Twenty-Six New Testament Charismata

Part 2—Twenty-Six New Testament Charismata

We have been created anew for good works which God has before prepared for us to walk in. And then in Romans chapter 12 we looked at the first six or seven verses, and I think we might turn there briefly again. Romans, the 12th chapter, and I think I’ll read those verses and then make them the stepping stones to this talk.

“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

So that’s the first step which we went through. Some of you took the step, which is presenting your body to God. Those of you that took that step, from now on, just act on the basis that your body belongs to God. You don’t have to keep doing that. Really it’s a one-time commitment that stands for time and eternity. Secondly, Paul says in verse 2:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Once you have presented your body, God moves in and changes the way you think. Your priorities, your attitudes, your motives, your standards, everything. And then he goes on to say:

“That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

With your renewed mind you begin to discover God’s will for you. And you discover it in three successive phases. Good, acceptable and perfect. Then Paul goes on in verse three:

“For I say through the grace given to me to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.”

So the next step is to be humble and realistic about yourself. And that really costs us something. It’s never easy to be fully realistic about yourself. Most of us have lived with illusions of wishful thinking. I remember, this comes to my mind, and I might as well quote it, years back, so long ago that some of you weren’t even thought of, 1946, I was attending the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a guest student, and one of the lectures I was attending was on the law of the Hebrew language. And the lecturer was a Jewish, naturally, professor, but not at all religious. But just interested in the meaning of words. But his main textbook was the Bible. And he came to that verse somewhere in Hosea, no, in Jeremiah, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it.” And he gave a talk on the word “deceitful” that I’ve never forgotten. The Hebrew word is ?achob?. From which comes the name Jacob. It’s actually related to the word for “heal.” Which is pretty much in line with contemporary American usage. And he explained that this word means you do something and you cover it up, you don’t admit you’ve done it. And he said it’s an active word. It’s not that the heart is deceived but that it deceives itself. And then he said finding out the truth about yourself is like peeling an onion, you take off one skin and then there’s another, and then there’s another, and all the time your eyes are watering.

So that’s what Paul is talking about by being humble and realistic. Every skin you take off leaves you a little humbler than you were before. But that’s not the end, thank God. When you come to that point you begin to discover the proportion or the measure of faith that God has given to you as an individual. God has given to each one of us a specific measure of faith. Why has He given us a specific measure of faith? Because of His purpose for us. The faith He has given to us is related to His purpose for us. The job He has for us to do.

And as Paul goes on we find out that this is related in turn to our place in the body. Verse 4:

“And as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.”

You understand he’s taking us into our place in the body. And our place in the body is related to the faith God has given us. He’s given us the faith we need for the job He has for us to do. If we are trying to do some other job, we will find our faith doesn’t fit. So it’s very important to find out your place and your job because that’s where you have faith. Basically a person who is in his place in God is like a fish in the sea or a bird in the sky. He moves naturally. A fish doesn’t have to think what it means to swim. A bird doesn’t have to reason out how to fly. But you reverse the roles and put the bird in the sea and the fish in the sky and they’re both in trouble. So that’s how it is with us. If we are designed to be a bird we’ve got to be in the sky. If we’re designed to be a fish we’ve got to be in the sea. If we’re designed to be a hand we’ve got to be at the end of an arm. If we’re designed to be a foot we are to be at the and of a leg. So all that Paul has been saying in Romans chapter 12 is directing us toward our place in the body.

Now he goes on from faith to gifts. And I said last time, but it bears repeating, your gifts are related to your place. God foreknew you, He chose you, He predestined you, He had a place for you, and on your way to the place, He has been equipping you to function in the place. I’m not suggesting that you immediately find your way into your final place. It’s probably progressive. But the further you go the greater the harmony there will be between what you are doing and your faith and your gifts. See God is practical. He doesn’t send somebody into battle without giving them weapons and training them to use the weapons. He doesn’t give you a job to do without giving you the tools. One of the big problems of the church has been that many, many Christians have been trying to do the job faithfully and conscientiously but they haven’t had the tools. And as a result the job hasn’t gotten done. The tools in a sense are what we come to now. Verse 6:

“Having then gifts [charismata] differing according to the grace [charis] that is given to us, let us use them”

Let’s stop there for a moment. So the tools are the charismata. My friend Bob Mumford says, “Remember the gifts of the spirit are not toys, they are tools.” A lot of Christians use them as toys. But that’s a misuse. A lot of Christians want to do the job but don’t have the tools. We need to wed the two. The people that want to do the job with the tools for the job.

Now let me say a little about the word charisma. If you read the King James version you’ll read in many different places in the New Testament the word “gift.” Unless you have a concordance which takes you behind the original, and Young’s Concordancewill do that if you’ve got the patience to work through it, otherwise you will not know that there are nine different Greek words all translated by the English word “gift.” Do you understand? So that when you read the word “gift” it doesn’t give you total clarity about what is being referred to.

Now we are going to focus primarily on one of the nine words which is charisma. From which we have obtained the famous word “charismatic.” Which is now a much misused word. “Charismatic” or “charisma” comes from a basic word which I will just underline with my finger, that’s the word charis. Can you see that? Now charisis the Greek word for grace. That’s how it is translated in the New Testament. In secular Greek it’s usually translated “beauty” or “gracefulness.” I think that’s illuminating. God’s grace makes us beautiful. God’s grace is actually the way He sees us in Christ. Have you ever heard that saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”? Well that’s how it is with God. God sees us as beautiful. That’s His grace. Because we’re in Christ.

I was thinking the other day about the sun and this beautiful sunfilled land that we live in here, and a thought came to me which I’ll just share with you. The sun never sees shadows. Because they’re always on the opposite side of the objects. See? And that’s how it is with God. He doesn’t see the shadows. He shines the light of His grace upon us and we shine because He shines upon us.

Now grace, one basic fact about grace that you must understand is, it cannot be earned. Anything that can be earned is not grace. A lot of people are trying to earn God’s grace. Conscientious. Go to church. Say their prayers. Read their Bible. But they’ve never tasted God’s grace because they’ve always felt they had to be good enough. You never can be good enough, you just have to believe. That’s why, generally speaking, sinners, I mean real profligate sinners, get into this thing quicker than religious people. Because they don’t have any illusions about having to earn it. They know they haven’t earned it, they just accept it. Whereas the “good” people find it hard to stop being good.

There’s a very interesting statement in Romans chapter 4, verse 4, which is speaking about Abraham, and it points out that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. He didn’t achieve righteousness, it was imputed to him and it says:

“Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as death.”

If you’ve worked for something the wages are not grace they are what’s owed you. Then he says:

“But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”

In order to be accounted righteous what’s the first thing you have to do? Stop working, you see? “To him who does not work.” People who will not stop working never receive God’s grace. Because they’re somehow always trying to earn it. It depends on your background, to a large extent, if you’ve been brought up in some kind of social system which emphasizes duty, you find it very hard just to know that God freely gives grace. The wonderful thing about God’s grace is that He’s accountable to nobody for it. The book of Job says, “He giveth not account of any of His matters.” God’s justice is absolutely exact to the jot and to the tittle. But His grace is free. Oh, how beautiful it is the freedom of the grace of God.

I really have to say that very few Christians know what God’s grace really is. Well, grace, charis, beautiful. And when we are in God’s grace we should be beautiful. There should be something about us that is appetizing. That makes people want what we have. And we cannot say that about most religious people. In fact, most other people say, “If that’s what it is, I don’t want it.”

Now, charisma, the addition of the mamakes grace, which is general, specific. So charismais some specific manifestation or operation or impartation of grace. And the taat the end is plural. Charismata. That’s the plural of that particular type of Greek noun. So that’s what that word stands for up there. And I have put 26 because in the list which we are going to deal with, you’ll find out there are 26 charismatathat are mentioned in the New Testament.

Now the real purpose of this talk and this diagram or this list, is to enlarge your view of the things that God may call you to do. And to let you see that maybe you may already have a charismabut you didn’t recognize it. And that some of the most important charismataare not dramatic. Some are very dramatic some are not. We tend to focus on the dramatic. But believe me some of the non-dramatic ones are extremely important.

Now I’m going to go through the list and we’ve got to go to a second page in due course. Because that’s only the first part of the list. I’ve put it under three different headings. Four different headings. Basic, personal, spiritual, and over the next sheet where we’ll turn in a little while, ministry. So there’s four categories of charismata.

Now, you can make your own categories. There’s nothing hard and fast about this. This is just aiming to clarify your thinking. Basic, personal, spiritual and ministry.

Now the basic ones are ones that I think every Christian receives. And you may be surprised to know that the first one is righteousness. Now if I had asked most of you, “Is righteousness a charisma?” you would have not answered yes. You see?

Look for a moment in Romans 5 verses 15–17. I have a feeling as I stand here that the Holy Spirit is leading me to emphasize grace. That wasn’t my intention. But I have a feeling that’s what He wants to come out of this. Because honestly, most of you have hardly tasted the grace of God. And it’s exciting when you do, it’s intoxicating. Be careful. You may stagger around. You may talk an awful lot. You may say things you never intended to say. All right.

Now, Romans 5 is a very complicated chapter. It’s a comparison between Adam and Christ. It’s typical Jewish reasoning. It’s what you would call Talmudic, I mean Paul was a Jew of Jews. And here he indulges a little of his... you know what the Talmud is, it’s a Jewish commentary on the Scriptures. Romans 5:15–17:

“But the free gift [charisma, free gift. Notice the modern translations don’t just say gift they say free gift] is not like the offense. For if by one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God, and the gift of the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. [Notice the emphasis on grace here?] And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned: for the judgment which comes by one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift [charisma] which came from many offenses resulted in justification. [What Paul is saying is that Adam only sinned once and it brought condemnation on the whole race. We have sinned many times but Jesus’ one act of righteousness has brought righteousness to all of us.] For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one; much more those who receive abundance of grace [Notice the word grace?] and of the gift of righteousness will reign through the one Jesus Christ.”

Did you realize that righteousness is a gift? How many of you knew that? And if you don’t receive it as a gift, you’ll never get it. You cannot earn it. Nothing you can ever do will qualify you. You’ve got to accept it as a gift imputed to you on the basis of your faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t try to earn it. Be grateful for it. And let your gratitude cause you to respond appropriately. All right, now, the next charisma is Romans 6:23:

“For the wages of sin is death but the gift [free gift, charisma] of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So those are the first two charismata. If we take the New Testament in the order in which we have it, which is not of course the order in which it was written, but I do believe logically those are the first two. You don’t qualify for anything else. You’re not even in the qualifying list until you’ve received the gift of righteousness. And on the basis of the gift of righteousness God gives you eternal life. See God cannot give eternal life to people who are not righteous. So the first thing that happens is not that you receive eternal life, but you receive righteousness. You are reckoned righteous.

Now that’s not the end of the process. Because right at the end of the New Testament, in Revelation 19, describing the Bride of Christ, she was attired in fine linen, clean and bright, which is the righteous acts of the saints. Now that is not imputed righteousness. That is outworked righteousness. First of all God imputes it to you, then you work out what is imputed to you. Paul says in Philippians, “Work out your own salvation for it is God who works in you.” So what God works in you, you work out. If God doesn’t work it in, you can’t work it out. But if you don’t work it out, God can’t work any more in. He can only work in as much as we work out. So that’s the difference between imputed righteousness, which is a gift, on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ, and the outworked righteousness which is the raiment we will wear for eternity. Our Bridal attire. And that is made up of our righteous acts.

How many of you are going to have enough material for a dress? Understand? Every righteous act done in faith and obedience is a thread in this linen garment. Some of you had better give attention because you’re going to end up with very skimpy attire. I mean that. I mean that sounds comical but I really mean it. All right those are the first two charismata. Then we have the next one, which I call personal. Which is what everybody is praying for.

First Corinthians chapter 7 verse 7. I’ve told people when I teach on the gifts, “When you ask for a gift you had better be specific.” Otherwise you might get one you weren’t thinking of. First Corinthians 7:7: Paul says:

“I wish that all men were even as I myself. [Which means what in that context? Unmarried, celibate. But that’s too much to hope for.] Each one has his own gift [charisma] from God one in this manner and another in that.”

One of the gifts that God can give you to equip you for His service is the gift of celibacy. Which is a gift. You don’t work for it, you don’t become ascetic, it’s given to you. Now you’ve got to receive it. Personally I’m inclined to think that John Wesley had this gift. He would have been better if he had never married. The only major mistake he ever made in his life was his marriage which was a disaster from beginning to end. And did nothing for his ministry. So we need to be careful that we don’t allow ourselves to be dictated to by our social standards and customs.

There’s another way of being celibate, I believe, which is referred to by Jesus, when He says some have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Now making yourself a eunuch is not the same as receiving a gift. That’s where you make a sacrifice, you make a decision. I think many wonderful servants of God over the centuries have done that. I’m very cautious, don’t put down celibacy. Because some of the greatest servants of God have had that gift, Paul was one. Jesus, if you want to say it, was another. Don’t have the view that nothing is ever going to happen unless you get married. Please. Abandon that view. Because if you do get married on that basis your marriage may well be a failure. But I’m not urging everybody to seek the gift of celibacy.

It’s very obvious I don’t have it. Because I’ve been married twice. And I am happy married. But notice Paul was happy unmarried. He said, “I wish everybody was the way I am.” Why did God give that gift to Paul? Well if you study Paul’s ministry, if he had been married, there could have been only two possible results. Either he would have not been complete in his ministry, or his marriage would have been a disaster. Because a man who lived like that could not have had a successful marriage.

Let’s move on. We come now to what I call the spiritual gifts. I prefer to call them the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But that took too many words to write up. So I call them spiritual gifts. Many people think these are the only charismatathere are. They are important but they are certainly not the only ones. Let’s turn to 1Corinthians chapter 12 for a moment.

Now I’m not going to dwell these today because God helping me, if God wills and we live, tomorrow I’m going to devote the morning to actually receiving charismata. In other words, we’ll go beyond talking to acting. And I believe if we meet God’s conditions many of you will receive some of these charismatatomorrow. If you’re here. So let’s look in 1Corinthians 12:7:

“But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”

The key word there is “manifestation.” Which means something that can be perceived by human senses. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer but He is invisible, you can’t see him. But these gifts are ways in which He manifests Himself out of the believer whom He indwells. And there are nine specific ways. Every one of them is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Every one is supernatural. They cannot be reduced to the natural level, education or culture or anything like that. And the scripture says, verse 7, “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one.” To each believer. I believe that means that God intends every believer to have some specific manifestation from this list. And at the end of this list, in verse 11, Paul says:

“But one and the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one, individually, as He wills.”

Notice, beginning and ending, Paul says “to each one.” In other words I don’t believe that any born-again Christian committed to the service to the Lord, needs to be without some of these spiritual gifts. That’s not the level on which God intends us to live. That’s not the level presented in the New Testament. I think that’s so obvious that we don’t need to discuss it.

I believe the key word for God’s dealings with his people at this time, is the word “restoration.” God is giving back the inheritance we had forfeited through unbelief and disobedience. And one major aspect of restoration is the restoration of these nine gifts. In many places in the world, I can say humbly I have witnessed all nine gifts of the Spirit in operation. It’s not a theory, it’s not a doctrine, it’s a reality.

Since I’m going to talk about those gifts tomorrow, I think it will be the mark of wisdom to go on now to the next page of our outline. Which is the longest. These are the ministry gifts. Now this is my title. If you want a better title for yourself you’re free to choose it. The word “ministry” is one of these religious words which doesn’t really say it.

I went with a group to Pakistan in September, and the man at the immigration said, “What are you?” And I thought for a moment and I said, “I’m a minister.” Well, he concluded that I was a minister in the U.S. government. And I mean I got red carpet treatment from that moment onwards. Well I was perfectly honest but he misunderstood me. The truth of the matter is that the word “minister” actually means a servant. There are a number of different words in the New Testament for servant. One of them is the word from which we get the word “deacon.” Which means a servant. You see I think a lot of Baptist churches would be totally different if they called the board of deacons, the board of servants. I think that one title change would change the whole attitude of the people. Especially the deacons. All right, while we’ll look first of all in Ephesians 4:11 at the primary list. Notice again in verse 7 it says:

“To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

Again we’re talking about each one and we’re talking about grace. Notice everywhere we encounter these words we’re reminded it’s grace. Then it goes on to quote from a Psalm:

“When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”

Bear in mind these are Christ’s ascension gifts. They’re the gifts He gave after He had ascended. That’s very important when you look at the list. It says then, the gifts are listed in verse 11:

“He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.”

Five gifts. Watchman Nee says four. I wouldn’t argue with him. But I think on whole the scripture is in favor of viewing them as five distinct gifts. Notice the ascended Christ gave gifts to His body. The first thing He did was to provide leadership for His people. That’s absolutely basic. Because leaderless people are defeated people. Sheep without shepherds invariably scatter, they become a prey to wild beasts.

Now, the gifts He gave were persons. Very important to see this. He gave apostles as gifts. Prophets as gifts. The person was the gift. Evangelists. Pastors or shepherds. Teachers. And if you go back to verse 7 it says:

“To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

Now I don’t want to confuse you but the word gift in that verse is different. It’s ?duria?. And I have a little theory which I’ll offer to you, you don’t have to accept it. This word in verse 7 is usually used in the New Testament of a gift which is a divine person. And there are two such gifts, one is Jesus the other is the Holy Spirit. And so this is the gift of the person of Jesus. The measure. Let me explain it this way. Jesus is the perfect example of every one of these gifts. He’s the perfect apostle, the perfect prophet, the perfect evangelist, the perfect shepherd, the perfect teacher. What a man becomes in his ministry or a woman is as much of himself in that ministry as Jesus imparts to that person. So your ministry in these categories, if you have one of these ministries, is Christ in you carrying out His ministry as a shepherd, as a teacher, as an evangelist, as a prophet, as an apostle. They’re different from the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are where the Holy Spirit, manifesting himself out of the believer. And they’re very brief, they’re temporary. They’re just like that, they come and go. They’re like a flash of lightning. But these are a life gift. The gift of Jesus the shepherd, living out His shepherd ministry in a person. So what qualifies you to be a pastor? It’s not the fact that you’ve been to a seminary, God forbid, it is the fact that Jesus the pastor has given himself back to His people in you. Likewise an evangelist.

You see, these gifts are totally sovereign. They don’t depend on human election. We don’t elect a pastor. God has elected the pastor. All we can do is recognize. We don’t hire a pastor. God forbid. If you have a hired pastor you have a hireling. It’s all you have. The choice is not ours friends, the church is governed from above. It’s not a democracy. The head over all things is Jesus. And He operates downwards. The first level of His operation are these five main ministries. Without which the church can never function the way it was intended to function. A lot of people will recognize evangelists but they don’t leave room for apostles. Let me just tell you there’s only one man in the New Testament called an evangelist. You know who that was? Phillip. That’s right. I have counted 28 persons called apostles. Fourteen before Pentecost and 14 after Pentecost. Our eyes have been absolutely blinded by church traditions.

Now you don’t become an apostle because you say you’re an apostle. You become an apostle when Jesus the Apostle begins to apostle through you. And there are very definite standards by which to judge the claim of an apostle. Which is not my purpose to go into today. But I just want to point out to you these are the primary gifts, I prefer to say, of service. Not ministry. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, shepherds, I prefer to say shepherd, you know why? Because “pastor” is so religious. This word in Greek is ?poime?, which is the normal Greek word for shepherd.

Now if I say a man is a pastor your mental image is somebody in a dark suit on Sunday morning behind a pulpit. If I say to you the man is a shepherd your mental image is a man in working clothes out in the open fields with living creatures, which is right. The second one see. In the last century they used to talk about pastors behind the sacred desk. I don’t know if you’ve ever read books. When did you ever see Jesus behind a sacred desk? Our whole thinking has been distorted by tradition and the misuse of words. One of the great things we have to do is bring back the words of the Bible to mean what they’re meant in the Bible. All right let’s go on.

The next is, we’ll go to Romans chapter 12. All right. You’ll notice there are some extra things in parenthesis here because these are mentioned in other places, like apostles are mentioned in 1Corinthians 12:28, well let’s turn to 1Corinthians 12:28 for a moment, it’s a good scripture. It makes me happy.

“And God has appointed these in the church, [the Old King James said “set these” in the church. If God has set them in the church who has the authority to remove them from the church?]

God has set these in the church. First, apostles. Second, prophets. Third, teachers. So all those are mentioned two places. There’s the only place I know of in the New Testament where they’re set in order. Which indicates that the most authoritative ministry is the apostle, the next is the prophet, the next is the teacher. And you notice all of them really center in the word of God. So the authority is not so much in a human being, as in the word of God. After that, gifts of healing, sorry miracles. How many of us realize miracles have been set in the church? They’re part of normal Christian church life. Gifts of healings. Part of normal Christian church life. Helps. Administration. Varieties of tongues. Well we’ll come to some of those in a moment.

Let’s go to Romans chapter 12 now and go on from where we were. You remember we talked about presenting your body, being renewed in your mind, discovering God’s will, discovering your measure of faith. And finding your place in the body. All right, when you’ve found your place, then you begin to exercise your gifts. I’m not suggesting you can’t exercise gifts without finding your place, but what I am telling you is the gifts will really accomplish God’s purpose fully when you’re functioning in your place.

All right, we’ll go to Romans 12 verse 4:

“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function; so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.”

So my finger has got to be joined to my hand. It’s got no option. We’re members of one another. There’s no part of my body which is detached. Every part has got to relate to some other part. Verse 6:

“Having then gifts [charismata] differing according to the grace that is given to us...”

Notice again the word “grace.” You see the emphasis on grace all through? I see why the Holy Spirit has led me to emphasize grace, because if you don’t understand grace you don’t understand these gifts. You might think that people deserve gifts, they don’t. And have you ever noticed that God seems to give them to people that we think least deserve them? Have you ever noticed that? It’s almost comical the way the religiously unqualified are the ones that seem qualified in God’s sight. All right.

Now Paul lists eight specimen gifts. They don’t sum up all the gifts. He just gives examples. Let’s look at them. In verse 6:

“...prophecy. Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;”

Prophecy belongs in the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the previous list. So it’s mentioned twice, you understand? So that’s one possible charisma. I want you to be thinking now and asking the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, which of these charismatado you want me to have?”

Or, serving, verse 7. “Let us use it in serving.” So that’s another gift. We have that here, serving. That’s the Greek word for deacon. A deacon is a servant. Lot’s of deacons in the church today don’t know much about serving. They know about, well never mind.

Verse 7, also teaching. You see we have that here so we don’t have that again here.

Another very interesting one, “He who exhorts in exhortation.” I’ve put exhorting and encouraging. Because that is the Greek word for encouraging. How many of you would agree that the body of Christ tremendously needs the ministry of encouraging? I think discouragement is one of the devil’s strongest weapons.

Now, don’t put your hand up, but just ask yourself, “Would you like me to be an encourager?” The word that’s translated there has two meanings. And you can say them rather well in English. To “cheer up” or to “stir up.” So if people are discouraged you cheer them up and if people are lazy you stir them up. But it’s the same word. So just be seeking God. Does God want you to be an encourager?

From time to time people come up to me when I’m ministering and just give me five words of encouragement. Bless me tremendously. In fact without encouragement my ministry could not function the way it functions. I have one beautiful encourager permanently with me and that’s my wife.

All right, going on to verse 8. We’ve done “exhorts.” “He who gives, with liberality.” I’ve put there “sharing.” Because the Greek word means literally “sharing.” Perhaps some of you don’t realize that sharing is a ministry. That’s why I don’t believe God wants all Christians to be poor. I believe God blesses some Christians with wealth. Why? Because He’s given them a ministry of sharing. They use their wealth for the kingdom of God. They use their wealth to bless other servants of God. To help ministry. I’m being awfully indiscreet but I’ll tell you what I’m praying these days. I’m praying for the kingdom of God, that God will redirect the finances in His kingdom. To the persons and ministries and operations that are doing what He wants done. Because I see an awful lot of money going down the religious drain. And it grieves me. Perhaps you’d like to join me in that prayer. You see, giving or sharing requires real wisdom. Because real sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

All right we’re going on. “He who leads with diligence.” I think one of the other versions translates “rule.” The Greek word means “to stand out in front.” In 1Timothy chapter 3 Paul says if a man cannot manage his own family he cannot manage the church of God. That’s the word that’s used. It means to take responsibility for. It means to be a leader. “Out in front.” It means to be a protector. That you stand between the people you lead and the forces that oppose them. That’s the ministry of leading. Without leadership any operation just founders. Leadership is one essential to any kind of real success.

And then we have this beautiful ministry at the end, showing mercy. How we need that ministry. When I was sick and in hospital in Egypt, I mentioned in my last talk about one year in a hospital. There was a dear lady of 75, a Salvation Army brigadier, who took a journey all the way from Cairo to ?Alballa?, which was a very difficult journey, to visit me in hospital. And that visit totally transformed my life. It initiated something in me totally new. Which has gone on to this day. How I thank God for a lady of 75 that would make that sacrifice to visit an unknown British soldier in a hospital. That’s the ministry of showing mercy. And everything in my ministry from that time onwards has partly got to be credited to that lady. Think of what she’s building up. She’s past on to glory many years ago. But think what’s being laid up to her account in heaven. All right let’s go on.

The next is 1 Corinthians 12:28. We’ve looked at those but we’ll look back. At the ones that weren’t mentioned before. Helps. Miracles and healings of course are in the lists of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Helps. I think that is pretty obvious. They say in America there are some chiefs and some Indians. Well, being a help is being an Indian. You see very few chiefs can function without Indians. So the help is just as much needed as the leader. There was a time in the Pentecostal movement in Britain when I was there way back in the fifties, when everyone wanted to be a chief. Nobody wanted to be helps. And nothing got done, I mean the thing fell apart. So maybe God has chosen you to be a helper.

And then administration. That’s an interesting word. I don’t think it got onto the sheet. But the alternative meaning is steering. It’s the same word that’s used for the man who steers the ship. Now he’s not the captain of the ship but he’s got a vital part to play in the safe traveling of the ship. He, under the leadership of the captain, controls the course of the ship. I suppose administration is probably a good word.

Then we turn in closing to 1Peter chapter 4 verses 9, 10, and 11 where we get two more interesting charismata. “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.” How many of you know that grumbling is a sin?

“As each one has received a gift [charisma] minister it to one another. [Our charismataare not to hold onto, they’re to serve the body with] As good stewards of the manifold grace of God [notice the word grace again? Wherever you meet charisma you meet grace.] If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of the mouthpiece of God.”

So one gift is speaking as the mouthpiece of God. There are some people in the middle of a conversation they’ll just say the last word. And after that there’s just nothing more to be said. I mean it’s said. It’s not every word we speak, but that’s having a certain kind of authority which says it. Once it’s said there’s nothing more to say. My first wife was like that. She would come out with a sentence of about ten words, but after she’d said it there was nothing more to add. They were sometimes very sharp sentences too.

And finally, well let’s go back, verse 9: “Be hospitable to one another.” How many of you recognize that hospitality is a charisma? How much we need it. How grateful I am for the people who practice hospitality here, who take care of our needs. You see we’re all part of the same body. There is a Jewish proverb which says, “One hand washes the other and both hands wash the face.” Well that’s how it is. One hand may wash the other or two hands may get together to wash the face. But the whole body is interdependent.

Now I’d like you to think over that list. We’ve come to the end of our time practically. And I would like all of us to pray for God to show us our place, and to indicate the charismatathat we need that He wants to give us. Can we join together in prayer for that? As we close this meeting. Just let me see a show of hands, I want to know if you’re with me, how many of you would like to know your place? And would like to know your job? All right.

“Father we thank you for your word which is so clear, so specific and so practical. As we’ve looked into your word we’ve seen the relationship between place in the body and charismatic gifts. And Lord, I pray for everyone who raised a hand here that you will from this moment onward, if you have not already been doing it, guide them to their right place in the body. To their right place geographically too Lord. And give them the faith or help them to exercise the faith which you’ve given them to bring into action the particular charismatic gifts that are appropriate to their place and their function in the body Lord. We just commit ourselves to you Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”