In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of love as the manifestation of the spread of God's word. They highlight the significance of the voice in conveying the message, stating that the voice is more significant than the words themselves. The speaker references Ephesians 4:3 and 1 Corinthians 14 to support their point about the unity of the spirit and the importance of sound in conveying the message. They also mention the role of nature in understanding spiritual truths, using the example of a grass reed to illustrate the principle. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the need for love, unity, and the power of the voice in spreading the word of God.

I want to spend a time with you this morning in the scriptures, returning first of all to the famous chapter on the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord. I won't put in either, you know, Jesus is accursed or Jesus is the Lord, it doesn't matter which way you go. If you speak by the Spirit, you can't say he's accursed, and neither do you speak by the Spirit, can you say anything else but that he is Lord. Amen. That's the only thing you can say by the Spirit, the rest is an educated guess. Jesus Christ is Lord. You can only do that by the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost won't stop you to say that he's Lord. It doesn't mean in heaven so much as in your life, unless it's true. He won't let you say that. So go by the inward power of the Spirit. If you can't call him Lord, that's because the Spirit won't let you. That's a tremendous thing. When the Spirit's come, he'll make you say because it's true that he is Lord. Amen. That means that the whole of the life is going to be in line with it. But once you start confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, not hopefully saying it because you're wanting to come into something, or because the Scripture says it's true, because he is, but that's something that the whole of mankind, unregenerate, has yet to learn. But we've learned it when the Holy Ghost has brought us into this great position in the body of Christ, that he is Lord, and he is Lord too, I tell you. He is Lord. And that's what makes us a complete mystery to other people. When he really is Lord in our lives, people don't understand us at all. But nevertheless, beloved, here's the great truth. Now then, having got this settled, in verse four, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, that is, the Spirit that makes you call Jesus Lord. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. But there are diversities of operations, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. Now, if I stopped at this juncture, beloved, and because I'm on my home ground, I hope everybody understands that we sort of sometimes carry on in a conversational manner. If I was to say to you, what do you understand by the manifestation of the Spirit? What do you understand by that? Because that's what I want to talk to you about. What is the manifestation of the Spirit? Any answers? But the manifestation of the Spirit, don't go for any sort of guesses. What do you think it would mean? Because only quite recently, I heard it read thus, this way, and you've got to be very careful. There were some who will immediately recognize it. When you read the Bible, then to the person that said it, I wrote a little note to help him, because he's a dear brother. He read manifestations of the Spirit. That's what he said. That's not what the Bible says, you see. And perhaps this is why, beloved, the best thing I will ever say all my life is this. Some of you have heard me say over and over again, read the Bible. Correctly. The difference of the S is the vital difference in so many places in the scripture as between seeds, say, and seed. As between sins, plural, and sin. As between God and God's. The whole thing, beloved, and this is another vital point. If you say manifestations of the Spirit, it's because you think there are many. And this dear person thought that the gifts of the Spirit is what the Holy Ghost is telling Paul to talk about. He's not telling him about anything of the sort. It's related, just like everything in the spiritual world is related, it has a relation somewhere. But the whole glorious thing is, he goes down, let's read on. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit everybody, for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. And here's then, is really where the hammer needs to come out, and not this one right here. But all these things, I've put things in, worketh the one and the self same Spirit. And the manifestation of the gifts is not what the thing, what the Lord is talking about. It's the manifestation of the Spirit that worketh through these gifts. That's the important thing. Now all you brothers and sisters, open your eyes wide and have a good look at it. This is most important for us to understand. And this is why I say again and again and again, the important thing is not the gift at all. The important thing is the Spirit. And why some of you have heard me say over and over again, and I said this, I don't know how many times, a cliff, two or three times. I, first of all, when there's a gift being manifest, an oral gift, I don't listen to what's being said. Not first. I listen to the voice. It's the Spirit that's being manifest is the important things that the vehicle, such as the utterance like the prophecy or the tongue of the interpretation, or the so-called word of wisdom and knowledge, is unimportant. It will only have anything at all according to the Spirit that's being manifest. That's the only thing. You got there? That's why we turn, for instance, or perhaps whilst we're still in this section, we'll look at 1 Corinthians 14 before we move on. And so that we read here that things without life, verse 7 of chapter 14, giving sound, you see. This will tell you what the instrument is. Sometimes you've got a different, you've got a job to tell which instrument is being sort of played. I heard a clear noise when I was at Clifford's. What a funny noise this. Sounds like a reed instrument. And so it was, sure it was. Suddenly you've got a blade of grass between their thumbs and were blowing through it. It was a grass reed. It's the same principle, air passing over a vibrating piece of something in a confined space, getting the vibrations off it. That's what an organ is, only that. Really. But this person had concocted one of their own. And you've got a reed in a place called a mouth. And it's what tongue, what thing vibrates over it, beloved, that's the important thing. You see, you've got 1 Corinthians, let's go on this verse. It says, things without life. See, lots of people without life are giving out so-called prophecies, interpretations and tongues. They're spreading their death. Without pipe, whether pipe or harp, except they have a distinction in the sounds. How shall it be known what is pipe or harp? You see? And so it goes on, verse 10. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, none of them is without signification. It's the voice that's significant. Every voice has a significance. Every voice. Mark it, beloved, that's an important verse. Often we think that Paul is wonderful when he's revealing great heavenly secrets, but he's on a natural thing here. And often it's when he's on just a basic, natural things that the greatest thing is coming. He's not now digging into tabernacle types and obscure things. He's just taking something in nature. The voice. Every voice is significant. My voice is more significant to you this morning than the things I say. I'm laboring through the remains of a cold and relaxed throat and shouting my head off for about a week, but otherwise. This is the thing, beloved. Always listen for the voice. Never bother to listen to the words for a start. In fact, you do listen to the voice and you react to it before you're even conscious of it. That's right. And after you see, yeah, there was something. Do you see? This is basic. It's primitive. Let's have some air in. Oh, there's some air in. It's all right. Standing up. You're sitting about a foot or two below. And this is the whole thing. And what our sister said about love is absolutely true. The manifestation of the spirit is love. You see, you can always tell anything harsh and bawling that sounds or something. We do that sentiment. Luscious voice that's all full of flesh. Sounds so nice, the sort of thing you might hear on a television program, showing a film, I would think. That's not the sort of thing at all, but something about it. It's so indicative. But I wanted to turn it, let's pass on, shall we, into the Ephesians later. I want you to see. Ephesians, yes. Chapter four. Shut up, because I think I'm saying it loud when it's sort of still growling about down in my chest this morning. Ephesians chapter four. See? Now, we must keep the unity of the spirit. Verse three. We must. Seize the unity of the spirit, don't you? In the spirit, you're called in one hope of your calling, because there's one body and one spirit. There it is. That's the spirit. That's why it kept on. The same spirit. This is the spirit of the body. There's only one spirit. That's why you can always be sure. You need never be led astray. Always know the spirit, feel the spirit first. If you are a true child of God, baptised into the body, I'm talking about now, people outside don't really know the finer points of it, but they've got some kind of a knowledge. We listen to the spirit first. The manifestation of the spirit. It will manifest, it can manifest itself, say, through a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, but don't call that the manifestation of the spirit. That's only the vehicle. Like, like wire and the tube is only a means of manifestation of the invisible power called electricity. It's the means. Because it's more than that. I starkly illustrated it. But speech is related to spirit every time. And it's a big, big thing for us to understand. I love you. This is the most important thing of all. Turn back with me. Luke chapter nine. In the ninth chapter of Luke, you will know it's a chapter that, oh, it's so wonderful. Really, as it moves down through, it's a long, long chapter full of utter significance. But in the 28th verse, you have the story of the transfiguration when Jesus goes up and the glory starts to be revealed. And you know what happens when glory is there, beloved? I'll tell you what, listen, in verse 29, every time that when a person is praying and their spirit is going in the glory, always your countenance is changed every time, not only with Jesus, but with other people. Something happens to your face. That's right. Yes, it does. Something happens to your face. It seems to be molded in a different way. It's right. Oh, glory. I saw it during this past week. I saw faces changed, literally changed. You could tell they're the same people, but, oh, you'd almost thought their bone structure changed. It was as real as that. And when you see now, they've been up in the glory and God has done some wonderful things. They come down, all sorts of things happen, when they come down and the Lord's doing all sorts of things. And you've got these men in this room, in verse 49, we saw somebody casting out devils in nine and we stopped him. He said, what did you do that for? I said, Jesus, you see. Well, why did they do that? They were chosen apostles. And three of them had been up in the glory with the Lord. And you look at higher up. I must let you do it yourself, because this isn't my theme this morning, really. But I want you to see the consistency of scripture. When God's going to make a revelation and it comes out with a statement, it's upon the basis of all the revelations around it. All right. And you get lower down this chapter in verse 51. The time has come that he was going to receive up in Jerusalem. And he sends messengers before his face. They enter into the village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they didn't receive him because Jesus' face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John, now these two had been up in the glory with the Lord. He took Peter, James and John. All right. They saw it. They said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did? And he said, you don't know what spirit you're of. There it is. He rebuked them. See? What manner of spirit are ye of? That's right. She's the manifestation of spirit. It wasn't so much the words they said. It manifested their spirit. We're all manifesting spirit. And according to that spirit, we will manifest death or life. We'll either puff out for power or expand with love. According to the spirit. It's the manifestation of the spirit, beloved. That's what you're manifesting all the time. Don't you see that? And the gifts of the spirit, so-called the spirituals, are from the manifestation of the spirit. And only as they manifest the spirit are they spirituals. But really in any realm, if they're manifested out of the context of the baptism of the spirit and integration into the body of Christ, they are still manifesting a spirit. They're still spiritual, but they're manifesting either the human spirit or the devil. That's the thing to listen to. Is when a tongue or interpretation or prophecy comes, is the blessed spirit of the body, the spirit of the whole, the spirit of the head and the body, is the spirit being manifest? Is it? These are the means, hallelujah, glory. Never think that the gifts of a manifestation of the spirit in themselves, they are not. You can all manifest the spirit. Amen. And what's more, beloved, we are too. We've all been made to drink, verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 12 says, we've all been made to drink into one spirit. All right. We've all been made to drink into one spirit. And the thing for the listen to, when gifts are being manifested, is to say, yes, this is the first thing, write it in your mind, impress it deep, never forget it. Ah, that's the same spirit. Yeah, that's the same spirit. This is what's written in your book. That's why you've got the Bible there. Is it the same spirit? Or is it not? That's the thing to listen for. How do you know it's the same spirit? When it was the spirit that was in Jesus. Isn't he the body? Isn't the body his? It serves, we've all been made to drink into the same spirit, beloved. Isn't that a precious thing? And of course, if you're going to talk about being drunk, well, you've got to be drunk with this spirit then. And the Lord wants us to move in this realm all the time. Hallelujah. I'm carried away to my head. He is my Lord. That means that my spirit is being ruled. Now, he's my Lord. So that it isn't my spirit that's being manifest at all. It isn't how I feel about you, brother or sister, particularly. Though I do want to feel about you and feel for you. And that is how he feels about you. That regulates all utterances. That regulates everything, how he feels about you. And we'll be tied any place, any church, where these things called the gifts of the spirit function outside of what Jesus thinks and feels about us. And that will only come through according to what you think and feel about Jesus. Is he your Lord? Is he your Lord? Well, if he's your Lord, perhaps you ought to stop doing some things and ought to start doing some other things. If he's your Lord, perhaps you ought to stop behaving in some of the ways you behave and start to behave right. If he's your Lord, perhaps you ought to stop saying some things and say some other things. You better consult him. If he's your Lord, I think this is the most wondrous and sublime thing. I tell you, beloved, I would tremble and shake. A man who's been preaching the years that I've been preaching and moving in these things that I've been moving in. If I felt now that he hadn't been my Lord in all this, I wouldn't know what to do. I couldn't face him. Look at the people I must have misguided. Think of it. Oh, I tell you, beloved, that's why I sang this morning, Oh, how I fear thee, living God, for deepest, tenderest fears. Yet I may love thee, too, my Lord, I do. It's so wonderful, beloved, to be in this place where we're so sure that it is the Holy Ghost that's being manifest. Isn't it wonderful for every one of us to realize, and you haven't got to come to it from a sudden surprise, you know, for the Holy Spirit's here, the Spirit's being manifest. Oh, whither shall I flee, or shall I come in, or what shall I do? You should have known it long ago, the Spirit's all being manifest now, amen. Is that right? Everything's being drawn in, corrections, guidances, powers, truths, knowledge, wisdom, laboring to build one another up, love flowing like the blessed currents that move around the earth. This is how it's got to be, beloved, it must be. And then there is this tremendous up-building of the body, and all the glorious full stature of Jesus Christ. And you see, there's no excuse for any one of us, because the Lord, there's a lovely verse here, let's go into Philippians. Old Paul knew this glorious secret. Before you go, brother and sister, you know there's no meeting here tonight. I hope that's not on the tape, is it? Queer things go on our tapes. But there's a wonderful word here in the Philippia letter that's so important. Didn't you like sitting under my nose, Bob? In Philippians chapter one, Paul, he's in prison, Philippi, and he writes a letter. And this is what he talks. He's in the midst of all sorts of things that would just about tip the average person upside down, have them raving and shouting. Somebody talking about Jesus, ah, they're only mocking, they're only doing, you know, Paul said, I don't care, as long as Christ's name's being mentioned, I'm fine about this. He said, he lived in the tranquility of that man. He lived in a tranquility, he must have been a big baby, really, in the way he sort of lay on the breast of Jesus in order to become a big man and a mighty apostle. It's wonderful. And he just lay there, and Paul was speaking to him, and they're saying, oh, there are some preach Christ of envy and strife, look at verse 15, some of goodwill, some preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, oh, supposed to add affliction to my bonds, the other of love, knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. How about that? And I therein rejoice, and yea, and will rejoice, for I know, now you listen to this, I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer in the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, that's a word in the Greek, that word supply, which really means further supply. Further supply, hallelujah. The further supply of the spirit of God. Hey, praise the name of the Lord. Further, further, further, further, more, more, more, more. Ah, this man was growing so much. Growing all the time. Nothing seemed to, to, to, to spoil him, nothing at all. He could manifest the blessed spirit, wonderful. And because, beloved, we can have this further supply of the spirit of God, and everything when you get the further supply of the spirit of God, beloved, turns all that's anti into blessing. Nothing can hurt you, nothing at all. It all depends on the spirit that you're manifesting. All depends on the supply of the glorious spirit of God. When the spirit of God is really being supplied to me, and this is why so many of us won't have the further, the furthest of the further supplies of the spirit of God, because we won't let God get us into situations where he can do it. You see, because we all got a mistaken idea that we sort of signed a check for constant blessings from God, and we think blessings from God means an increment in our wages every 12 months, an ability to get a bigger car when my family increases. I should live in a nice congenial situation in a lovely house, and hasn't God blessed me? Look how God's blessed me. Paul says, take me into a little rabbit hutch and put my feet in chains. Complete opposite. You see, the further supplies of the spirit of God. Perhaps you ought to revise your thinking, beloved. Do you think you ought? Do you think you ought now, really? I mean, is spiritual life get, get, get, get, get? The more I gets the proof that I'm in God's blessings. Do you think so? The more what do you get? Amen. Revolutionary, isn't it? I tell you why it's revolutionary. The kingdom of God has Calvary at the center of it. That's why it's revolutionary. And the nearer you get to the center, the way that your, the more your ideas of what blessing is and isn't will change. Amen. Oh, beloved. I, I want the spirit to be manifest. Glory be to the name of the Lord. And it's this manifestation of the spirit. Now it's given to every man, but listen, it's for mutual profit. It's given to you to profit others. Amen. What a blessed thing this is. You must manifest the spirit. You must. Listen, he'll shine out of your eyes. He'll sound out of your throat. He'll shine upon your face. He'll talk through your tongue. He'll work through your hands. The spirit in manifestation is the spirit making obvious who and what you are. Not what you've got primarily. Amen. Yeah. The spirit in manifestation is Jesus's other self. For you to be, for him to be seen. Glory, glory, glory. Now hold your gift right, brother and sister. Hold it right. Don't try and modulate your voice to a drawing room accent. North or south of the river or something like that. Don't worry about that. That's not the important thing. I once heard one of the, a man that ministered more love to me originally, more than anybody else. I only heard it on the tape. Oh, he had a voice as though something had dropped on it and smashed it. And when he sang, he said, wow, wow, he used to have a terrible voice. It was absolutely shocking. Terrible. Croaked and cracked and he preached himself nearly until he couldn't speak, I should think until, I don't know, all the sort of finer, finer inflections and modulations of the vocal cord had all been smashed up anyway. But did he minister love to my heart? That's the thing. So may the Lord be glorified. Now manifest the spirit, will you? The manifestation of the spirit is given to everyone. Now, at the moment, you may think you're without gifts. Now you ought to covet the gifts and especially the best ones. But you could still manifest the spirit. For the basic manifestation of the spirit is love, the 13th chapter. And the biggest telltale to the spirit is your voice when you speak. Biggest indicate. Now don't get up in a corner and practice speech and voice control and like that, because that will be manifest immediately. We all know you, brother, sister. We all know you. Amen. We love you. So the Lord wants us to know one another because knowledge is the basis of it all. I know Jesus and his father and that's eternal life. And I know you and I know whether you've got it or whether you haven't. See, this is how we're all so sure. Isn't it lovely, you see? It doesn't matter whether you attend a certain communion or whether you sign on a certain line or whether you have nice flowing language when you're operating the gift or something like that. That's not the important thing. It's whether or not the Holy Ghost is being manifest. Listen, do you think Jesus Christ manifested the spirit? Do you think he did? When did he start manifesting the spirit? This is a question when all I've said this morning has gone home to your heart. When did he start manifesting the spirit? Come on. When you were born. He was born. Born of the Holy Ghost. When did he start using gifts? When he was 30. He manifested the spirit for 30 years or more, you see. Hallelujah. And the spirit of him was manifested and the Lord showed you all that it meant, you see. Jordan, the Holy Ghost came onto him, see? Became one with him. In this sense, it was the kingdom of the anointed. Hallelujah. But it was permanent, you see. And the Holy Ghost had to identify with Jesus. All right. So you can't sort them out. You can't separate one from the other. One. All right? Hallelujah. He was manifesting the spirit. And because he manifested the spirit for 30 years, you see, when the dove came on him, he wasn't carnal flesh. When the dove went out of the ark, couldn't rest on all the dead carcasses. He came back. Couldn't rest on dead, on the flesh, on carnal. So he was not carnal. He was absolutely spirit, spiritual. Amen. There's your proof. The manifestation of the spirit. Hallelujah. You going to do this all the rest of your life? Manifest the Holy Ghost, beloved. And don't say manifestations of the spirit. You can localize it to manifestations of the spirit. If the spirit is manifesting in a particular way, through a particular gift, for a particular occasion, to a particular people. But all the time, we are manifesting the glorious spirit. All right. Now let's pray, shall we? Father, we're glad of the word of God. We're so thrilled, Lord. That Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen. And now, your Lord, there are diversities of gifts. Only now. There's the same spirit. Hallelujah. Oh, Jesus. This blessed spirit is the spirit of the Lord. Yes, the spirit that was in my Lord. The spirit that combined with Jesus to make one glorious Lord. Sweet, sweet Lord. We so thoroughly love thee. We so glimmeringly see eternal truth in the mind. But it rings true with what's been wrought in us now for many years, Lord. And we move on in the wonder of it all. We love you, Father. Father, we're so much more grateful that you love us and still wonder how it could be. Only at cost to your own heart, Father, and only at the price you pay. Lord, we just love you and want to go on in it. And please continue with us, Father. Pity our weakness, Lord, and pardon our ignorance. We lay ourselves open to thee, Lord. And want thee to go on and on and on. And here again, we drink. Make us all drink into one spirit, Lord. You made us drink into the spirit of the body. When you baptized us in the spirit, into the body. We bless you for it, Father. Keep it making us drink, Lord. Until understanding follows illumination. Now glorify your name. We thank you together. Amen.