The Housetop

The first of the seven pillars of wisdom is the paradoxical teaching of Jesus: If you love your life, you're going to lose it.

A seed must fall to the ground and die in order to bear fruit. We too must first descend to a lower place through humility and die to self. It's a co-crucifixion with Christ.

We must examine ourselves. We can't depend on our church life, religious status, niceness, or goodness. They are all paths to hell unless we take up the cross and follow Christ.

We must follow Jesus to death if we will follow Him in resurrection.

There's a wisdom from God and a wisdom from this world. Both are putting out a call, inviting you to sit at their table and learn.

We must distinguish between God's wisdom and the world's wisdom.  God's wisdom is foolishness to the world, whereas the world's wisdom is foolishness to God.

The wisdom of God is the cross of Jesus Christ. God cut covenant with us at the cross of Christ; and we enter that covenant by faith.  

The wisdom of the world is putting out a seductive invitation that allures to the flesh. There are many who call themselves Christian but are functioning on the wisdom of the world. If we allow our minds to be persuaded by the world's wisdom, we fall into spiritual adultery. 

While God's wisdom has an eternal existence, this world's wisdom will perish, and all those who are governed and driven by it have a death sentence reigning inside of them. 

God wants us to flow in the gifts of the Spirit; and we are to covet earnestly the best gifts.  We should have a burning desire for this.  But in that zeal, if we lose our love for Jesus, what did we accomplish?  

The gifts of the Spirit are about us working with God.  If we get so enamored with how God is using us, then we fall in love with our abilities and not the Giver of the gift.  It is easy to lose sight of the miracle worker and get enamored with the miracle itself. 

If agape love isn’t at the very heart of what we do, then it is nothing but flesh. It should alarm us that we can have an appearance of a person of power, boldly moving in the gifts of God, and yet still go to hell.  Holy love accompanied with a holy life must be in the middle of it all.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 there are nine gifts of the Spirit listed. They can be put into three groups of three: The Revelatory Gifts, The Power Gifts, and The Gifts of Utterance. In this session we discuss The Gifts of Utterance, comprised of Prophecy, Tongues, and The Interpretation of Tongues.

There is much disagreement surrounding the gifts of the Spirit in our generation. Scripture tells us to zealously burn with desire for the best gifts. We are to stir up the gifts that are in us and encourage others to do the same. But to make the giftings controversial by saying they are not for today is a great offence to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a river we won't stop. So, let’s not have Him bypass us. Let’s become New Testament worshipers who flow in the gifts of the Spirit.

The nine gifts of the Spirit can be divided into three separate groups: The Revelatory Gifts, The Power Gifts, and The Gifts of Utterance. The second group, The Power Gifts, is comprised of Faith, Healings, and Miracles.

People are hungry to see the genuine power of God.

We should see an increase in the power of God in our generation, but instead we are seeing it dimensioned. This is largely due to false doctrine and unbelief. We are plagued with unbelief in this hour. It is running rampant, even among those who claim they are believers.

The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power. Our faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

There's miraculous, wonder-working power in the true and living God.

We want to see a great reviving of the gifts of the Spirit in our generation.

The gifts are a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, given to each member within the interconnected Body for the profit of all. These nine gifts can be broken into three separate groups:  The Revelatory Gifts, The Power Gifts, and The Gifts of Utterance.  

In this teaching, The Revelatory Gifts are discussed, which are: The Word of Wisdom, The Word of Knowledge, and The Discerning of spirits.

We are to let all things be done for edification. Edification is the building of the house of God. There are two purposes to edification:  1.) It is meant to build up and strengthen each member of the Body.  2.) It is meant to add to the Body of Christ by bringing new people in.  Both call for the gifts of the Spirit to be

God gave gifts to men to equip the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the Body of Christ.  There are diversities of gifts but it is God who works all in all.  We absolutely need each other to manifest the fullness of Christ. 

Very few know what Body building in the Spirit is like.  It has nothing to do with the strength of your faith, keenness of your mind, or the sensitivity of your emotion.  It has everything to do with all the carnal nature being put under the heart of the new birth.  Everything in your being is subjected to the Spirit of God.  This is the real work of faith with power. 

It’s time to see the work of God and the work of faith in power. 

By one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body – the Body of Christ.  To function as the Bible teaches the Body of Christ to function, we need a shift in our thinking. We are to be joined to one another and immersed into relationship.  This requires a burial to self as we are interconnected and intertwined.  We are dependent on one another to fitly frame together until the whole Body manifests Christ. 

The giftings of the Sprit are all to accomplish one thing:  The work of God. The work of God is the making of disciples. We are to spread the message of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

We are baptized by one Spirit into the Body of Christ with the duty of making disciples for Christ, and the gifts of the Spirit equip us to do exactly that. We need the gifts of the Spirit in full operation while we tell others about Jesus Christ.

The gifts of the Spirit empower us to accomplish the work of God. 

We are faced with a flood of lies, even coming across the pulpit.  In order to not be deceived, we must guard against receiving from the wrong people. Making it a habitual practice to vigorously exercise our discernment will develop our senses and help us grow in our ability to differentiate between what is true and false. 

Without a relationship with the Word of God, we are set up for deception.  Building a belief system around the authority of the Word of God will develop our skills of perception. The Word of God must be what we filter all we see and hear through so that we can become a good reader of people, able to discern the genuineness of others.    

When we begin to apply the Word of God through our perceptions, we will be able to recognize when a voice is in contradiction to the Shepherd’s voice.  Immersing our mind in the Word of God will help guard against doctrines of devils and spirits of error.  It is not being critical, but rather wise to be a discerner of good and evil. 

Do you want to keep your deliverance?  Let the Creator make you creative in worship.

God wants us to come to the place in our recreation where He, as our Creator, teaches us to be creative. We can release creativity in all of the five spiritual disciplines: prayer, bible study, fellowship, worship, and witnessing.

God is looking for true worshipers who worship in spirit and truth.  Become a powerful worshiper as you break off the traditional shackles and molds and let the creativity of God govern.

Let’s be extravagant worshipers of God and get creative in worship, thinking on His excellency and giving Him praise and glory.