Prayer & Praise Time
Part 7
Title: When you call Jesus 'Lord,' is it by the Holy Ghost or just out of your natural mind?


Lord, we're praising you, praising you, praising you.  Out of our innermost beings we're singing praises unto you.  Lord, I thank you for this opportunity to share your praises and your word with these who are viewing.  And I just ask you to agree with me right now as we pray for those who do not have a praise - those that don't seem to be able to enter into worship.  Devil, I rebuke you.  I command you to take all your lies, all you bags and all your baggage and leave in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  Holy Spirit, raise up that standard within those that belong to you.  Speak into their spirit.  Teach them that wonderful language in the spirit of praise.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen and Amen.
Praise the Lord.  Well, I trust that you can remember what we talked about on the last program.  We talked about spiritual communication.  We found out from the scripture that your spirit and the Holy Spirit could talk to one another in the unknown tongue.  And we found out that we should do that in order for God to give us information that he wants us to have and for our spirit to let the Holy Spirit know things that we have need of.  I've got to tell you your most important need is spiritual.  You think that it's physical.  You think that it's emotional, but if you get the spiritual part taken care of, the rest of it will be taken care of.  Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33?  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."  Well, you see God's kingdom has got to be spiritual kingdom because God is Spirit.  We've got to get our focus away from the natural.  Everybody wants to get into heaven to get into a natural mansion.  They think that they are going to get up there and live in a big ol' house and eat pork chops and turnip greens.  Well, I've got to tell you something.  Until you learn to eat spiritual food and truths here, I don't know if you'll make it or not.  Jesus said, "My words are spirit and they are life.  And he said, "Search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life for they are they that testify of me."  You must have a spiritual relationship.
Let me read you some scripture out of chapter 12 of 1st Corinthians.  We're going to continue talking about the Holy Spirit and your spirit.  Now we found out that there is a spirit in man, and let me tell you God is not going to do anything contrary to that spirit.  If your spirit is in rebellion against the things of God, then you are not going to grow.  Now let me clarify that.  I said on an earlier program that I believe that nothing - no other kind of spirit can get in your spirit but the Holy Spirit.  But you can by the act of your will refuse to obey your spirit.  Because you're walking not in the spirit but in the natural and in the soulish realm, and you do what feels good.  If it doesn't feel good then you don't want to do it.  The Holy Spirit may be telling your spirit, or your spirit may be prompting you to do something that's not pleasant to your flesh or to your soul.
So what are we going to do about that?  Well, we are going to have to learn to be spiritual minded, and in being spiritual minded we are going to find some things will happen.  Now I'm coming in the back door, so to speak, with what I'm teaching you.  I'm teaching you what you have to have, then how to get it.  We're going to talk about how to be spiritual minded.  I want to give you some things on this program that you will know the scripture says are supposed to be in you because the Holy Ghost is in you, but they are not going to work until you become spiritual minded.
Now every one of you who have received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit have received everything that the Holy Spirit has.  But, you know and I know that we are not functioning that way.  Ninety percent of the time you are walking after your own will.  Maybe ten percent - I doubt that most of us could say that we are truly led by the Spirit ten percent of the time.  But, we've come to say, "Well, that's OK Jesus loves me anyway."  Sure he loves you anyway and you know something?  He loves every person that's in hell.  He loves every person that's disobedient.  He doesn't love what's causing them to do that.
All right, chapter 12 of 1st Corinthians.  Paul the writer, verse 1, "Now concerning spiritual," and there's that italics word 'gifts' so it wasn't in the original they say so let's read it this way.  "Now concerning spiritual, brethren, I would not have you ignorant."  Now this is a church that Paul had already said to in an earlier chapter, "So that you come behind in no gift" (1 Cor. 1:7).  So they knew about the gifts.  But you know what they didn't know?  They didn't know how to function.
If I was to send you a package, and I had twelve gifts in that package, then they would be yours.  But suppose I sent you something you'd never seen before, something you didn't know what it was, it's still yours but you don't know how to use it.  Maybe it's some kind of electronic gear you don't even know how to turn it on to get it to work.  Well, when the Holy Spirit comes in, he brings his attributes with him.  He brings with himself all the attributes, and we are going to look at the attributes of the Holy Ghost.  They're in you.  But until your spirit learns to communicate and to be obedient and your mind is in such a condition that you will say, "I believe that - I agree with that."  You see most of the things we don't understand, we don't believe.  So he says, "I don't want you to be ignorant concerning spiritual things or spiritual gifts."
"Ye know," verse 2 (1 Cor. 12:2), "that ye were Gentiles," (you were sinners) "carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led."  You may say, "Well nobody in America has served idols."  Well, don't they?  We've made idols out of a lot of things, but we won't dwell on that.
Verse 3, "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed."  Here's what I said earlier.  "And that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."  That puts us in a precarious position.  You know there's a scripture that says, "Let your conversation be yea and nay and anything that cometh more of that is sin"(Matthew 5:37).  We need to realize that yes to the Lord and no to the devil is about all we need to be talking about.  But, you know we'll say, "Ohhhh Lord Jesus …"  Do you know what that is?  That's vain.  That's a vain repetition.  Well, he is Lord.  Yes, he is Lord that's true.  He's Lord whether you call him Lord or not because you've heard that phrase, "Make Jesus Lord."  Well, he's Lord whether you ever even believed he was Lord or not.  But he's not going to be your Lord and function as your Lord until you allow the Holy Ghost to direct your spirit so that you will have spiritual information.
Now, and that's what the next word in this verse is, verse 4, (1 Cor. 12:4) "Now there are diversities of gifts."  This word 'gifts' is not in italics so now we know that we are talking about gifts.  "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."  Now this word, "Spirit" has a capital 's' so it's talking about the Holy Spirit.  "Now there are diversities of gifts" verse 4 again, "but the same Spirit."  Diversities - that means that there are different kinds.  Verse 5, "There are differences of administrations but the same Lord."  Verse 6 "And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."  Verse 7, "But the manifestation," now what is a manifestation?  Something that you can see; not something that you can feel.  Listen to me.  We are too prone to go by feelings.  "Woooo - I feel the Spirit."  That's fine to feel the Spirit.  But does he not dwell in you when you don't feel him?  Huh?  Most people think he's gone somewhere and we'll sing, "Come Holy Spirit I need thee; come sweet Spirit I pray."  You know that's kind of an insult when he's already here - he's already in you.  Oh, I sing that chorus too.  You see I know he's in me.  I'm not talking about him coming from heaven down.  I'm talking about him coming out of my spirit into my consciousness for a manifestation.
There's a song I heard somebody sing at a camp meeting.  "Walk Around Me Jesus."  You may have sung it you may like it.  But I tell you I don't want him walking around me; I want him walking in me.  If he's walking around you do you know what that means?  That means you aren't saved because if Christ is not in you, you are reprobate - that's what the word says.
Now verse 7, "But the manifestation of the Spirit" (listen now) not the manifestation of the gifts but the manifestation of the Spirit.  Remember that these gifts belong to the Holy Spirit and whenever one is operating, it is a manifestation of the Spirit.  And why are they manifested?  "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man. . ." to make him a big shot?  Oh, no, no, no.  "To profit withal."  You see, if you allow the Holy Spirit to manifest in you it will profit me.  Why?  Because it may be toward me, it may be for me.  You know, gifts are given to us for us, but now the Holy Spirit turns around and manifests himself outwardly with gifts and they are imparted to someone else.
Verse 8.  Now, before we read this I'm going to read these over to you - there are nine of them - and then I'm going to group them together and then talk about them just a little bit.  Verse 8 "For to one is given by the Spirit" (capital 's' - the Holy Spirit) "the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit." Verses 9, "To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues (or kinds of tongues); to another the interpretation of tongues:" Verse 11, "But all these worketh (or are worked by) that one and the selfsame Spirit (capital 's' Spirit the Holy Spirit), dividing to every man severally as he will" [emphasis and parentheses added].
Now I know in the latter part of this chapter it says to covet earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31).  Well, let me tell you what the best gift is (or gifts).  It's the one that's appropriate for whatever the need is.  Early Pentecostals were taught that the best gift was "oh that's the one that makes me look the best."  And they chose gifts people chose gifts and said, "Well, God this is the gift I want."  And they tried to get God to manifest that gift in them, and some of them to the point that they manifested it themselves.  Do you realize that the gift will not work at your will?  It works at the will of the Holy Ghost, and the only way that you will know when the gift is to operate is because the Holy Ghost will tell your spirit, "Hey I'm fixing to do this.  I'm fixing to do this."
Now I want to group these gifts because I want you to get these into your mind.  I group them in groups of threes.  I group them into what I call the revelation gifts and then I group them in the spoken gifts and then the power gifts . . .or the power gifts and then the spoken gifts.  It really doesn't matter the order.
But the first three gifts that I group are the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and discerning of spirits.  These are gifts that can operate without you saying anything while they are operating.  And whenever you get the information (the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, or discerning of spirits) then you speak the word and then there is a manifestation of the Holy Ghost.  These are revelation gifts - these are things that you know something about before you move.  A word of knowledge tells you something that you do not know naturally.  If you know it naturally then God can bring it to your remembrance, but it is not the gift of the word of knowledge.  A word of wisdom tells you what to do with the word of knowledge.
Too many people that the Holy Spirit is endeavoring to work with that don't have the proper teaching that you're getting right now.  I tell you, you need to get this transcript because you need to thank God that somebody cares enough about you to tell you how these things are supposed to operate so you don't go out there like a child with a gun and injure yourself or somebody else.  And I've got to tell you.  There's people whose lives are in shipwreck because somebody didn't know how a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, operated who went out and told somebody something that they thought God revealed to them.  Or God may have even revealed it as a word of knowledge, but he didn't tell them to tell it with a word of wisdom but they told it anyway.
I'm going to give you an example - a scriptural example those are the only ones that are worth anything anyway.  The apostle Paul when he was Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  You know the story if you know anything about the Bible.  Jesus knocked him off his donkey, blinded him, and he had to be led into town.  The Holy Spirit spoke to a man named Ananias and said, "There's a certain man over across town named Saul and he's praying and he's had a vision of a man coming to him and laying his hands on him that he might receive his sight."  Ananias said, "Yeah, I've heard about him he's coming here to kill us."  And Ananias went to praying, and the Spirit of the Lord said to him, "Go on over there he is a chosen vessel unto me."  Now listen to what the Spirit of the Lord told Ananias.  He said, "He's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before kings and before Gentiles and to suffer great things for my sake."  Now we're not going to turn to it but you can check me out - the ninth chapter of the book of Acts.  Ananias comes and said, "Brother Saul, you had a vision of a man coming and laying his hands on you." (See he wasn't' telling Saul anything that he didn't know; he was telling him something he knew.) "That you might receive your sight."  And he told him nothing - we have no record in chapter 9 that he told him anything about him being a witness before Gentiles, before kings and suffering because the Holy Ghost didn't give him that liberty to do it.  But you see we so bad want a manifestation of the Holy Ghost that if we get a word of knowledge we want to blab it.  Now some folks . . . Paul was not ready to hear about witnessing before kings and Gentiles nor suffering.  It would have puffed him up.
And there's more people walking around now that look like a toad frog or a puffin adder because somebody laid their hands on them and said, "Thus saith the Lord.  I've called you to this and this and this."  If all those kinds of words of knowledge and prophecies were true, we'd have more deliverance preachers then we would people that need deliverance.  Be careful what you say.  You see a word of knowledge is just that - it's not a whole sentence it's a word.  It's information.  Word of wisdom is what to do with that information.
And discerning of spirits is not to discern the Holy Ghost.  How many of you have ever said or heard it said, "My spirit don't witness with that brother's spirit."  Well, it ain't supposed to.  Your spirit better not be talking to somebody else's spirit.  If it does then you've gotten away from the Spirit of God and in some demonic stuff.  You see the scripture that you're trying to quote is in Romans where it says, "The Spirit itself witnesses with our spirit that we are sons of God."  That's the information that we need to know.  All right.  Discerning of spirits is to discern unclean spirits, anything but the Holy Ghost.
The next three gifts we call the spoken gifts: tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy.  Remember the Holy Ghost operates these.  I said earlier on another program that anybody can speak in . . . if you've been filled with the Spirit and you've ever spoken in tongues then you can speak in tongues, but that don't mean that the Holy Spirit or your Spirit is involved - that means that your intellect is involved.  Well, is it wrong for me brother to say some praise in tongues?"  Well, no if you are going into worship and into praise that's fine but if the Holy Spirit doesn't charge or supercharge that in just a moment then you need to back up and say, "Thank you Jesus, Glory to God, Hallelujah because Amen."  And then worship a while in your own language and then go back.  You see, you're not really praying in the Holy Ghost until the Holy Ghost is praying.  Your spirit is not really praying until your spirit is praying.  Just because you're making sounds, doesn't mean you're praying in the Holy Ghost.
I've had people say to me, "I pray three hours every day in the Holy Ghost."  Well what are you telling me that you talk in tongues for three hours?  "Well, yeah."  I said, "Well, I've got to tell you honestly, if you were praying in the Spirit for three hours then you'd know a whole lot more about God than what you know because you see the Holy Spirit is not wasting time."  You see there's a transfer of information going on.  God's going to be doing something.  Listen.  God's not like us who just run our mouth to hear the sound.  When God speaks he has something to say - something edifying.
Tongues and interpretation of tongues, now.  I've questioned, "Lord, why do you need tongues and interpretation of tongues when you've got prophecy the other spoken gift?"  Well, that's another question that will go unanswered because that's God's business.  If God moves on you to bring a message in tongues in the congregation, the Bible tells us how to handle that.  And I'm not even going to get on that because that will be another program.  But you bring that message in tongues.  But I will tell you this: the scripture says that if you pray in tongues, pray also that you - - if you speak in an unknown tongue pray also that you may interpret. ****  Now if the tongue is not to be interpreted then there will be no interpretation.  And the Bible goes on to say to just keep quiet and speak to yourself and to God.  And we'll get back on that when we start talking about church order.  We're talking about the gifts now - there is a gift of tongues.
Now that gift of tongues is not what some folks think.  It's not your prayer language - the unknown tongue is your prayer language.  The gift of tongues actually according to chapter 14, I believe about verse 26 (I may be wrong on that quotation) it says that tongues are for a sign not to the believer but to the unbeliever (1 Cor. 14:22).  You see if you really had the faith, you could speak any known language that needs to be spoken.  But, you see you don't need to speak in another tongue around English speaking folks, unless you're going to tell them what God said by the gift of interpretation.
Then there's prophecy.  Prophecy is actually is a combination it does what tongues and interpretation of tongues does except the gift of prophecy will foretell or forth tell things to come.  A lot of people are going around the country advertising themselves as prophets because they can tell you something that you want to hear or tell you something that you already know - that does not make them a prophet.  When we're dealing with church order I'll tell you what a real prophets are supposed to do and what real prophecy is.
All right well there is three other gifts - the power gifts.  They are the gift of miracles, the gifts of healing, and faith.  These are the power gifts.  You say, "Faith is a power gift?"  Oh yes, when the gift of faith is in operation things happen - you're not trying to do anything, it's going to happen.
The gift of miracles now.  Miracles are accomplished by creating something that was not or restoring something that was and has been destroyed.  Miracles and healings are not the same thing because God would not have two gifts that do the same thing.  There are certain miracles that we call miracles of healing - that's what we are saying that there was an instant healing but there probably wasn't a miracle unless something was restored or something inanimate moved.  Remember in the Old Testament when the axe head swam? (2 Kings 6:6).  A miracle in the New Testament was feeding all those people with a 2-piece fish dinner.  That was a miracle - that was a multiplication of something that was.
Gifts of healing operate through the church.  We found out earlier that miracles and healing are a part of the church order.  If you need a miracle then you need to be at church.  You need to come to church and these gifts operate through different individuals.  Now healing can be gradual, or it can be instant.  It's just as much a divine healing if it's gradual or instant.  If indeed it is a healing.  Now you understand that your body has healing properties.  If you cut your finger it will heal.  It will naturally heal and it will take it a certain period of time.  But if you cut your finger and the prayer of faith is prayed that thing should close up right then and there should be no evidence that you've been cut.  That's a supernatural gift of healing.  So these gifts are given to us to profit withal.  What does it say?  To profit withal.  If somebody is sick, the gift of healing is to heal that sickness.
Faith.  Now all of these gifts operate with faith.  Now I'll tell you this.  You'll never see one of these gifts operating alone.  They just don't do it.  There's always more than one gift that operates.  And faith will always be a part.  When any gift operates through a human being the gift of faith has to be there for the supernatural to operate.
Now those are the nine spiritual gifts that are given to us - given to every man, the Bible says, to profit withal.  These are things that the Holy Ghost wants to teach you how to allow him to manifest through you so that you don't obstruct the power you don't take the glory and you don't get involved other than being the vessel.  Now you can name ministers throughout the country who are known for healing who are known for prophecy et cetera et cetera.  And I've got to tell you that is not the perfect will of God that is somewhere between good and acceptable will of God that is not the perfect will of God.  The perfect will of God is that everybody functions in these things, not just one or two people.  And I'll show you that on another program in fact we'll probably cover that on another program as to the function of these gifts of the Spirit.
Now let me say something to you.  When two or more of you are together anywhere then that is the church.  Peter and John went by the beautiful gate (Acts 3).  They were going to the temple to pray - they were not going to have church.  They WERE church.  Hallelujah!  And as they passed this man who they had passed many, many times and he was begging alms.  If you want to put it in present day, then of course some of you have never seen a real beggar.  A licensed beggar.  You've seen these folks with the little signs on the road, "Will work for food."  But this man was a licensed beggar - had a beggar's garment.  He was sitting there licensed to beg.  He was sitting there probably every day of his life since he was a child or maybe after he was an adult.  That day the Holy Spirit said to Peter and John, "Wait a minute.  Tell this man to look at you."  So what did they do?  The Bible says, "THEY said, 'Look on US.'"  I would have loved to have seen that - two preachers in stereo.  Hallelujah!  Can you imagine that?  Two people having the same word at the same time, "Look on us."
Well, somebody has got to prefer their brother now.  John backs up.  Peter says, "Silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I unto thee.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."  He reaches and takes the man by the hand and lifts him up.  The man jumps up, does something he's never done before - he walks.  It's a miracle.  Amen.  His anklebones received strength and he jumps up runs into the temple leaping and praising God.
Now some Spiritual gifts operated.  Peter and John had to get a word of knowledge.  If not they would have walked right by that man just like they did before.  They had to get a word of wisdom so they'd know what to do with the knowledge.  Then they had a prophetic utterance.  When they spoke Silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee."  They were speaking prophetically.  And then faith operated, and they reached and got the man by the hand and that faith was transferred.  (Now they hadn't touched him up until this point.)  And that faith was transferred into him and the man leaped up, got the goods, and all the time he was expecting to receive an offering, an alms.
But you see, all God requires you is for you to be expecting.  If you'll expect God to do something for you now he will do it.  See right where you are you can receive what it is that you need by believing the word of God, confessing the word in Spirit and in truth.  All right that's the nine spiritual gifts and how they function.  The next program we are going to go into a service in the book of Corinthians - we are going to go into a New Testament service and find out how to have church.
I wish that you would call your pastor and have him to watch the next program and so that we can learn how to have church.  Well, I gotta get gone.  This is Brother Jackie Harrell saying if you'll bless God he will bless you.

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