Nine Gifts Hanging in the Air: How to Catch What God Imparts

Sermon outline

God has already given all nine gifts of the Spirit to His church, and they are imparted when believers gather, so come to church hungry like a child, take hold of what is released and keep standing on the word.

1. You must be born again, and stay lit up

   Without Christ you have no light. A believer who stops going after the Word and the things of God can quench the Spirit until the life goes out of them, so keep loving God and pressing in whatever pressures come. Being a Christian is highly challenging, but Jesus said to deny yourself and follow Him.

   Illustration: His wife met someone they had led to the Lord years before who now looked terrible; she had stopped going to church a year earlier.

   “There's only one life. It's forward.”

   • Genesis 2:17
   • John 8:12
   • 1 Thessalonians 5:19
   • Luke 9:23

2. All nine gifts have been given to the church

   Reading 1 Corinthians 12 together, he says the church will 'labour' this passage for the next few Wednesdays. There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit, nine gifts in all, and God wants His church to know about all nine and operate in them. A born-again believer is not seeking God's presence but already has it, in the Father's bosom. God is not holding the gifts back; they are for us to take hold of.

   “We are not trying to get God's presence. We have God's presence.”

   • 1 Corinthians 12:1-13
   • John 1:18

3. Spiritual gifts are imparted

   Paul wrote to the Romans that he longed to see them so that he could impart some spiritual gift to them. So when the church gathers for prayer, Bible study or Sunday service, you may catch something. We keep the gifts from ourselves because we don't know what they are or how to receive them, so come hungry and desiring.

   “When I come like this, you must be ready to catch something.”

   • Romans 1:1-11

4. Make church your custom

   Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath 'as His custom was', and there He announced that the Scripture was fulfilled in their ears. Many of the things you are praying and waiting for will be transmitted to you in the congregation of the saints, a spiritual transference you catch in the Spirit and see manifest later. Coming to church is never a waste of time. You are not tombstones but living stones and living epistles, already revived, sent to raise up the spiritually dead.

   “You're not tombstones, you are living stones.”

   • Luke 4:16-21
   • 2 Timothy 1:6
   • 1 Peter 2:5
   • 2 Corinthians 3:2

5. Receive like a little child

   God is doing something; the difficulty is that His people do not know how to receive. If you come with your dignified self, you will leave with empty hands. Come with an open heart like a child, and what took him many years to learn you can simply believe and receive.

   Illustration: A child at the ice-cream counter doesn't politely say 'I want ice cream'; it's 'Mommy, I want this flavour, and that one, and that one'.

   “If you come with your dignified self, you will not be able to receive.”

   • Mark 10:15

6. Wage a good warfare with your prophecy

   When you have received a word of prophecy and do not see it manifest within days, weeks or months, don't give up. We are used to fast food and instant everything, but God does not work on our time frame: sometimes the answer comes now, sometimes later, sometimes after challenges, but if God said it, it must work.

   Illustration: Just before the service, a pastor from another town phoned to say that his church had grown from 15 people to 120 since he prophesied over him, and that for two nights he had dreamed of him preaching to thousands who came to the Lord.

   “If God said it, it must work.”

   • 1 Timothy 1:18