The Same Spirit
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4Devotional Series: Why Tongues
Teaching: Why Tongues? pt. 2 (SUN_PM 2023-07-16) by Pastor Star R Scott
Paul, by the Holy Spirit, introduces to us, the order that God wants for the church. Now I’ll say this before we get into the specifics. The one thing that will dictate order in the church as it pertains to the gifts of the Spirit is Chapter 13, love. Amen? Love—preference for one another—will contribute to the order of these gifts that are in operation. Love, which is not puffed up. So, as God uses me in the spirit, I don’t think that I’m better than anybody else. We are not that great someone that we read about this morning in Samaria, who had mesmerized the people through all of his signs and wonders. Love takes on the garment of servant. Love washes feet. Love prefers others. Love humbles itself.
Paul, speaking here, said, “I don’t want you ignorant concerning these gifts.” It’s unique, because other than Jehovah God, all of these other religions that were serving idols were serving what Paul refers to here in the next verse as “dumb idols.” Dumb meaning the inability to speak, right? Isn’t it amazing, all of these people, even today, are serving a god or gods or Hinduism, thirty thousand gods. That’s a tough one, who do you call on? Thirty thousand gods and none of them speak. We, as believers, have a living God abiding within us, a communion, made one with Him, are to be in constant dialogue, communication, with our God, and the indwelling Holy Spirit is what enables that. This is inferring to me—and as we go on in the Scripture, we’ll see it to bear it out—this is inferring to me that God is trying to get our attention. Our God speaks, are we listening? How noisy is our life? How many other voices are vying for your heart, for your mind? We all know how amazing it is for a mother’s ear to be tuned in for the voice of her child. We have our God, then, wanting to speak to us. He goes on and he tells us in this twelfth chapter, (I don’t want to bog down here in the twelfth chapter.) But he said you’ve been given to these dumb idols. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. That indwelling presence, that communion, that declaration of His lordship as it pertains to us personally and to His church corporately.
He addresses them and says, “Now, I want you to understand that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4). Amen? It’s the same Spirit that is operating in all of these gifts. We’re talking about pagans. There’s not a god per gift; okay? One God, one baptism, one body, one faith; amen? These gifts then, though they are diverse, they come from the same Spirit for the purpose of bringing the revelation of God, praise to God, worship to God, edifying of His body. We’re going to go through this part very quickly because I want to get to Chapter 14. He talks about the diversities of gifts and of governments and these different things. As he goes down into this chapter, he says in verse 6, “And there are diversities of operations…” That word “operations” means effects, a diversity of effects. Each gift has a separate effect, purpose. Though there is cooperation and unification, there is not an overlapping of one gift taking from the other. You’ll see why that’s important to Paul as we go on in the study.
Paul, speaking here, said, “I don’t want you ignorant concerning these gifts.” It’s unique, because other than Jehovah God, all of these other religions that were serving idols were serving what Paul refers to here in the next verse as “dumb idols.” Dumb meaning the inability to speak, right? Isn’t it amazing, all of these people, even today, are serving a god or gods or Hinduism, thirty thousand gods. That’s a tough one, who do you call on? Thirty thousand gods and none of them speak. We, as believers, have a living God abiding within us, a communion, made one with Him, are to be in constant dialogue, communication, with our God, and the indwelling Holy Spirit is what enables that. This is inferring to me—and as we go on in the Scripture, we’ll see it to bear it out—this is inferring to me that God is trying to get our attention. Our God speaks, are we listening? How noisy is our life? How many other voices are vying for your heart, for your mind? We all know how amazing it is for a mother’s ear to be tuned in for the voice of her child. We have our God, then, wanting to speak to us. He goes on and he tells us in this twelfth chapter, (I don’t want to bog down here in the twelfth chapter.) But he said you’ve been given to these dumb idols. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. That indwelling presence, that communion, that declaration of His lordship as it pertains to us personally and to His church corporately.
He addresses them and says, “Now, I want you to understand that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4). Amen? It’s the same Spirit that is operating in all of these gifts. We’re talking about pagans. There’s not a god per gift; okay? One God, one baptism, one body, one faith; amen? These gifts then, though they are diverse, they come from the same Spirit for the purpose of bringing the revelation of God, praise to God, worship to God, edifying of His body. We’re going to go through this part very quickly because I want to get to Chapter 14. He talks about the diversities of gifts and of governments and these different things. As he goes down into this chapter, he says in verse 6, “And there are diversities of operations…” That word “operations” means effects, a diversity of effects. Each gift has a separate effect, purpose. Though there is cooperation and unification, there is not an overlapping of one gift taking from the other. You’ll see why that’s important to Paul as we go on in the study.