm in that song Literally what God did in this moment in Genesis 11 It tells us this in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 8 through 9 Since when the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance when he divided mankind When did he do that Genesis 11, right? What happened? He fixed the borders of the people according to the number of the sons of God Who are the sons of God? They're the angels But notice this but it says but the Lord's portion is his people Jacob his allotted heritage. So here's what I'm gonna gonna get on it So I want you to see that if you're a Gentile, it means you're non-jewish You are part of the dispersal of the nations. Okay God says I'm just gonna give them over So if you ever go in fact, I've taught this many many times in the past You can go to China and there is there are beliefs Spiritual beliefs there in China that are different from spiritual beliefs in Japan In India if you've ever been to India, I mean everything's backwards there It seems like to me or in Africa or you can go to Germany or France You can go to these different countries and what you find is you find them Functioning under a certain cultural mindset Now people, you know the humanists think well, it's just the way the humans went. No, it's according to the The sons of God that they were under the rule that they are under As a matter of fact, Jeremiah talks about that whenever he talks about how God took over The nations came and attacked the nations and he starts naming them. And what does he do? He goes against their gods, against Chemosh.

He goes against Moloch, those territorial gods. What happened whenever the Egyptians were holding, we all look at Pharaoh, and how in the world could he do that? Who was God attacking? He wasn't attacking Pharaoh. He said, I'm attacking the gods of Egypt. Who were they? They were the sons of God that went into the, does that make sense? If you don't see the spirit world mindset of the scriptures, you're not going to understand the Bible. You're going to read those Old Testament stories and go, man, God was killing everybody in the Old Testament. I'm glad I didn't live back then. And you're going to miss the spiritual warfare that was going on. So we have to get in our mind. If you're going to understand the function of who you are as a believer, you have to get there. You've got to get there. You've got to begin to see these things and understand what the Bible says. And so we were in bondage because we were under these demonic rulers. So let me just kind of throw it out for our modern day, because we always say, well, that was back then. Let the Holy Spirit in you give you some revelation about what was going on in our nation and what's been going on in our nation.

Why would women who are 100% pro-women's liberation, I mean National Organization of Women Women, why would they embrace a transgender mindset in women's sports? It's not because they're stupid. It's because there is a spirit world that is functioning of evil. If you can't see that, I promise you, you're going to miss scripture. It's just that the kingdom of God is not going to make sense. So as we look at that and we see this, we need to see all this. But God's plans always prevail. Nothing was going to thwart his plan. So we go from Genesis 10, which is the table of nations. By the way, I was going to show this, but I decided not to because I thought we'll be here all night. But if you take and look at the table of nations in Genesis 10, and it comes, the Genesis 10 table of nations actually comes out of Babylon. When God dispersed them, you see them. And so you begin to see that happening. But God had a plan. So now notice this. All of humanity is now functioning apart from each other, dispersed around the world, different languages under different gods. And then we come to Genesis 12. Look at what God says. He still has a plan.

Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. His father was a pagan. He was part of that group. And he said, I'm going to pull you out. I'm starting again. I started with Adam. Then I went to Noah. And now I'm going to you. And look what he says. To the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And now notice what he says here. He hasn't given up on the Gentiles so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God has a plan. Does that make sense? God's desire is still to bless humanity, but he could only do it through a redeemer. So in Genesis 3, verse 15, we have that place where he tells Satan, I'm going to bring a redeemer. He's going to crush your head. And Satan does everything he can to destroy.

And this is a whole other part I can't spend time on, but to try to destroy the genetic makeup of humanity. And he was working on that, but God continued to stop him at every turn, continued to do it. And ultimately we come here because through Abram and through Abraham is going to come that redeemer that God promised in Genesis 3, 15. He's doing it. He's going to do it. That's what his work is. That's what he's trying to do. And so as we go on, we know that the Jews themselves were not simply to be a nation. They were to be the agents of God's proclamation. of freedom to the world. In Exodus chapter 19, look at what it says. Verses 5 and 6. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. It's his nation, his people. For all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. I want you to keep that in mind. You probably heard that at another place in scripture. His intention was for them to be the dispersal of his blessings to the world. Now we know that whenever he had his nation, we know that for many, many years he was their king, right? He was their king and then we come into, you know, of course Joshua was the leader and then we go from that to we start seeing judges, these various judges. And then we get into 1 Samuel and we see Samuel who was the judge. But as Samuel got older, the Bible tells us and listen to what the Bible says that Israel did. 1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 4 through 5. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now look at what it says. Now a point for us, a king to judge us like all the nations. Hear what they said? We want to be like everybody

else. And you remember Samuel was super upset. He went to the Lord. Do you remember what God said? Samuel, they haven't rejected you. They've rejected me. We don't want God to be our king. We want to be like the other nations. But even in that, God had a plan. His plan was going to prevail. Are you, I hope I haven't lost, there's no way I can say if I lost because somebody's going to go, I don't want to raise my hand, but I'm lost is a ball in high weeds. But is it starting to make sense, your Bible, a little bit, that as you look at the Scriptures, what you find is God had a plan. He wanted you and I to have a relationship with Him and walk in dominion, but we lost it. But God was, and He knew we would. God's bigger than our failures. But in His plan, He had a Redeemer in His heart. Not just for Israel, but to bless the whole world. And so we continue to go on, and literally from Genesis 12 until we come to the New Testament, we see the epic battles going on in the heavenly realms. They're everywhere. I told you, I just told you about the epic battles in the heavenly realms between God and the gods of the Egyptians. The whole conquest of Canaan is God battling against these demonic gods in those different cities and countries and lands there, and people groups. We see the Bible talks about the four major global powers that rose up throughout history, the ones that ruled the world. That was what Nimrod was really the first, we find in Genesis 10. But then we go to Babylon, you remember? They were the first. And then from them, we had the Persians, the Medo-Persian empire became the next global ruler. And after that came the Greeks under Alexander the Great and how he was the next global ruler. And then who was after him? The Romans. The Romans became the next global ruler. And this continues right up until the right time. Galatians chapter 4, listen what it says, verses 4 and 5. But when the fullness of time had come, the fullness of time, that right there is the word kairos. You know, there's two Greek words. The word chronos is chronological time, and kairos is opportune time. God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. I know I've told you this before, but let me just remind you of history a little bit. Because in 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated, leaving Rome to be divided. Rome was left divided among three ruling segments. The rulers of those three regions. were Marcus Lepidus, Mark Antony, and Gaius Octavius. Those were the three generals that

were ruling those regions. Real quick, they began fighting among each other and quickly Marcus Lepidus was defeated. Mark Antony, though, didn't want to fall to defeat and so he joined forces with Egypt and their pharaoh who was named Cleopatra. And history tells us that the battle that ensued in 31 BC, the Battle of Actium, Gaius Octavius defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra and the next year they both committed suicide. In 27 BC, Octavius was now the ruler of the world. He closed the doors on the Temple of War, declaring – guess what – peace on earth. It became known as the Pax Romana, Roman peace. That same year the Senate of Rome declared a title on Octavius that up to this time had been reserved only for gods. They titled him Caesar Augustus. And Augustus means a man who has become a god. And at just this time – do you see God's plan? Does your Bible start making sense? The world thinks we're outsmarting God. Satan thinks he can do what he wants to do and yet God says, you're just playing right into my hand. You're not going to thwart my plan. I've got a bigger plan that you'll never be able to thwart. God is still on his throne and so we come to this. And so now whenever you read that and you see that this man who became a god, who has declared peace on earth, suddenly we come to Luke 2. And whenever Luke was writing the Gospel of Luke, he says, I want to kind of make a clarifying statement here. Led by the Holy Spirit, he writes this, in those days a decree went out from a man who has declared God, who declared peace on earth, that all the world should be registered. So a little couple that were living in Nazareth had to go back to Bethlehem. And as they went back to Bethlehem, an event took place. And then an angel went to some shepherds out in the fields and said to them, fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. You remember whenever the angels came out and they started shouting and singing, what were they singing? Peace on earth. They were saying Rome declares they're bringing a peace, but it's a dark peace. But God has made a declaration. He's the one bringing peace on earth. Do you see what's happening? And so you start walking through this, you begin to see that, oh my gosh, God's doing something. We're seeing Him doing something. Jesus lived on this earth, but He was fulfilling part of a bigger plan. He wanted to make sure as a Redeemer that He readied things so that God's plan would continue to go. And as we come to this next one, I just said, God is

advancing His plan through believers. That's what He's doing now. We are not just saved to go to heaven. We are saved to bring heaven here on earth. God is ready to release the kingdom of God through us, and I know if that makes you nervous, it does me too. But listen to what it says. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. In this, the life of God comes to dwell inside. We are now called, positioned, empowered, and equipped to carry out God's original intent. It will not come to fruition until the new heaven and new earth. But I can tell you, looking at the scriptures and looking at history, I think He's carried out a pretty good plan. He's back. in a thousand so far. And so as we think about this, I want you to remember what God did in Genesis chapter 11. You remember what he did. He came there, the people had built their own tower. It was a tower that they were going to, when it says to reach the heavens, it's not talking about a skyscraper, it's talking about a temple that was going to communicate in the heavenlies. They were going to communicate with the sons of God. That was what it was all about. I've taught on this before, but that was what was happening. And so as they were going to do that, God comes down, he sees it. And then the Bible says this took place in Genesis chapter 11 verses seven, there he says, come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth. And they left off building the city. That was what happened in the, in the Deuteronomy 32. That's what happened. He did that. And literally what he did in a way, he was weakening Satan's power. He was keeping him from functioning that way. Why do you think there's such always such a push for a one world government? Do you think it's just so that we can have peace on earth? No. Do you see, do you see the demonic side of it? In fact, I believe that this was Hitler's intent. I believe that was his intent. There's too many supernatural stories that took place in World War II to deny that the spirit of God was not stopping the enemy from doing something. I mean, to raise up somebody as brash and brazen as Winston Churchill is pretty amazing. And we look and see, you know, this is why this global economic group, whoever they are, they think, well, cause we're billionaires, we can do this. Dude, you are pawns. God has a plan and you and I are part of his plan. And we have to see that we are not simply

here just living to get by. We are here part of a work of the kingdom of God, each and every one of us. And when we see that it changes everything. And so as we think about that, I talked about how the fact that we're empowered and we, and we look at that. And so we come to this part here in Genesis 11, how God has said he's dispersed everybody, but then what took place in Acts chapter 2? Again, I know I've told you this, but, but sadly the vast majority of the church doesn't even see this. And sadly, most pastors never preach this, but you can't understand Acts 2 unless you take and bring it and connect it to Genesis 11. It's not going to make sense. But whenever you come to, you see Genesis 11, how you disperse them, divided their languages. And then we come to Acts 2. And what does it say? Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, look at this, from every nation under him. Why were they all there? What was the celebration? Pentecost, right? So Jews from all over, all nations where Jews were, came to Jerusalem. And at this sound, that means the mighty sound that was going on, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. The tongues was given to them. They were speaking in the languages of all of these nations. Now, one of the pictures I want to bring to you was a, I just didn't do it. We don't have time. You can literally line up Genesis 11 nations and these nations that are mentioned. It goes on. Let me just, and they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Now let me just pause here for a second because I know some people are going to say, well, that's the only way they could have heard the gospel. That is not true. Every person there could speak Greek. All they had to do, all that Peter had to do was preach in Greek. In fact, that's what he did. And they understood fully. So God was doing something bigger than just hearing it. It was a bigger move. It was a Genesis 11 undo, if you would. It goes on. And how is it that we hear it in our own language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya, um, belonging to Cyrene, the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arab and Arabians. We hear Arabians and we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Do you hear what's happening?

And so they're all going, what in the world's going on? And then Peter gets up and the very first sermon of the church, the newly born church, what does he say is going on? He clarifies right here, verses, and I'm just going to go down to verses 16 through 18. He says, but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or Gentile, doesn't matter what color your skin is or what social makeup you're, doesn't matter who your mom and daddy was. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. What's that talking about? It's talking about the functioning and release of the gifts. And your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my male and female servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. And then he goes on talking and telling more. And then in verse 21, he says this, he says, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Do you see what God's doing? God has a plan. And how many, I know you know this. How many got saved that day? I hear 3,000, right? Where'd those 3,000 go? They went home. That's right. They went back to the nations. Suddenly the kingdom of God has been instantaneously dispersed to the nations. Do you see what God's doing? God has a plan. And now what he's done, he's redeemed a man.

Now he's put his spirit in us. We are a new creation. God is now saying, okay, now I'm going to, I'm going to take and I'm going to bring back to me what was lost in Genesis three. Do you see it? That's what he's doing. And so whenever we come and we read in the Bible where it says in Acts 1.8, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. That's what he's talking about. That's what he's doing. So you've been empowered. That's what the Holy Spirit in you is doing. That's why I say it all the time. The Holy Spirit that dwells in you wants out. It's not about whether you speak in tongues or don't. It's not whether you prophesy or don't. You have the Holy Spirit who wants out. And he wants out because God is advancing a kingdom through us. He's not simply advancing a list of statements to get saved. He's advancing and releasing a kingdom that you come and enter. Does it come in words? Of course it has words. You got to share the gospel verbally, but you have to share the gospel powerfully too. It's both. That's what you find. That's what the Scripture teaches. That's the way Paul preached the gospel. That's what you find throughout Scripture. And so we not only have that, but listen, as a believer, we've been called.

And so you remember what I told you, what God said to the Israelites whenever he told them in Acts 19, what he said to them? What were they to be? They were to be a priesthood, a holy nation. Guess who you and I are? First Peter chapter two, verse nine says this, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. He is our king. We don't need another king. He's our king. We are part of a, what's called a theocracy, a God rule, not a democracy or a monarchy, but a theocracy where God rules. That why? That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's the call we have. So you've been empowered. The Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit wants to be released through you. You say, well, I don't, I don't know if I can prophesy or not. You can, if you're saved, right? And I like the fact that every once in a while I have visions because young men have visions. I like that. I said, well, I guess, you know, compared to Noah, who lived like 900 years ago. years I guess I am still a young man. Not only that but we are positioned. I've given you this before but I want to give it to you again just because I want you to get it. I've told you this before that when I was dealing in the demonic it was early on man it was nervous for me because not because I was afraid of demons but because I didn't have any roadmap. I mean I felt like I was going out you know I was one of those I felt like I was the one taking the bush hog

through the just the dense forest and you know cutting down thing trees and and things that nobody been that path before and and and so I was just you know you'd read things and some guys make it a little sense and some of them were just weird but you just you can't really and then the ones who were writing in a quote theological way I could tell the way they were writing you ain't never faced a demon. I can tell by the way you're writing. To you it's just intellectual gobbledygook. It's not what you've experienced and so as I'm going I came into this this reading of course I find it in founding obviously in Ephesians 6 12 but I just want to take you through again because I want you to see this for you. Okay there's a statement it's found five times in this in the New Testament. It's only found five times it's a Greek word only five times in the New Testament. All five are in Ephesians and whenever I saw this I'm going to tell you I had to come apart I've never heard anybody teach this at me so I'm you may say man he must be wrong and I'm not saying nobody else has taught it but listen to it and it's the word that we translate heavenly places so listen to how it says it tells us these things and in Ephesians 1 verse 3 says blessed be God the God and father of religion Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in the heavenly realms all the blessings of the kingdom of God are ours all the blessings God has are ours in Christ that makes sense but let's go on because well how do we get them well the next thing we need to see is what he says in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 he says that he who worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand at his right hand in the heavenly places so where is he far above all rule and authority and power okay what's he over the rulers the authorities the powers in the heavenly realms and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come so in the heavenly realms Jesus is seated in the position of authority over everything except the father that makes sense that's how we have access but listen he goes a step farther I mean if he stopped there I'd

be going woohoo he goes farther and now I want to just either go me or go whoa you know and that's the next one where he the next time you find it is in Ephesians 2 6 you remember how it says there but God demonstrates his own love and all these stuff while we were still sinners and then he goes on here in verse 6 of Ephesians 2 and says and raised us up with him and seated us with him where in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus you and I are seated in the position of authority in Christ above who the rulers and authorities and powers in this present darkness does that make sense why is he put us there so we can have an easy life no we're gonna see that but notice this he even goes a step farther about what he's doing because whenever you get on down into Ephesians chapter 3 listen what it says Paul says beginning in verse 8 of Ephesians 3 he says to me though I am very the very least of the Saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles that's us the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone to bring to light so that means what I'm sharing with you has been clouded and shrouded in darkness but I'm bringing it to light the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church who's the church you the church I'm the church we the church the manifold wisdom of God might now Not one day when we get in heaven, but now, today, might now be made known to who? To who? To the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. What was God's plan in Genesis 3? I'm going to crush the head of the snake. He took my children from me. He took dominion over the earth that I made. I'm taking it back. And so he put his plan in place. Do you see?

But now look, we get excited, but we can't just stop there, because the last place we find it is how we walk in those blessings, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12. For we do not wrestle. Guess what? We wrestle, but we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but we do wrestle against what? Rulers, and against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Does that make sense? God is advancing his kingdom through us, and he's advancing it not just by us trying to convince people to give their life to Christ. We do everything we can to proclaim the gospel. We want to persuade men. That's what God's called us to, but we have to start there in order to reach here. We have to bring that authority in Christ here, and know we're in it here to reach here. Years ago, I was in Nicaragua, and I had a missionary that was there, and he was doing a great job. We had to talking about some things, and he started telling me about some dark things going on in one of the villages that he was trying to reach with the gospel, and was having trouble. He said, have you really asked the Holy Spirit, what are the spiritual authorities over that area? You go, huh? So I took him first. I took him to Luke chapter four, what Jesus said. What does he say there? He says, he told him all the kings of the world are moaning in their mind, so he has spiritual authorities. I took him to Jeremiah, and I took him to Genesis 11, Deuteronomy 32, took him to some of those places, and he was, oh golly, that's right.

So I said, now, ask the Holy Spirit, because he knows, and he'll show you who you're fighting against, and stand against them. Wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and authorities. And he did, and God broke down walls. Does that make sense? And the gospel was able to advance. So whenever we see that, we need to understand that's what God's doing. But now let me give you the next one, and this is real quick, and I know I've got to hurry up, but next we are equipped, is the next thing I wanted to say. And of course you know these, I wasn't even going to write down the scriptures, but you know this. That the equipment we have is, first of all, the fruit of the Spirit. Man, if you are not willing to die daily to self, not willing to, you're not going to allow, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, he's wrapped within, there's a battle going on for him to break through the sinful nature, the flesh is what the Bible calls it. But it's really talking about the soul, that inner propensity in me to be my own God. And so the only way that the Holy Spirit can be released through me is the death to self. You know, Jesus talked about it, he said it this way, first of all, he said, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground, it was what? Dies it remains a single seed, but if it dies, what happens? It produces a multitude. He talked about the fact about the vase, and he says, you and I, he says, we have this treasure but we have it in clay pots. How does the clay pot that holds the treasure, how does the treasure come out? You've got to break the clay pot. Bible talks about that brokenness, it's what happens. But when that happens, man, the Spirit of God. And so we can call it, another word we use, we call it surrender. And then we have, you know, of course the fruit of the Spirit, and that's what I was talking about there, the love, joy, peace, those things.

That's the character of Christ. And then we have the gifts of the Spirit, which we are, I promise you I'm going to talk about these, but I feel like talking about them without you understanding the bigger picture and saying, I want it because of the war that's going on. I don't just want it, I need it. It's an essential part of what it means to walk with God in this present age. We would miss it. We would wind up not going there. And so I'm not going to read all of these, I don't think. Should I read all of them? Go ahead. Okay. It says, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom. He's talking about when the church is collected together, he's going to bring an utterance of wisdom, a word of wisdom, isn't just what it means. And to another, a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. And to another, faith by the same. Spirit and to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish or the distinguishing of spirits is what it means, to another various kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. So when we gather together, he wants to function that way among us as well as when we go out into the world, he wants to release those into the world because there are Gentiles out there that are bound in the bondage of the enemy that God has sent us to just like he did the church in Acts 2, that he wants to go and that brings me to the next thing I just said, we are sent. We are sent.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. That's who we are guys and when we step into that, I promise you that we will want the gifts of the spirit. Now, I do want to say this and I am going to close with this, okay? When I talk about this, one of the dangers is, is to fall into a false teaching of triumphalism and triumphalism basically says, man, if you're really walking with God, you're advancing his kingdom, no harm is coming your way. And I would just say this, the apostle Paul didn't believe that. In fact, none of the apostles believed that. In fact, they believed just the opposite. Listen to what Paul said, strange statement, but I promise you it makes sense whenever you see it in light of the kingdom. Colossians chapter one, verse 24 says, Paul says this, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. He says, for in my flesh, and this is what he says, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church. When we read that, we go, he surely doesn't mean it that way. He most definitely does. He's not saying that Christ lacked anything. He's saying that you and I, do you know why we are called Christians? Do you know where that originally started? It started because the church was called, we were called sort of the Galileans, we were called followers of the way, but then we were also called little Christs because the Christians saw themselves as Christ living through them, which meant what Christ lived on earth, the suffering servant. We now live as he lives through us. Now one day, this is why we will cry out, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus. But that's the call on us. And so as we look at that and see that, we begin to find what Paul's saying, what Peter's

saying, what John's saying, what Jesus was teaching. In first Peter chapter two, I've said this so many times, for what credit is it if when you sin, you're beaten for it, you endure. But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. Guys, we're going to have to, I know this, if I ask you to tell your stories and be dead honest, most of us are struggling in some things that we don't want anybody here to know. But we've got some areas we're dying in. We have some disappointments deep in our heart, and many times, sadly, because the church doesn't know what to do with it, we're embarrassed because we think, well, that's because I'm not walking with God. Stronger than it could be, you're really walking with God. I'll tell you a story about how the church overtook Rome, there's a lot of reasons. Rome twice had plagues break out, and those plagues that broke out were literally killing thousands and thousands of people. Each time, whenever these pandemics happened, and these thousands of people were literally dying, sick and were dying, the families literally, and one who was a contemporary chronicler of that day, Roman chronicler of that day, said that there were families tossing infected but still living members of their own families into the streets in an effort to avoid contracting disease. What do you do when you don't want to die? don't have hospitals. You know hospitals actually came, first it came from Jews, Jewish people, but they came through Christians. How did this happen? How did we start doing these things? They literally had piles of unburied dead everywhere because the general populace were too afraid to perform any final services. These Roman pagans loved their families just like you and I do, but they were so fearful of the plague they didn't know what to do and they just threw them out in the

streets and they were dying. But the Christians responded differently. The leaders in their churches urged the church to care tenderly for those as well as their own sick. They said care for the pagan, their neighbors and families as well. Why would they do that? Because many of them became infected and many of them died. This is the way a bishop of the church of Alexandria in those days wrote about it. His name was Dionysius. He wrote this. He said, most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ and with them departed this life serenely happy. For they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Why? Because they're from another world. You and I have a home that's not in this world. As they did this, it so overwhelmed the Romans that when the plagues ended, the Romans left their pagan temples and wanted to find out about this Jesus. They started asking questions and they came in thousands upon thousands of Romans were coming to Christ. Later, the emperor whose name was Julian decided that he wanted to try to bring the Roman pagan religion back and he was trying everything good. Redid all the temples, man. He wanted to beautied them up because people weren't going to them. They were all becoming Christians. He was like, I got to do something. We got to bring them back, but they weren't coming back. And then he wrote in one of his letters to

one of the high priests of one of those temples that was located in the area of Galatia at the time. This is what the emperor wrote. He said, I think that when the poor when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans, that's what he calls. You know, the church was called impious. We were called atheists because we didn't believe that their gods were gods. We believe there's only one God. That the impious Galileans observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence. The impious Galileans supported not only support not only their poor but ours as well. Everyone can see that our people lack aid from us. I'm telling you this, until you see yourself as part of a kingdom, a plan that God began before the foundation of the world, that even Satan and all that he's tried can never thwart or fail. Until you see that, you're going to see the gifts of the spirit. You're going to see the spirit world as just kind of thoughts that would be interesting, you know, ideas to kind of contemplate. But when you read the Bible and you see what the Bible really says, in desperation, as the Bible says that I read last couple of weeks ago in first Corinthians 14.1, pursue love and earnestly desire the gifts. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you, Father, that you have a big plan. And the fact that you would even allow us to be part of it is overwhelming. It's grace. And Lord, I thank you that even bringing us into it, you're not bringing us in because we bring some kind of special insight or intellect or talents that you need. You bring us in. to be part of what you're doing, that as your sons and daughters, you are destroying

the works of the enemy. Lord, I pray that we, in our generation, in this church, God, that we would open our eyes to what the Spirit is really doing and what your Word says, and God, that you would release through us the gifts. Not so that we can somehow pat ourselves on the back, but so that your kingdom will advance, so that the rulers and authorities and powers of this present darkness will be defeated, so that the lost will be snatched from the fire and saved, so that the broken will be healed, the depressed will be encouraged and uplifted, and God, that you will be glorified. Why don't you just right there, just as we're going to close right now, just tell the Lord, just say, Amen. We don't want to just go through a study and expand our intellect, expand our knowledge, expand our understanding. We do want that, but we want more than that. I pray that you'll use our time that we have remaining in this semester, God, as a laboratory, so that you might build up the body of Christ again for your glory. So we pray this, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen.