The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Spiritual gifts are not natural ability. It’s not talent. See natural ability or talents are inborn characteristics like genetic. You might say genetic. You got it from your parents. And then you nurture those talents and those skills. See, for example, if your parents are musicians, you as a child in that family may be musically inclined. So you take some music classes and you learn music or an instrument or singing a little faster and better than someone who doesn’t have that in their family. But spiritual gifts are not developed talents. We can use talents for God’s kingdom. That’s true. God God is the one that gives us talents. But a talent is not a spiritual gift. See, every human being, whether you’re believer or not a believer, you have a talent. But only believers have spiritual gifts. But the Holy Spirit can work through your talent. We read about that with a few weeks ago about Bessel. I told you about he was a craftsman. He worked with wood. He worked with metal. He worked with gold. He was shaping new things. And when the Holy Spirit came on him, his craft became a new level of excellence. So God can work through your talent. But when we talk about spiritual gifts, we’re not talking about talent. And remember one thing what I’ve told you from the beginning. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is one thing to point always to who? Jesus. The spotlight is always on Jesus. So spiritual gifts are given to us by the Holy Spirit, distributed by the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus, to testify of Jesus. The next to understand here is every believer has at least one spiritual gift. Every believer. Listen to how what Paul says. 1 Corinthians 12. We’re in this chapter 12. So everyone keep that open in front of you. 1 Corinthians 12:7. To each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. Then see what he says in verse 27. You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of it. Each one of you, every single person here has a spiritual gift. Whether you have been empowered by it or you haven’t, you have a spiritual gift because you are part of the body of Christ. See why why is this important? Because in the body of Christ, in the church, there are no seat fillers. That’s very important for you to understand. There are some people that come to church and they just want to attend and go. But the body of Christ does not work that way. Everyone sitting here has a role as a function in the body of Christ. We cannot come to church and expect the pastor, this is his work to do, let him do it. and we all just sit and watch and go because he makes that clear in verse seven. All these gifts, these spiritual gifts are for the common good. They are to benefit everyone. So when you are powered with in with spiritual gifts, it’s not for yourself. And we’re going to talk about that when we talk about tongues next week. Spiritual gifts are not for yourself. It is for the benefit of others. And that is a very important concept to understand. Paul repeats that again and again. The purpose of spiritual gifts. It’s not for you. It’s not to edify yourself. It’s to edify the body of Christ. And if you don’t know what the word edify means, it means to build up. We’re going to talk about that more in a minute. So, we are all dependent on this. We are all dependent on each other. This is why a local church, a local fellowship is so important. Kids, where you know, if you leave Arizona and you go off to some new state, find a good local church. Find a good local fellowship of a uni a church that is unified in the spirit. See, the other thing Paul says here, we don’t all have the same spiritual But we are unified by the same spirit. And Paul explains this in verse 12. Chapter 12 verse 12. Just as one body although one has many parts. Many parts for form one body. So it is with Christ. So he’s using the comparison of a human body here. In a human body there are so many parts. Each part functions differently. See, you have hands to touch, you have feet to run, you have eyes to see, you have a nose to smell, the liver has a function, the stomach has a function. Each organ has a specific function. Could you imagine? And this what this is what Paul says here. Paul said, can you imagine if the body only had one part? There was one organ, just one giant brain. There was no other organ. or one giant nose, no other organ. How would the body function? It can’t. The body has different parts and each part does a different function. Similarly, Paul said there is diversity in the body of Christ. There is differences. We’re all held by the same spirit, but there are different functions in the body of Christ. So let me take it let’s look at it from a spiritual angle. Take it from the body illustration to the the illustration of the spirit, the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. Could you imagine if everyone in the church had the same spiritual gift? This church is not going to function properly. If everyone had the gift of prophecy, then who would be there to heal? If everyone had the gift of healing, who can give a word of wisdom? If everyone spoke in tongues, who is there to teach? Paul said in a church there like a body has different parts that are unique and they function differently. In the church, there are different gifts. There are different spiritual gifts that function and they have to function for the body of Christ to function properly. Paul takes it a step. See if when you look at Paul with the Corinthians, he takes it another step. 1 Corinthians 12:es 29 and 30. Are all of you apostles? Are all of you prophets? Are all of you teachers? Do you all work miracles? Do you have gifts of healing? Do you all speak in tongues? Do you all interpret tongues? The answer is no. It’s a Paul’s rhetorical question. Not everyone has the same gift. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is different in each individual in the body of Christ. But these different gifts are crucial to the functioning of the church. So why does God give us these gifts? Why is there spiritual gifts in the church? The question the answer to that question is the same answer that God has given to many questions that are asked and the answer is love. See Jesus was asked by the the scribes teacher what is the greatest commandment and he said love God love people. See spiritual gifts are not about you. Spiritual gifts are not about you blessing yourself. It’s about loving God and loving people. God has given the church spiritual gifts to uniquely love God and to uniquely love people. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 coming all the way to the end of chapter 12 31 he said he says all these things about tongues and prophecy and spiritual gifts. Then he says he ends with this line. I am going to show you a more excellent way. A more excellent way. And then he starts chapter 13 on love. Remember what we said last week. This chapter 13 on love is not some random chapter about love, romantic love in the middle of spiritual gifts. Paul was explaining to them the importance of love in exercising spiritual gifts. The only way Paul is saying the only you can exercise gifts, spiritual gifts in an excellent fashion is with love. See, if you separate the fruit of the spirit from spiritual gifts, Paul Paul says what you sound like. You sound like a gong, a symbol, just noise. There’s symbols back here on the drum. Imagine one of our kids takes a stick and just hits that symbol nonstop. At some point, you’re going to be irritated. You’re going to be annoyed. Paul said, “If you exercise spiritual gifts without love, that’s what you sound like.” No spiritual gift can function in excellence without love as the foundation. So what does he say in verse 4? Chapter 13, 1 Corinthians 13:4. Love is patient. These are the characteristics, the foundation, the things that fall under love. Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not selfish. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It always perseveres. Every spiritual gift must be accompanied with the fruit of the spirit. And these components of the fruit of the spirit that is what we call genuine service. Genuine service. Because Paul said if you do these things, if you serve in the church with spiritual gifts, you teach, you have prophecy, you talk in tongues, but if you are not doing it with the genuine love that the which example was set by Christ, then it is zero. It’s nothing bankrupt. Spiritual gifts were given to the church not for our own benefit but as a service to the church and edification for the church. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 14 26. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. The purpose here is to build the church. We’re not just talking about here BCA. We’re talking about the body of Christ. And Peter also talks about it to serve faithfully. Whatever gifts we have received, 1 Peter chapter 4:10, whatever gifts we have received to serve faithfully in love. But it’s not just about serving because God has a actual deeper purpose in us serving the church. God has a purpose in giving you a spiritual gift. Like I said, spiritual gifts are not just for pastors. They’re just not for missionaries. They’re not just for certain people in the church. Spiritual gifts are for everyone in the church. But it has a specific purpose. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 12- 16. I’m going to read it to you. Very important verse. This is why spiritual gifts exist in the church. Verse two, sorry, verse 12. To equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. Paul is talking about the different offices in the church and the different functions in the church. And he said it’s there as works for service so that the body of Christ may be built up. Okay, we understand that. But then here’s the next step. Until we all reach unity in the faith and in in the knowledge of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So we are no longer infants. This is verse 14. We are no longer infants. We are not tossed back and forth. A new teaching comes and we run that way. A new prophecy comes, we run that way. Paul said spiritual gifts are so you can reach the fullness of Christ. You are all unified together. Every single person in this church from the youngest to the oldest has to reach that full unity. Paul is saying we cannot leave anyone behind. He uses the body comparison again. Verse 15 and 16. Speaking the truth in love. There’s that word love again. Operating truth in love. From him the whole body joined. Verses 16. Joined together and held together by every supporting ligament. Like he said in a body there’s so many parts, small parts, big parts. But those parts are what give a body a structure. See, if I take your hand, you have ligaments in each finger. All it takes is one bad cut, and you can’t move that finger. That finger just sits there. No matter how hard you try to move it, it won’t work. In a church, in the body of Christ, there are people that are like ligaments. They function to help the body of Christ function. And the ultimate goal of spiritual gifts, what Paul said here, is to reach the fullness of Christ. See, the fullness of Christ is when we as a church are fully saturated with Christ, fully related to Christ, fully embodying the presence of Christ in the world. See what what God wants, what Jesus wants for the church is that the church is completely full. And when everyone looks at this church, they say that is the fullness of Christ. That is the character of Christ in everything they say. Not just that, but in everything they do. It’s not just about talking about Jesus. It’s about actually being Jesus, acting like Jesus. We can all talk about Jesus, but it’s another thing to act like Jesus. This is what the communion of the Holy Spirit means. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to go through every spiritual gift. Usually, as I was preparing my notes, every spiritual gift would at least take three weeks to explain. And by the time we explained all the spiritual gifts, that’s one year already. So what I did is we’re going to look at one spiritual gift today in a very brief way. I’ve just concised what I what is important for you to understand. We’re going to talk about the gift of prophecy today in the remaining time that we have. And we’re talking about prophecy because it is one of the most mentioned spiritual gifts in the Bible, especially the New Testament. More than tongues, more than any other spiritual gift, prophecy is very specifically named. But it is also one of the more poorly understood spiritual gifts and it is one of the most mishandled spiritual gifts. You all are older to me and more mature than me. So, you have experiences with prophecy. You You have stories to tell. I know. But I’m not here to talk about stories of prophecy and bad prophets and that. I want you to understand the facts about prophecy. What Paul said, I don’t want you to be uninformed. We need to be as a church informed what prophecy is, what spiritual gifts are. So the purpose of prophecy, the gift of prophecy is the ability to declare the message of God with the purpose of edifying, encouraging, and consoling or comforting through spontaneous revelation by the Holy Spirit. Spontaneous revelation. And there are three components that what I just said that’s coming from 1 Corinthians chapter 14:3. Paul says these are the components of prophecy. He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to man. Like I told you, edification means to build up. Exhortation means to encourage, not just simply encourage. Not not saying, “Oh, you did a good job.” It’s more of a strong encouragement. An encouragement to push you to action. very strong encouragement. And then the last one he said is comfort. We know what comfort means. Consolation. This is why the gift of prophecy was given to the church for these three things to edify, to encourage or and to comfort. So understand prophecy is not given to tear you down. Prophecy is not given to discourage you. Prophecy is not given to put you in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and sound mind and self-control. See, the gift of prophecy is fundamental to the church. Paul talks very highly about prophecy, but he also gives a lot of caution about prophecy. We see the role of prophets in the New Testament church. Acts chapter 13 verse1 there in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. Antioch is where disciples were first called Christians. And in that Antioch church there was prophets and teachers. And listen to this. While they this is verse two of Acts 13. While they were worshiping the Lord in fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart Saul who later became Paul, Saul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them. So you see the function of prophecy is what set Barnabas and Paul set them apart for the ministry. See prophecy reveals the will and purpose of God for the church. And you see that pro, it’s the prophetic word that set Paul aside for the ministry, that particular gift of prophecy. Second Peter 1 21, prophecy never comes by the will of man. But prophets of God spoke as they are moved by the Holy Spirit. But let me tell you one thing, and this is what Paul said. The gift of prophecy does not carry the same authority of the Bible. Listen to me carefully. The gift of prophecy does not carry the same authority of the Bible. That’s very important that we understand that concept. The word of God is the foundation for every spiritual gift. The word of God brings clarity, purpose, and order to spiritual gifts. Every spiritual gift is held by the standard of the Bible. So there is no spiritual gift that comes above the word of God. See the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is the final authority of faith and in life. Second Timothy chapter 3, all scripture is God breathd and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God, the man of God can be thoroughly equipped. So we are equipped all of us by the word of God. That’s the power of the word of God. So every for every aspect of your walk, your Christian walk, the you fall back on the Bible. Nothing else. No spiritual gifts. You fall back on the word of God because the Bible itself is a book of prophecy. You don’t need a single prophecy in your life. You have a connection with the word of God. The word of God is the the prophecy in your life. That’s what Peter says in second Peter 1 vers20. The word of God was inspired and it is the revelation given to prophets. There’s no other prophecy. It’s the direct revelation of the Holy Spirit. No one personally gave their opinions in the Bible. There are no personal opinions here. Every verse was inspired by the Holy Spirit. So that being said, there is nothing further to add to the Bible. We have to understand that there’s nothing to add to the Bible. There’s nothing to subtract from the Bible. So when you listen to prophecy, one thing you have to be very careful with, there is no prophecy. There is no revelation that will add to the Bible or there’s no revelation that will subtract from the Bible. Here’s what John said in Revelation. John is speaking through the spirit when he got the revelation of end times. And he’s saying the prophecy of this book, the Bible, the word of God, if anyone adds to these, God will add to him the plagues written in this book. If anyone subtracts or takes away from the word of God, God will take away his part from the book of life. So you see the punishment is very severe. Every word in this book is a prophecy in our lives. If a dream, if a vision, if a prophecy does not match with the word of God, it is false. End of story. See, this thing, these things, it sounds so obvious. You’re like, of course, if it doesn’t, it’s not in the word of God, then why would I follow it? But you don’t know how many people are fooled constantly. They’re scammed. I was talking to an elderly woman yesterday and she was she was so sad and she said I said, “Hey, what’s wrong?” And she said, “I just got scammed out of $11,000.” I mean, people get scammed. You know what the most, you know, in the last 10 years, the last 20 years, there was a there was a prophet, there were several prophets that came out and said, “I know God revealed to me when the second coming is.” and they marked a date on the calendar. May I think it was May 20th, 2011 and it’s still on YouTube and how many people followed after it putting a date on the calendar. This is when God is coming. How many people sold everything that they had? They were convinced that Jesus was coming on this specific date. But for any of you that have read the Bible, any of you that have a relationship with the word of God, with Jesus, Matthew chapter 24 says about that day, about that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father. So if that’s what the Bible says, how can a prophet say, “I know the date.” He can’t. That’s what makes it what makes it false. But do you see how quickly someone who thinks that they’re prophetic can spread false teaching? False doctrine quickly comes this way. And that is very damaging to the church. So what is our approach as Christians? What is our approach to prophecy? The gift of prophecy. Number one, every child, every adult, every elder, we need to understand that every spiritual gift, but especially the gift of prophecy, including dreams, visions, revelations, is first subject to investigation and evaluation through the scripture by everyone. That’s what Paul was telling the Corinthian church. 1 Corinthians 14 29. If a prophet should speak or two, three prophets should speak, everyone else sitting there should weigh what they heard carefully. What does that mean? What do you mean weigh what we heard? We analyze what we hear. You need to know the word. How can you analyze something if you don’t know the word? If you don’t know the Bible, if you don’t have a relationship with Christ, how are you going to analyze a prophecy? See, understand that even though prophecy is inspired by the Holy Spirit, prompted by the Holy Spirit, it can be mixed with human imperfection and it can have human error. And so it’s very important that whoever hears prophecy is sifting through it. You guys know what sifting is, right? You sift your your food, you sift flour because you don’t know what rocks are in it, what contaminants are in it. You have to sift through prophecy. You cannot just sit, listen to it, and take the entire thing. That’s what Paul says that to the Thessalonian church. 1 Thessalonians 5:1 19, “Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecy. Test all things. Hold fast to what is good.” And then he says in the next verse, abstain from what is evil. Yes, prophecy is a must for the New Testament church, but you have to test it and you have to hold on to what is good. See, this is a beautiful balance here. You have to use discernment to know what is good and what isn’t. And that requires a relationship with the word. So there’s a story in Neahhemiah in the book of Nehemiah chapter 6. You know, you guys know the story of Nehemiah. He is in charge of building the temple. They’re all captives and he’s rebuilding the wall. Uh sorry, not the temple, the rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. And a prophet comes to him. And there are many enemies of Nemiah. But a prophet comes to Nemiah and says, “Hey, I received a word that there are people coming to kill you. So you need to go hide in the temple.” Prophet came and said that to Nemiah. Neahhemiah knows the law though. He knows he cannot go hide in the temple because that’s not appropriate per the word of God, per the law given to Moses. So he looks at this prophet and says, “You are a false prophet.” And he walks away from the situation. Do you understand the discernment there? A prophet is coming and telling him, “You’re going to die, but you can save your life.” And most of us would think how what an amazing prophecy. You’re trying to save my life. But Nemiah took it a step further to sift through what he said and said, “Oh no, this is for evil.” Because in the next verse in Nehemiah, that prophet was actually trying to destroy him. And because he had that discernment to sift through that prophecy is why he avoided that. See, many people come to church, but how familiar are you? How indepth are you? What is your relationship with the word of God? In Acts chapter 17, the church, the members of the church of Berea were more noble. They were more excellent because they had one quality. Everything that they heard, they examined. They examined it. Whether me or or anyone here, the pastors are speaking. You hear a dream, you hear a revelation, you hear a prophecy, examine it. Look into the word. Is this scriptural? The second thing, yes, we have to investigate. But the second important thing when it comes to prophecy, Paul in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians talks about order in the church. The church has an order. It has a way it is structured. And he is reminding the Corinthian church, submit to your leaders in the church as they’re following the order that needs to happen so it’s not chaotic because the Corinthian church there was chaos. There were gifts. People were standing. The pastor is speaking. Could you imagine pastor speaking? Someone gets up and says a word of prophecy. There’s no prophecy greater than the word of God. But this is what happening in the Corinthian church. It was complete chaos. This is where the role of the pastor is very important. Hebrews chapter 13 verse1 17. Hebrews 13:17. Paul uh the the the writer is telling the Hebrews here obey your leaders and submit to them. They keep watch over your soul and they will give an account. See, a pastor isn’t here just to lead meetings and give messages. There’s a lot more on his plate than just leading meetings. They watch over your souls. They have to give an account. You don’t have to give an account to all the people here, but pastors give an account to every single person in the church. And so they are responsible. Any doctrine in the church, any error in the church, they are responsible for correcting it. So, if you received a dream, what I’m trying to get to you at, if if you’ve received a dream, if you’ve received a vision, a prophetic revelation, share it with your pastor first before you go to someone and decide that you’re going to tell them about it. Let the pastor first properly evaluate evaluate it whether it is true and it runs the test of scripture and it is authentic from the Lord before you go share it in the church. See, back in the day, if someone got up in their testimony and said something wrong doctrinally or theologically, the pastor would grab the microphone and correct it right on the spot. That’s how it was. It is their responsibility to uphold biblical truth for this church and guide their congregation toward the fullness of Christ because they are the ones that are going to give account for that. See, Paul was seeing the chaos of the gift of prophecy in Corenth and now he’s telling them in chapter 14, this is how your worship services need to be. Everything has to be analyzed. Just because you’re filled in the spirit doesn’t mean your service is chaos. Doesn’t mean it’s disordered. And Paul goes another step and says, “If you think you are a prophet and you are gifted by the spirit, but you don’t want to follow order in the church, then you are going to be ignored. You have no credibility.” See, God is a God of order. Things have to happen orderly. The Corinthian church just struggled with that. It was utter chaos. We read again Paul says, “He is not the God of disorder but the God of peace in all the meetings of God’s people.” See, many times we exalt the prophet. We exalt the one who gets prophecy greater than God’s word itself. See, prophecy has become a business. I’m not going to really I’m not going to sugarcoat what I’m going to say here. Prophecy has become a business. People call prophets to their home, pay them money to prophesy. It happens. Prophecy has become like fortunetelling. That’s not what it was intended for. That’s not why God gave that spiritual gift to the church. Most Christians are not taking the time to sift through the word of prophecy. So remember, the prophet is just like a messenger. Just like a mailman, right? The mailman comes and delivers mail to your house. They’re just delivering a message. That’s all they’re doing. But imagine the mailman opening your letter and rewriting your letter or making marks in your letter. That’s what can happen with the gift of prophecy. This is why Paul said, “Test everything. Test it.” Because in the gift of prophecy, prophets are in full control of what they are saying. 1 Corinthians chapter 14:32. 1 Corinthians 14:32. The spirit of prophets are under the control of the prophet themselves. That means he is in full control when he starts and when he stops. He the Holy Spirit is not just taking over him that he loses control. They are fully aware of their surroundings. So it is very easy in prophecy for prophets to put words in extra to add to what God has given them. Maybe God has given them a message but they will add some extra. Maybe they will subtract some things as well. See this is the error of humanity. This is human error. This is the flesh interfering with the spirit. This is why Paul said you have to test everything. Does prophecy follow scripture? Remember scripture is at the top. Does that prophecy follow scripture? Does that prophecy glorify Jesus? Does that prophecy contain the fruit of the spirit? Please be very careful when you listen to prophecy, especially prophecies that feel good, they sound good, they’re very accommodating. It requires your analysis, your sifting. This is what John says. 1 John chapter 4, do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see whether they are from of God. For many false prophets have gone into the world. Matthew chapter 24, many false prophets shall arise. You know what the word of God says? It doesn’t say there’s a lot of good prophets. It says there’s a lot of bad prophets. There’s a lot of false prophets, not one, many to trap believers. The majority, I’m going to say the majority are false. It’s your job to sift through it. And the only way you can do that is with a relationship with God, a relationship with the Holy Spirit. I’m going to close. I know my time is done but I want to say these few things before we close because I think this is very very fundamental to our understanding of prophecy. I want to tell you that the future is only known our future is only known by our heavenly father and your future is revealed in the word of God. If you want to know your future talk to your father in heaven you don’t need a third person to tell you about your future. Imagine I wanted to talk to my dad, but I go through one of you to talk to my dad. I tell you, hey, go talk to my dad. Can you ask him what I need to do, where I need to go? No. If I need to talk to my dad, I will talk to my dad. I don’t need a third person. When you go to a prophet, you’re using a third person. Have a relationship with your father. Talk to your father. If you want to know what your future entails, what you need to do, the next step you need to take, have a deeper relationship with your father. See, God told Abraham, “I’m going to send you to a land.” And then God didn’t say anything else. God didn’t say, “Take this route. You’re going to take this road. This is the land you’re going to be.” No, he said, “You just go.” Abraham didn’t go to any prophets to figure out where he needs to go. He just went. And you know what? Every step, Abraham takes one more step closer in his relationship with God. See, many of us are like Hindus that go to an astrologer. We’re all from India. We know that concept. You know that Hindus go to an astrologer. Every major event, a kid’s wedding, any type of big event, they go to the astrologer to see if the stars are aligning. Many of our people use prophets like this, like fortune tellers. Tell me who I’m going to marry. At least tell me the first letter of their first name. What does my future hold? What job am I going to do? What education I’m going to do? Prophecy is not a tool to find out about your future. The problem here is we rely on prophets so much to tell us what our everyday decisions are. We have no more. We’ve thrown away our own wisdom and insight and reason. And now we put everything on God. God told me to do this. And we blame God when something doesn’t happen right. We blame. Well, God said that. Did you actually sift through prophecy before you made that decision? We make major life decisions based on the gift of prophecy. And the gift of prophecy is prone to error. And when things go wrong, we blame God. We see Paul, and I’m not going to take the time to go through the verses. Paul exercised the gift of prophecy, but Paul made his own decisions with wisdom. You go through the book of 1 Corinthians, Acts, we see Paul use wisdom and discernment to make decisions, whether it’s fitting, whether it’s worthy. And he tells the churches that way as well. When there was a conflict in the Corinthian church, he said, “See what is fitting, what is advisable, use wisdom.” He didn’t say, “Go find a prophet.” He said, “Use your wisdom.” Does God tell us who we’re going to marry through prophecy? No. God tells us to pursue marriage and he gives the guidelines on what to look for in a future spouse in the word of God. You need to look that up in the word of God. But sitting here to find a spouse, waiting for a prophet, sitting here to find a job or education through a prophet, it’s never going to happen. So church, children, adults, don’t be concerned about the what if the possibilities in your life. God’s ultimate purpose in your life is that you glorify him. That is already written in the word of God. Wherever you are, whatever job you’re doing, whoever you marry, his ultimate purpose in your life is to glorify him. And that’s why he Paul said, “Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Please be on alert about prophecy. Prophecy is a wonderful gift of the spirit, but is a gift that is very prone to error. It is prone to deception. Please stop calling prophets into your home and bribing them with money.” I had a young man call me from Chicago and say, “Hey, my parents called a prophet. He was applying to to school for med school and he said, “Hey, my parents called a prophet. They’re prophesying to me that I’m going to do this, but I actually have no interest in that.” His parents, by the way, pastoral family, his parents had called a pastor to prophesy to somehow convince him that he needs to be doing this in his life. And they paid him money to do that. This is what’s really happening. God does not need a prophet to you for you to figure out his will. He wants your relationship. Romans chapter 12, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that you can prove what is the will of God, what is acceptable, what is perfect. If you want to know what the will of God in your life is, renew your mind. You can know what the perfect and acceptable will of God is. God wants us to see everything as he sees, as he desires. Whatever he finds evil, we need to see as evil. And that comes through going through the word of God. We’re going to close with prayer here. Next week, we’re going to study on the upper room. The next week is our last week on the study of the Holy Spirit. We’re going to study about what happened in the upper room, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues. We will study that next week. Let’s bow our heads and pray. Father God, we thank you for this time you have given us, Lord. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you that you have been speaking to us. Divide that word rightly in our heart. Lord, help us to have discernment of the things that we see in the world. You have empowered the church with so many gifts. Help us to use those gifts wisely. We pray for our children. We pray that you empower them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. We pray for our adults. We pray for each and everyone. We pray that you empower each person with the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they can function in the unity of the church so that we reach the fullness of Christ. We pray for our service today. Let your Holy Spirit move this morning. In your name we pray. Amen.