Good morning. We ended last time with Paul saying to desire
earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Remember
though, you must operate spiritual gifts in love or you are not benefited, even
though the other person may have their need met. Why did he say “but especially
that you may prophesy”? For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men
but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. He’s
not talking about speaking in another “learned“ language, like French or
German. True, if one spoke in a foreign language that no one there spoke, it
would be a “mystery“. Only God would be able to understand what he or she said;
but the mysteries that Paul is talking about are not mysteries just because
people do not understand that language. They are mysteries because they are
spiritual things that are unknown to the people in the church. Not long after I
received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I visited a church of a friend who was
Pentecostal. During the pastor’s sermon, someone started speaking out loud in
tongues. The Pastor kept preaching. Even though I was new to the experience, I
knew that that was not proper. It was not the gift of tongues, but merely the
person expressing themselves to God. As Paul will say later, in that situation,
people should speak to themselves and not out loud. Father go with the reader
and help him/her and his/her family to have many spiritual and physical
blessings today and every day.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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