People are having angelic visits, dreams, and visions.  You are not going to be the representative of the Holy Ghost’s introduction to the Gentiles; okay?  How can I say it in a way that it would be non-offensive?  I cannot, so I will offend you.  Frankly, our lives are not “all that.”  We do not need supernatural visitations every other hour of our lives.  Revelations…  What we begin to see in the Scriptures, whether it is God appearing to Moses…  You are not Moses.  You are not going to be the one that brings the Law to us.  We do not want to minimize the fact that these gifts are still available to the church for the edification of the church.  We should be expecting these to minister to us and not just settle for tongues and prophesy.  We need to see words of wisdom, words of knowledge, and discernment of spirits; amen?  These are things that should be working in our lives.  The Holy Ghost rising up in us.

You might hear somebody out preaching a message.  You might be out talking to somebody that you are witnessing to on the street, and suddenly, you realize, “This is a demon.  This doctrine is coming from a demon.  These are doctrines of demons that I’m listening to here.”  All demon-possessed people are not frothing at the mouth and rolling on the ground.  Many of them are speaking very seducing words that deceive the simple.  So, we need those gifts to be operating in our lives.  We need the working of miracles.  We need the gifts of healing.  We need the gift of faith operating in our lives; amen?

We are told to believe God and covet the best gifts.  We have shared that the best gifts are the ones that are going to meet the needs of the moment.  Yet, these areas that we have been dealing with, back here into the fourteenth chapter…  I do not want to pursue that line any further, let us jump in here to the fourteenth chapter.  In verse 14 he says, “If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:14).  We have people and some of their false doctrines.  They are saying that what you need to do at home is, when you are praying in tongues, you should believe God and interpret what you just prayed.  Well, your understanding can be unfruitful, and God can still be glorified and made big in the spirit realm.  He goes on and tells us, “What is it then?  I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”

Paul is making the fact very clear that there are times when we should see ourselves ministering with both understanding and a lack of understanding.  Listen to this: the lack of understanding is not something that is in vain just because you do not understand it.  God understands it; amen?  When it must be with understanding is when we are speaking forth, and the whole, corporate body is conscious that we are speaking.  It must be with understanding.  It must be something of a voice that we, the group, would then know and be blessed by it.  He says in verse 16, “Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?”  That word unlearned just means “laymen, unskilled, or non-official.”  “The room of the unlearned…”  He asked how they would be able to say Amen at thy…”—Say it— “giving of thanks.”  “So, what is this that’s taking place when I’m praying in the Spirit?”  I am giving thanks; amen?  I am worshipping.  I am ministering to God.  I am making God big in the spirit realm.