The Gifts of the Holy Spirit Part 1

How to Increase the Manifestations of the Holy Spirit In Your Life and Church

Byron Z. Mills, July 16, 2024

1 Corinthians 14:12

“Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel to the edification of the church”

The Lord  began to deal with me deeply, about the nine manifestations of the Holy Spirit found in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1-11. But He has stirred me up specifically in the area of the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy is vital  because we are all called to  to edify the church and the gift of prophecy is one of the God ordained means to do so.

Therefore, 1 Corinthians 14:12 says, “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel to the edification of the church”. The church, you and me, and believers need to be edified. We need to be built up. The Holy Spirit makes it really clear here that you cannot build up the church, build up other believers, without spiritual gifts. 

Jesus said in Matthew 16 “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” If Jesus' main function and focus is to build up the church, that should be our priority, right? And we see here in 1 Corinthians 14:12, “Even so, since you're zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the building up of the church that you seek to excel.”  Clearly, we should be -for the sake of building up the church and doing what Jesus is doing, building the church - seeking to excel in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

These nine manifestations listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are nine graces. They are nine what I call “gracelets”. There are nine manifestations of grace. And if you'll notice in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 7 “...but the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the profit of all”.  The manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all, for the advantage of all. They give us an advantage over the kingdom of darkness, an advantage over the world system, an advantage over the healthcare system which is destined to keep you sick so they can keep making money. I'm not talking about individual doctors, but the overall system. 

These manifestations give you the advantage over the world's financial system which is designed to keep you broke. These nine manifestations of the spirit give you an advantage over the spirits that want to destroy marriages and put them into divorce, and get your kids on drugs, get your kids worshiping demons, to get your kids and grandkids to fall away from the faith. 

These gifts of the Spirit, these nine gifts of the Spirit, are your power tools that give you the advantage over  anything that's in this world. We overcome the world through faith. And It takes faith and confidence to operate in these nine manifestations.  So the Lord has stirred me up that these nine gifts of the Spirit should not manifest once in a while, but they should be the daily food, the daily practice and the daily experience of the Spirit filled believer.

Furthermore, these nine manifestations are not only the experience of you as an individual, but local gatherings should be expecting and experiencing them as well.

Notice in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts I don't want you to be ignorant.”  This word ignorant doesn’t mean  stupid, it means being not being aware of them or not knowing anything about them. It's not ignorant in the sense that you're stupid, but in the sense that they're being ignored. So a good way to read this verse is “I don't want you to  lack understanding about these nine manifestations of the Holy Spirit and I don't want you to ignore them and put them on the back burner.

Honestly, it’s  easy to fall back into a natural way of living.and not expect any supernatural manifestations in your  Monday through Saturday life. You may expect some of these manifestations on Sunday. Unfortunately, in this current culture, churches that profess to believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit are rarely manifesting them in our gatherings. 

It takes effort to swim upstream. It takes effort to be a church corporately expecting the gifts of the Spirit to operate in its gatherings. Furthermore, are we expecting or experiencing them  Monday through Saturday? Are we truly expecting and looking for the nine gifts of the Spirit to show up.

#1. PURSUE LOVE: God’s Love Is the Trigger of the Gifts of the Spirit

And so what should be our attitude regarding the gifts of the Spirit? 1 Corinthians 14.1 tells us. “Pursue love.” Love is the motive. The love of God is the motive for anything we do. Pursue it. Notice that if you don't pursue love you won’t apprehend it. This is the Greek word dioko, it's the same word as “persecute”.  It’s the picture of law enforcement pursuing someone until they capture them and take them captive. So you must pursue love until you have taken possession of it in your soul. It’s already in your recreated spirit.  You have it. But pursue with your mind until it’s controlling your life.  All right?  This is an active thing, to pursue love. 

First, pursue God's love for you. Pursue an incrases awareness of His love for you. Pursue it in your thoughts. Meditate on the love of God for you. Second, meditate on the love of God in you (Romans 5:5).  The same love God has for me and for you is what you have in your spirit for others. Love for your enemies, even the people that annoy you at church, that kind of love is in you. Pursue that. 

How does love relate to the gifts of the Spirit? Love is the trigger to the supernatural.  Supernatural love produces supernatural results. Love is the best of operating in these nine manifested graces. Love is the motive, but love is also the trigger.

Love is the divine trigger to divine power. Think about it. Have you ever seen something really bad happen to somebody, something horrible, and this compassion rose up in your heart, and you're like, oh, I wish I could do something. But humanly, there's nothing I can do. That is the trigger point. where the love of God will trigger. Yeah, there's nothing you can do, but there's a lot that the Holy Spirit can do through you. All right. 

So love is the triggering of all of these gifts of the spirit, whether it's prophecy or tongues or interpretation, it is the manifestation of the love of God. Oh my goodness. Truly, when you begin to see these nine gifts, not as a display of power it will give you the realization that we need to allow God to intervene in their tragedy through His gifts.

When we view the gifts of the Spirit through the lens of power we may back away, because we don’t want to have a power trip. And sometimes people get into a power trip like, look at me, I am powerful and really spiritual. But if you start seeing these as manifestations of divine love, you will begin to lean into these nine gifts when you're dealing with people because it takes you beyond your natural limitations to help people and over into God's ability.

If you can begin to change your thinking that the gifts of the Spirit are not a demonstration of spirituality or  power, but a demonstration of love it will inspire you to pursue them. And if  you want to see love manifested in people's lives, it will trigger the gift of prophecy, tongues and interpretation and the six other manifestations. Your heart will yearn to give them something beyond the natural. It'll give you the boldness to step into the gifts of the Spirit because you're stepping into manifested love. Say this out loud. I am pursuing love and desiring to manifest God’s love through the gifts of the Spirit.

#2. DESIRE THE GIFTS: Boil Over With Desire To Operate in the Gifts of the Spirit

But it doesn't stop there. I’ve heard many sermons on love, but precious few on the gifts of the Spirit. But listen to what 1 Corinthians says, “Pursue love AND DESIRE SPIRITUAL GIFTS”. The word “desire” here is zeloo. We get the word zealous and jealous from this Greek word. This word zeloo means to boil over with jealousy and envy, to be boiling hot with intense desire. So he says, pursue love like a persecutor pursues a criminal and then boil over with desire for spiritual gifts. This is not an option. 

3. Intentionally Desire to Prophesy

But then he even takes it a step further and says, but especially. that you may prophesy. Wow. I am boiling over with desire for the gifts of the Spirit. And I'm especially boiling over with intense desire to prophesy.  Some of you may be thinking, “Byron, you're a good speaker. You've done this all your life. You get in front of people. You prophesy. I'm just never going to be a prophesier.”  Well, first of all, I'm going to correct that lovingly. That's just doubt and  unbelief. Actually it’s a form of stubbornness. That's you staying in your comfort zone. Don’t forget what happened to the Israelites when they refused to go into the promised land and enjoy their inheritance. They allowed unbelief to rob them of God’s best. 

Saying that you will never prophesy is rejecting 1 Corinthians 14:1. See, you're not disagreeing with Byron here, but the word of God. You're disagreeing with what God wants for you. You're cutting short your own destiny. This is not written to an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher or good public speaker.  It's written to the body of Christ. He wrote this to the whole church at Corinth, right? And to the individual believers. 

#4. Corporate Desire is Needed for the Gifts to Increase

Now, because he wrote this letter to the whole church at Corinth, then he's encouraging this whole church to pursue flowing in his love, to boil over with jealousy for the gifts of the Spirit, and especially to prophesy. When a local church begins to do this, you're going to see a supernatural tone, a supernatural element begins to increase there!

#5. We Must Move Beyond the Doctrine of Grace Into Manifesting Grace

We don't just want to know the doctrine of grace. We want to experience grace and be conduits and channels of grace. We want manifested grace in these nine ways that you see in first Corinthians chapter 12.  We must learn to confirm the doctrine of grace through these manifestations of grace. I'm not against doctrine and teaching.  It’s necessary!. That's the foundation. But man, many of us are camping on the doctrine only, right?  Many have become grace police. They know how to judge you if you don't have the grace teaching right. You may think that you can see  a legalist, a Pharisee from a mile away. Well, good for you. Now you've built another barrier around another doctrine. 

But the doctrine of grace simply gives you the freedom and the foundation to release and operate in the gifts of the Spirit. We need the gifts of the Spirit because they are manifested grace.  They confirm the message of grace.

#6. There Is A Glaring  Absence of Manifestations of the Spirit in our Churches

I heard a minister recently say that, and they travel the country. They're very experienced. They travel the country. They are good at flowing in the gifts of the Spirit. And I heard them say to me, both publicly and in a private dinner setting, that most of the churches that used to be Spirit-filled churches have no gifts or manifestations of the Holy Spirit in their gatherings. He said maybe 1% of the churches, if that many. And began looking at our own church,  where we do have a healthy flow of gifts, but it's not where the Lord wants it to be. He's been stirring me up for over a month, disturbing my sleep actually about this.

#7. The  Gift of Prophecy in the Local Gatherings Will Trigger the Other Eight Manifestations of the Spirit.

So, I'm going to show you how to stir up the gifts of the Spirit both personally and corporately. So pursue love, boil over with jealousy, zeloo for spiritual gifts, spiritual manifestations. especially that you may prophesy. He said, especially the gift of prophecy, to prophesy. And just before we can get to it today, the gift of prophecy in its simplest form is not foretelling the future. It's simply speaking by the inspiration of the Spirit. It's God speaking to others through you that builds up and encourages and it edifies. 1 Corinthians 14.4 says, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” and we need to be doing that, right? “But he who prophesies edifies the church”. The church needs to be edified. And the gift of prophecy is one of the best supernatural ways to flow in the grace of God that brings the empowerment to edify and build up the church. 

Now, 2 Timothy 1, verse 6. Here's how you and I can stir up the gifts of the Spirit. Here's how we can get them activated even more. “Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands”. Stir up the gift of God. So the gifts of the Spirit and your particular gifting has to be stirred up. I used to eat a lot of natural peanut butter, and you remember if you bought natural peanut butter. When you purchase it, the top half is the oil, the bottom half is the peanut butter, and you'd have to stir it and stir it until it blends. Likewise, the gifts of the Spirit also can settle down to the bottom of life, right? But you've got to stir it back up. 

#8. One of The Best Way to Stir Up the Gifts of the Spirit in Your LIfe

Unfortunately, no one clearly explained to me how to stir up the gifts of the Spirit. I was told to pray more in tongues. Undoubtedly, I think that is one good way to stir up the gifts of the Spirit. But I think there are additional ways to stir up the gifts of the Spirit. Peter in his second letter gives the key to stirring up spiritual realities. I'm going to give you a real nugget here on how to stir up anything spiritual. You use this nugget to  stir up the revelation of grace or the revelation of any area of spiritual life. 

However right now, we're talking about the gifts of the Spirit. How do you stir up the gifts of the Spirit in your life, your small group,and in your local church? Well, if you're not the pastor or You're not the one responsible for the manifestations of the Spirit in your local gatherings. You would not be the one that would do it. It would be your lead pastor. So here's the secret. Peter said in 2 Peter 1:12, “For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. 29:50 And the things he just said, I will not be negligent  to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth”. 

He said, even though you know these things that I just got through talking about, he said, I'm going to always remind you of the stuff you already know. 30:09 I'm going to keep reminding you. Now, why, Peter? Why are you going to remind them of things they already know? Why don't you give them some new heavy revelation? Here's why. He said, “Yes, I think it is right. As long as I am in this tent (body) to stir you up by reminding you”. There’s the key! To stir you up by reminding you. How do you stir up the gifts of the Spirit? By going back over what you've been taught before. By going over and feeding on the subject that needs to be stirred up. It comes down to focus and attention.  The different books you've read by Kenneth E. Hagin and others. Simply read, listen, watch and feed along the lines that you want to stir up. 

The Spirit of the Lord gave me an impression couple of weeks ago, saying “Byron, you know how to do this. You know how to stir this up”. I said, “Yes, Lord”. He impressed upon me to go back and feed on the subject of the gifts of the Spirit. It was so simple. Go back and feed along those lines. Smith Wigglesworth, man, tremendous revelation on the gifts of the Spirit. His book Ever Increasing Faith is a powerful discussion of the gifts. Kenneth E. Hagin has a complete study guide on it.  Google it.  There's different men that have taught me about the gifts. Howard Carter and Stephen Brooks have tremendous books on the gifts of the Spirit. There are a plethora of older books on this topic. There are probably some YouTube videos on the subject.  Be careful, some are plain nonsense.  Nonetheless, go back and let the Spirit of God remind you, all right? 

And then prayerfully pray that your pastor from time to time will come back and just cover this territory and stir up the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Praise God. Whether it's faith, love, grace, humility, wherever the Holy Spirit wants you to stir something up, go back and feed on that area. Feed especially on the Scriptures that discuss those areas.

 Go back and be reminded of stuff that you already know about the gifts of the Spirit. It’s simple. It just requires time and patience, but it’s  awesome to be stirred up.  Do you notice with peanut butter, the oil goes to the top, the substance goes to the bottom, and it's not consumable. Oil is a type or a figure of the anointing and power of God. The peanut butter setting to the bottom represents a doctrine or any Bible subject. If it doesn't get stirred up, it gets separated from the anointing that quickens it. So the oil's on top, the doctrine's on the bottom. We don’t need  unanointed teaching with the anointing unmixed.  We need to stir it up by remembering, reminding and thinking about it and teaching it our pulpits.

 And then also mix in praying in tongues and things like that. But we want the oil, the anointing, and the doctrine mixed together. That's what makes it edible. So we're stirring up the peanut butter of the gifts of the Spirit. That's what we're doing. Glory be to God. That's awesome. You know, oil and water never mix, but you can stir it up. You can stir it up so that you have oil bubbling through the water. You have the fullness of the Spirit bubbling through the new birth of the Spirit and we need to constantly be doing that.

Now, one more thing about the gifts of the Spirit 1 Timothy 4, verse 14. The Apostle Paul again said to Apostle Timothy, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you by prophecy. with the laying on of the hands of the eldership”. Did you hear that as a personal word to you?  You should!  Do not neglect the gift that is in YOU!  The Greek  word for  “neglect” means don't treat it lightly. Don't treat it as unimportant. Don't put it on the back burner. Don't ignore it., Out of sight, out of mind. He said, Timothy, don't neglect the gift, the ministry and the anointing, the gifting that is in you. This verse proves that It's possible to have spiritual giftings and ignore them. It's insidious. It's just you get busy with life and you get busy with stuff. And the work of the Holy Spirit gets left out just by sheer distraction.

Finally, 1 Peter 2:4-5 “Coming to Him as to aLiving Stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious”.  Don't let men's rejection tell you that you're not precious.  Vs 5, “You also. As living stones”.  Just as Jesus is  a  living stone, you are living stones and, “being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 

What's Peter saying here?  You are being built up. He's saying you are actively involved in the gifts of the Spirit. You are actively involved in the gift of prophecy. You're prophesying to one another. You're flowing in the utterance gifts together. The fact that Peter says that you are being built up implies that the gift of prophecy is being manifested (1 Corinthians 14:4).  Peter is saying that these nine gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy are a vital part of our worship. There must be gifts of the spirit. We are a spiritual house, a built up spiritual house, which cannot happen without the gifts of the spirit.

The next phrase in this also implies the necessity of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our lives and gatherings.  You are a holy priesthood called and anointed TO OFFER UP SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES.  The Old Covenant priests offered up physical sacrifices in the form of dead animals but we offer up  spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

What are spiritual sacrifices? They are the things coming out of your born-again spirit. Tongues, interpretation, prophecy, love, like the fruit of the Spirit, are coming out of your regenerated spirit. Every believer is a holy priest offering up spiritual sacrifices. God desires for you to step further into your priesthood and begin allowing the gifts of the spirit to flow out of your spirit.  When you allow the gifts of the Spirit to flow out of your born again spirit to edify others, it is simultaneously received in heaven as a spiritual sacrifice.  Therefore, gifts of the spirit are an integral part of your New Testament worship.