Why the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Critical

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Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. This is going to be an interesting show. I'm very serious about this topic. I think it's critical for you to understand and for you to listen to. I'm going to get into the spiritual gifts, but this maybe um, put a little uh, maybe conviction in you. I hope this will put a lot of conviction in you, uh, and your church. It's a very important show. This show, as usual, is sponsored by the International College of Ministry. We are always enrolling and giving scholarships to those who think they cannot afford it, although we're very affordable. Enroll now at icmcollege.org. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the show, and I thank you for everyone listening to the show. And I pray, Father, that they would share this message with as many people as possible. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen. 

There's a scripture that has kind of bothered me for years, and it's one of these scriptures I just cannot ever shake. It's one of these scriptures that you have to do something with this scripture because if you don't do something with this scripture, I think you're in disobedience to God. And the scripture is 1 Corinthians 14:1. And it says something very clear, and it was written to the church at Corinth. And I think we can say that the message to the church that Paul was writing to the churches is certainly applicable today. And 1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy." Now, there's three things in this. Pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. Now, this is a commandment from God. My question to you and to your church is, are you pursuing all of these things? Love, spiritual gifts, especially the prophetic gift. And the other logical conclusion here is I do not believe God would ever have us pursue something and desire something as a commandment that He would not willingly give to us. The spiritual gifts are for the church. They are for today, and they are important. They're important in your life. They're important for your church. They are critical. They're so important that Paul wrote quite a bit about it in multiple of his letters, but especially in the letter to the church in Corinth. 

And so, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he says uh in verse one, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware.” All right? So he, he's talking about spiritual gifts and the importance of them. And he says there are um, varieties of gifts but the same Spirit. And then he says something very important in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” Now, that's in the New King James. For the, in the NASB, it says something a little bit different. In NASB, it says “To each one is given the manifestation of Spirit for the common good.” Now, when it says manifestation of the Spirit, that is evidence of the Holy Spirit. Then he goes on when he says the evidence of the Holy Spirit is for the common good. Now folks, what that means is the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the working of the Holy Spirit is for the good of everyone. It's for the good of the body of Christ. It's for the good of you. It's for the good of your family. It's for the good of your community. It's for the good of our nation. It's for the good of the church. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is for the common good. Now, this means it's for everyone, and it's important.

And then he goes on to talk about nine different manifestations or evidences of the Holy Spirit. And he talks about uh, the, the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, affecting of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And then he says the Holy Spirit distributes to each one as He wills. Now, folks, this is important. It is important. Spiritual gifts give us the evidence of Jesus Christ. They give us the evidence of the reality of God. They build our faith. They build our church. Jesus, in one discourse in the gospels, John's disciples came up to Him and asked Him if He was the Messiah, which was kind of a strange question coming from John's disciples. And Jesus told them, "If you do not believe the words I say, believe the works that I do. The dead are raised, the lame are healed." He goes on to explain the miraculous works He did. Jesus preached the word of God. He taught the word of God. He modeled the word of God. And He confirmed the word of God with the supernatural. The Apostle Paul warned us about people who had a form of godliness but denied the power of God. The power of God, and I'm passionate about this, and you're going to hear me get passionate in this podcast. The power of God should be operating in your life and in your church. To me, there's no excuse, no excuse for the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit not to be operating in the church. Unless their church doesn't have the Holy Spirit and is strictly a man-made, manufactured, uh, religious country club, the Holy Spirit should be flowing and operating in the church. 

In your church, people should be, being miraculously healed, delivered of demons, prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, faith, miracles, all this should be operating in the church. You see it modeled in the early church and the book of Acts. It was mo– it was modeled. They, they were amazed at the apostles’ teaching and at the signs and wonders. Philip goes up to Samaria. They were amazed at his teaching and with the signs and wonders that he was doing. Don't let anybody ever tell you that all that was just for the early church. It was just to confirm the word of God. Let me tell you something. God is the Alpha and the Omega who was and is and is to come. The Holy Spirit is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We need the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit does when there is a, you can be talking about Jesus, you can talk about salvation, you can preach about godliness, you can preach about forgiveness, you can preach about love, you can preach about giving, and all these are really good things. But when you want to see lives changed and faith built and a church built, let the supernatural flow. Allow the Holy Spirit to come in and expect the miraculous. 

Now, listen. I'm, I'm going to talk to you about a church that I pastored, uh, a little town called Olive Branch, Mississippi. This is just outside of Memphis, just southeast of Memphis, Tennessee. Incredible church. And you know, I'm, I'm going to brag on the church. I'm not bragging on me. I'll brag on God in the church. In my church, I preach the word of God. You know, you know, folks, I'm a teacher. You know, I'm the president of a, of a seminary, and I teach the word of God, and I love the word of God, but I also want to be a doer of the word of God. So, in my church, what we would do is we, I would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and preach it continually. But something we did that maybe some other churches are not doing today, and a lot of them are not doing, is I would always give room for the Holy Spirit to show up, and I would invite the Holy Spirit to come and for the Holy Spirit to have his way. And in the service, especially toward the end of the service, I would try to listen to what the Lord was telling me to, what the Lord wanted to do in that service at that time. I didn't have such a strict program that I did not have time for the Holy Spirit to intervene and interrupt and do what He wants to do. And this was a regular pattern for us. And we became very well known for a church where the anointing was present and where signs and wonders were a common occurrence. We saw many, many people healed. We saw deliverance. We saw a lot of prophetic words that were spoken and came true. We saw signs and wonders, and the, the anointing, the presence of God was so wonderful. People would come for miles around, especially on Sunday night. 

What would happen is we'd have a Sunday morning service, and you know, and that would be our, our members and our visitors, and then on Sunday night we'd have another service, and what was interesting is on Sunday night, people would come from other churches. It's not that they didn't love their other church, but they'd come from other churches because they wanted to get into the presence of God. And, and the Holy Spirit would be so strong, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit would be manifesting like crazy, not just through me, but through the church members, through people in the audience. I mean, people in the audience would be laying hands on each other, and they would be– people would be get healed. There was this– people would be worshiping, people would be praising, people would be saved. I mean, it was just all happening, and it was just wonderful, and it was glorious, and the Holy Spirit would come in, and He would be so powerful. He would take over the service. I didn't program Him out of the service. 

Listen folks, the model of the church that we see in Acts, where they taught the word of God. The Apostle Paul, you see his model. He, he wrote the word of God, but he also healed the sick and raised the dead and cast out demons. Jesus was the Word of God and taught the Word of God, but He also raised the dead, healed the sick, and cast out demons, and, and you know, worked miracles. And then He told us in John 14:12, those that believe in Him do the same works that He did and even greater works. We have a commandment to desire spiritual gifts. “Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, especially that you would prophesy.” That's a commandment. Now, when you see a scripture like this, I think there's only three things you can do with it. You can see first– take 1 Corinthians 14:1. Listen to me now. Pursue love. Desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Now there's to me, logically there's only three things you can do with this. You can say, “you know what, Lord, you asked me to do this. I'm going to pursue love because you're, you are love. You've commanded us to love each other and to love the Lord with all our heart. I'm going to pursue love. Heavenly Father, I want spiritual gifts. I'm desiring to be used by you. I want the spiritual– Lord, I, I desire spiritual gifts as you commanded me, Lord, especially to prophesy.” This is what He told us to do. This is a commandment. Pursue love. Desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Now, you can do that, and I think that's good. And you can expect God to give it to you. He's not going to tell you to desire something and not give it to you. Would you do that with your kids? I don't think so. Or you can take this scripture and you can completely disobey it. “Nope. Not going to do it. Nope. I refuse to do that.” Now, you, you believe this is the word of God, but you're not going to obey that. You're not going to obey that verse. “Nope. No. I'm g– I'm gonna cut that verse out of the Bible. Uh, that spir– thing about spirit. You, I can't do spiritual gifts.” Of course you can't do spiritual gifts. It's not you doing, it's the Holy Spirit doing it. “Oh, I can't do that. I don't have that gift.” Don't, don't give me that. I've heard it so many times. “I don't have that gift.” It's not about you. It's all about you just stepping out in faith and trusting the Holy Spirit to do something through you. It's not about your strength. It's not about your, your special anointing. It's about the Holy Spirit who lives within you being allowed to work through you. And I think you need to understand that the Holy Spirit in you should be allowed to work through you. 

So this scripture, you can obey 1 Corinthians 14:1, or you can completely say, "No, I'm not going to obey it." Or you can do like I did for many years. I just kind of um, read it and put it on the back burner. I just sort of said, "Yeah, I procrastinated with that one. Yeah, I need to think about that someday. Well, I don't think that pleases God." There's only three things you can do with this scripture. Two of them are bad, and one of them is good, and that is obey. You know Paul, you know, he says things in like verse five, “I wish all of you spoke in tongues but, he said, “but even more that you would prophesy.” So the apostle Paul wanted us to speak in tongues, but even more, he wanted us to prophesy. He wanted us to desire spiritual gifts. He wanted us to operate in spiritual gifts. Why? Because the spiritual gifts give credit and glory to Jesus Christ. When you see a miracle happen right in front of your eyes, Jesus gets the credit. Jesus gets the glory. It is an incredible faithbuilder. People would flock to Jesus. They wanted to see the miracles. People were coming to Jesus not just to hear His wisdom. He was a very wise speaker. They wanted to see something. And Jesus would show them something. Even his disciples, He, He walked on water for them. You know, He turned the water– they saw Him do the miracles. 

People have a, are craving the supernatural. We have a spiritual hunger in us. And what's happening in our society right now as a whole is this spiritual hunger is being satisfied in many counterfeit ways. Hollywood, if you notice, there's never, almost never a Hollywood movie made now that doesn't have something supernatural in, in it. We crave the supernatural. We have a spiritual hole inside of us that the Holy Spirit wants to fill. But if this spiritual hole is not filled by the Holy Spirit, we're going to find something else to fill it. You know, witchcraft, seances, you know, Wicca, New Age, transcendental meditation, yoga. I did say yoga. I did. We'll use all these false things to satisfy that spiritual hunger. This is why kids are so drawn into Harry Potter because they have a spiritual hunger, and that magical wizardry sorcery stuff feeds that hunger, and it's sad and it's demonic, and it's awful. God's a jealous God. We have a hunger for the spiritual that resides within us. And I want to tell you something, folks. The Holy Spirit should be manifesting supernaturally in every church in America that calls themself a church belonging to Jesus Christ. If the church claims to be a Christian church, the Holy Spirit, the miracles of God should be operating in that church. Now, I still think, and I'll agree with my Baptist brothers, that salvation is the greatest miracle of all. It is. I mean, to see someone born again and completely changed and given eternal life, nothing better than that. 

But I want to tell you something, folks. I've seen blind eyes healed. I've seen cancer healed. I saw a woman who was dead in a car wreck come back to life. Well, let me put it this way. I prayed over her, rebuked the spirit of death, her husband comes back later and tells me she came back to life. God did that. Not Ray Self. God did that. I've seen a broken leg healed. I've seen a cancer disappear. I've seen incredible miracles. And, and sometimes, folks, I, I've, I've laid hands on people, and I've seen nothing. But sometimes I've laid hands on people, commanded disease to leave, and I've seen a miracle right there. I've seen countless shoulders healed. For, for a season, it seemed like everybody I prayed who had a hurt shoulder w– was healed. Uh, constant, prophetically. So many times God has given me prophetic words that have confirmed and, and come true and, and built faith and glorified God and, and, and helped people and edified and exhorted and encouraged people with, with words of prophecy, confirming a call on their life or confirming God's will for them through prophetic words. 

I remember once I gave a, a, a tough prophetic word to a, a couple. And I didn't realize that they had had a miscarriage, and I prophesied to them a baby, and you know, I didn't know they had a miscarriage, and of course, they didn't want to hear that. They just had a miscarriage. They didn't like that word. I went back to visit that church a year and a half later, later and they came up and showed me the beautiful baby that they had, and it was all glory to God, and they remember. You see, God will give you prophetic words so that when things happen, you know that it is Him. See, Jesus said this, “I'll tell you what's to come to pass so when it comes to pass, you will believe.” The gift of prophecy is a faithbuilder. It gives you direction. It gives you confirmation. And it gives you encouragement, and it's an incredible gift. G– gifts of healing when you're sick. You need that. I remember some years ago I was, had, I used to get, when I lived in Memphis, I used to get terrible bronchitis. And I, I sometimes it would just last for months, and I could not shake it. You know, shortness of breath, feeling very weak, very tired, just sick. And I was at my church. It was a good church, and I enjoyed the church. I wasn't pastoring at this time. And I was suffering bronchitis, having trouble breathing, having trouble. I was– felt very weak, very tired, very sick. And of course, I knew several churches in the area. And toward the end of our service, the Lord told me to get up and go to a different church. That was a very strange word, but I really felt this strong impression where I felt it was the Lord talking to me to go to another church. So, I go to another church, which is a few miles away. I have some friends there. And I get there toward the end of the service, and as I walk into the church, the pastor is having an altar call for people who are sick to come up for prayer. And I walked in, the pastor called me up front, put his hand on my chest, and prayed for me, and I was healed instantly. It just, the, the bronchial infection that had just been plaguing me for several months just went away instantly. I mean, and there's this– I could tell story after story, you know, after story. Um, you know, I could tell you that the kid in Guatemala with a broken leg, I prayed for a kid with a broken leg. He was, we're way out in a very remote village. There was no way for him to get to a doctor. His leg was broken. His friends were interpreting for me. He didn't have a cast. It wasn't bandaged up. He was just in a broken leg and horrible pain. I prayed for him, and he got up and walked. Got up and walked. I gave a– years ago, uh, I was in Spain in a Muslim neighborhood and a young Muslim boy stormed into the church, stormed up to the altar with a very angry look on his face like he was getting ready to kill me. He had an evil, horrible look on his face, this Muslim interrupting the service. Got right up in my face. And just as he got in my face, the Lord gave me a prophetic word for him. And I spoke to him. And I said, "When you were 12 years old, your father rejected you and betrayed you. And this is when everything happened wrong in your life." And I began to speak to him, but what had happened to him in his past? And it's not me doing it. It's the Lord doing it. Glory to Jesus Christ. That all of a sudden he, he stopped. His countenance changed, and he began to tear up, and he began to cry. And I began to give him prophetic words about what had happened to him as a, as a young man and how God loved him, and God cared for him and encouraged him. And he began to weep. Just– his anger turned to tears, and he began to weep and weep. And matter of fact, he started weeping so hard that he fell on the ground sobbing. I was with another group of pastors there, and the other pastors came over, grabbed his hand, picked him up, and he accepted Jesus Christ as savior. Right then, right there in front of the church, gave him prophetic word to a Muslim who accepted Jesus Christ as savior. And when he accepted Jesus as savior, I'll never forget this. His countenance completely changed. That anger…face full of hatred - I see a lot of that in America today - All that hatred and anger and rage left him and his face turned into joy, and he was, he started to, he was crying, but he was smiling. His countenance completely changed. He gave me a big old bear hug. He hugged me, and then he was so happy, he walked down the aisle of the church and started hugging everybody in the church that he could reach. Then he went out the back door, and I went, "Well, that's cool." 

What I'm saying is I'm not anything. I'm just a regular guy and, but I just let the Holy Spirit, I just believe the Holy Spirit can use me. I believe the Holy Spirit can use you. So many times in the supernatural, I don't feel anything. I'll lay and I'll command disease to leave. I feel nothing. And sometimes I feel nothing, and a person is healed right in front of my eyes. Sometimes I, I just have this boldness where I get these thoughts and feelings and, and I speak them out, and turns out it is, it's God speaking. My point is, we all have a commandment to operate in the spiritual gifts. If we are Christian, full of the Holy Spirit, we have a commandment from God to operate in the spiritual gifts. And I want to tell you something. If you're a pastor, you have a commandment from God to allow the spiritual gifts to operate in your church. It's good for the church. It's good for the glory of Jesus Christ. It's good for the kingdom. It's good. We need it. The manifestation of the spirit is for the common good. So, what do you do? You know, if, if you're in a church and the Holy Spirit's not moving or operating, I'd pray. I, first off, you know, don't just run out of the church. You want to be where God wants you to be. Period. You want to be in the will of God, but pray and maybe talk to your pastor and encourage him. “Hey, can– let's, let's pray for the sick more. Let, let's believe God to heal the sick. Let maybe some people here can start flowing prophetically. Maybe there's some words of knowledge of words of wisdom that, that we could use.” It's a wonderful thing when the Holy Spirit's operating in a church. Jesus gets the glory. Faith gets, faith rises up, and just explodes. Sometimes it draws people in from the community. It's incredible. 

When the Holy Spirit is manifesting and the gifts of the Holy Spirit's manifesting in a church and in your life…and in your life. It's so, so. so important. That's why we have a commandment from God to desire spiritual gifts. Again, if your church is not operating it, don't, don't go leave the church, but talk to your pastor. Pray for your pastor, pray for the church, and then seek the Lord, what He'll have– what He'd have you do. God puts you in unusual situations. Maybe He wants you to be there. Maybe He wants you to be the one to stir up the gifts in your church. Who knows? But according to scripture, spiritual gifts and the supernatural should be common in the New Testament church in the year 2025. And it should be common in your life. That's my belief, and I believe that with all my heart. And don't tell me these gifts of the Spirit have passed away. They have not. The word of God is still, today, active and sharper than a two-edged sword. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega who was and is and is to come. These instructions, this supernatural that operated in the early church should be operating in the church in 2025. And it is operating in a lot of churches, but not all. So that's what I want to tell you today. 

Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this show. I ask right now, Holy Spirit, to those that are willing and those that, that will, will believe that you will manifest your gifts in them. Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, to those who are willing to receive, I impart the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I ask you, Lord, to come upon them. Everyone listening to the show, stir up the gifts of the Holy Spirit in them and give us the boldness and the courage to step out and demonstrate the supernatural of Jesus Christ for his glory, Father, and for your kingdom, Father, and for the unbelievers, Father. And Lord, I believe the Holy Spirit, you can do this to everyone listening to the show. Touch them now. Touch them now with your presence. Touch them now with your presence, with your gifting in Jesus Christ. Stir up the gifts in them right now. Impart the gifts of prophet– We call on the gift of prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, miracles, faith, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. Let the Holy Spirit flow through everyone listening to this show in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 

That was a kind of heavy-duty show tonight, wasn't it? Or today, whenever you're listening to it. Thank you so much for being a part of this. Um, don't forget to help me with this. Please share this, subscribe, review. It really helps. You know, when you give a review, and you subscribe, or you share, it increases the downloads and the message gets out to more people. That's all I'm asking for. Okay? Um, you know, I used to ask for donations. That doesn't work so well. It'd be great if it did. Sometimes it does, but if you want to donate, that's great. But the main thing is I just want more people to hear the truth about the wonderful supernatural that God has for us and how incredible it is. And I thank you again for listening to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self, and God bless you, and have a wonderful evening or morning or wherever you are. Amen.

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