Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Here the Spirit manifests himself in the life of each believer. Notice that by empowering some gift to each one of us individually. I know what my gifts are. Do you know what your gifts are? You need to ask God to show you what your gifts are. And then stick to your gifts. Don't covet somebody else's gifts. Be content where God has you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. We're glad to have you with us today as Raul continues our study of 1 Corinthians. He'll encourage us to fully embrace and faithfully live out our God-ordained role in the body of Christ. Every believer has a unique set of giftings, but when we work together with a united sense of purpose, we can accomplish great things for the Lord. Here's Raul Ries with part two of our study, Unity in the Church. He'll begin today in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse four.

Raul Ries: Here Paul is showing that while there is a variety of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the church, notice there is a basic need. Look what he says. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit." Unity. Christ is the head and the body of Christ. Fingers, toes, nose, ears, mouth, the whole thing. Every part of my body is needed to operate my body. But who's the leader? The head.

I mean, think in the Old Testament times in the book of Judges chapter one because they used to have warfare. Bows, arrows, they had spears, they had swords. They would ride horses and chariots. And when some king or some army would be captured by the enemy, you know what the first thing they would do when they would take them prisoners? They cut off their right thumbs and their right toes. Do you know why? You can't pull the bow anymore. You can't hold on to things. And you can't really walk, you lose your balance.

The big toe and the right thumb are important in my body. A lot of times people don't want to be a toe because you're always in darkness and smelly. But yet somebody has to be a toe, right? You have to be content in the body of Christ wherever God has called you to serve. Whether a toe or a thumb or finger or an eye, an ear, whatever it may be. Every part of the body is needed and the head leading in order for the body to be balanced and to operate fully the way God intended it to operate.

The problem in the church is that everybody wants to be an eye or everybody wants to be a mouth or everybody wants to be the best part in the body. And yet in the scripture, when you read right now, he's going to tell you that God gives to people what he sees is best for you. And yet why is it that we're always looking to other people and we're covetous to have their gifts when we're not content with our own gifts that God's given to us? That creates problems in the body of Christ. You have to really be careful.

Did you notice that in verse four, verse five, and verse six, we have the Trinity of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, the Lord, and God right there. When you talk to Jehovah Witnesses, they'll say the Trinity of God's not found in the Bible. Yes, it is, all over the place. And it's really important for me to understand that Paul here is making things very clear. We notice here that he who supplies the power is God through the power of the Holy Spirit in each one of our lives.

No one can boast that he is spiritual or great. We have nothing to do with that. All we do is exercise faith, and God is the one that empowers us to do what we have to do. I love that. We can't take the credit. The day you take the credit, God will knock you down. God will knock you down. God is the one that convicts, God is the one that brings the people, and God is the one that takes away the people. We're just here to serve him, to love him. It's not my church, it's his church. When people say my church, how much did you pay for it? What did it cost you? It cost Jesus Christ his life. His life. It's his church and we are his people. And we have no possession of that. It's always the Lord.

Paul here is acknowledging that wisdom and knowledge are gifts from God too. Knowledge and wisdom are the gifts of God. And think of how many of our professors in universities because they've got degrees, whatever, masters or doctorate or whatever it may be, and they take the credit upon themselves being wise. And yet what does he say? The knowledge of this world is nothing compared to the wisdom and the knowledge of God. As we allow the Holy Spirit to use our lives to bring glory and honor to himself, I love that.

For to one is given the word of wisdom. See, here is now the nine gifts, the word of wisdom. And what's here is speaking about the supernatural power to speak with divine insight, whether solving difficult problems and whatever else. So the wisdom that comes from God is when somebody has a problem, he'll give you the wisdom to talk to them and how to solve that problem.

And to another, the word of knowledge, notice that. And that is the power that is given to us to communicate information that has been divinely revealed to you and me, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom. Usually a pastor-teacher exercises the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and prophecy while he's teaching the word of God. There's been times where I've been teaching, after the service, somebody will come to me and say, "Did my wife talk to you?" I said, "I don't even know your wife." He said, "Why?" He says, "Because when you were talking, you were talking right to me." Well, it wasn't me, it was the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit knows people's hearts when they come to church. He knows what you're doing in the darkness. He knows what you're doing in the light. And many times when you have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying, if you have an open heart, what is the Holy Spirit going to do? He's going to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Jesus said that in the Gospel of John chapter 16, verse seven through 11. Very important to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge that is given through the teaching of God's word. And then again, prophecy, he'll tell you in a moment.

To another, faith by the same Spirit. That is divine ability to remove mountains and difficulties as you're pursuing after God's will. People have a lack of faith today. Every one of us has a weakness in faith. But as a person that has the gift of faith that God's given to them, and they truly, truly believe that God will do that according to his will.

To another, the gifts of healings. Plural, healings, which means different people in the body of Christ have the gifts of touching and people getting healed. And that's why we don't do one person here. We do the different elders and people to lay hands on people so nobody gets the credit but Jesus Christ. The gifts of healing.

Whenever a healer brings attention to himself and people are amazed by him and they're just amazed by him so much that they look to him in awe, something is wrong. Where does Jesus get the glory? And taking off your coat and swinging and hitting people and slaying them in the Spirit of God, that's not true. That is not true. Blowing on people and falling back, all that stuff. Probably bad breath is knocking them down, whatever. Let me tell you, the real power of God doesn't bring glory to himself. I've been healed by the Lord. I've been touched by God. And all the glory and the honor goes to Jesus Christ. So it's really important that we understand that as he's given us these gifts, this is the proper use of the gifts, the gifts of healings by the same Spirit.

To another, and the word here, gifts of healing, it has to do with miraculous power that is divine by God given to you. Then verse 10, to another, the working of miracles. Isn't that interesting? And the working of miracles is also by indicated by casting of demons, raising people from the dead. Think of the New Testament. I've never seen anybody being raised from the dead, but I've been in countries like Thailand, I've been in countries like China, and I've seen the power of the Holy Spirit heal people. And demon possessions, I've seen it. Amazing. Demon possession's real. You play with the occult, you play with witchcraft and Ouija boards and all that stuff, or you watch movies that are possessive movies that have to do with witchcraft, you're only opening the door for oppression, depression, and possession.

Guest (Male): This is Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. We're committed to helping you carry out God's highest will for your life as you walk in obedience to his word. For resources, visit us anytime at somebodylovesyou.com and download our app for live-streamed Bible teaching. Now back to more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. A Christian cannot be demon possessed. In the back in the 1970s, there was a doctrine that Christians could be demon possessed, and that's not even biblical. That's not even in the Bible. The Bible talks about oppression and the Bible talks about demon possession. Every one of the demon possessed people in the New Testament are all non-believers. Not believers. And you think of how many times people don't get it. And yet they watch these movies about witches and ghosts and all these things. I mean, people come, "I've got this problem." "What are you doing?" "I'm watching these ghost stories." Well, no wonder you're getting oppressed.

To another, prophecy, notice this. And prophecy here, the primary sense here is signified by a person revealed direct revelation from God but it's through the teaching of God's word that is given out. And then God speaks to people. And the gift of prophecy also is when somebody in order will say, "This is what the Lord says." And then what you do is you wait upon it, and if it's of the Lord, it's going to come to pass. If not, it's nothing but wind.

When I was at Calvary Chapel and I was in the afterglow service and they laid hands on me and they prophesied over me that I was going to be in the ministry and all these things would happen, as I look back now for 40 years, it's amazing how those things have come to pass and the scriptures that God gave to me in the book of Isaiah. I marked the dates down and what God has done in each one of our lives as we look back and God touching our lives. And the same for you.

In the old days, you could open somebody's Bible and it was all colored and all marked up as people really were studying God's word. Open people's Bibles today, most people don't even read their Bible. Don't embarrass anybody in here, but if I was to ask how many of you have read from Genesis to Revelation one time, there would be not a majority, a minority of people. And yet you should be reading the Bible once a year, Genesis to Revelation. And if you can twice, do it twice. Because it's really important to know God's word. How can God speak to you when you've never read the full counsel of God? Paul said that, from Genesis to Revelation. How can you believe the New Testament when you've never read the Old Testament? You have to read it. You have to study it so that God can bring a balance in your life.

And you have so many translations today, the NIV, the New American Standard, you have the Living Bible, the New King James, the Old King James. To study God's word, you should study with the New King James or the Old King James. It's really important to know God's word and what it says.

To another, discerning of spirits. I love that gift, discerning of spirits, which means you walk into a room and you can tell as the Spirit shows you if they're demon possessed or not. Discerning of spirits or the presence of Satan, you can feel it and see what's going on. That's a great gift to possess, discerning of spirits.

And then to another, different kinds of tongues, notice what he says here. That's the ability to speak in a foreign tongue or a foreign language without ever, ever learning that language. Imagine that. You know what's so cool? I speak Spanish and then I'm trying to speak English for so many years. But when I got baptized with the Holy Spirit, God gave me my language in Greek and I don't know any Greek. Just what I have in Strong's and look at the concordances. And I began to listen, so I looked it up, the words that I was saying, and it was Greek. I couldn't believe it. My private life that I have with my tongue when I speak to the Lord, the baptism of the Holy Spirit when he baptized me.

Does everybody get baptized with tongues? Does everybody have to speak in tongues? No, no way. No way. The 120 in the book of Acts chapter two that were baptized by the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues. And there were 30 nations represented outside visiting during Passover. And it says they all heard them speaking in their own dialecta, in their own dialect. And what did they hear? The praising of God, not a message in tongues. It was a glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they heard.

Paul said that. If you don't speak in tongues, you can be in your closet and you can be groaning by the Spirit of God, not speak in tongues, just groaning. And guess what the Bible says? The Spirit gets to the throne of God and interprets what you're going through. Read it. What you're facing and what you're saying to God. My intellect doesn't understand it. If you're trying to figure God out, forget it. That's not the way it works. And whenever I use my gift that God gave to me, I always use it in the privacy of my own place, my home or when I'm walking or when I'm in my car. Whenever I'm alone, not in front of people. Because that's something God gave to me and I use it for my prayer language to pray to the Lord, man. I don't like speaking in English that, I speak in my tongue to the Lord. You know why? Because the Spirit deeply groans within me and he's sharing my burdens to God. That's what the Bible says. Very important. That's why in the old days we used to have afterglow services where after the service, people go to the fellowship hall and the elders of the church would lay hands on people, a time of waiting, and people would get baptized with the Holy Spirit. Some would speak with tongues, some wouldn't speak with tongues.

Paul said every gift of the Holy Spirit is operated through love. If there's no love, Paul says you're actually just blowing wind. We'll get to that in chapter 13. You're only blowing wind. There's nothing that you're saying. It's all like a cymbal that is making a lot of noise but there's no sound to it. That's what he says.

To another, different kinds of tongues, and to another, the interpretation of tongues, notice that. Interpretation of tongues, that's a miraculous power to understand the language spoken which usually when the language is interpreted, it's always in a praise, in a praise to God that is given. And if it comes through and says, "Thus saith the Lord," then it's a prophecy. And what you do is you hear it and you wait upon it and you seal it, and then when it comes to pass, then you know that it was God that he really said that. And if not, it's not of the Lord. It's not of God.

God is the one that gives to us and look what he says here. All the gifts that are mentioned in verse eight and 10 are what? Produced and controlled by the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. All these things distributing to each one individually as he wills, not as you will, as God wills through the Holy Spirit. I love that. That he's the one that gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit as we're open to the Holy Spirit.

Father, we come before you this evening, Lord, to thank you so much for educating us in your word. And Father, especially in these gifts of the Holy Spirit, which there's such chaos, Father, outside of the church and in so many churches, Father, that people are ignorant of the fact that the Holy Spirit is a God of order, not disorder, Lord God, or confusion. And Lord, I pray this evening for every person that is sitting here tonight, Lord God, those watching and listening through the internet.

Lord, we pray that you would educate us spiritually, God, so that even tonight as we go home, we can get on our faces, Lord God, and ask for the greatest gift and that greatest gift is love, Jesus. And that the gifts that you give to us, Lord God, that they would be practiced through the love of God so that they would be valuable, God. Lord, we pray for the sick, we pray for the weak, and Lord God, I pray that you would make us a spiritual people, Lord God. Not so that we can become flaunting it, Lord God, but we want to be spiritual, Lord God, so that we can possess the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives every day, God.

That we can be examples of the power of God wherever we go to school, wherever we work, wherever we play, Lord God, wherever we live. Lord God, give us the power tonight of your Holy Spirit as you baptize us with your love and grace and mercies, God. And I want to pray this evening as every eye is closed and everybody praying that if there's one person here or two or three, whoever you are, if you're not a Christian, if you've never received the Lord Jesus Christ, I would personally like to invite you to come and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Not religion, but a personal love relationship that comes through Jesus Christ, the one that can only forgive you for your sins and cleanse and wash you by his blood. He's the only way, the only truth, and the only life.

Guest (Male): If you have never received Jesus' salvation, we hope today's message has stirred your heart to begin a personal relationship with him and become a member of the body of Christ. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. If you'd like to review Raul's teaching today titled Unity in the Church, we can send you an unedited version for a donation of five dollars or more. To get that, simply call us at 800-634-9165.

We'd also like to equip you with even more insight into what it looks like to walk in step with the Lord Jesus. Raul's 11-part series titled Unity, Holiness and Love is available on CD and thumb drive. Challenging you to surrender all areas of your life to the Lord, this resource explores how to honor him in everything from conflict management to financial stewardship. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's 11-message study, Unity, Holiness and Love. We'll send you the CD set for twenty-three dollars or the thumb drive for just fourteen. That's 800-634-9165.

Or write to Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Thank you for your partnership in this listener-supported ministry. Every contribution helps us reach more people with the good news of the gospel. And join us next time as we return to 1 Corinthians for more instruction in the use of spiritual gifts. We'll get a challenge to enjoy the great diversity of giftings within the church and choose to be content with our own skills and abilities as we use them for God's glory. This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.