Spiritual gifts (I Cor. 12-14) are corporate gifts to the body, as well as to individuals. In I Cor. Paul tells about the gifts in the context of the body and love. Love is to maintain our life with the Father. The fruit of the Spirit is love and all the other fruit come because we love (Gal. 5:16-22). Don’t forsake the fruit of the Spirit as well as the gifts of the Spirit. DO YOU WANT THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT? We are to covet them. We can’t desire the gifts, if we haven’t seen them. We can easily mess up tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy, but the others are farther from the human element. God doesn’t want us having dumb idols. GOD SPEAKS TO US. It marks you when God speaks to you. Jesus is the head over all the offices (apostle…), but the Holy Spirit is over the gifts. Every office and every gift is unique, so one person’s gift or office won’t look like someone else’s. We are to covet the best gifts. Which are the best gifts? Paul looked at prophecy as the one that edifies the body, but the gift you need to minister to someone in need is the best gift at that time. When we get to the end of our faith, we have nine gifts to take over. Covet miracles and the power of God.

In I Cor. 11:23-33 Paul says that the Lord taught him about holy communion. Twice He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” To remember is connected with covenant, meaning claiming the benefits of covenant. We are to remember the covenant blessings. We know the covenant of God with man as sins being forgiven, but it is also healing for the body and deliverance. We take communion so that we are made holy. Giving our tithes and offerings is one way we worship God. He rebukes the devourer for our sakes. Rom. 6:2 says that we are dead to sin. When we’re born again, we aren’t fixed. We die, so that we can be born again as new creations. We are members one of another. We’re part of God’s covenant. Baptism started with the rite of passage. It is identification with the death of Christ. The baptismal pool symbolizes a tomb and death. The tomb then becomes a womb for a new birth.

Mark 11:14-23.Your words change lives, so use your words to bless. The disciples heard Jesus’ confession to the fig tree. Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus was sleeping, not dead, because He was confessing the blessing. Have the faith of God, believing that what you say you will get. You are to believe in all that you say, so watch what you say. How can you have the faith of God? Rom. 4:16; call those things that be not as though they are. It’s NOT, call those that are as though they aren’t. The law of faith is never denial. Is. 55:8-10 God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and vice versa. He is never depressed, wondering what to do or how to pay the bills. Change how you are thinking. God’s Word will not return void, so speak His Word aloud to your circumstances and to yourself. Rom. 1:16 The gospel is the power of God to salvation. Peter walked on the water from one word from Jesus, “Come!” The boat didn’t sink, because Jesus said, “Let us pass over to the other side.” James 3:2-5. Learn to bridle your tongue. Where you are is because of your words. Speak in the right direction. Where are your words guiding you?

Ps. 91:1-2. The secret place is your intimacy with God. What you say about God determines your relationship with Him. Are you saying He is your strength, He is your refuge, He is your help? He is whatever you say about Him when you are dwelling with Him. Philemon 6. Confess who you are in Christ Jesus: the wisdom of God is in me; the Lord leads me; I am the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Confess what you desire, not what you see and are experiencing. Joshua 1:5-6; Heb. 13:5 and 6. We should not be covetous, but be content because God said He will never leave or forsake us. Listen to Him, even if you are deep in sin, so that we may boldly say, “He is My Helper.” Be bold about the Bible. The more your conscience agrees with the Bible, the more your faith increases. SPEAK GOD’S WORD to your business or whatever challenge you have. Faith will work, because it comes from God, not from you. Mark 11:22-24. You get what you say. The Bible in Mark 11:23 doesn’t say you’ll get whatever you believe, but whatever you say. Watch what you say, because you are what you have been saying. Master the thoughts in your head before going to bed and when you wake up. Confess: my marriage is blessed. He gives His beloved sleep. Start confessing one thing all night and during the day.

The anointing in a body of believers will peak, then plateau, then peak, and so on, but if you can keep strife and sin out, the anointing will always increase after each plateau. A spirit of faith gets into a group of people and is contagious. Be around people who are audacious with their faith. John 14:12. You can become known for your level of faith. There are two factors involved in the corporate anointing and spirit of faith: 1) the individual’s faith and 2) the sovereignty of God. Sovereign does NOT mean ARBITRARY! It means supreme and most powerful. God will call one person to be a prophet and other one an evangelist. Jesus expects us to do everything He did and more. Follow the Word, not signs and miracles. Do the work that Jesus did: He healed and ministered to the poor among other things. He taught the people, so they would believe and receive the Word and works. (Mark 5:1-5) You can’t control the move of God (John 5:1-15). Stay away from things that add to what’s in the Bible (angels, demons, etc.). When you obey God in one point, other things will happen, because it stirs up other gifts of the Spirit. Trust the Holy Spirit to reveal to you if you need to repent. Check up on your love walk if you aren’t getting results in your own life. Revival can stir up the “dirt at the bottom of the rocks in the aquarium”. There are seasons of the power of God, but His Word is constant.

II Tim. 1:6-9. Destiny is a process of discovery and revelation. We are a people of destiny, and we don’t quit. The closer you get to your destiny, the more divine and supernatural things will happen. There’s a cost to fulfilling your destiny- you have to fight to get it, because Satan wants to steal what you have never had and to keep you from your fulfilling your destiny. FIGHT FOR YOUR DESTINY! Love finds power in you to deliver someone else. God saved us and called us with a holy calling according to His purpose and grace. Eph. 2:8-10 We are saved by grace. God loves you even with what you’ve done and haven’t done; you can’t earn salvation or His love. Find your purpose in salvation. Sin has consequences, relevance, and permanence. Sin means you’ve missed the mark. To fulfill your destiny you must get on the right road.

When life doesn’t turn out as you planned, will you believe in the goodness of the Lord? King David said in Psalm 27:13 “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” In the Hebrew text faint actually means to quit. God’s blessings are for today, in the land of the living. When you want to quit, check your love relationship with Jesus and you’ll find it isn’t very strong at that point. But what keeps you from quitting? Strengthen the love relationship, with God and toward others, and the strength to continue comes through that daily walk with Jesus. In Isaiah 40:28-31 God’s words to you are that He gives and renews strength to the weary as you wait upon Him. But, how do you wait on the Lord? Think about a waiter in a restaurant. That person comes to your table, finds out what you want, comes back to the table often to check with you to see if there is anything else you would like. Be like that waiter and start with these three things to wait on the Lord. First, make the Lord a priority in your daily life. Other things will want to take your attention, but give your attention to the Lord. Second, feed your spirit with the Word. You may need to double your time in the Word. Third, begin again to make a public confession of Him. Purpose in your heart to talk about God. Isaiah 50:4 and James 1:12-17. In situations that cause pain and hurt, wait to hear what the Lord has to say and then use that Word to speak directly into the conflict. The flesh wants to speak pain and hurt, but don’t speak until you’ve heard what the Lord has to say. Don’t make a mistake; don’t allow the pressure to get what you want to become bigger than your service to Him. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. God is always good and you have to believe that of Him. Pastor Dale Armstrong shares a personal testimony of how he wanted to quit and how he wanted to speak out of pain and hurt, but he chose to speak what God showed him to speak and to walk in love. You can’t beat the love of God! Love works! It always works!