HopeLives365

Mark Finley: The power that brought the worlds into existence is in the word of God. Every promise accepted by the will brings with it the power of the infinite one.

Guest (Male): This is HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, "End Time Symbols of the Spirit, Part One." Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with HopeLives365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: Ask God to fill your life with His Spirit. Ask Him to grant to you that infilling. Tell Him that you want an undivided heart. How can you practically apply it to your life? Set aside time every day to pray and seek God and to see Him in His word and to be filled with His spirit.

Secondly, ask God to give you an undivided heart. Find somebody else to pray with. It makes an interesting statement in the seventh volume of the Testimonies, pages 21 and 22. She says, "Why do not two or three meet with God, meet together, and plead with God for the salvation of some special one and then still another?"

So two or three people meeting together, students, youth meeting together, pleading with God. How do you apply it? Find somebody else to pray with, open your heart. Don't let what we have taught here from the Bible simply be casual in your life, but go back and plead with God and ask Him for the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to empower you. Get prayer groups going in your church, your school. Ask God to give you an undivided heart.

This next question is a fascinating one. It says, "Should we address the Holy Spirit in our prayers and worship? Should we worship and praise and pray to the Holy Spirit?" There are at least a number of questions that are very similar to that one question. One person put it this way: "I'm not sure if I understand your answers correctly. If the Holy Spirit is one of the Godhead, why can't we pray and praise to the Holy Spirit just like we would do Jesus or God?" In other words, the question becomes: do we praise and pray to the Holy Spirit?

The issue is not whether the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead or not. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead throughout scripture. Genesis 6 says the Holy Spirit will not always strive with man. Ephesians 4 says don't grieve the Holy Spirit. But the issue is the function of the Spirit.

According to John 14, 15, and 16, the function of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit is to draw us to Jesus. What is the work of the Holy Spirit during our prayer? Here's what you find in Romans chapter 8 verse 26.

"Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He, the Spirit, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

So it is not that we are praying to the Holy Spirit. We pray through the ministry of the Spirit as the Spirit prompts our minds so that we know what to pray about. The Spirit takes our words and interprets them before God. So the question is function. What is the function of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible does not talk about praying to the Holy Spirit. It talks rather about the Holy Spirit taking our words. I can say, "Thank you, Lord, for sending the Holy Spirit as your personal emissary to warm my heart. Thank you that as I pray, I know the Holy Spirit takes my words and interprets them and places them before the throne of God." So I am praising Jesus, and that's when the Holy Spirit does His work in my heart.

The greatest honor I can give to the Holy Spirit is to let the Holy Spirit do the work that the Bible says He ought to give. There's a lot of people that want to say, "Oh, praise the Spirit." Well, I praise God for giving us His Spirit. There is no difference in the Godhead; they are three separate beings: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Remember what I told you the other day. Somebody said to try to understand the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their eternal nature and the Trinity is to lose your mind, but to deny the Trinity is to lose your soul. We are praying to the Father in the name of Jesus through the intercession of the Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit that in our hearts is the personal presence of Christ, and the Holy Spirit awakens within us every desire to do right. You have no desires to do right unless the Holy Spirit awakens them. You have no desires to exalt Jesus unless the Holy Spirit awakens them.

Somebody asked about CS Lewis and Narnia. Is that acceptable reading for the Christian? I don't have a reading list that I can just check off as acceptable or not. There are many people that have been blessed by the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. It's touched their lives and transformed them.

I don't approach it by saying this is right or this is wrong. You need to let the Holy Spirit that we've been studying about guide you. He will guide you. But I will tell you this, in my own life, I have very limited time to read. Maybe you have a lot of time to read more time to read your Bible than you can possibly imagine. I don't approach things from right or wrong; I approach things from the standpoint of what time do I have and how do I want to allocate my time.

What was the role of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost? Before Pentecost, if you look at the scripture this way, in the Old Testament, we see Christ concealed in the prophecies. In the Old Testament, we see Jesus foreshadowed in the lamb. In the Old Testament, the major character on the landscape is God. God is revealed through the whole Old Testament. We see Him there.

In the New Testament, we see Jesus revealed. In the Old Testament He's somewhat concealed; the lamb sacrifices point forward. He's revealed. So if you look at the Old Testament, that is largely God revealing Himself. The New Testament, Jesus reveals Himself. But Jesus ascends to heaven. Now after Pentecost, it is the Holy Spirit that empowers believers and leads us to Christ and the kingdom.

So if you're looking at it in three specific phases, you're looking at God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit working for salvation. Each one is inclusive, not exclusive. It's not that they're compartmentalized. God in the Old Testament is revealed through Christ in the New Testament, and Jesus doesn't come now to take over the ministry of the Father but to expand what God is like.

When the Holy Spirit comes, it is not now that we're living in the dispensation of the Spirit so we leave God and Jesus back there someplace. Not at all. It is rather that the Holy Spirit comes to amplify, magnify, explain, and reveal the ministry of God in the Old Testament and the ministry of Jesus in the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, the Spirit convicted, the Spirit led men and women into truth, the Spirit strove with men and women, but it was not until after Pentecost that the Spirit was poured out in all of His fullness. So it is not that the Spirit didn't exist before, but it's like this.

You can have ten dollars in your piggy bank in dimes when you are in the third grade. You can have a little more money when you are in academy. You get a job and a check begins to flow and that's pretty nice. The Holy Spirit has always been present, but the spigot and the water coming out were turned on at Pentecost and God gave us much more.

Here's another question about 1 Corinthians 14. It says if in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul's talking about the gift of tongues and that's languages, why did they need an interpreter back then? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the gift? Here's what was going on in 1 Corinthians 14. We explained it yesterday. 1 Corinthians 14 was Paul's headache church. It was really a problem for Paul.

It was a problem because if you look at 1 Corinthians chapter one and two, they were arguing, they were debating, and there was this big strife in the church. There was division, egotism, and pride. When you come to 1 Corinthians chapter four and five, there's immorality right in the Corinthian church and they're not dealing with it. There's sexual immorality and incest.

You come to 1 Corinthians six, seven, and eight, and they're suing one another and taking one another to courts of law. The church is being embarrassed before the Corinthian society. They're abusing the Lord's Supper. Even at the Lord's Supper, they bring their own meals and some would eat in one place and some would eat in another. So it's a church of selfish exhibitionism.

They're abusing the gifts of the Spirit. They're saying, "I'm the greatest," and striving for leadership. They have put emphasis on the external and not the internal and the manifestation of God's grace. In 1 Corinthians 14, you have a cosmopolitan church where the true gifts of the Holy Spirit are being abused; they're not the false gifts.

So in 1 Corinthians 14, there will be times that a person stands up and speaks a real language that nobody in the congregation knows. He has the gift of that language that God gave him in the international cosmopolitan city of Corinth to preach the gospel. But in the church, nobody knows it. So Paul says if there is no interpreter present, don't use it because it's not edifying the church. The purpose of the gift of tongues, of real languages, is to bless the church.

Guest (Male): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers and effectively share with confidence His life-changing truths with others. You can support this ministry and help us reach even more by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: Remember we studied yesterday that God gave four criteria for the gift of tongues. One is we understood from Acts 2, 10, and 19 that we studied really in detail that the gift of tongues is a real language to communicate the gospel or to authenticate the gospel.

When we looked at 1 Corinthians 14, we studied yesterday the fact that this gift of tongues was being abused. It was still a real language and Paul gave criteria. Number one, only one person at a time. All this business of everybody speaking? No. Tongues are languages. So if you speak a foreign language in the church, one at a time. No more than two or three people at any service. There has to be an interpreter. And finally, no women can speak in church in tongues.

We explained the reason for that is that at the pagan temple of Aphrodite in Corinth, there were a thousand immoral pagan prostitutes that were part of the worship service that offered sexual favors to those that came. It was a horrible situation. There was ecstatic utterance in that pagan temple.

Paul said if you come into the Christian church and everybody's babbling in this kind of ecstatic utterance and you've got women jumping up here and there, the Corinthian non-Christian is going to think this is just like the pagan temple. Paul said no. The whole purpose of the gift of tongues is to communicate the gospel. If you use it in the church, one person speaks at a time. That's a real language.

Nobody else understands that language because they don't understand the language that that person is speaking. It was to preach the gospel to people that didn't speak it. So one at a time, only two or three, have an interpreter, and don't let your women be jumping up because the people that don't understand the language are going to think that this is like the pagan temple.

I want to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 because if you're working with Pentecostals, this is really going to help you based on what I said yesterday. Notice we do not seek gifts of the Spirit; God gives them. Verse 4: "Now there are diversities of the gifts of the same Spirit." So it's the same Holy Spirit that gives the gifts, but there are diversities of them.

"There are differences of the ministries of the same Lord." So the purpose of a gift is to lead you into a ministry. Verse 6: "There are diversities of activities." Gifts, ministries, and activities are all together. God gives you a gift to do a ministry so you can get out and get active for Him in service in the world. That's the purpose of spiritual gifts.

The purpose of spiritual gifts is not selfish exhibitionism. Every gift of the Spirit is to lead you to a ministry to be actively involved for Jesus. Then it says in verse 11: "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills." Who distributes the gifts? The Spirit. Do I seek the gift? God distributes it.

And who does He distribute it? As He wills. So God distributes the gifts individually. Is everybody going to get the same gift? If everybody's not going to get the same gift, then this idea that you have to speak in tongues or you're not baptized by the Holy Spirit is not from the Holy Spirit, right? Because the Bible says so.

When you start working with Pentecostals, start here and let's study the nature of the gifts. Let your eye drop down to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and 12. We see the body of Christ and there are different gifts in the body. Then he says in verse 29, he's talked about the gifts and he says, "Are all apostles? Are all prophets?"

Does everybody have the gift of prophecy? No. What is Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 29 when he says are all prophets? Are they all prophets? No. Then he says, "Are all teachers?" What's the answer? "Are all workers miracles? Do all have gifts of healing?"

Why aren't they all apostles? Why aren't they all teachers? Why aren't they all prophets? Why aren't they all working miracles? Because the church is the body of Christ, and God is distributing the gifts in the body to build up the body so the body can have ministry and activity. So if God is distributing the gifts, we need a variety of gifts in the body.

He says, "Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues?" What's the answer to the question? No. All don't need to speak with languages. But you see the Pentecostal would say everybody speaks with tongues, and that's an evidence of the Holy Spirit. But Paul says no.

It's very interesting if you go back to verse 28. Here's what we call the hierarchy of gifts where Paul lists the gifts in somewhat of an order of their importance. He says in verse 28, "God has appointed these in the church: first apostles," in other words, divine leaders that have wide-seeing vision that lead God's church and God's people.

The great leaders that God's going to raise up. "First apostles, second prophets to guide the church with vision, third teachers that can teach the word of God. After that..." Now notice he lists people first: apostles, prophets, teachers. "After that miracles, then gifts of healings."

What's the next one? Helps. Then administrations, then the variety of tongues. You hear a lot about the gift of tongues today, but the gift of helps is placed before the gift of tongues. I pray that as a pastor, God would give me a church filled with people with the gift of helps.

"Pastor, what do you want me to do? I want to do it." Whereas the carnal nature wants the spectacular gift that I can use. Praise God for meek, humble people that want the gift of helps. What is scripture saying? Scripture is saying that God Himself gives the gifts out. I open my heart and say, "God, show me what gifts you have for me. Show me how I can serve in the body of Christ. I know, Lord, that you give gifts."

I'm standing before a group of young people and adults that have unusual gifts given by God. And no seminar on the Holy Spirit would be complete without my sharing with you that on your knees, you're saying, "God, what gifts have you given me? God, teach me. God, by your Holy Spirit, show me those gifts."

You may have gifts that you have no clue that you have, gifts that are not fully developed. You say, "I could never give a Bible study." How do you know that God hasn't gifted you as a teacher? Those gifts don't come fully developed. Try it. If God's leading you to do something, do it. And you might find that God has given you gifts and those gifts, like the talents, are buried in the soil of your heart.

If God is leading you to work with children, jump into it and do it, and you may see gifts grow and blossom. If God is leading you to teach a Sabbath school class, jump in and do it. You may not think you're a teacher. If God's leading you as a young person to hold an evangelistic meeting, jump in and do it.

Whatever you see God leading you in. And if you get into it and it's not the thing for you, try something else. Because God has given you gifts. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that we read, verse 11: "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one," and you are an each one, "distributing to each one severally as He wills."

God's given you gifts. The Holy Spirit will reveal them to you as you do them. Pray about it. Get involved in God's work. The gifts don't come fully developed. Do something for Jesus and you'll find out. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 14. So we've seen that the gift of tongues is the gift of real languages to communicate the gospel.

We've seen it's one of many gifts; not everybody gets that gift. We've seen from 1 Corinthians 14 that the gift of real languages was being abused in the Corinthian church. They would stand up and use it. We've seen 1 Corinthians 14 is one of Paul's problem churches. We studied 1 Corinthians 14 verse by verse and we left out the first five verses. We need to finish those up before we finish our class.

1 Corinthians 14: "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy," that's to proclaim God's message. "Pursue love. For he who speaks in a language..." Somebody asked me what about the word "unknown tongue" before. If you have the King James version of the Bible, the word "unknown" before "tongue" is going to be in italics.

Do you see it there? What is an italicized word in the Bible? It's a supplied word. So it's not there; you drop the word because it's not there. It's not anything that's unknown. It's not unknown to man and it's not unknown to God. The word simply means language.

So it says: "He who speaks in a language does not speak to men but to God." What is that talking about? It's talking about in the context of Corinth. When the person stood up and spoke a real language for selfish exhibitionism that nobody else could understand in the church, the person speaking understood and God understood. But no one around him in the church understood it because they didn't understand that language.

"For no one understands him." Exactly, nobody understands him in the church. But they're saying, "Oh, he has the gift of tongues, the gift of languages. Oh, the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon him." So this person was attempting in that church to use that gift for his own purposes to exalt himself.

So it says nobody understands him, however in the spirit he speaks mysteries. Yes, it's mysteries to these people that are around him. "But he who prophesies," proclaims, "speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. He who speaks in a language edifies himself."

Sure, he knows what he's saying, God knows what he's saying, but the church doesn't. But the one who prophesies edifies the church. "I wish you all spoke with tongues, languages, even more than you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with languages, unless he interprets that the church may receive."

Why does Paul say, "I wish you spoke with languages?" Because then you'd be out preaching the gospel and God would give you the gift of real languages and you could preach to people in that context that you had not learned. Then he says in verse 6: "Now brethren, if I come to you speaking with languages, what's it going to profit you unless you understand it?"

So 1 Corinthians 14 is the abuse of the gift of tongues. Now we need to go back and finish up our class here. We have been talking about the latter rain. We've been talking about personal infilling of the Holy Spirit. We've come to the last few moments of our class and we've been looking at five criteria to be filled with the Holy Spirit in latter rain power.

Criteria number one is pleading with God, asking Him. Criteria number two, an undivided heart. Criteria number three, a mind saturated with God's word. I love that statement, eighth volume of the Testimonies, page 19: "There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who putting self aside makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon their heart and lives a life holy consecrated to God."

There is no limit to what God wants to do in your life. Never limit yourself because God will never limit you.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at hopelives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: The Holy Spirit will not be poured out on a church that has Laodicean complacency and no passion about winning the lost. The latter rain power of the Spirit comes to enable our witnessing, to lead us to proclaim the gospel. And that day is coming.