KEYNOTES

 

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Brixham Baptist Church - 4 part Seminar series

 

Sunday 12^th July 2009 – 6.30pm

 

 

Part 1 - PRAYING FOR,(encouraging prayer) for

RECEIVING SPIRITUAL GIFTS

 

The practice of Spiritual Gifts.

 

One of the big challenges the Church always faces is the aspect of releasing Christians into their ministry. (especially its young people)

 

·        When are they ready?

·        Have they had enough experience?

·        When can someone preach publicly for the first time?

·        Striving for excellence, we don’t take the risk of anything that appears second best, or risk failure.

·        Our expectation of what corporate worship should consist of, may not always give us the freedom that we need to discover and develop our gifts and ministries.

 

Spiritual gifts should generally be practised within the context of the local Church.

 

Be prepared and come prepared to receive and give.

1 Cor 14:1 – Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.

 

1 Cor 12:31 – But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

What the greater gifts are is not certain. Some have said being apostles or prophets – some think it the fruits of the Spirit and not the gifts. Others say that both are correct.

 

God wants us to express our desire to receive His gifts.

Matthew 7:11b – how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him.

 

John Wesley wrote “It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the emperor Constantine called himself a Christian… From this time they almost ceased; very few instances of the kind were found. The cause was not… because there was no more occasion for them…

The real cause was the love of many, almost of all Christians, so called, was waxed cold.. This was the real cause why extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer found in the Christian Church”.

 

We all need to experience “more of the Lord” – to grow and mature. Many Christians speak of “the more” they either feel is lacking in their lives or that they desire in their Christian experience.

 

These words came to me a few weeks ago – “Without the Spirit of God, there will be no “more” to our Christian lives”.

 

(The Spirit of God is the “more” we desire to experience. More comes by our desiring, seeking and praying for the fullness of the Spirit)

What do you desire more of at this time in your Christian life? – faith, hope, love, joy, healing, power to witness…

It’s all BY My Spirit says the LORD. (Zech 4:6)

 

I’m sensing that one of the aspects of discipleship that we need to break-through with to enable us to receive from the Lord and minister to others is: the aspect of praying. HOW & WHAT?

 

Scripture tells us that this is a known weakness.

Rom 8:26 – The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what (or how – NIV footnote) we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

27b – the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

 

The 3 hurdles.

 

1.  Fear of speaking publicly. (Acts 1:8 – you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in…..

 

2. Fear that what we speak won’t sound right (fear of man) = the fear of man will prove to be a snare – (Proverbs 29:25a) - but we must practice prayer.  Trust God, when you pray in faith from a heart that desires to speak to God (private and public) – Jesus by His Spirit intercedes for you.

 

3. We don’t feel worthy. 1 Timothy 2:8 says “I want men/women everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing. Jesus is our righteousness. You are worthy. If we have sinned against God or another brother/sister or anyone – we should make things right with them – just as we should examine ourselves before we share communion.

 

1. If we can’t practice praying in Church (or home groups) with other believers and get it wrong, what hope is there?
2. Praying publicly will also reveal our passion, compassion and other emotions. It will be costly.
3. When we learn to release our prayers and praise audibly to the Lord, we will experience a great freedom and confidence in what we are asking.

 

 

The starting point for all ministry in the Holy Spirit is to pray “Come Holy Spirit – teach me and help me to pray to you – teach me and help me to praise you”.

We can pray that for ourselves and for one another.

 

The communication gifts (the ones mostly evident in Church Congregation meetings) of tongues, interpretation and prophecy, cannot be exercised without us praying, praising and speaking out loud.(audibly) It’s unlikely that we will praise the Lord in other tongues if we don’t do it in our language first.

 

Psalm 27:7 – Hear my voice when I call O Lord.

Psalm 80:80 - .. We will call on your name (LORD Jesus)

Psalm 65:8 – You call forth songs of joy.

Psalm 71:23 – My lips will shout for joy

 

In Acts 4:24 – they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

 

 

With reference to Spiritual Gifts.

 

·        We must not neglect our spiritual gift(s) Exercise the gifts God gives to you

·        Pursue gifts – stir them up – fan them into flame – this pleases God.

·        Understand – God desires to use you - therefore eagerly desire to be used in spiritual gifts.

·        Seek to excel in spiritual gifts that build up the Church.

 

Practicing Prayer. (LORD Teach us to PRAY!)

 

(To encourage audible prayer and praise from all congregation.)

 

·        Either write your own words of praise or find a Psalm from bible; the Lord’s Prayer - then speak them out loud together. We’re not listening to each other, we’re speaking to God, and HE HEARS YOU>

·        Express aloud words and lines of praise – in thanksgiving to God for hearing our prayers. He is going to act.

·        Make your requests to the Lord. Ask him to fill you afresh with His Holy Spirit – Come Holy Spirit - continue to worship & praise as you do. You may sense the Holy Spirit giving you a few syllables of anew language – speak them out.

 

E.g. Hallelujah – Praise You Lord – (make the context to the Lord, not just about Him) You are mighty Lord. I love you Jesus.

 

·        Ask the Holy Spirit to bring words of worship and adoration into your mind, and speak them out – ALOUD!

 

Praying for spiritual gifts for yourself and others

 

·        Lord, please grant me/person, the gift of…….. prophecy, tongues, interpretation, wisdom, discernment, knowledge, healing, miracles, faith… to build up your Church and to glorify your Name.

·        Other gifts: serving, teaching, encouraging, motivation, hospitality, administration, contributing to needs of others, leadership, showing mercy, evangelists, pastors, missionary, helping, intercession – Pray for God’s mission and ministry to be fulfilled in your/another person’s life.

·        Ask the Holy Spirit to quicken to your mind, what His gifts to you are at this time. What has your heart/passion? What do you love to do? What other gifts do you need to serve?