The cause of weakness in your Christian life is that you want to work it out partly, and let God help you. And that cannot be. You must become utterly helpless, to let God work, and God will work gloriously.6
— ANDREW MURRAY
Back in the 1990s, it was our practice at Allison Park Church to hold a Sunday night service. Sunday nights were different from our normal Sunday morning services. They were designed for people to spend extra time in worship and in prayer. We gave a teaching, but the atmosphere was designed for people to have an experience with God.
One Sunday night, Leah Ferguson was teaching. As she gave the message, she paused and shared a “word of knowledge.” Now remember that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the gateway to living a supernatural life. As a person learns to partner with the Holy Spirit, they start to function in the various gifts of the Holy Spirit that are described in 1 Corinthians 12:7–10. One of those gifts is the word of knowledge, which is the revelation to a person of a fact about someone or something that could not be known naturally.
Leah said, “Someone is here tonight who has experienced deep pain. God is getting ready to heal you in that area. As you humble yourself before Him, He is going to touch that area of pain and scarring and begin complete healing in that area of your life.” After she said this, she went on with her teaching and none of us thought anything about it.
In the audience that night was a man by the name of Kevin Kuchta. Kevin had been attending Allison Park Church for only a few months. He had a physical condition that caused him to experience pain in his bones. The bone disease, Avascular Necrosis, was caused by medicine he received for an intestinal disease. The medication actually caused major portions of his femurs to die, leaving the surviving bone to become stressed, brittle, and susceptible to fracture. He had undergone multiple surgeries to address the disease in his legs, and yet the problem had not been corrected. Modern medicine can do many incredible things, but it can’t bring tissue back from the dead. He had deep pain and physical scarring because of the condition and many orthopedic surgeries.
The most obvious way you could see the physical impact on Kevin was that he couldn’t get around without either a wheel chair or crutches. When Kevin heard the word of knowledge from Leah, something inside of him began to burn. The Holy Spirit spoke to him and said, “That word was for you!”
So at the end of the service, Kevin responded to Leah’s altar call. He used his crutches to get himself to the front of the auditorium. He did what was requested in the word of knowledge. He humbled himself. He recounts that he doesn’t remember how he got down on the floor. Usually, that would take help from someone, someone strong.
There Kevin lay face down before the Lord. “Then it happened. I felt the power of God come all over me. It was so strong that I began to tremble violently. My entire body would shake for a season, and then it would subside. Then again, it would come on me like a wave. I would shake, and then it would subside. This happened about ten to twelve times. I was scared, but I kept hearing, Be still and know that I am God. On the final time, I felt a searing pain in my back right where my kidney’s are located. When the pain stopped, I felt a sense of peace.”
Kevin felt God speaking to him again. “Stand up!” Kevin argued, “But God, I’m not sure how I can get up off the floor without help. It’s impossible for me to do this.” Again, Kevin sensed that inner voice of the Holy Spirit telling him to stand. So he obeyed. He pushed himself to his knees, then he tried to get from his knees to his feet. To his surprise, his legs held his weight without pain and with free range of motion. He stood straight up.
I was standing at the front of the auditorium talking to another person. Almost everyone had departed because it was about thirty minutes after the service had ended. Kevin was new to me as he was new to the church. When I saw him standing there, I said, “Hi Kevin.” It didn’t dawn on me that he was standing without crutches since I didn’t know him that well.
He said to me, “Hey Pastor Jeff! Look at me! I am standing right here!” “Yes,” I said, “I can see that,” not really sure what in the world he meant. Then Kevin pointed to his crutches that were lying on the floor. “I’m standing here!” Kevin explained as he saw my obvious confusion. I asked, “What happened? Did you experience a healing miracle?” “I think so!” Kevin responded in a sort of shock-and-awe moment.
He said that he was scared. I didn’t understand why until he said, “What if this isn’t real? If this is just adrenaline or something, and I tried to walk, I could break my leg. My left femur has fractured in the past just by moving myself on my living room couch.” He was confused and scared. I asked him what exactly happened. As he told me, he realized that it just had to be what it indeed was, a miracle! Then it really dawned on us both. What a moment and what a mixture of emotions. Joy! Tears! Laughter! Shock! Gratitude! It was quite a way to end a Sunday night service!
Kevin picked up his crutches and carried them out the back door. I will never ever forget that moment. It was a genuine verifiable, supernatural event that had happened right in our church! And it happened as a result of the Holy Spirit working in the life of one person to prompt a miracle in the life of another.
By the way, Kevin is a scientist. He normally rolled into work in his wheel chair. You can imagine the impact of his life when he walked into work on Monday morning: no wheel chair, no crutches, healed. The scientists had no explanation for what had happened to Kevin, but they could see visible proof that Jesus is alive and is still doing miracles in the world today. I asked Kevin to follow up with his doctors. Later, he told me that his surgeons examined him and were amazed. The chief surgeon, after examining his range of motion and comparative x-rays, looked at him and said, “Sometimes you just have to call a miracle, a ‘miracle’!”
I just described for you one of the most amazing instances I have ever seen of the Holy Spirit’s work through the life of a surrendered believer. If every story we heard about the Holy Spirit ended this way, there would never be anything controversial whatsoever about this experience. But not everyone has had an experience like Kevin’s. Some have been in a room where someone expressed a spiritual gift and it was either weird, awkward, confusing, or created a sense of pressure and or manipulation in the way it was expressed.
This was the problem in the Corinthian church. The apostle Paul, when writing 1 Corinthians, was addressing some of the internal struggles the church in Corinth was experiencing. One of the problems was the misuse and abuse of the supernatural gifts and experiences of the Holy Spirit.
What was going on? Their services were a spiritual circus. If you had entered the weekly services at the church in Corinth you would have seen nothing but confusion. Some people were interrupting the service by standing up and randomly speaking in tongues. Others were trying to take over the service by speaking out words of prophesy for lengthy periods of time. One person would be speaking publicly, and then another person would try to talk over them, and there would be a “war for airtime,” so to speak.
People were leaving services frustrated, confused, and wondering what it was all about. What was most concerning about this environment was the impact it was having on the Corinthian church’s ability to reach people who needed Christ. Paul expressed it like this, “If the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind” (1 Corinthians 14:23)?
This may be the unspoken danger you feel as you read this book. You might be thinking, I’m with you. I believe the power of God is needed as a witness to the resurrection. I believe the Holy Spirit is needed in the life of every believer. I believe that speaking in tongues is an experience for today. But I’m afraid that if I start to live this or lead people in this, our church is going to become a crazy charismatic environment that is awkward, confusing, and limited in its ability to reach out to those who are lost.”
How do I make this work in my life and not become part of a spiritual crazy house? The instructions that we find in 1 Corinthians 14 provide the pathway to proper function and use. Now, the content of this chapter is less about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and more about the down-the-line impact of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Once you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, you will begin to function in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as well.
Once people begin to flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they also need to learn some principles for how to function appropriately in those gifts.
Once people begin to flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they also need to learn some principles for how to function appropriately in those gifts. This is what Paul carefully outlined in 1 Corinthians 14. You may want to put this book down for a moment, find that chapter in the Bible, and read it. Then come back and read through the various principles in the following pages.
PRINCIPLE 1: EXPECTATION
“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit”
(1 Corinthians 14:1).
In the first verse of this chapter, Paul mentions two things that must be kept in balance. Some want to (1) follow the way of love. They want to make sure that everything is done with others in mind. They want to design church services people can relate to and understand. They want their spiritual experiences to draw people to Jesus not turn them away. They want to make the Bible and the gospel relevant to those who are far from God.
Others want to (2) eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit. They want to see every aspect of God’s power released in their lives. If there’s a spiritual experience to be had, they want to experience it. They want every drop of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in their lives. They want to design church services where people have the liberty and freedom to soak in the presence of God and experience the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.
Too many times, we’re on one side or the other of this equation. Paul teaches that we need to have both to function biblically. It isn’t enough to love people; we also need to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts.” It isn’t enough to want to flow in the powerful gifts of the Spirit and not be aware of the need to love and reach out to people. Both must be kept in balance. Both must be our passionate pursuit.
So which one do you currently lean toward? How can you make sure you are intentionally pursuing both? Are you focused on loving people? Are you eagerly and intentionally expecting to be used in the supernatural?
PRINCIPLE 2: EDIFICATION
“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort”
(1 Corinthians 12:2–3).
Whenever God works supernaturally through the life of one person to meet the need of another, it is always for the purpose of edification. What does it mean to edify? The verses define it: to strengthen, encourage, and comfort. Some have said it like this: to build up, to cheer up, and to lift up.
This is the standard and motivation for being used in the power of God. My hunger to be used by God and to experience the power of the Holy Spirit is not just for me. Yes, God wants to heal me, to restore me, to empower me, to use me. Yes, God wants to use my lips to pray supernatural prayers. It’s amazing to experience the presence of God Himself in our lives.
When we are with others, we have to aim our experiences with the Holy Spirit toward the edification of everyone present in the room.
But when we are with others, we have to aim our experiences with the Holy Spirit toward the edification of everyone present in the room. When I pray in private, I can feel free to speak in tongues, sing, or shout for joy to go deeper into God’s presence. But when I’m with others (especially those who are not yet believers), I need to consider how my actions and responses to the Holy Spirit are affecting them.
PRINCIPLE 3: NORMALIZATION
“Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church”
(1 Corinthians 14:8–12).
This may be the biggest issue of all when it comes to functioning appropriately with spiritual gifts. Whatever we say or do has to be expressed in such a way that it can be understood and received by those who hear us. Remember, the goal is to build up those who are present. So we need to fashion what we say and do so others can understand it and apply it.
I grew up in a Pentecostal church and experienced many services that were a lot like the “spiritual circus” in the church at Corinth. What was typical in a lot of these events was this: Whoever was being used in a spiritual gift would suddenly become a different person. Their voice would tremble, the volume would rise. It was startling, emotional, and sometimes a bit scary.
What I believed about the supernatural was this: When God used someone it was like a lightning bolt hit them. They would lose control of who they were. God would take over and make them do and say things that were beyond understanding. It was like detonating a powerful spiritual explosive device in a meeting that would spray all kinds of spiritual debris everywhere.
Often I didn’t understand how what happened benefited anyone in the room, but I didn’t want to argue with what the Holy Spirit was doing. So I endured it and ignored it. I wasn’t against it. But honestly, I wasn’t really interested in having this experience that seemed so odd and out of place to me. The way in which spiritual gifts were used in my experience did several things to me:
•I believed that functioning in the supernatural was only for a special class of people who were eerily in touch with God in a way that I was not.
•I was inoculated against wanting to be used in spiritual gifts because I was unwilling to become so emotional and demonstrative in front of others.
•I began to believe that spiritual gifts could only happen in Pentecostal worship services. I never heard stories of them functioning outside of a church building.
•I was hesitant to bring my friends to church with me because I didn’t know how to explain to them the weird emotional explosions that might happen during the service.
I have since learned that functioning in spiritual gifts doesn’t have to be spooky, emotional, or spoken in old King James English. In fact, what I see written in 1 Corinthians 14 is that the explosive way these gifts are so often practiced is potentially a hindrance to their proper use.
What I teach people now is that spiritual gifts should be used in a normal tone of voice, and out of your authentic personality. When God starts to move through you, you may feel emotions well up within you, but you are capable of managing your emotions in order to convey a message or word of encouragement in the most effective way for the people who are listening.
Spiritual gifts aren’t released when a lightning bolt strikes you; spiritual gifts are released when you decide to partner with the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit to speak out and believe for God to work in the life of another person. We should expect that God will release the gifts of the Holy Spirit through us during a worship service. But even more than that, we should expect that God will release the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives, Monday through Friday as well.
We should practice using the gifts in a normal way. What I like to teach is this: If you were in a grocery store and God spoke to you about someone you saw in one of the aisles, how would you use that gift? Hopefully you wouldn’t close your eyes, shake, lift your voice, and start to say, “Thus says the Lord …”
Wouldn’t that totally freak people out?
Rather, you might approach that person in a humble tone. Introduce yourself. Explain what happened to you as you walked down the aisle. Explain how the Holy Spirit prompted you to say something. Present your message in a sensitive way, aware of your surroundings and in touch with the person’s reactions and response.
This is the way the Holy Spirit wants to work.
PRINCIPLE 4: EXPLANATION
“Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes”
(1 Corinthians 14:6–7)?
I have found that most people are completely open to the supernatural, especially if the atmosphere they are in feels safe.
I have found that most people are completely open to the supernatural, especially if the atmosphere they are in feels safe. People don’t feel safe when they don’t understand what is happening around them, especially if all of a sudden someone gets really emotional and does something unusual or unique right beside them or right in front of them.
Now, I realize that safety isn’t our only goal. We want power. We want transformation. We want to see people healed, and restored, and visited by the presence of God. But I believe we can do all of that, and at the same time make people feel safe enough that they can relax and remain open to what God is doing.
The key to feeling safe is having someone there to interpret what is going on. If we slow the process down enough to say, “This is what is happening; this is what the Bible teaches; and this is why this is important,” then we gain the trust of those we are trying to reach.
PRINCIPLE 5: INCLUSION
“The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people”
(1 Corinthians 14:32–33).
When I teach this, I get some pushback from people who come from traditional Pentecostal backgrounds. They say, “When the Holy Spirit comes on me, I can’t control how the message comes out. In fact, if I try to control it, I limit what the Holy Spirit wants to do.”
My response is always to go back to the Bible. Paul teaches in this 1 Corinthians passage that those who are prophets (meaning they are speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) can control the function of their own spirits. As they hear from God, they can manage the way that message is delivered. “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”
I have titled this principle Inclusion for a reason. For over 100 years, Pentecostal churches have practiced the use of spiritual gifts in worship services by an interruption in the service. From the days of the Azuza Street Mission—when people gathered for worship on the top floor of an old hall with sawdust floors, wooden benches, and no electronic sound systems—the practice has been for a person to stand up in the service, take the floor, and declare a word from God. Sometimes, one person interrupts the service by speaking in tongues. Then another person interrupts the service by interpreting those tongues. This has been the normal function in Pentecostal churches for years.
After pastoring at Allison Park Church for over a decade, I realized that this interruptive style, perhaps more than anything else, was what made people feel unsafe. They never knew who would speak, from where in the auditorium, what they would say, or even whether or not the speaker was credible and trustworthy. Many times people couldn’t hear the speaker or couldn’t understand the message because the speaker wasn’t speaking into a microphone. It was messy and confusing.
That’s when I realized: The world has changed since 1906.
No one ever stands in the back of any room and shouts out a message. That may have been the culture of the day before sound systems, stages, etc. Town hall meetings and small country venues were the order of the day, but not anymore. That’s why an interruption in the service with someone shouting out a message from God seems so unusual and unsettling in our current culture.
So we changed how we function with spiritual gifts in our worship services. When someone feels they have a word or prophecy, instead of shouting from their seats, they simply come to one of our pastoral team members and share with them what they are sensing. Then, we either have them come up onto the platform to share or we convey the message to the congregation on their behalf.
This one change has done more to make everyone feel safe than anything else when it comes to our function. And this one change led to several other things:
•Quiet and shy people who would never have shouted from the back are being used in spiritual gifts.
•People who attend our church feel safe and are bringing their friends to church in greater numbers.
•We are teaching how to use the gifts in a normal tone and an explained fashion.
•More and more people are using spiritual gifts in their everyday lives.
PRINCIPLE 6: DEMONSTRATION
And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ
(1 Corinthians 11:1).
Most of this chapter is spent on bringing balance to areas of practice where there is excess. But I want to emphasize that there can be no balance without a beginning. There’s no need for parameters when nothing is practiced. Perhaps you have heard it stated, “Better to have wild fire, than no fire at all.”
When it comes to actual fire, I’m not sure that is a truism! But when it comes to the working of the Holy Spirit, I believe it is absolutely true. It’s possible to take so many precautions to avoid offending or scaring people that we totally eliminate any opportunity for God to operate in our midst. It’s actually impossible to model for people something that we don’t practice or pursue ourselves.
One of the things I so appreciated about my parents was that they had a faith that was more than just words. I’ll never forget the day my dad came home from visiting the hospital. One of the members of our church had become ill and wasn’t expected to live through the night. My father was called to the bedside to comfort the family as they watched their father die.
Standing beside the hospital bed, my dad reminded the family, “Doctors provide a prognosis, but God has the final word. We can still believe God for a miracle.” As they prayed, the Holy Spirit moved and Mr. Thurston not only survived the night, he walked out of the hospital the next day—totally healed. This moment impressed me as a teenager more than I can express. Amazing thoughts swirled through my head: God must truly be real! My dad knows God and knows how to pray! Following Jesus isn’t boring; it’s an adventure!
I’m the father of five kids (and now the grandfather of my first grandchild). My desire is to demonstrate to them a faith that has more than just principles and values. I want to give them a faith that carries transformational power. As a pastor, I want to introduce my people to more than just good teaching, descriptions of stories from long ago, and encouraging thoughts for their lives. My desire is to introduce them to the person of the Holy Spirit and to demonstrate before them a life that is lived out of Holy Spirit power.
PRINCIPLE 7: PREPARATION
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up
(1 Corinthians 14:26).
Because the Holy Spirit lives within every believer, and since He is never without the capacity to demonstrate His power, we should anticipate that He will constantly show up in our lives. It’s an everyday expectation; a moment by moment anticipation. Every time we attend a church service or a small group or encounter someone in need, we are living moments filled with divine potential because the Holy Spirit fills our lives.
Bruce Wilkinson has written one of the best books I have ever read about this kind of preparation to live a supernatural life. The book is titled, You Were Born for This: Seven Keys for Predictable Miracles. He paints this picture for us, “You were born to be a living link between heaven and earth. You were born to be God’s ambassador in the Everyday Miracle Territory, making Him visible in unforgettable ways. The miraculous touches of heaven that God wants to accomplish His will come in all sizes, but mostly they’ll be of the personal everyday sort that you can be a part of. Why? Because God passionately desires to show Himself strong for you and through you, and because every person you meet has a significant need that only God can meet.”7
You are God’s “miracle delivery system” is the phrase Bruce coins in this book. I love that picture of what we are. You are a carrier of the Holy Spirit. He is ready to move in your life and in the lives of those around you at any given moment. Therefore, we should live tuned up, prayed up, and ready to be used by God!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER SEVEN
1.What is the worst customer service experience you have ever had? What made it so bad?
2.In your opinion, are most churches aware of what outsiders feel? Are we, as the church, good at creating environments where people feel welcome and safe?
3.How do you make people feel comfortable when they enter your home?
4.What kinds of things are necessary for you to do, if God wanted you to minister to someone who was brand new to God or to church?
5.What will happen to the church if it ever stops creating room for the Holy Spirit to move in our environments? What’s the balance?
6.Have you ever seen this done really well? Where someone ministered to you in a powerful Holy Spirit way, and yet maintained humility and sensitivity? Describe this moment and why it so impacted you.