As it Pleased Him
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:18Devotional Series: Why Tongues
Teaching: Why Tongues? pt. 2 (SUN_PM 2023-07-16) by Pastor Star R Scott
The discerning of spirits is not always in a corporate setting. It can be in dealing with individuals or in the midst of one of our outreaches here. It could happen tomorrow on the basketball court. We’ve had people say all manner of things about us over the years, just think of the conversation getting started this week as we’re at the basketball court and kids are dribbling down the court and you cast the devil out of him, praise God, and he can’t dribble anymore. “It was a dribbling spirit.”
Are we on guard? Is our spirit always ready to hear and allow this ministry to take place in our lives? If they’re primarily for the corporate gathering, that means that we very likely will have in our midst, from time to time, people with spirits that need to be discerned. Because you can say the right stuff and, in fact, the devil very keenly places tares within every healthy body. Even wolves dare to come in to the midst of God’s church, His flock. We need the gifts of the Spirit. We need to be able to discern and know when that’s in our presence. We need to have the authority to rectify the problem; amen? Here’s this introduction to the gifts of the Spirit and he brings it right in the context of this whole passage of Chapter 12. He introduces, then, the ministry of the body of Christ, the revelation of the body of Christ. “The body is not one member (verse 14), but many.” None can say to the other, we have no need of you. So, in this context, verse 18, God, “God set the members…in the body, as it hath pleased him.”
We go on over and I don’t want to get caught up in the body aspect at this time. We want to get to the gifts themselves as they operate in our midst. But the point that he’s making here with this great emphasis on the body, as we’ll see in the context, is that these gifts are for the purpose of being one body, we’re gathered together, we’re members one of another. We can’t say that we don’t have a need for one another. Of course, one of my favorite passages is in 1 Corinthians 12:25, that we, the body, allow no schism, but that we should have the same care one of another; amen? We come together to care for one another. We’re all in this war together. We get so upset with somebody’s carnality, but accept our own. Theirs is so severe and ours are “shortcomings.” I have a “shortcoming,” they have sin.
We’re caring for one another. That doesn’t mean bringing food when somebody’s laid up because of an operation. Can we love one another through their carnality? Do we care whether they make it or not? These are eternal decisions that we’re making constantly as to how we relate to one another. The indwelling Spirit is the one that brings these things constantly to our remembrance. There should be a soberness and there should be a tenderness in us that when we get harsh or short with others in the body, we’re instantly quickened and say, “Wait a minute.” Amen? Even as, even as, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you, has forgiven you, has loved you; amen? Our God speaks and He speaks toward the unity. All of these gifts should always be bringing us closer together and looking more like Jesus. That’s our goal.
Are we on guard? Is our spirit always ready to hear and allow this ministry to take place in our lives? If they’re primarily for the corporate gathering, that means that we very likely will have in our midst, from time to time, people with spirits that need to be discerned. Because you can say the right stuff and, in fact, the devil very keenly places tares within every healthy body. Even wolves dare to come in to the midst of God’s church, His flock. We need the gifts of the Spirit. We need to be able to discern and know when that’s in our presence. We need to have the authority to rectify the problem; amen? Here’s this introduction to the gifts of the Spirit and he brings it right in the context of this whole passage of Chapter 12. He introduces, then, the ministry of the body of Christ, the revelation of the body of Christ. “The body is not one member (verse 14), but many.” None can say to the other, we have no need of you. So, in this context, verse 18, God, “God set the members…in the body, as it hath pleased him.”
We go on over and I don’t want to get caught up in the body aspect at this time. We want to get to the gifts themselves as they operate in our midst. But the point that he’s making here with this great emphasis on the body, as we’ll see in the context, is that these gifts are for the purpose of being one body, we’re gathered together, we’re members one of another. We can’t say that we don’t have a need for one another. Of course, one of my favorite passages is in 1 Corinthians 12:25, that we, the body, allow no schism, but that we should have the same care one of another; amen? We come together to care for one another. We’re all in this war together. We get so upset with somebody’s carnality, but accept our own. Theirs is so severe and ours are “shortcomings.” I have a “shortcoming,” they have sin.
We’re caring for one another. That doesn’t mean bringing food when somebody’s laid up because of an operation. Can we love one another through their carnality? Do we care whether they make it or not? These are eternal decisions that we’re making constantly as to how we relate to one another. The indwelling Spirit is the one that brings these things constantly to our remembrance. There should be a soberness and there should be a tenderness in us that when we get harsh or short with others in the body, we’re instantly quickened and say, “Wait a minute.” Amen? Even as, even as, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you, has forgiven you, has loved you; amen? Our God speaks and He speaks toward the unity. All of these gifts should always be bringing us closer together and looking more like Jesus. That’s our goal.