The Holy Ghost Said!
You Can't Lightly Esteem My Lesser Gifts
The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit are described in First Corinthians 12. When a person receives the Holy Spirit (the giver of the gifts), he gives to each person several as he chooses. You must receive the Giver in order to receive his gifts. Until a person is baptized in the Holy Spirit, he will not see these gifts in manifestation in his life. All nine are supernatural manifestations and cannot be explained away as natural gifts or abilities.
The gifts, which are given as a grace upon receiving the Holy Spirit, are also the evidence of having received the Holy Spirit. All that a person has to do to verify this, is observe what God is doing throughout the church world. He will see that the churches that proclaim the baptism of the Holy Spirit see supernatural gifts in manifestation and the churches that don't believe in such a thing don't see any of his gifts in manifestation. One church believes and receives while another doubts and does without! Tradition continues to make the word of God of none effect in many churches.
The nine gifts can be categorized in three groups of three: the power gifts, the revelation gifts, and the inspiration gifts. First Corinthians 12:7 tells us, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." The gifts edify and bless the individual, the church in general, and even sinners who might become the recipient of a particular manifestation. The gifts are also a great evangelistic tool in getting a lost person's attention that God is real today. In relation to the other gifts, the inspiration gifts might be considered lesser gifts because they are more common and less powerful. They are also the initial and most frequent manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Whether it's a tool, a vehicle, a gun, or other object, we usually train our children on the less powerful objects before we allow them to operate the more powerful ones. To a certain extent, the Holy Spirit must do this with his gifts also.
The three power gifts are miracles, gifts of healing, and the gift of faith. These gifts bring the supernatural power of God into operation in a person's life to change the natural course of things. The power gifts were readily evident in Jesus ministry as he opened blind eyes, raised the dead, walked on water, and healed the sick. According to St. John 14:12 the church should be doing the same works that Jesus did, and also greater works: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." To those who aren't doing the works of Jesus, if you would receive the Holy Spirit you not only could do them, but you would do them. It was the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus which did the works and he wants to do the same through you.
The three revelation gifts are the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and the discerning of spirits. These gifts supernaturally reveal information about things in the future (word of wisdom) or the present (word of knowledge) or in the spirit realm (discerning of spirits). Revelation is given about future things so we will have the wisdom to make decisions in light of what is going to happen. Supernatural knowledge of current things is given that we may benefit from that information, or bless others because of it. The discerning of spirits manifests itself in seeing into the spirit realm to discern both angels and demons. It is not the gift of suspicion to discern the motives and intents of someone's heart. Through the gift of knowledge, God can reveal such information, but discerning of spirits has to do with supernaturally seeing into the spirit realm.
The three inspiration gifts are tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy. Throughout the book of Acts, we see that the initial manifestation of the Holy Spirit when someone received him was by one or more of the inspiration gifts. These continue to be his initial gifts today by which a person can know when someone has received the Holy Spirit. Tongues edifies the individual and prophecy edifies the church (I Cor. 14:4). I believe he wants to give these three gifts to everyone that has received him, because God wants all believers to be edified and edifying to the church. Since he told anyone that spoke in tongues to pray that he might interpret, he wants the believer to have this gift also (I Cor. 14:13). When a message in tongues is given and it is interpreted, it edifies the church and becomes equivalent to prophecy.
A lot of people would like to have the greater gifts in manifestation, but consider the inspiration gifts as unnecessary and even undesirable. I was once in a Pentecostal church in which the lesser gifts had been discouraged through the pastor's actions. The pastor called three women up front during a service and said, "I want the congregation to pray for these women this morning because unless each one receives a miracle they aren't given any hope to live much longer." As I started to rise from my pew to go forward and lay hands on the women to pray for them, I heard the Holy Ghost say, "You can't lightly esteem my lesser gifts and have my power gifts in manifestation."
I immediately knew that he was indicating that there would be no manifestation of his power gifts in that service because of the attitude that had been fostered toward the inspiration gifts. I sat back down, knowing that the pastor was responsible for the lack of any manifestation of the Holy Spirit's power gifts in that church.
Two of the ladies died in the next few weeks and I don't know what happened to the third. God might have led her to go somewhere else where the power that she needed was in manifestation. He could have also brought her to a knowledge that she could receive her miracle through her own faith rather than the gifts of the spirit. If this happened in a Pentecostal church just because of lightly esteeming the inspiration gifts, how can anyone expect to receive a miracle in a church that preaches against the baptism of the Holy Spirit and all of his gifts? No wonder that many Christians flock to crusades held by Benny Hinn and others where they can find hope that is not available in their local church.
It's hard for many people to accept, but your church can contribute toward for your life or your death. The very key to your victory may be withheld from you because your church doesn't believe or teach a particular promise of God. Instead of empowering you with the knowledge of God's will, faith in his word, and the power of the Holy Spirit, they may substitute religious phrases like, "If it be God's will, he will heal you." Jesus demonstrated the father's will by healing all that came to him, and the scripture tells us that all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are Yes and Amen.
Healing is just like salvation. Jesus paid the price for it in the atonement so that it can freely be given to all who will receive it. Even though it's not God's will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, we know that many do perish. That doesn't change God's will or the fact that salvation is freely given. Likewise, it's not his will that any die of sickness or disease, but many do, even though Jesus bore their sickness and disease so that healing could be freely given them.
A gift can be freely given, but it's up to the recipient to receive it or reject it. Patient, persevering, knowledgeable faith receives God's gifts, while ignorance, doubt, unbelief, wavering and impatience rejects them. In Mark 9:23, Jesus said, "all things are possible to him that believeth." Nowhere do we find this statement retracted or superceded in the scripture. Because most of the church doesn't rise up to the level that God has for them, they want to pull others down to their level of poverty, sickness, worry and fear. If you try to rise up to walk in God's best, they chide you for being hyper-faith or too spiritual. God is shortly going to correct this situation and raise up a glorious church without spot or wrinkle.