I'm so expectant for today, because I really believe the Holy Spirit wants to come today, and He wants to put some gifts inside of you that I think so many of us haven't accessed. Have y'all ever had a gift that was yours, but for some reason you didn't access it?

A couple of years ago my iPhone was getting so old that I couldn't open any apps. Messages weren't working. My connection wasn't working. It was just terrible. I was running out of space. So I said to Paige, "Hey, I think we need to buy some new iPhones." I bought these new iPhones, and they arrived, and I was so excited. I grabbed them and I put them in the drawer. One week went by, two weeks went by, and you know when you do the whole iPhone flip, your photos need to come across, and I was like, I need to do it right. So I'm going to make sure I have enough time to do it right. Three weeks went by, four weeks went by, and there came a point where I was so frustrated. My messages aren't working. I don't have the connection I need. None of my apps are working. And yet there was power available to me the entire time. It was sitting in my drawer. All the connection I needed. The ability, when I'm lost, to connect to a satellite and tell me where to go. Everything I needed was in this drawer, but for some reason I wasn't accessing what I had access to.

I think that's true for so many believers. We can have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and He has given you these gifts, but for some reason we're not opening the drawer, and we're not using the very thing God has allowed us to do.

Last week I talked about the power of the Holy Spirit. The week before that I talked about the person of the Holy Spirit. Today I want to talk about the gifts of the Spirit, because that power came down for a reason. It was to equip you and to give you gifts.

What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

To start this, I'm going to need the help of my man Paul. If you have your Bibles, go to 1 Corinthians 12. And of course, if you're following along on the app, you can tap the disc right in front of you. Our notes are all there on the Spirit app. 1 Corinthians 12:1 says this: "Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters," that's all of us, "I do not want you to be uninformed."

I think that's important, because so many believers are uninformed and misinformed. That could be because of your upbringing. There could be many reasons why we're uninformed and misinformed. In fact, Barna did a study and found that 75% of Christians do not know their spiritual gifts. Paul is saying, "I don't want you to be uninformed," and yet so many of us are walking around uninformed.

He continues in verse 4: "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work."

What he's doing here is using a parallel structure I want you to see. He's not giving three separate categories. He's giving three separate angles. Three times he says "different kinds."

He says there are different kinds of gifts. The Greek word there is charisma, and it's derived from the word for grace. It's a grace gift that has been given to you, that you didn't earn. Sometimes we think the way to get the gifts of the Spirit is by reading our Bible and praying, and if you pray hard enough and read your Bible long enough, you're going to get that gift. No, no, no. It's a grace gift. The word is charisma. It is a gift, but it's the same Spirit.

He says there are different kinds of service. The Greek word there is diakonia. It's a waiting word. It's an apron word. Like a waiter would come, this is serving people. He says there are different kinds of service, but it is the same Lord.

And then he says there are different kinds of working. The word there is energēmata. It's saying there is activity, but it's God who is actually doing it. And he ties it all to the Trinity. Different gifts, but the same Spirit. Different service, but the same Lord. Different workings, but it is the same God.

What is a spiritual gift?

So what are the gifts of the Spirit? I want to give you a definition so you can be informed. A spiritual gift is a grace-given ability, that's the word charisma, through which the Holy Spirit works, that's the word energēmata, for the good of or in service to others. That's the word diakonia. Let me read it again. A spiritual gift is a grace-given ability through which the Holy Spirit works for the good of others.

Let me make that plain. Some people say, "Can you explain it to me?" Okay, I'm going to explain it to you. A spiritual gift is God at work through you for someone who isn't you.

So my question today is this: what are the gifts God has placed in your hands that are actually the answer to someone else's prayer? God wants to use you to answer that prayer someone else has. And He's saying, "I put it in your hands. I just need you to use it."

And you're like, "Brad, but I don't have any spiritual gifts." Yes, you do. Because in verse 7 he says this: "A spiritual gift is given to each of us." Do me a favor and say "each." Here's my question: are you an each? It has been given to each of us "so we can help each other."

What spiritual gifts are not

And you're like, "Okay, it's been given to each of us. I get that. But I don't understand what they are." So before I tell you what they are, I'm going to tell you what they are not, because I think there's a lot of misinformation about the spiritual gifts.

1. Spiritual gifts are not natural talents

The first thing, if you're taking notes, write this down: spiritual gifts are not natural talents. Some of you are gifted in business. Some of you are gifted at school. We remember you. You're the people in school, when we're all trying to get out and praying the teacher doesn't remember the homework, and you're like, "Teacher, isn't there homework?" And we're like, "Why are you here? Why are you speaking?" You have the gift in school. Some people have gifts when it comes to singing.

You need to know this: when you are born naturally, God gives you natural talents. But when you are born spiritually, God gives you spiritual gifts. And they are different. You have unbelievers who can sing really well. Singing is not a spiritual gift. Gifts are Spirit-empowered. They're not personality-powered.

2. Spiritual gifts are not for the elite few

The second thing is this: spiritual gifts are not for the elite few. God isn't like, "You've been so good, so I'm going to give you a gift. You've been so bad, no gifts for you." It's not like Santa giving out gifts, and you get coal because you've been bad. That's not how it works. It's not for the elite few. It is for everyone. It is for each. Again, are you an each?

3. Spiritual gifts are not the fruit of the Spirit

The third thing is this: spiritual gifts are not the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5. We did an entire series on that. That is our values as a church: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those aren't gifts of the Spirit. Those are fruit of the Spirit.

I've talked to people who say, "Brad, I don't have the gift of love. I don't have the gift of joy. I wake up in the morning and I don't have that gift." It's not a gift. It's a fruit, and we're supposed to have all of them. It's like an apple tree. How do you know an apple tree is an apple tree? It produces apples. If you have the Spirit of God inside of you, you should be producing all of this fruit. That's how we know you're a Christian. That's how we know the Holy Spirit is inside of you. If someone says they're following God but the fruit is never evident in their life, they might be a cultural Christian but not an actual Christian. They might say they're following Jesus, but they're not following Jesus. Now, your fruit may be small. You might be a baby, like, "I'm starting to follow Jesus." But there will still be fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence. Spiritual gifts are not the fruit of the Spirit.

4. Spiritual gifts are not something to fear

The fourth thing is this: spiritual gifts are not something to fear. I said this at the beginning of the series. The gifts of the Spirit are not weird. People just be weird, man. People just do weird stuff. Now, I grew up charismatic, so I've been to the weird. There are times I'll see something and I'll be like, man, that's disorderly, and that's not of God. And I think some of you may have experienced places like that, and you've rejected the spiritual gifts because someone did something weird. Let me just tell you something: the Holy Spirit is not weird. He ain't weird. And these gifts are for you. God wants to help you use these gifts. They are given to you so that you can minister to people. And it's something I desire, because I want to minister to more and more people as God gives me the ability.

5. Spiritual gifts are not a spiritual maturity badge

The last one is this: spiritual gifts are not a spiritual maturity badge. It's not like you have one gift, and because you have that gift, you're super special. And this is kind of what was happening in 1 Corinthians. We don't know exactly what was happening, but there was this ranking of spiritual gifts. I think it might have been about tongues, because Paul spends a disproportionate amount of time talking about tongues.

We'll talk more about that next week, because I think it's probably the most controversial. We're going to talk about it, and it's going to be beautiful and great. I encourage you to come. You can bring your friends. It ain't going to be weird, because I am not weird. But I think this is important. I don't know if I've said this to the church: I speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues does not make me better than you. It makes me better than me. One gift is not more important than another gift.

Paul talks about this. It's a long scripture, but I think it's so important for you to grasp. 1 Corinthians 12:12: "The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ." Verse 18: "But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it." Verse 21: "The eye can never say to the hand, 'I don't need you.' The head can't say to the feet, 'I don't need you.' In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary."

Some of you feel like the gifts you have are so behind the scenes that they aren't necessary. "I'm not speaking up front like Brad." Yo, this church is run on prayer. There are people behind that curtain praying for you. The backbone of our church is not this. The backbone of our church is prayer. Something that is hidden can actually be more important.

It says, "And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad."

Isn't that beautiful? All gifts are necessary. It is not a maturity badge. And the proof of that is the Corinthian church, because they had all the gifts in their church, and yet they were acting like toddlers. You can have all the gifts in a church, and people can still act that way.

Some people might not know this, but 1 Corinthians was actually not the first letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. The reason you know that is, if you read chapter 5, he refers to "the letter that I wrote you." And if you read chapter 7, he refers to "the letter that you wrote me." In other words, 1 Corinthians is a response to a letter that was written to Paul. Which is why when he says, "Now about the gifts," he's answering a question they had. "Now about all those gifts you're asking about, I do not want you to be uninformed."

What are the four categories of spiritual gifts?

So let me tell you what the spiritual gifts are. There are four categories in the Bible. If you're taking notes, we're not going to hit all of them. The first is motivational gifts. You can find them in Romans 12. The second is manifestation gifts. You can find them in 1 Corinthians 12, and that's what we're going to hit today. The third is ministry gifts. You can find them in 1 Corinthians 14. And the fourth is ministerial gifts. You can find them in Ephesians 4. Those are not gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those are the gifts of Jesus that He has given to the church: the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher.

A lot of these gifts remain unopened by the body of Christ, so my goal today is that you can open them. I want to talk about the manifestation gifts found in 1 Corinthians 12, and I pray many of you will be activated in these and start to operate in them in a brand-new way.

Verse 7 says this: "Now to each one," again, everyone say "each," just in case you think you're counted out of this verse, "to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." Verse 8: "To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom." That's one of the gifts. "To another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers," or the working of miracles, "to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits," or the discernment of spirits, "to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines."

The gifts are given, not owned

Let me comment on these gifts. These gifts are given. They are not owned. Say it again: these gifts are given. They are not owned.

Sometimes people will come up to me and ask, "How many gifts of the Spirit do you have? Are you a five-gift person? A three-gift person? A seven-gift person?" You need to know this: I don't own any of the gifts. I steward the gifts. I don't have them in that absolute sense. The Holy Spirit has them, and I have the Holy Spirit. I have access to the Holy Spirit, and He chooses to manifest those gifts through me.

But so often we pray for someone, and someone might be healed, and we're like, "I have the gift of healing. You need to call me healer. My name is Brad, and I'm a healer. You can call me prophet." Or if you're a girl, "You can call me prophetess." These things can happen, and all of a sudden we're like, this is just who I am. This is just what I do. But you pray for one person and they're healed, and you pray for another person and they're not. You can't just turn it on. Why? It's not yours. It's the Holy Spirit. He is working in and through us.

I remember hearing a story about Reinhard Bonnke, a German evangelist in Africa who saw 79 million people give their lives to Christ. Don't miss that. 79 million people. I saw him in an interview, and someone asked him, "How many gifts do you have?" And he said, "None of them." They asked, "What do you mean?" And he said, "Sometimes I wake up and God says, 'Today I want to use you to heal some people. Here's a hammer.' And I use the hammer. Other times He says, 'Today I want to use you to give prophetic words. Here's a spanner.' And at the end of the day, I give those back to God." He said, "Some days God says, 'Today I'm going to enable you to do this,' and other days, 'I'm going to enable you to do this.' None of them are mine." The Holy Spirit just chooses to work through him at specific times in specific places.

The gifts are given. The Bible talks about that. But I think we get it messed up when we think we own these gifts. We don't own them.

My son, Saint, thinks he has an iPad. My guy thinks he has an iPad. We go on a trip, and he's like, "I'm going to watch the iPad." So we're driving, and I give him the iPad and put on a show for him. And then my daughter, who's one, reaches for the iPad, and he says, "No, my iPad." And I'm like, "Boy, you don't have an iPad. Did you pay for that iPad?" "No." "Did you charge that iPad?" "No." "Did you download YouTube? Did you put on the show?" "No." "You don't have an iPad. You have a father. And your father has an iPad. And your father has given you the iPad."

The gifts are not ours. They are His. I don't have them. He has them. But He gives them to me for a moment, and it is my job to steward what He has given. Does that make sense? We don't own them. We steward them. And there are times He chooses to manifest them through us.

That's what was happening in 1 Corinthians. They started to rank it. "I think I'm kind of better than you, because here's what I did." They moved from "look what God is doing" to "look what I can do." And if we ever get to that place, we are in a dangerous, dangerous place.

What are the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit?

So let me give you these nine spiritual gifts. Lord, help me. It's going to be great. I could preach a sermon on every single one of them, but we're going to fly through this. Nine gifts, and I'm going to put them in three categories, because that's going to make it easy for you. You've got discerning gifts, declarative gifts, and dynamic gifts.

The discerning gifts

The first category is the discerning gifts.

1. The word of knowledge

The first one is the word of knowledge. Here's the definition: to know something specific without having learned it by natural means. Have y'all ever had something you just knew, and you shouldn't have known what you knew? God just told you something, and you're like, "I just know this is the case."

Ladies, I feel like most of you have this gift, because y'all just know when people are pregnant. I'll be walking and see a girl, and Paige is like, "She's pregnant." She's like two weeks pregnant, and Paige says, "She's pregnant." I'm like, "How do you know that?" And she's like, "I just know." Ladies, you just know. I don't know how it works, but you just know. Us guys? She can be nine months pregnant, about to give birth, big belly, and we're like, "We're not going near that." I'm not going to say she's pregnant, because there have been times I've said it and I'm wrong. I do not have that. But ladies, you have that gift for some reason.

I'm being dumb, but how many of you have ever actually known something you shouldn't have known? Jesus operated in this all the time. He had knowledge He shouldn't have known. When He met the woman at the well in John 4, He said, "Go get your husband." And she said, "I don't have a husband." And He said, "You're right. You've had five, and the man you're living with now is not your husband." And she said, "Sir, I think You're a prophet."

Jesus operated in all of these gifts because He had the Holy Spirit. I know you might be thinking, "Yeah, but that's Jesus. Of course He operated in them." No, no, no. You must remember Jesus laid down the privileges of His divinity, and when He moved in power, it was with the enablement of the Holy Spirit. That's why He was able to do what He did.

And the reason you know that is, when did Jesus start doing miracles? After His baptism. That's when you start seeing it happen. In Luke 3:22, He is baptized, and the Holy Spirit descends on Him. Luke 4:1 says Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and was led into the wilderness. He is tempted in verses 1 through 13, and in Luke 4:14 He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Now Jesus is moving in the power of the Spirit, and that means He was completely yielded to the Holy Spirit. He moved in full power. John 3:34: "For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit." Jesus had the Spirit without limit because He was fully consecrated to God.

And I think some of us have the Spirit, but we're not moving in the power of the Spirit because we have sin in our lives. We have a bunch of things in our lives. The Holy Spirit is trying to speak to us, and we're ignoring Him. We're searing our conscience. What we need to do is repent. Say, "Father, forgive me," come back to Him, and say, "Holy Spirit, fill me." Then we can begin to move in greater and greater things God has for us. We have to be consecrated. Jesus moved in the full power of the Spirit. Acts 1:8 uses that same word: "You will receive power."

I'm sure this has happened to you. It's happened to me. I was praying for a guy once, and I didn't know who he was. As I was praying for him, I felt like God gave me a picture of a building. So I'm trying to give him this word I feel like I have for him, about a building. And I leave, and I talk to my dad, and my dad asks, "Who were you praying for?" I say, "Him." My dad asks, "What were you saying?" I told him, and my dad said, "You know he's an architect, right?" And I said, "No." But as I was praying for him, God was giving me all these architectural metaphors. What is that? It's a word of knowledge. I had no way of knowing that, but in that moment the Holy Spirit loved him so much that He wanted to get a message to him.

2. The word of wisdom

The second one is the word of wisdom. Here's the definition: a divine answer or solution for a particular event.

You see this in John 9. There's a man born blind, and the Pharisees come up to him and ask, "Who healed you?" And he says, "This man, Jesus." And they say, "That man is not from God." And he turns to them and says, "It's crazy, because since the beginning of time, no one has ever heard of a man born blind being healed. And if that's the case, it can only be God." And they were speechless. What was that? A word of wisdom. How many of you would like to be in a moment where the Holy Spirit gives you a word of wisdom for the situation you're in, that you couldn't have known by yourself?

I remember the 2008 housing market crash. My dad was a real estate broker, and it got so bad for our family. I was a teenager at the time, and what my dad used to make in a couple of days, he made in a year. We were on the verge of bankruptcy for an entire year. And I still to this day cannot tell you how it happened. But I remember watching my dad every day, walking around the block crying, literally crying, praying to God for wisdom. Day by day, it was like daily bread. God would give him insight into a situation or a business deal, and He sustained us through that entire time. What is that? A word of wisdom. If you ask him, it was wisdom he did not have by himself.

3. The discernment of spirits

The third one is the discernment of spirits. This is to be made aware of the presence of a demonic spirit.

You see it in Acts 16. Paul and Silas are walking in Philippi, and there's a girl with a demon inside of her. She does a lot of divination. And in verse 17 she says, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." Watch this. Every word she was saying was true. She was actually giving them credibility in a city where she was known as a spiritual leader and they were not. And the Bible says Paul turns to her, annoyed, and casts the spirit out.

Why would he do that? It's free advertising. Here's why. Paul needed discernment, not to know that what she was saying was accurate, but to know that what she was saying was coming from the wrong place. It was accurate, but it was from the wrong source. And if he came into agreement with that, he would be coming into agreement with someone who was demon-possessed, who was part of the slave trade. And Paul said, "No, I'm not going to be a part of that." You need to know this: discerning of spirits is not primarily about detecting hostility. It's about detecting the source when the content sounds right.

Is there a spiritual gift of discernment?

A little note on this. People often say, "I have the spiritual gift of discernment." There is actually no spiritual gift of discernment. People are like, "I just got that gift of discernment." No, no, no. It's the discerning of spirits. Now, the Bible tells us we need to be discerning. We do need to be discerning people. But often when people say, "I've got the spiritual gift of discernment," don't hate me, I don't think you have the spiritual gift of discernment. Sometimes we say that, but what we actually have is the spiritual gift of criticism. We good? Y'all love me? Are we okay? "I'm really discerning. I just sense something's off about her." And what we have is the spiritual gift of gossip.

It's discerning of spirits, which means I can tell there's something behind that thing that is operating and isn't right. Now, I'm not saying God can't warn you about someone. You can have a word of knowledge about someone. But I think sometimes we call it discernment when it's actually criticism. I love y'all. Let's move on.

The declarative gifts

The second category is the declarative gifts. These are things you would use your tongue to declare.

4. Prophecy

The first one is prophecy, which is a message of encouragement from God through a person. 1 Corinthians 14:3 describes it: "But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort."

I want you to know this: the spiritual gift of prophecy in the New Testament is encouragement, not condemnation and not correction. People say, "I have a prophetic word for you," and they start correcting someone and then tag on, "Thus saith the Lord." No, no, no. Not "thus saith the Lord." Thus saith you. And let me just say, if you're condemning someone in the name of a prophetic word, I have the discernment of spirits to say that's not from God. Prophecy is encouraging. It builds you up. That's what it's supposed to be. 1 Corinthians 14:31: "For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged." The enemy is the one who condemns.

5. Tongues

The next declarative gift is tongues: a message from God in a language unknown to the person through whom the message comes. I'm going to talk about that all of next week, because there is a benefit of the Spirit which is tongues. Benefit, not evidence. Some people think you only have the Holy Spirit if you have the evidence of speaking in tongues. Uh-uh. It's not evidence. It's a benefit. Let's make sure we get that right.

What's the difference between the gift of tongues and the grace of tongues?

You need to know that in Scripture there's a big difference between the gift of tongues and the grace of tongues. You can have a gift to do something, and you can also do something and not have that gift. I have faith. I don't know if I have the gift of faith. I can sing. I don't know if I have the gift of singing. Some of y'all think you have the gift of singing, but nah, you can just sing. And others of you have the gift of singing.

The gift of tongues is a message directed to people that requires interpretation. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 14. The grace of tongues is a prayer language directed to God. One is rare and governed, and the other, Paul says, builds you up. I believe not everyone can operate in the gift of tongues, but I believe everyone can operate in the grace of tongues. Does that make sense? In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is specifically not talking about the grace. He is talking about the gift.

Why don't we speak in tongues during the service?

Sometimes people come up to me and say, "Brad, this is Spirit Church." I'm like, "Yeah." "Spirit-filled?" "Yeah." "Spirit-led?" "Yeah." "Then why don't we pray in tongues in a service?" And I'm like, "Oh, easy. Because the Bible tells us not to." "What do you mean?" Okay, let me show you.

1 Corinthians 14:23: "So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?" Yes. Can you imagine? You brought someone far from God, and I'm up here just doing the thing, and they're like, "Where have you brought me? What is going on?" They don't even understand what is happening. Thank God you can bring your unsaved friends, and we're not going to do weird stuff. Paul says they're going to think you're out of your mind. You're like, "Brad, please behave." I'm trying. That's what it says.

Verse 27: "If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God."

I've been in services where someone has come up to me and said, "I feel like I have a tongue." And I'm like, "Okay, let's wait and see if there's an interpretation." Then someone else, who didn't even know that happened, comes and says, "I feel like God has given me an interpretation of something." Very rare, but I've seen it happen.

I was once at a service with a bunch of leaders, all pastors, and we were in worship. It was a low moment of worship, and someone broke out in this three-sentence tongue. I was like, "That's kind of out of order. You didn't check if that was okay." Then I thought, "We're all pastors, so I think this is fine." And literally, as they finished their last word, someone on the opposite side of the auditorium interpreted. Same cadence, same length. And the entire room shifted. It was one of the most powerful things I'd ever seen. But it was a room full of believers. Paul guides it. He says we're not just going to do crazy stuff. There's guidance to it.

6. Interpretation of tongues

Which brings us to the third declarative gift, the interpretation of tongues. It's understanding or expressing the thought or intent behind the message in tongues. It says interpretation, not translation. When you read your Bible, you read a translation. What is a translation? Word for word. What is an interpretation? It's, "Here's kind of what they mean." Does that make sense?

We all have different interpretations of things. If you ask Paige, "How was your day?" she says, "It was good," because her interpretation of that question is "it was good." You ask me, "Brad, how was your day?" and I'm like, "Well, I woke up, I made some coffee, it was so great, I had oatmeal." I'll give you the whole gamut. I don't know why, but we're flipped. Maybe that's why I'm up here. I'm the talker in our relationship. But at ladies' night, she's going to be the talker. So you've got to come to that. It's going to be fun.

We have different interpretations of things. The interpretation of tongues is saying, "Hey, here's what that means." 1 Corinthians 14:5 says this: "I would like every one of you to speak in tongues." Let me just say, if you don't believe in it, you have to come to grips with that passage, because Paul didn't just write that. The Holy Spirit did, through Paul. "I would like every one of you to speak in tongues." Is this okay? Am I challenging you? "But I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues." And people are like, "Yes, see, tongues don't count. Prophecy is where it's at." No, no, no. "Unless someone interprets," then they're the same, "so that the church may be edified." Does that make sense? It is a gift of the Spirit.

The dynamic gifts

The last category is the dynamic gifts. Dynamic, dunamis. It's where we get the word for power. Acts 1:8: "You will receive power." In other words, these are the gifts that are explosive. The Holy Spirit explodes out through you.

7. Faith

The first one is faith. Definition: a supernatural impartation of belief and confidence for a specific situation.

I told y'all, I have faith, but I don't have the gift of faith. There are people in our church who have the gift of faith. They'll come up to me and say, "Brad, I'm praying for a building." And I'm like, "That's crazy. I've been in church before. It kind of takes like five years. You need to pray a ton and save a ton. I don't know how that's going to happen." And they're like, "No, no, no. I'm praying." They have faith. And I'm like, praise God. If you're praying, I'll pray with you. They have the gift of faith. I don't have the gift, but I'm going to share your faith. It's going to be awesome. Let's do this together.

Have you ever gone through a difficult time and God gave you supernatural faith for that situation? You shouldn't have had faith, but you did. That's the Holy Spirit working in us.

8. Gifts of healings

The second dynamic gift is the gifts of healings. Here's the definition: supernatural endowment of divine health.

I've mentioned this before, but when I was a teenager, I remember going to a worship night, and a guy came in who was paralyzed. He had been paralyzed in a car accident, and he was going to stay paralyzed. We felt like the Lord was telling us to pray for him, so we prayed for him, and that night he got up and took one step. And we were like, "This is crazy." It was a Friday night, and we didn't see him the rest of the weekend. But on Monday, he walked into school. Y'all can clap for that. That's God. That's awesome.

Another time, I remember praying for someone who had chronic pain in his lower back. I felt like God told me to pray for him. So of course I prayed for him, and I asked, "How do you feel?" And he said, "I feel exactly the same." And I said, "Oh no." So I said, "Let's pray again." I prayed again and asked, "How do you feel?" And he said, "I'm still in pain." And I said, "Jesus, help me." I prayed for him again and asked, "How do you feel?" And he said, "I feel exactly the same." And now I'm trying to back out of this. I'm like, "You know, Paul had a thorn in his flesh," just trying to come up with anything to get out of the situation.

But the next day, our receptionist at our office came up to me and said, "Hey, were you at this campus yesterday?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "A man called in and said some dude with massive holes in his ears prayed for him." I used to have gauges, so I was like, "That was me." And she said, "He wanted you to know that God healed him in his sleep last night." And I remember in that moment, the Holy Spirit said to me, "I didn't heal him in that moment, because if I had, you would have thought it was you. So I needed to heal him apart from you, so that you would know it's Me." Gifts of healings. We see it. We will see it. We believe for it.

9. The working of miracles

The final one is the working of miracles, which is a divine intervention that alters our natural circumstances.

Question: has anyone ever seen a miracle before? Lift up your hand if you've ever seen God do a miracle. Do me a favor and look around. There are people who believe the gifts of God have stopped. People believe that after Acts they stopped. If it has happened just once since the book of Acts, that statement is not true. And we just had an entire room put up their hands. We have seen miracles. God is a miracle-working God. That's who He is. He does miracles. He's done it throughout the Old Testament. And I don't know how your theology can say that as the world gets older, God is less and less powerful. No, He still wants to move. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God does miracles. You're breathing. That's a miracle. Everything about that is a miracle.

When we have our worship night on Saturday night, it's not going to be weird. It's going to be powerful. But we're going to pray for miracles. If you're sick, come. We're going to pray. If you have a friend who's sick, bring them. Let's pray. Let's trust God. If you're trusting God for something, come. We're going to pray, and we're going to trust God. The gifts are at work today.

How do I find my spiritual gifts?

So you're like, "Brad, what should I do about all of those?"

1. Discover your gifts

You should discover your gifts. People can come up to you and say, "Hey, I feel like you have this gift." That's one way. Another way is by knowing what the gifts are. It's why we encourage people to go through Growth Track. What we want to do in Growth Track is expose you to the list of gifts, and you're like, "Okay, cool. I'm starting to understand what those gifts are." Discover your gifts.

2. Develop your gifts

Then you need to start developing your gifts. When you get saved, maybe you want to be a greeter, because someone greeted you when you were far from God, and you felt like the church was going to reject you, but they accepted you. That might be what you need to do. But as you grow, you might say, "Okay, I can greet, but I want to lead a group. I want to disciple people. I want to walk one-on-one with people." What's happening? You're growing in maturity. When you're a baby apple tree, a couple of people can eat of your fruit. But when you become a mature tree, more and more people can eat of your fruit. Does that make sense? It's okay to start in a specific place. And if you don't know where to start, start somewhere. Start developing and using the gifts God has for you. Paul says to Timothy, stir up the gift that God has placed inside of you.

3. Use your gifts

And the final thing is, you've just got to use them, man. You've got to start using your gifts, because as you do, you're going to see the power that can actually come.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made

One final verse, and we'll pray. Psalm 139:13 says this: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." The same way He gave you a hair color, He gave you gifts. This is David: "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

I think for men that's so easy to say. Women, you go up to a mirror and point out all the bad things. Men, it doesn't matter what's wrong. You might have picked up 20 pounds, and you're like, "Hey, what's up, dude?" For some men, it's easy to say, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." "Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Many people can't say this. He wants you to know that full well.

It says this: "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." I just believe there are people in this room who have made some mistakes. You have done some things. Hear me: every single one of us has a day we hope no one finds out about. And it says all my days were written in His book before one of them came to be. What I love about God is, man, there are some chapters in my story that I have written that God didn't write, but He can still make the final chapter fit.

If you want to go to Sedona, you can drive north, or you can get there through Yuma. It's going to take you longer, but you can get there. Some of you are in Yuma thinking, "I have missed it." And God is saying, "No, you can still get to the place you need to go. I can still make it fit, because I'm that good."

Here's what I want us to do, as we've been doing throughout this entire series. I want you to take 30 seconds. Say, "Holy Spirit, what are You saying to me?" Just listen to Him. What is my next step? What do You want me to do? Take 30 seconds and ask Him.

Thank You, Jesus. Lord Jesus, I pray for every single person who's here. Holy Spirit, I pray that You'll speak, that You'll do what only You can do. Show them their gifts. Help them develop their gifts. Help them use their gifts. Let us not be afraid of it. May we operate in the power You have for us.

While you continue praying, there might be some people here who need to discover their gifts. And some of you just need to discover Jesus. You've never said yes to Him. You're not walking with Him. You're not walking in the gifts of the Holy Spirit because you're not walking with Jesus. Maybe someone's told you about Jesus. Maybe you're worried about the mistakes you've made. You need to know that Jesus died for your mistakes, and you can come back to God. You can be in relationship with a God who loves you, who wants to spend eternity with you. All you have to do is say yes to Jesus. The Bible says that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you're here and you've never made that decision, I want to encourage you to pray this prayer. Just pray it after me: "Dear Jesus, I know that You're the Son of God and the Savior of this world. I know You came to this earth, You died on a cross, and You were raised so that I can have life. And right now I make You my Lord. I make You my Savior. In Jesus' name."