The Catalyst Community

As believers, we are instructed by the Bible not to be ignorant of the Charismatic. In this sermon, we are taught what we need to know about spiritual gifts and why every believer should desire to speak in tongues.

The Bible does not give an exhaustive list of the gifts of the Spirit, so spiritual gifts refer to abilities which are empowered by the Holy Spirit and are used in the ministry of the Church. These gifts are accessible to every believer, and the gift of tongues is real and, arguably, the most important gift to the believer.

The gift of tongues is an investment in the believer; it is the entrance into supernatural and spiritual abilities, and it is the only gift directed to God.

No matter how shattered your altar may have become, under the right circumstances, it can come back to life again. 

We are not supposed to treat our spiritual fire as if it cannot be quenched. We are to protect it because it can be quenched.  It is our responsibility to fan the flames of the fire in us and keep it burning.

As a priest of your altar, you should not only know how to make the fire but also know how to make sure the fire does not die.

Various things can kill the fire on our altars. Some of these, highlighted and explained with examples, are the flesh, weight and sin, strange fire, and lukewarmness.

Many times, people think the things of the Spirit happen randomly. But the things of the Spirit can operate by consistent discoverable and repeated laws.

There is a science to the things of the Spirit. You can have replicable results. In nature, fire needs the same elements every time to be created. The same goes for the spirit. Some things that must be present for you to keep your altar on fire. It does not have to be an accident.

Scriptures use fire to describe living devotional fervour. It is an emblem that God is present in your life; that you will be burning for God, consecrated, continually living in His presence.

Two pillars and architecture to help you sustain spiritual fire include cost and consistency.

Encounters are the starting point of devotion.

When you reach the point where nothing else matters but God, that is where devotion truly begins.

If you truly know God, that knowledge should be compelling enough to bring you to total surrender.

Some arguments discussed in this teaching include:

1. An inconsistent devotion is a vision problem, not a will problem.

2. A man’s spiritual history will reveal that no religion has ever risen above its idea of God.

We are also taught three attributes of God that should change how we pray:

1. God is self-sufficient.

2. God does not change.

3. God knows everything.

If the God you worship is on the same level as your job, house, spouse, ambition, or anything else you value, it will eventually show in your devotion.

At this point in the year, there are 242 days left till the end of the year 2026, and it is possible to make the most of these remaining days of the year to show up at the place of prayer every single day and fix up what is needed in our devotion. 

This teaching series presents to us that it is possible to know God more. We do not have to be comfortable in our current position of devotion and our knowledge of God. 

We can buy back every lost time in our spiritual walk with God, approaching it with diligence.

An altar is defined as a spiritual transaction point, where the mercy of God meets sacrifice. It is not just a physical place. It is where the separation between man and God is addressed, where God responds to consecration. 

The following are highlighted and explained as the characteristics of an altar: sacrifice, consistency, intentionality, separation, focus, alignment with God’s will, and expectations.

At salvation, you did not give God a life that was worthy or useful on its own. The life you had was already tending toward death and wrath; there was nothing God could do with that life.

Instead, you received the very life of Christ.

At salvation, we became partakers of the divine nature of Jesus Christ. This reality should completely transform how you see yourself, how you handle suffering, how you approach prayer, how you relate to sin, and how you view your source of power.

Signs of perilous times have been prophesied in the Bible. This is not something that should surprise us because we know that it would come to pass.

False prophets will arise, and false doctrines will be preached in churches. But it is our responsibility to be discerning and identify these false teachings.

We can identify a good church by asking ourselves these questions:

1. What is their doctrine about salvation?

2. What is their doctrine about the knowledge of Christ? 

3. Who leads the church? Are the leaders called, qualified, and present?

4. Are there real accountability structures there and discipleship? 

5. What is their theology on money? 

6. What is their theology on miracles? 

7. Have you seen a track record of impact? 

When choosing, ensure that the church is willing to teach you and that you can learn actively from them. Also, be sure that there is divine direction.

A lot of people think the way to be able to identify heresy and wrong teachings is figuring out who is wrong, and finding all the wrong teachings. But new methods of presenting heresies are being brought up every day. So it is actually knowing the right thing enough that helps you know what is wrong. 

On two ends of the pole on the nature of Jesus, we have His divinity, and we have His humanity. There are heresies that attack His divinity, such as Arianism and Unitarianism. There are also heresies that attack His humanity, such as Docetism. And there are heresies that attack both His humanity and divinity.

But the true nature of Jesus is what we call the hypostatic union. The hypostatic union means that Jesus was fully God and fully Man without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation. 

The true nature of Jesus Christ is best understood by affirming what He is and rejecting what He is not.

Throughout history, several heresies such as Docetism, Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, and Eutychianism have distorted the truth about His identity, either denying His full humanity, His full divinity, or the proper union of both.

The truth is the Hypostatic Union. Jesus Christ is one person with two complete natures: fully God and fully man. These two natures exist without mixture or confusion, without change or alteration, without separation, and without division.

Understanding the nature of Jesus matters because salvation requires both natures- his humanity and divinity. His full Divinity gives His sacrifice infinite worth. Only He can be our mediator and high priest.

In this sermon, we learn about Jesus' reputation as the Christ.

We are taught that from the fall of Adam, there was rebellion against God, and this rebellion was a result of sin, causing God to stop being king in the hearts of many people.

However, we discover through Scriptures that God had a plan to save the world and restore all men to see him as king over their lives.