Rom 1:11-12 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established —  12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. (NKJV)

Why does Paul want us to be established and what does he want us established in? From this verse it is clear that the establishment and encouragement is in their mutual faith. Remember in Part 4 how we saw that impartation came through one on one sharing? We all know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Why do more people experience the gift of healing when we preach on healing? Because faith for healing comes by hearing about healing. Faith is imparted through words.

Rom 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach) NKJV

We preach the word of faith. It is near us, in our mouths and in our hearts. When you speak the Word of God from your heart, meaning being fully convinced of it supremacy and truthfulness, the people who hear you receive faith to believe for the very thing you are speaking about. That is one of the reasons why you are here: to impart faith to people to believe Jesus.

Rom 10:13-14 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (NKJV)

You don’t have to be church leader to impart faith. If the Word of God, Jesus Himself lives inside you through His Spirit, you have the ability to impart faith to whosoever hears you proclaim His Word. Back to being established… If I only tell you about healing and don’t demonstrate it, your faith will rest merely on Bible knowledge. Then if somebody else comes along and with their knowledge tells you that healing has passed away and also uses the Word of God as their evidence, you will be thrown into confusion, not knowing who or what to believe. But, if I were to show you healing through scriptures and then also heal you, you will not be easily persuaded that healing has passed away because you have now experienced the power. You have both the knowledge and the experience. You are now established. It will take much more to persuade you otherwise. Look at the case in point below:

John 9:14-25 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” 25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”  (NKJV)

Jesus healed the blind man and the Pharisees tried to convince him that Jesus was not sent from God. They tried to speak lies about Jesus and tried to get the formerly blind man to stop singing Jesus’ praises. The man’s answer in verse 25 is just awesome. “Whether He is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know: I was blind and now I see.” Further on Jesus meets up with this man again and reveals Himself as the Messiah. The man had no problem believing Jesus because power always backs up knowledge. Our knowledge is only in part and we might not have all the information, but when power is displayed, knowledge is confirmed or refuted. No matter what the Pharisees told the man, they could not change the man’s faith in Jesus. If the man never experienced the miracle, he would probably have been easily persuaded that Jesus was not the Messiah. That is why we preach kingdom dominion and the need for displays of power when preaching. Paul said the same thing many times:

1 Thess 1:5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. (NKJV)

Power brings MUCH assurance or entire confidence.

1 Cor 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.  (NKJV)

Our faith is to rest in the Power of God, not the theology of man.

Rom 15:18-19 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient —  19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (NKJV)

There can be no sure establishment in the faith without the demonstration of the Spirit and the Power of God. That is why signs and wonders follow us, that is why we receive power after we are baptized in the Spirit. If your gospel is not followed with signs and wonders, you are not fully preaching the gospel. If you are not fully preaching the gospel, you are not establishing people in the faith. If you are not established, you are double minded, unstable in all your ways and it is very difficult to receive from God in this state. (See James 1:6-8)

Let’s end it hear for now. I wonder if there will be a part 6…

Cornel

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Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2.

1 Cor 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant (NKJV)

In Part 2 I showed how the word ‘gifts’ was not in the original Greek text and I proposed that it is concerning the spiritual that Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant about. I want you for a moment to think of Grandpa trying to use an iPhone. Does he use it to its full capacity? Probably not. Can you do more things with an iPhone than Grandpa? Probably yes. Do you have a different iPhone that can do all these extra things Grandpa’s can’t? No. Same phone, same functions and capability but Grandpa is merely ignorant (without knowledge, uninformed, misinformed) about the phone’s capabilities while you are not. This is what I believe Paul was getting at. Lack of knowledge or wrong knowledge is deadly.

Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (NKJV)

So Paul had learned a couple of spiritual truths and he wanted to share them with the church. But it is one in particular that I am interested for out of this truth flows all the others.

Eph 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (NKJV)

After you trusted in the word of truth, the gospel, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The most awesome gift we could ever get, the Spirit of God inside us!

1 Cor 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (NKJV)

Not only does the Spirit live in you, the sealing actually makes you one spirit! There is no distinction between where His Spirit ends and yours begins. You are one Spirit. There is nothing in Him that is not also in you.

John 1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. (NKJV)

We didn’t receive just a little part of Him, we received of His fullness.

Col 2:9-10 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (NKJV)

In Jesus lives the fullness of the Godhead, and since Jesus lives in you through His Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead lives in you too. You are complete, you lack nothing. This was actually Jesus’ prayer for us!

John 17:20-23 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (NKJV)

The glory the Father gave to Jesus, Jesus gave to us so we can become perfectly one as they are one. That is almost too much to comprehend! If you really think about it, the holy of holies used to house the cloud of His Glory. You are now the holy of holies housing the cloud of His Glory in you!

1 Cor 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (NKJV)

You are the vessel carrying the glory of God everywhere you go. You don’t have to ask Him to show up, come down, send His glory or anything like that. You are His glory, you are the holy place, you are one spirit with Him. Where you go, He goes. Where you show up, He shows up. What He has, you have too.

1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (NKJV)

AS HE IS SO ARE YOU IN THIS WORLD!! Think about that. As Jesus IS, now, so ARE you too, NOW. You are an heir of God and CO-EQUAL heir with Christ (Rom 8:17, Gal 4:7). Everything Jesus inherited, you got equally. You can’t give the same thing to two people, unless you first make them one. One spirit, that is! Don’t be ignorant, misinformed or uninformed. There is no spiritual gift you don’t possess because the Spirit of Christ contains all the promises, gifts and inheritance, and He sealed it in you.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (NKJV)

Blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing! Every gift in 1 Cor 12 is a spiritual blessing and you have them all because you have all of the Spirit.

2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (NKJV)

His divine power (which is the Holy Spirit) has (present perfect tense) given us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness. We are partakers of the divine nature because we are one spirit with the divine nature, the Spirit Himself.

Philem 1:6 that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.  (NKJV)

You might think this sounds good on paper but you don’t see it in your life. Well, Paul told us to make our faith effective by acknowledging every good thing that is in us in Christ Jesus. Not by standing around praying for more, waiting for impartations and new anointings. No, just know what you have, acknowledge it and make your faith effective! And this it not name-it-claim-it either. This is believe it and live accordingly.

Rom 1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift (NKJV)

Wait a minute? We just read all these verses that tell us we have everything? What is it that Paul wants to impart? Is there something they don’t have? Might you and I actually be lacking something? How can Paul say we have all yet here he says he wants to give them something? If you want to know, you’ll have to read part 4…

Sorry about the cliff hanger…

Cornel

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