Spiritual Gifts in the Church

I was going through my notebook from services for the last several months and came across this great message that Apostle David Coker preached in November. This post is not a direct quote from him, just me remembering from the notes that I took.

1 Corinthians 14 tells us to desire spiritual gifts, so we are all doing exactly what we’re supposed to do when we desire to give a word or lay hands on the sick or step out in Holy Ghost in whatever way fell led. However, no matter where you are or what you’re hearing in your spirit, before you act on any unction, ask yourself these questions:

1) Have I been authorized? Heb 13:7 says to obey those that have the rule over you. So, you have to know where you are and who has the spiritual authority at that time. In local churches, the Apostle or Pastor or whomever is the head authority in that church will usually have some sort of protocol in place with people who are part of the church and submitted to that authority who have been authorized to do whatever Holy Ghost is giving them the unction to do. If you are not in that position, you are out of order to try to speak out or minister to another congregant or lay hands on someone without getting permission first.

It’s pretty simple. If you have not been authorized by the person in charge, you are out of order. Now, to someone who doesn’t understand spiritual things, this can seem like a controlling mindset on the part of the church leadership that thinks they are always right and everyone else is wrong. But the reason behind this strict adherence to protocol is that the person who is in charge is responsible for the people he/she is leading. If they don’t know you, then they have no way of knowing if you’re actually being led by Holy Ghost or not.

2) Is it going to interrupt what God is already doing right now? This applies mostly to giving out a word in the church. Sometimes you can feel something so strongly that you’re sure God wants you to share it with everyone, but then once it’s out there, you realize that it was really just Holy Ghost dealing with you about something and it wasn’t meant for the whole church at all.

You want to be sure you carefully judge what you’re hearing before you speak it out. Nothing can stop the flow of God right in it’s tracks faster than someone jumping up and giving a word, or speaking out in tongues, right in the middle of a sermon when they shouldn’t have.

3) Does it draw attention to and glorify me or Jesus? If you get that little spark of “Oh! This is awesome! Everyone’s gonna think I’m so spiritual!” you probably shouldn’t do it. We’ve all done it. We’ve all felt that before. And we’ve all jumped up and done whatever it was that made us so excited to think about. And we’ve all had the horrible realization afterward that we were really just trying to exalt ourselves.

4) Is it natural or supernatural? Sometimes we know things about people and want to minister in the Holy Ghost to them so badly that we try to force something supernatural. Or, sometimes we want to bring correction to people and do it through fake prophecy. True prophecy will edify, exhort and comfort people. If what you want to say will harm them, then think again before you say it!

5) Am I willing to receive correction from spiritual authority if it turns out I missed it? Am I willing to have my actions judged? This is all part of the growing process. If you’re not currently one of the people in your church who is authorized to step out whenever they get an unction from God, then this is the first place to start. I guarantee you that all of those people have received correction before. That’s the #1 way the head of the local church can know who they can trust to handle this authority.

Shine On

I shared with the team last night something that Holy Ghost has been speaking to me as I seek God for direction and clarity in the vision of the Worship Experience Team. He said it really, really clearly to me, “Allow them to shine.”

Some of the structures we’ve had in place before caused us to focus on developing in our areas of weakness, rather than finding and developing our areas of strength. The structure that God wants to put into place now is one where we give everyone the opportunity to discover what they are passionate about and where their strengths lie, then pursue those areas. What a simple concept!! But it was illusive to us for a long, long time.

The other part of this has to do with growing and developing the WE Team. The mindset (for a long while now) has been “You have to teach someone else how to do what you do so that if you leave, there will be someone to replace you.” And – you have to teach them to do exactly what you do and how you do it. That is a Management mindset, not a Kingdom mindset.

The other mindset change is one of true reproduction, like a father who trains up a son, a whole and separate and individual person with his own anointing, calling and vision, rather than reproduction through cloning, where you have an exact copy and the copy is never as clear, vibrant or pure as the original.

What Holy Ghost had me say to our team was this – NONE OF YOU ARE REPLACEABLE! Every single one of you is unique and special and important to the work of God. True, if, for whatever reason, you choose to leave the team or the church or the state, God’s grace is sufficient and His work will continue with or without you. But that still doesn’t make you replaceable.

God told me to allow you to shine – so shine on, baby. Shine on!

Takeaway from Saturday’s workshop

Matches

A match has a purpose, but it can never realize that purpose by itself. It requires friction from outside. When it is taken in hand and pressure is applied to the proper surface, then what it was created for is released. At that moment of release, the match has no choice but to be consumed by the very fire it ignited.

You are a box of matches; full of potential and equipped with a spark – a word, a song, a beat, a sound – of His anointing meant to be released. The potential can only be realized when you choose not to hold back your spark out of fear of being consumed.

Today, we choose to release our spark in this worship team, on the job, in the home and in every area of life.

Psalm 94:19

Ps 94:19 says “In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul.”

I don’t usually do this, but I actually printed this verse out and posted it right in front of my face at my desk this week. Sometimes my intellect is my enemy. I spend so much time thinking and reasoning and plotting and planning, that my own thoughts overwhelm my ability to center my mind on God.

There have been a lot of things happening in my life lately that I cannot reason my way through. I can’t simply stamp “that makes sense” on it and file it away, so my mind worries it like a dog worries a bone. Every time I think I’ve put it away, I catch my thoughts back at it again. As I try to focus on whatever task-at-hand I’m working on at the moment, I’m distracted, so I try to “get my mind off of it” by focusing on some other thing – then suddenly I’m thinking about three things at once!

I absolutely get what David (I assume he wrote this Psalm) was saying here – I’m surrounded and overtaken with my thoughts! But even in the multitude of my thoughts within me, God’s comfort, mercy and peace, they delight, smooth and calm my soul!

I’m so thankful for God’s Word to us – a very present help just when we need it!

Therefore seeing we have this ministry…

Bible Study Feb 23, 2011

 

I’ve been living in 2 Corinthians for the past few weeks. To be perfectly honest, I used to act as though the whole book stopped at 3:18: we’re changed from glory to glory! Hallelujah and Amen! Close the book and rejoice!

But right now, the very next verse, 2 Cor 4:1, has all of my attention. You know, Paul didn’t write the chapter breaks; he meant for us to keep on reading. With that in mind, my spirit is focused in on two words in 4:1: THEREFORE and MINISTRY. How could I have read this so many times and never noticed these words before? According to Merriam-Webster, Therefore means: for that reason, because of that, or on that ground. In other words, Paul was saying, “Because we have been changed from glory to glory, we have this ministry.”  What ministry? When did Paul talk about a ministry?

As it turns out, being changed from glory to glory is not the end goal. And reaching some final picture of glory is not the goal either. By definition, this is a continuing work that doesn’t ever end in this life. The real goal is finding the balance between seeking God for your own change and shining the light for others’ change at the same time. That is, after all, your ministry.

Read 2 Corinthians Chapters 3 & 4 without the break. Where are you struggling or excelling in finding the balance between personal development and ministry to others?

Since I’ve shared with you what God is talking to me about, leave a comment below so I can hear what God is talking to you about too!

Bible Study – Feb 16, 2011

Going beyond self-edification

Something that has been coming up often for me in my private worship time is the stark difference between my private time with God and the corporate worship time we have on Sunday’s. When I’m all by myself, I know exactly what I mean when I play a 4 over 7 then go right into that diminished 7 with everything I’ve got. The chords I’m choosing are speaking directly to God and He and I understand everything perfectly – but I would never consider that a way to lead a congregation into worship. They aren’t in on the secret communication happening between me and my musically minded Daddy.

When it’s just me and God, I can close my eyes, lay flat on my face, writhe and cry, or stand perfectly still without a single thought about anyone else. But when I stand to minister to the congregation, I’ve got to let them in on what’s happening so that my worship of God can be fruitful for them too.

Paul said it like this: “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all; yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that [by my voice] I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an [unknown] tongue.”

Read 1 Corinthians 14:1-17 and compare what he’s saying here to the difference between private worship and corporate worship.

Where are other places in the Bible where God wanted his ministers to go beyond his/her own personal edification and minister God’s grace to the people? Do you think you could have/would have done the same thing if you were in their shoes?

Unto Us a Blog is Born!

OK, cheesy, I know. But this is one blog I’ve been wanting to start for a while now, and I’m not sure why it’s taken this long to just do it.

I want the GBF Worship Blog to be a place for the Gateway Believers Fellowship’s Worship Experience (WE) Team to call our online home. A place where we can share ideas and insights about what it means to lead God’s people into worship, why it’s an important function in today’s church and how to overcome the difficulties that musicians, singers, artists, sound engineers, writers, dancers, actors – ALL creative people – seem to have when it comes to balancing God and their dreams.

So, bear with me for these first few weeks as I work to get this site up and going and invite more contributors and mess with the look and everything else involved with it.