The Church Part 3

Friday 23rd March


Continuation of the discussion on The Church and its Members


Ephesians 4:11-12 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,

From this verse we can see there is a 5-fold ministry. These ministries are given to different
people and work together to build up and edify the people in the church, which is the body of Christ.

Last week we looked at the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12
In this study we continued from verse 9


⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same^[b] Spirit, ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

In verse 9 above, faith and healing are listed together.
When the disciples were praying for people, there were a few times they got frustrated because the person didn't get healed or demons didn't leave.
When they approached Jesus about it, Jesus told them it was because of their 'little faith'
(Matthew 17:19-20) Faith as small as a mustard seed is enough to move mountains.
On another occasion Jesus was asleep on the boat and a storm came. 
The disciples rushed to wake up Jesus. Jesus calmed the storm and told them they 
had little faith. (Matthew 8:26) So faith must be present for healings / other miracles
to take place and without faith you can't please God (Hebrews 11:6).

Prophecy and Discerning Spirits
Prophecies are revelations from God to us. They may tell us what to do in that moment.
We must check that they line up with THE WORD OF GOD. If not then the prophecy is
not from God.

People with the gift of discernment know when there is a bad spirit around. 
Bad spirits can turn up in church and someone may appear to be doing well
But suddenly a lot of  things not aligned with God's Word may start coming out. 
We must test everything against God's Word and be spiritually on guard.
The enemy likes to come into our camp and cause confusion and deceit. 

Acts 16 has the story of Paul encountering a demon possessed girl. 

We must be wise in dealing with these instances. 
Also be aware of preachers who just say what is pleasing to the ear. 

In our church the vision is to WIN, BUILD and SEND. 
If our local church catches the vision, it changes attitudes. 
Jesus said in Matthew 16:18
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, 
and upon this rock I will build my church; 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

1 Corinthians 12:12 tells us that we are one body 
And one in Christ.