The Intuitive Gifts | Empowered (Part 2)

[00:00:03] Speaker A: You're listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. Travis Rutland is a spirit filled pastor and ministry leader who has been featured on International Christian Television. He serves as lead pastor of Liberty Square Church in Cartersville, Georgia and as president of Global Servants. His sermons focus on clear biblical teaching, practical truth and encouragement for everyday life. Each message is designed to strengthen your faith and draw you deeper into God's word. This podcast is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global servants, please visit globalservants.org now here's Travis Rutland. [00:00:41] Speaker B: Now this morning we are continuing this series on the gifts of the Spirit. As I said, we're going to read a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 12. If you weren't here, I don't always do this, but I would encourage you, if you weren't here last week, I encourage you to go back and watch that, watch that message. Not because it was the greatest message ever preached or anything like that. It's just that I felt like I wanted to lay a really good and thorough foundation for who we are, what we believe, what we believe about the gifts, who we are as a Spirit filled church, all those kinds of things. And so we talked about that last week with the gifts of the Spirit. So if you weren't here, I hope you'll go back, you can watch that on YouTube and other places and get that foundation for the gifts of the Spirit. Now this morning, what we want to do for the next couple of weeks is dig into the nine gifts that are listed in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. As we talked about last week, there are other places where different gifts of the Spirit are mentioned, but the nine, nine that we want to talk about, probably because they're the nine that people maybe disagree about or have controversy about. And so we just want to talk about those. And those are the lists that we're going to be more familiar with as Pentecostals, as a Spirit filled church. It's a list that you're going to be more familiar with. So we're going to read from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 4. Now, as I said, just to give you another little preview of it or understanding of it, there are nine gifts listed here. They are not in the order that I'm going to preach them in, but I feel that they naturally lend themselves to three sets of three. You already know my love of three points in a message, so it works out perfectly. So I'm going to do three sets of three gifts for the next three weeks. So this morning is going to be the intuitive gifts. I've grouped them in three different groups and this morning is the intuitive gifts. So turn if you will, As I said, 1 Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 4. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and he says this. There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities. But it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit to another, the word of knowledge through the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another, gifts of healings by the same spirit to another, the working of miracles to another prophecy to another, discerning of spirits to another, different kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues. Let's pray. God, ask in the next few moments that you will speak to all of us. We want to hear from you this morning. God, speak to us. Our hearts and our minds and our spirits are open deep unto deep, spirit unto spirit. Speak to us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Crime novels and sort of detectives in those crime novels have become famous over the years. They still make movies about them. We still know the names, names like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, which was the great character from Agatha Christie. We have ones that are more for young adults, like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. Then you have kind of crime noir. You got guys like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer. You have all these detectives that are known and they've been written about in books, portrayed in movies and TV series. I don't read a lot of novels, so I don't love crime and mystery novels. But Courtney loves them. She reads crime and mystery, Agatha Christie stuff. She really enjoys that genre of novel. Having said that, when I was a little boy, there was one type of crime, or not really crime, but mystery book that I loved, and it starred a particular detective. For any of you that are about my age or a little younger, you're going to know this name immediately. My favorite set of mystery books was Encyclopedia Brown. I loved Encyclopedia Brown. If you're not my age, then you don't know this, but Encyclopedia Brown was the world's smartest kid. That's what they said about him, the world's smartest kid. And his dad was the chief of police in a little small town somewhere in America. And so his dad would have some kind of mystery that he couldn't solve. And he'd come home and talk about it over dinner with Encyclopedia Brown and he would figure it out. Now, here's how the books work. They would tell the story. It would take 10, 15, 20 pages. They were little short stories, stories. And it would, it would tell the whole story. All the, the mystery would be there, the clues would be there, there'd be a picture or two, and then it come to the end. And the dad would say to Encyclopedia Brown, I don't understand this mystery. Encyclopedia Brown say, I know exactly who did it. And then the story would end. And then you, the reader, had to figure out if you could figure out the crime as well. And then you turn to the back of the book and all the solutions to the mysteries were in the back of the Encyclopedia Brown books. I loved those books. I loved those books. I am not the world's smartest kid. I never figured out a single crime or mystery anytime. Like, he wrote like 20 books of encyclopedia Brown. I didn't figure out a single crime in a single book ever in the history of reading Encyclopedia Brown. But the best part about it is what you do is you read the answer and then you go to somebody else and pretend like you haven't read the book. And then, and then you do look like the world's smartest kid. And so. But I loved Encyclopedia Brown. Now, when it comes to the gifts of the spirit, this is important to remember as we begin this. The gifts of the spirit are not necessarily connected to who you are, your characteristics, your DNA in the natural. So let me give you a thought then. Just because you are wise doesn't mean you may necessarily get a word of wisdom. Just because you are knowledgeable doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit will give you a word of knowledge. So that's important to remember in this, is that we don't own the gifts. They are the gifts of the spirit. And he, as Paul says at length in this chapter that he gives, the gifts of the spirit are poured out as the spirit wishes on who he wishes. Sometimes a gift is for a moment, sometimes it's for a lifetime, sometimes it's for a season. But you have to be aware and cognizant of that. Because here's the thing, what we say is, well, I don't like speaking in front of people. I'm more of an introvert. And so what we do is we disqualify ourselves and say to ourselves, well, God will never use me for a public gift of tongues or the public interpretation of tongues. But just because you're an introvert doesn't mean that God can't use you to give an interpretation public publicly of tongues. Do you see how that works? So we have to be aware and take it out of what we perceive in the natural. Just because you've read a lot of books and you know a lot of stuff doesn't mean that God's ever going to give you a word of knowledge that the Holy Spirit's ever going to move in that way. So it's important. So these are the intuitive gifts, these three. And we just want to. I just want to walk through these. I know that this series may feel like more of a teaching than a Sunday morning preaching. I know it may feel like that and I'm aware of that. But I think it's important for us to talk about these things. This theological stuff, what we believe we are, if you haven't already picked up on it, we're a Spirit filled church. We're in the church of God, Cleveland. We believe in the gifts of the Spirit. We believe that the gifts of the Spirit are all for now, for today. We believe that the gifts of the Spirit still manifest themselves. But what does it look like? What does it look like for these gifts? Because we read this list. But we may not have ever really thought about it. You may not have ever heard a teaching on it. You may not understand fully how does it manifest itself in my life, in the lives of others? How can, how can I ask God to use me? I don't think there's anything wrong with praying God, give me more of the gifts of the Spirit. There's nothing wrong about that as long as your motives are pure. There's nothing wrong in praying that you may be sitting there thinking, we just read that list of nine, and you may say to yourself, God's never used me for any of the nine. But Paul makes it clear that everybody gets at least one. So maybe you need to start praying about how God wants to move in you and work through you and all those kinds of things. But regardless, regardless, we want to work through the intuitive gifts this morning. So turn, if you will to Acts chapter 27. We have read the list, Acts, chapter 27. And I'm going to begin reading in just a second. But the first two in the intuitive gifts I've mentioned already is word of knowledge, word of wisdom, word of wisdom, word of knowledge. Here's the thing that kind of sounds like the same thing, doesn't it? It's like last year when I preached on the fruit of the Spirit. One of the fruits is kindness. One of the fruits is goodness. Figure out how they're different and then preach two separate messages on that. It's not as easy as you think. Okay, so what's the difference between wisdom and knowledge? And then you have to figure out how to, you know, do something different on both of those. So wisdom and knowledge. So it's, it's, it's complicated. I heard some in the natural, at least heard somebody say, what's the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. That's a good one. Right. So in the natural, that's knowledge and wisdom. But what does it look like from a spiritual component? What I would say when it comes to word of wisdom, the first of the intuitive gifts, What I would say when it comes to word of wisdom is that the wisdom is to speak in a more broad sense, a more general sense. It's to speak to us, to a situation, to a group of people, to something that's happening. That a word of wisdom is more broad and a word of knowledge is more specific. All right, but let's deal with word of wisdom first. So turn, if you will, to Acts 27. We said that in verse 21. Bring you up to speed on this. This is Paul's journey to Rome. They've gotten out in the middle of the Mediterranean ocean and there's storms, Days and days and days of storms. They haven't seen the sun. It's horrible, it's awful. They're worried that the ship is going to crash. They're worried that the ship is going to sink, that they're all going to drown. They're in the midst of this terrible, awful, seemingly never ending storm in the midst of the Mediterranean. Paul and his companions are under arrest and are being taken by centurions to Rome. There are other people on the boat and they're just freaking out because they're, they know, they know, they know that the boat's about to sink. Look at what Paul says. Acts 27 and 21. But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. But now I urge you to take, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, do not be afraid, Paul, you must be brought before Caesar and indeed God. Has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore take heart, men, for I believe, God, that it will be just as it was told me. Let's stop right there. So he says he got a word. An angel showed to him, you're going to appear before Caesar. Nobody on the boat's going to die. This is a word of wisdom for a specific situation, for a group of people. They're all on this boat. The boat's about to sink. And Paul says, don't worry, I have a word of wisdom. The angel himself told me that the boat's not going to sink. And you imagine everybody goes, yay, right? Golf clap. Yay. We're not going to Sink. Except verse 27, however, we must run aground on a certain island, okay? In the natural. That's not wisdom. That's not wisdom. In the natural, Paul says, okay, good news. Nobody is gonna die. No, but nothing's gonna happen to us. We're all gonna stay alive. We're all gonna go to Rome. Everything's great. Nobody's gonna lose their life. Everybody goes, yeah. And Paul says, now the best way for us to. To not die is to run aground and crash the ship onto some rocks. I'd be like, could you ask God again? Right? Because in the natural, that makes no sense. Which brings us to the first thing when it comes to word of wisdom, the word of wisdom that from the Holy Spirit may not make sense in the natural. The word of wisdom may be counterintuitive to what you were thinking. That's why the word of wisdom exists. Because wisdom in the natural is not always what God, through the Holy Spirit, is wanting to do in your life. So God moves in different ways, in mysterious ways, in unusual ways, in ways that don't seem to make any sense. So Paul says, we're all going to live, but the ship has to crash. We have to wreck the ship. The ship has to sink. We have to swim ashore, but everybody's going to live. I'd be like, could God just take us to Rome safely? Is that not possible in this scenario? But that's what's happening here. And that's why a word of wisdom is so important. Because the wisdom that we receive from the Holy Spirit is not going to be the same as wisdom that we receive in the earthly and the natural. So I'll give you a perfect example. The last church that I pastored, I was there for eight years. It was wonderful. It was glorious. We had a great time. It was awesome. When I first was interviewing for the job, I said, what's the biggest challenge facing the church. And they said, we bought this property that we're in, the church property, the building, the land. We bought this property with a five year balloon payment due. And so we have to make a. We have to either make a five year balloon payment or we have to find new financing and pay it off, pay that balloon payment off and have new financing with a bank because you ready for this? Some individuals in the church had bought the church and borrowed it against their own personal wealth. So individuals in the church owned the church property and they were expecting their balloon payment in five years. I said, okay, that's a pretty big challenge. I said, you're one year into this. I said, how much money have you saved for the balloon payment? They said, zero. I said, wow, okay, that's our first challenge. That's what we're going to deal with, right? So I get there, that's in the fall. We work through it and I begin to feel, look, we gotta do a capital campaign. We gotta talk about this. We're gonna have dinners. I asked my dad to come and help us. We're gonna approach different groups of people. We gotta do this, we gotta do that. So we're working on all of this. We're gonna launch it in January. A guy comes to me, asked to make an appointment, comes to my office. He says, I feel like I have a word from God for you. I said, okay, but this is how word of wisdom works. It's not always as clear as what Paul gets. So he says, I feel like this is what God's telling me to tell you is that Adam and Eve, when they were in the garden, they didn't have to do anything and the crops just grew and the fruit and the vegetables and they ate. He said, but once they got outside of the will of God, they still found fruits and vegetables. But outside of the garden, the ground was cursed. He said, they still found sustenance, they still found fruit, vegetables. They still were farmers. But it wasn't as easy as it was in the garden. There were briars and brambles and the ground was cursed. And I said, okay, what else? And he said, that's it. And I was like, a little more clarity would have been nice, right? So I began to pray about that. That's the last one we're going to come to on this with the intuitive gifts. The one that is the most important when it comes to the intuitive gifts is not word of knowledge and not word of wisdom. It is discerning of spirits. Because you got to decide whether or not the spirit that gave you the word of wisdom was actually hearing from the spirit of God. So the most important one is discerning of spirits, and we're going to come to it in a minute. But I began to wrestle with that word of wisdom, is that for the church. I felt like what it was clearly saying to me was, I'm not saying that capital campaigns are bad. I'm not saying they're wrong. We've done them here. I'm not opposed to them. I just felt like what God was saying in that moment was that he was going to bless it if we would just take our hands off of it, that we could get outside of the will of God. The Garden of Eden was the will of God for Adam and Eve. We could get outside of the will of God and we could still see a harvest. But it would be so much better if we stayed under the umbrella of his protection in the garden. So I determined. I determined that we were not supposed to do a capital campaign at all. I prayed and prayed and prayed about it, and I felt like God was telling me to tell the people what the need was for one Sunday and never talk about it again. So I go to the board of elders, I go, hey, you know all that work we were doing for the capital campaign? And they go, yeah, we're really excited about that. I was like, okay. It's an interesting thing on that. I don't want to do any capital campaign. They were like, okay, what do you want to do to pay off this debt and to get do all this stuff? And I was like, all right. Nothing. Nothing. They were like, what do you mean by nothing? Is that a new type of thing? And I was like, no, nothing. I was like, I think we're supposed to tell the people the need and then believe that God will bring about the harvest. Because if we don't put our hands on it and it happens, then we know that it's going to be a miracle of God. And I said, that's what I think we ought to do. I feel like I've had a word from God on it, and that's what I think we ought to do. I thought those guys, they were businessmen. They knew business, they knew money. I thought those guys would fight me tooth and nail on that. And instead they were like, that seems right. Okay. I was like, really? Because I was thinking. I was just as surprised as they were. I was like, okay, so I'm going to tell you something. I mentioned it one time on a Sunday morning here's the amount of money we have to have. Here's what we need to do. Here's the amount of money we have to have as a down payment so that we can borrow the money from a bank and do traditional financing, pay off the individuals, own the property, not be debt free, but just own our own property. I talked about it one time and that was it. Four years later, a few months before the balloon payment was due, we got traditional financing, we paid off those individuals, we owned the property. And that church that I left is doing great. And I talked about it one time from the pulpit and that was it. And God provided, God provided all of that. It was an amazing, it was an amazing thing. Now we had to jump through all the hoops of getting financing and talking to the banks and giving them. I'm not saying we didn't do work on it, but, but I didn't. We just, I received that word and we. Okay, everybody's going to make it to Rome. Yay. But the ship has to crash. Wait a minute. Do you see what I'm saying? God's going to provide all the money you need to pay off to buy this property. Yay. But you're never supposed to talk about it again. You see what I'm saying In the natural. Word of wisdom doesn't always seem like wisdom. That's why we have to trust that the Holy Spirit understands the situation better than we do. That's also why we have to be operating with discernment of spirits. So we have word of wisdom, a more general thing to a situation. Now word of knowledge is the next intuitive gift. So you have word of wisdom. Now you have word of knowledge. Again stay in Acts, but turn to Acts chapter five. We're going to look at these through the prism of the early church. They were operating, filled with the Holy Spirit, operating in the gifts of the Spirit. Acts 5 and verse 1. A certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife sold a possession and he kept back part of the proceeds. His wife also being aware of it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet. But Simon Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself while it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. I bet it did. All right, this, in my opinion, do you see the difference between this one and what happened on the boat? The boat was sort of a general word of wisdom. Wisdom says, we're going to make it to Rome, but we have to crash the ship. A word of knowledge is more specifically pointed towards an individual. It is some kind of thing that you could not have otherwise known unless the Holy Spirit gave it to you. That. That speaks into the life of another person. Now, obviously, what we want is we don't want the word of knowledge to result in people dying. Okay? So I'm not. I. You know, that one probably is not how we want the word of knowledge to. To operate, but this is very much a wor. Word of knowledge. So a word of knowledge is that you. You can. You can. The God, the Holy Spirit gives you something, and it just allows you to speak into the life of someone again. At my. At my previous church, I am particular about things. Courtney would tell you ocd, but I am particular. I like things done a certain way. One of the things that I like done a very specific way is getting my hair cut. I like my haircut done a particular way. And you may be sitting there thinking, it doesn't look that great to me. That's not the point. It's how I want it. I have an idea of what I want it to look like. I'm very specific. I found a lady the first couple of weeks that we moved back to Georgia all those years ago, she was at a place. She cut my hair. It was great. So I went back to her. She started her own shop. A few years later, I went to her shop. Great, wonderful. She's a great lady. She cut my hair for the entire eight years that I was at that last church. About six years into the church one time when I was up there getting my hair cut with her, she mentioned that her son and his wife were having some issues and problems and stuff, and would I be willing to speak with them about that? I said, sure, I'd be glad to do that. I'd be glad to talk to him. He didn't really go to church that much, and he didn't want to go and talk to the pastor of the church where his mom went to church. He wanted somebody else that wouldn't, you know, know his business and all that kind of stuff. I said, great, no problem. I said, then come down to my office. So they drove down to my office one time. I didn't know them. They didn't attend the church. I knew him through his mom, who had cut my hair all these years. So we're talking about different things, talking about how to, you know, work through marriage. It's all the stuff that young couples go through and that, you know, everybody wants a little counseling every once in a while. And he was talking about some other things. And I knew from conversations I had had with his mom that he had a tenuous relationship with his stepfather. His mom and dad had separated, she had remarried. And he had a. Sometimes it was getting better, but they had had a difficult situation, complicated relationship when he was younger. And so in the midst of talking and everything, I said to him, hey, talk to me a little bit about your stepfather. Soon as I said that, he just started weeping and crying. We really could talk. And I think he had a good breakthrough. I think he was just looking for somebody to talk to about that. Let me make clear, that is not a word of knowledge. Okay, you go, wait a minute. You told us a story about a thing that's not the thing you're preaching on. Yes, I did. That's not a word of knowledge, because it's important for us to know the difference. That was not a word of knowledge. That was me knowing the situation because I'd gone to get my hair cut. From his mom every. Every month for six years, we talk in her shop. She told us these things. We had a relationship. So I knew that. But that's what a word of knowledge feels like. Okay, so I just want to give you an idea on that. You're praying for someone and something comes into your mind. Something says, ask this person about the pain that their mother caused them. Ask this person about forgiving their brother. Ask this person, there's some kind of a thing. Couple things on that. When you feel like God has given you a word of knowledge, few things. One, you need to approach it. Approach it with high levels of humility. High levels of humility. You need to start that conversation with, look, anybody can miss God. Anybody can miss God. But I feel like, as I was praying for you, I feel like God told me this thing. Does that make sense to you? Does that resonate with you? Does that speak to your spirit? And you have to approach it with high levels of humility. If they say to you, oh, yes, that's wonderful. Yes. Oh, I was just praying about that. Then great. If they say to you, no, I don't have a bad relationship with my brother, that's not a problem. What you can't do is argue with them about it. You know what I'm saying? Well, are you sure? Are you positive? No, you go, hey, I try to hear God. I can miss God just as much as anybody else can. But so I just. Because here's the thing. Don't argue with them. Sometimes you may have missed God. Other times they don't know you well enough to be transparent with you about what you just spoke into their life. And so they're going to tell you, no, I don't have any problems with my brother knowing that they have all these issues. But that is going to plant a seed inside of them that's going to turn into something later on that you may never know about. Your job is not necessarily to see the final product. And our job is not to put our hands on it. Our job is to allow ourselves to be used as a vessel so that the Holy Spirit can pour out his gifts on the people around us. Look again at what it says in 1 Corinthians. Go back to that. This is so important. But the man, 12 and 7. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to everyone for the profit of all, okay? So if you keep it inside, if you refuse to release it, or if you put your hands on it and try and manipulate it, then you're failing the people around. There are folks around us that need the gift of the spirit to be operational in their life, and it is flowing through you to them. So we approach word of knowledge with high levels of humility. The other thing when it comes to word of knowledge is this. You cannot put your hands on it. You cannot put your hands on it. You cannot, you cannot say to your spouse, hey, this thing that really bothers me. God told me that it also really bothers God. You see what I'm saying? You're like, my husband never puts his stinky socks in the dirty clothes. And then you go to your husband and go, you know what? Woo. I'm getting a word of knowledge. God says. What's that? God says, put your dirty socks in the dirty. Right? That's not word of knowledge. Do you see that? You can't use your own preconceived problems or issues in order to manipulate other people by using the veneer of the gifts of the spirit. We have to be really careful. Now, see, in other denominations, I don't have to preach this message because they don't believe that any of the gifts are operational, but we do. We. If we believe that the gifts are operational, then we need to have a higher level of respect for the gifts. Than anybody else. And instead we as Pentecostals have often taken them for granted. We've been complacent with the gifts and we put our hands on the gifts and manipulated them. That is not who we are supposed to. We need to approach the gifts of the spirit with high levels of reverence. This is the spirit of God speaking through you. A vessel to give a word of wisdom to someone who desperately needs it. That needs to be approached with humility. And you can't put your hands on it. Just because it bothers you doesn't mean it bothers God. And you can't use God as the bad guy to try and make somebody in your life do what you want them to do. That's not what a word of knowledge looks like. We need to treat it with reverence. We need to be in awe. I dirt, I dirt, am given the opportunity for the spirit of God to speak to me, to other dirt, to see them move forward. It's not about me at all. It's not about us. It's us being used as a vessel for the profit of all. So word of wisdom, more general. Word of knowledge, more specific. The final one. Discerning of spirits. In my opinion, this is the most important intuitive gift when it comes to being connected to the other two. How do you know whether to receive the word of wisdom or not? How do you know whether the word of knowledge is actually for you? How do we know that? Discerning of spirits. How do we know whether it's from God or not? Discerning of spirits. Furthermore, when you get a word inside of you, forget about when somebody else speaks to you. When you're praying and you feel like God is telling you something, how do you know whether it's you wanting to do it or whether it's God giving you a word? Discerning of spirits. You have to discern that spirit. Okay, so look again at Acts chapter 16. Excuse me, Acts chapter 16 and verse 16. Paul is in a city preaching the gospel and there's a slave girl who is following them around and, and, and, and speaking words over them. Look at this. Acts 16 and 16. Now it happened as we went to pray. Certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, these men are the servants of the most high God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. I'm going to stop you right there. Is she saying anything wrong? No. Is she speaking the truth? Yes. These men are servants of the most High God. They do proclaim to them the way of salvation. Everything that she said is true. The words are correct, but it's not the words that Paul is concerned with. It's the spirit behind the words. That's why the discerning of spirits is so vital to us as we operate in the intuitive gifts. Look at what happened. And this she did many days, verse 18. And Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, he did not speak to the girl because he had discerned that the spirit behind the words was demonic, that the spirit behind the words was evil, that the spirit behind the words was darkness. So he did not speak to the girl. He speaks to the spirit and says, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And the spirit came out that very hour. This is the most important thing. You. If you. Yes, you should pray for the gifts of the spirit. Yes, you should pray that God give you different gifts of the spirit. But if you could pray for me, if I could pray for just one, I think I might pray for the discerning of spirits. Because there's people that come in here all the time. There's people that come in churches all over America every Sunday, and they know all the right words to say. But the spirit behind the words is demonic. We've got to be aware of that. We cannot allow those types of people to infiltrate. As Paul says, they are wolves in sheep's clothing. They know the words. They know how to work their way in. They know how to ingratiate themselves into the culture. They know how to. How to manipulate. They know how to move in. And everything they're saying is right. And what do you think to yourself? Something just wrong, right? How many times have you done that? They're like the nicest person in the world, right? They're like the nicest person in the world. I've had this all the time. If you haven't had this, you haven't spent enough time in churches. I've had this all the time. Where you think to yourself, there must be something wrong with me, right? How many times you've done this, There must be something wrong with me. They're like the nicest person in the world. They say all the right stuff. They tell me they like my messages, but deep down inside, there's something that just isn't. That's discerning of spirits. That's discerning of spirits. These men are servants of the most High and they Call us to the way of salvation. Golly, I'd love for somebody to just walk around behind me saying that. I just. Everywhere I go, I go in the. I go in the McDonald's, and somebody comes in behind me and says, this guy's a servant of the most high God, and he calls us to the way of salvation. I'd be like, hello, everybody. Hello. That's me. I'm pretty amazing. Hello. I go in Chick fil a and they say that they'll make me the owner of the Chick Fil a. You know what I'm saying? So imagine. That would be wonderful. That would be gratifying. That would build up your ego. She's saying all the right stuff. She's building you up. She's telling you how wonderful you are. She's telling them how great they are. They're all these things, and all the things she says is right, but the spirit is wrong. And Paul speaks to the spirit. You want to ask God for something in your life, I encourage you to pray for discernment of spirit. Spirits again. At my last church, in order to have good stories, you need to have pastored a couple of churches, because I can't tell the stories about all of y' all until I go somewhere else. Man's like, let me tell you about this person at my last church, right? So. So having said that, let me tell you about this person. At my last church, this couple showed up, and they were gung ho, and they talked about how they had listened to the messages online and they loved the church, and they. Man, they just wanted to serve. And they were getting plugged in everywhere. And Courtney said to me, she's much more discerning than I am. She said to me, there just seems like there's something off about them. And I was like, what? All they want to do is help. All they want to do is serve. We were a little church. We needed people. I was like, out. You know, what does she know, right? She's like, all right, if you know Courtney, then that's how she usually deals with me. She tells me something, and then, okay, fine. So I said, I just. I don't see it. I don't. And then all of a sudden, it just exploded. There was just this one thing. She was in the choir. She wanted to sing on Front Line. My friend Luke has been here before to lead worship. Luke told her, hey, you're not ready for Frontline, like, as nice as possible, but that's just not an option for you. And. She sent me an email Luke's a liar. You're a liar. You're not preaching truth. It was just what the spirit, the spirit. And she just couldn't keep it tapped down. You know what I'm saying? You can only hide crazy for so long. That's why you don't need to get married to anybody till you've been dating them for about a year. Because after six, seven months, they can't keep crazy hidden any longer. You know what I'm saying? And she kept that spirit tapped down for a while and tell me how great I was and tell me how awesome Luke was and how much she loved the church. But as soon as we told her no on one thing, that spirit could no longer control itself. And I just thought she left the church and send mad emails, all the rest of it. And I just thought to myself, I came home and I said, courtney, you'll never believe what happened today. And she was like. She was like, I bet I will, Right? But think about. Imagine all the heartache I would have saved myself if I'd listened to that discerning of spirits earlier in that relationship. Now imagine that you attach yourself to someone who is your spiritual mentor. Imagine not just an isolated moment of a few months, but imagine if you are spending years allowing this person to speak into your life. And then you realize, wait a minute. What is the spirit behind the words? You need to be asking for discernment of spirits almost above all things, because that is going to keep those people from speaking. Toxic stuff, bad stuff, demonic stuff, darkness into your life. The words may be right. The words are right in Acts, chapter 16. But the Spirit spirit is wrong. It's not discerning of words, it's discerning of spirits. You've got to know, when that guy came to me and told me that word that he had about the Garden of Eden, I already knew who he was. I knew what he was about. I was able to receive that. You see, you've got to have that discerning of spirits. We can discern their spirit because we have the gifts of the spirit. Therefore, we can discern their spirit. So let me close with this. I talked about a word of knowledge previous, and I said, you know, that counseling session I had with that boy wasn't a word of knowledge. I just knew stuff because his mom cut my hair for years and years. Let me tell you about something else that happened. I've shared it before, but, you know, I have a finite number of stories, so. So just sit there and pretend to be interested. Okay? So almost exactly three years ago, right now. Three years ago, right now, in the fall of 2022, I got a call from a guy named Tom Madden. He said, I am the bishop for the North Georgia Conference of the Church of God. And I was like, who is this? I'm serious. It's like, is somebody playing a joke on me? He said, I'm the bishop for the North Georgia Conference of the Church of God. I said, okay. I thought he called the wrong rutland, you know what I'm saying? I was like, did you mean to call my dad? Right? He's got two numbers saved in his phone. I didn't know. He said, I want to talk to you about an opportunity at a church in Cartersville, Georgia. And I was like, okay. And he said. He told me a little bit about this church called Church at Liberty Square in Cartersville, Georgia. I kind of got to the end of the conversation with him, and I said, bishop Madden, I have. I just need to tell you something. He was like, what? I said, I'm not in the Church of God. You know that, don't you? I was like, you know that, right? He goes, oh, no, it's not a problem. I was like, okay. I don't know. I was like, okay, not a problem. Don't worry about it. I said, okay. He calls me, so I pray about it. I don't tell Courtney pray about it. I had felt inside of me that maybe God was calling me somewhere else. But I loved my old church. I loved it. I was there for eight years, and I told God, I'm not gonna put my hands on it. I'm not gonna mail my resume out. I'm not gonna be desperate to find a new gig. If God wants me to move, he's just gonna have a church call me out of nowhere. And then Tom Madden calls me out of nowhere. But the thing was, it still didn't. I couldn't tell. I couldn't get a reading. I couldn't get. Couldn't hear God. So I prayed about it. A couple weeks later, he said, we want to move forward with you as a candidate. Can you send us your resume? I said, okay. It just was so odd. I sent him my resume, and Courtney and I took a walk one evening after dinner, took a walk around the neighborhood. And I hadn't told her. It'd been several weeks. I hadn't told her. I said, hey. I said, baby, I need to tell you something. She said, what? I said, the bishop for the North Georgia Conference for the Church of God called me, and he wants me to put a resume in at a church in Cartersville, Georgia. And she said, that's the church. She said, that's where God's calling us. I was like, how do you know that? I've been praying about this for like two and a half weeks. How you know that? She said, that's the church God's calling us to. And I was like, seriously? Because let me tell you, she's never responded like that about any church opportunity ever that we've gone to. She's never said that so clear, so immediate. She said, that's the church. That's the church for us. Now, how did I know that that word of knowledge was from the Holy Spirit? Because I spent my. My 30 years of my life with her. Because I know who she is. I know the spirit that is inside of her. I know what her prayer life looks like. I know how she reads the Bible. I know how she is filled with the Holy Spirit. So I can easily and immediately receive the word of knowledge because I have discerned the spirit that is inside of her. And through that whole process, that word stayed with me. Through our time here now of almost three years, that word has stayed with me. I know that God has called us to Cartersville. I know that God has called us to Liberty Square because of the word of knowledge that Courtney put in my life three years ago. I know it. That that's how the gifts of the spirit are supposed to work. They're not supposed to be about the show. They're not supposed to be about us. They're not supposed to give us attention. They're not supposed to make us famous. They are supposed to be for the profit of all. That's what the gifts of the spirit are supposed to be about. You want to. You want to give a word of knowledge. You want to have a word of wisdom. You want to be able to discern spirits if you want those gifts. Those gifts flow out of the filling of the Holy Spirit. You cannot have those gifts if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. That is what is important. We said it last week, and it's what I'm going to say every week. The gifts are great, but Jesus said, you shall receive power. Power. What we need is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. What happens after that? How God uses us. Oh, that's going to be exciting to find out. But you can't operate in the gifts if you haven't been filled with the spirit. It is the gifts of the spirit. Now, here's how I'm going to close. And I'm going to close every single message in this series the same way. With the time at the altar, Pastor Chris and some of our elders and prayer team are going to be here at the front. We're going to close the same way. If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to beg you to come to the front. Now there also may be some of you that say, I have been filled, but I have not been operating in the gifts. I have not been operating in the gifts of the spirit like I should it. Come up to the front and ask God to give you a gift. Two gifts, multiple gifts, whatever he wants to do. Maybe this is what needs to be prayed. Not a filling, but a use me. Release. Release yourself to whatever the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Maybe you haven't seen the gifts operational because they scare you, because they intimidate you, because you're not sure what's going to happen. Why not step back and take your hands off of it and release the Holy Spirit to do whatever he wants in your life, whatever you want to do. Matthew and Daniel are going to play. The altars are going to be open. If we then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask? You want the Holy Spirit? Ask You've been filled and you want the gifts. Ask more of the gifts. A new gift, a new season, a new moment. Allow the Holy Spirit to do whatever he wants in your life. [00:47:18] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Cartersville, Georgia area, we invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland. [00:47:41] Speaker B: Been filled, but I have not been operating in the gifts. I have not been operating in the gifts of the spirit like I should come up to the front and ask God to give you a gift. Two gifts, multiple gifts, whatever he wants to do. Maybe this is what needs to be prayed. Not a filling, but a use me. Release. Release yourself to whatever the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Maybe you haven't seen the gifts operational because they scare you, because they intimidate you, because you're not sure what's going to happen. Why not step back and take your hands off of it and release the Holy Spirit to do whatever he wants in your life, whatever you want to do. Matthew and Daniel are going to play. The altars are going to be open. If we then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask, you want the Holy Spirit? Ask. You've been filled and you want the gifts. Ask more of the gifts. A new gift, a new season, a new moment. Allow the Holy Spirit to do whatever he wants in your life. [00:48:54] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Cartersville, Georgia area, we invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland.