In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the word of God as the testimony of the Son of God and the source of resurrection life. The speaker shares testimonies of people experiencing liberation and love through the demonstration of God's love. The sermon also highlights the significance of using spiritual gifts within the context of love, as they can be harmful if used without love. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need for purity of heart and holiness of life, which can be achieved through the revelation and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus.

Those who have ears to hear what the Spirit has been saying to the Church in these days will become very clear in their understanding of the emphasis that God has borne in upon our hearts. Above everything else, I believe that he has clarified to our understanding in a new and tremendous way the essential and vital necessity to be deeply and gloriously regenerated by the Holy Ghost, that all that has come via the natural and the human and the satanic in our experience be severed and swallowed up and utterly destroyed. Men and women might be brought into a new and blessed heritage from God. Also, we have been again reminded of the glorious wonder of that inward revelation and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus in all his mighty power. Father, Son and Holy Spirit revealed inside of us to impart unto us and give to us everything that we need to enable us to live according to the glorious standards and precepts that are outlined to us in this book. And then last night, two other great facets of the truth crystallised with a new wonder, tremendous truth concerning the need for purity of heart and holiness of life, to be the very testimony of the Son of God and the explanation of all the glorious resurrection life that he lived, all the days that he was upon the face of the earth. And out of that, that wonder and demonstration of his love found liberation in our midst last night and flowed like liquid glory, swallowing up and carrying before it bondages and inhibitions and fears and darknesses and things that have held men and women for years. Sister came up to Mr North right beside me this morning and she said, I've never been able to love, I've never known what it was to be loved like this. Praise the Lord, this is what God is doing and this is what God is wanting. Wonderful. Kay danced and sang, I didn't know. She said, it's all so wonderful. She laughed, she cried, she danced, she sang. And our brother Robin Sinker, also the son of an Anglican bishop, a vicar's wife and the son of a bishop, their testimony was they'd never known the tremendous joy and exhilaration and release within their being. And I'm sure that that's a testimony of not a few. And it all flows and it all comes from that blessed regeneration of the Holy Ghost. That tremendous knowledge that all that was impure and all that contaminated and spoiled and made it unsafe for us to enter into relationships with one another, banished. The only reason why people have difficulty in human relationships, because their relationship with God isn't right. Once the relationship there is right and there's no barrier or anything to hold us back, then the relationship begins to work itself out in relationship to one another. These two things aren't separated. God needs a relationship with us. If He needs it with us, how much more do we need it? Not only with Him, but with each other. He's not a disembodied spirit that floats around. He's come and made His abode in the hearts and lives of men and women. And inasmuch as we do it unto the least of these His brethren, He says, we do it unto Him. And if we learn to love each other, then we're loving Him. And we've got to be practical and realistic about it. Bless the Lord. And out of that glorious purity of love, God leads us on to another wonderful truth. And if you will turn with me into the first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 12, we have the teaching of the Holy Spirit concerning those tools or gifts given to the Church in the wisdom of God to assist us and enable us in the expressing and the outworking of His love. This is why this central teaching concerning the gifts of the Spirit has been so beautifully placed in the writing of Scripture. It's no accident that the chapter between chapter 12 and chapter 14 is chapter 13. That's no accident. It's the meat inside of the glorious sandwich. And it's the context out of which and in which we must always consider and move in the precious gifts of the Spirit beloved. Gifts of the Spirit used outside of the context of love can be lethal. It's not only what we say in the oral gifts, it's how we say it. We were reminded that last night concerning the voice. It's not what a person says, it's how they say it. It's the inflection, the tone, the spirit and attitude behind the word that is spoken. Remember concerning John the Baptist who said, whose testimony was, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. It took God 30 years to prepare that voice. 30 years to prepare that voice. Ever so important. It's not what we say, it's not what we do. It's the context in which it is done. And therefore way above everything else beloved as we come to an understanding and we open our hearts up to God's precious gifts. It must be seen in this glorious context of the love of God. Beginning of the 13th chapter it says, Yes, the 13th chapter it says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. That doesn't mean to say that we don't need the gifts of the spirit. Some people say, oh the gifts of the spirit aren't necessary because they've been superseded by the greatest of the gifts. Well love is a gift but it's more clearly described in the scripture as fruit. The fruit of the outworking of that precious life. The fruit of the spirit is love. It is not love without the gifts or the gifts without love. But one complementing the other. One being the instrument and vehicle whereby the other finds fullness of expression. In verse 1 of chapter 12 we read this, Now concerning spiritual gifts I would not have you ignorant. Verse 31 of the same chapter says this, Covet earnestly the best gifts yet shall I unto you a more excellent way. There's another description for love, it's a way. Chapter 14, verse 1. Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts. Verse 12 of chapter 14. Ye are zealous of spiritual gifts. I would not have you ignorant. Covet earnestly, desire spiritual gifts. You are zealous. That's not a half-hearted collection of counsel, is it beloved? There's nothing weak about that. There's nothing as if it were an optional extra, you can have it if you like. There's a sense of urgency. There's a sense of necessity. I would not have you ignorant. Many people, beloved, are totally and abysmally ignorant concerning the precious gifts of the Holy Ghost. Even within circles, beloved, where these things are talked about, where in a measure they are exercised and used, there is an abysmal ignorance. There's also a lack of use. Let us ask ourselves in the context of this conference during this week, how many of the ninefold gifts which are spoken of in the twelfth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians alone have functioned. Or let us be more personal than that. Let us ask ourselves, how informed are we as individuals concerning these precious things? How many of us function in one or more or all of these precious gifts of the Spirit? For how many of us is this familiar ground in experience more than theory? I would not have you ignorant. Beloved, the people to whom he wrote in the first chapter, he said they came behind in no gift. And yet there was obviously an ignorance concerning the use, concerning the exercise, the abuse in these precious things. Desire. Do you desire the gifts of the Spirit? Let me ask you, do you desire to speak in tongues? Do you desire to prophesy? Desire is a very, very strong word. It's one of those words which expresses the uprising of the deep, deep longings of a man's being. Do you desire them? Covet. It says in the scripture you're not to covet. Here's one thing the scripture says, you're to covet. Covet. Be zealous. You are zealous, it says. Is that the truth concerning you, beloved? Do you agree with God on this point? We've been reminded a number of times that the important thing is to agree with God rather than the lie. Do you agree with God? Does your experience agree with God this morning that you are zealous of spiritual gifts? They're vital, they're important, they're necessary. Beloved, I don't know how one is to manage without them. How one can fulfil the function and role in any form of ministry unless God imparts and we receive and learn how to use these precious things. In the context of counselling alone, I don't know how a person manages any more unless they have the ability from God to discern spirits. When I was a student I was taken through a course of psychology. It was called pastoral psychology. The only good thing that I got out of that was that it enabled me to honestly face up to the impossibility and the incurableness of my own situation. Because you can't study psychology or psychiatry without psychoanalysing yourself. Before you've gone very long you find that you discover that you seem to be suffering from every disease that the book talks about. The only thing you end up not having is in a housemaid's knee or something like that. You follow the charts and you say well that happens in me and you follow another route and that happens in me and well if you weren't schizophrenic before you are by the time you've finished. But beloved, having done all that, and psychiatry and psychology is the science of the soul and doesn't penetrate further in that area of human experience, one comes to a realisation by the blessed illumination of the Holy Spirit that man's problems don't essentially lie within the realm of his soul, they lie in the realm of his spirit. And it's Jesus, the great sword of the Spirit, who divides between soul and spirit and discovers the depths of human need. And as we become recipient of that blessed, resurrected Lord Jesus, he imparts to us the ability by the Holy Ghost, beloved, to go beyond the mere physical and psychological problems that really are only the manifestations and symptoms of a deeper need. The other thing that I came to a realisation was that it was no use being able to diagnose without having a positive, precious remedy to provide. Many of my friends who study and move in the spheres of psychiatry and psychology, they confess that they can often, invariably, by psychoanalysis and other methods, diagnose the problem. I don't know how accurately, but having diagnosed the problem, they don't know how to resolve it. They have no answer. They can only minister various human methods of alleviation that perhaps make it more bearable for men and women to live. But essentially, their need goes unmet. The very roots of the matter still lie deeply embedded in the Spirit and in their original inheritance by means of first birth. Those of us who have listened to the afternoon sessions, and there's going to be the final one. Our brother says he's going to tie it all up. He's going to tie everything up this afternoon. It's the end of the great birth process, I think, going to take place this afternoon. The midwife is going to be here to make a finished job. I don't know how he's going to do it, but still. Someone said to me, what is he going to tie up? I said, we'll wait and see. Bless the Lord. I don't believe it says in the last days that many people will be deceived. And if it were possible, even the very elect. I believe that there's only one way in which men and women will be preserved from deception, beloved, which becomes more and more subtle as the days go on. It is that as they have that blessed inward unction and witness of the Holy Ghost that supersedes their reason and external evidence and tells them what is of the Spirit of God and that which is of the Spirit of the Antichrist. And as that precious unction is outward, beloved, via the gifts of the Spirit, so men will have the ability and women the ability to see beyond what is apparent and meet the need. The gifts of the Spirit, to me, are no longer optional extras. I see them to be absolutely fundamental and necessary, both in the upbuilding and edifying of the Church of Jesus Christ. And to the enabling of us to relate and express and outwork the blessed love of God in all its glorious purity. Not just superficially, not just in glory times, but in basic fundamental reality where you find men and women sunk in all their degradation and sin, with all their bite and the implications and repercussions that have followed their essential need. I find that often it isn't the essential need that takes the time and the energy, but all the problems that have accrued as a result of wrong living, wrong environment. For instance, I was once asked a minute or two to a certain person who had become involved in drug addiction and the by-products of that, beloved, was five illegitimate children, all of which were maladjusted, mentally and physically affected. The breakdown of the whole home situation, financial problems, domestic problems and a multitude of other problems, all which had grown out of and were the result of deep, deep spiritual problems. Let us read the first part of chapter twelve. 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. But ye were Gentiles, past tense, glory. I believe that many people have moved out of what was present tense to them this week, and I now speak of it as in the past. Bless the Lord. Even as ye were led. What leads you this morning? What leads you? Who's leading you? You're being led by something, someone. 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, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 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. 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 appealing by the same Spirit. To another the working of miracles. To another prophecy. To another the discerning of spirits. To another divers kinds of tongues. To another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self, same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. We've seen first of all that the context in which these precious gifts of the Holy Ghost are to function are the context of purity in life. For therein they are safe. And from that context they will minister life. Second great context in which we see these precious things are set is found in verse three. 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 but by the Holy Ghost. The gifts are the gifts of the Spirit. And they function under the Lordship and sovereignty of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost enthroned in the heart. Jesus is Lord. And the government of your life and my life is upon His shoulders. And the gifts of the Spirit are given by Him beloved. And they must function under His Lordship, under His direction, under His authority, motivated by Him. This will eliminate fleshly use of these precious things. This will eliminate the ground so often afforded to the wicked one. Even within this lovely context. This is what has brought much disrepute and dishonour to the whole realm of the things of the Spirit. This is why some people won't touch it with a barge pole. Now it's folly to cast out the baby with the bathwater. Because there are such things as counterfeit £5 notes, I don't believe that you've stopped spending £5 notes. The very fact that there are counterfeits, beloved, is the clear indication. There is that which is genuine, there is that which is true, there is that which is pure, there is that which is of God. Where Jesus is not, Lord beloved, there is bound to be deception. The flesh is bound to creep in, seeking to elevate the man. But where Jesus Christ is Lord, and the whole personality of man has been subjected under His glorious Lordship. And has lived there in that place of dependence upon Him as Jesus depended upon the Father. God can move in sovereign power and do what He likes, when He likes. Because He finds that He has a vehicle, an instrument that is available unto Him to move at His bidding. And that's what God is looking for. Men and women who are free unto Him. They've no reservations, they've no inhibitions, they've no arguments and reasons as to why they should or they shouldn't. They're like, as it were, clay in the potter's hand. Who've responded to the love of God within their hearts and trust Him to move in power in their lives. No man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. And it's no use preaching a gospel, beloved, of salvation, separate from a gospel of sanctification or Lordship. Some people say, Jesus Christ became my Saviour, and twenty years later He became my Lord. Jesus isn't a person's Lord, beloved, it's very doubtful what they've really been saved from. But where Jesus is Lord, then He can entrust and work out these precious gifts of the Spirit. The other context which is very important that we should notice, in which these glorious things are spoken of in the Scripture, is that they are spoken of in the context of the teaching concerning the Church, the Body of Christ. For in verse 13 it says, For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and are all made to drink into one Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are safe in the context of love. They are safe in the context and under the Lordship of Jesus Christ by the Spirit. The third great area and venue in which these things are safe, beloved, is in the context of the living Body of Christ. And many people, beloved, have been led astray because they fail to see this. How many people have gathered together in two groups, seeking prophetic utterance and revelation as to what they should do, and where they should go, and who they should marry, and who they should live with. I know a situation, beloved, where this happened, where a group of people who were ignorant of these things, it wasn't primarily their fault, they hadn't been told, they hadn't realised the dangerous position in which they were putting themselves in. They gathered together because they wanted to know who they were going to marry. They got all sorts of revelation. And they got into all sorts of bondage. And they were the victims of much hurt. And one ached for them. Context. Someone told me the other day that they had begun to move in these precious things. God had given them certain gifts. And they were moving in, I can't remember who it is or what the church they belonged to was. But when God had baptised them in the Spirit, and they'd begun to speak in tongues, and God had given them prophetic utterance, they went to the pastor of their church. And asked if they might have permission to move within the meeting. And if God gave them a word of prophecy, or if God moved upon them to speak in tongues, that they might be free to do so. They were forbidden. They were told that they would go home and they were to exercise these things in private. All I can say, beloved, that was asking for trouble. First of all, it's a violation and a diametrical contradiction of what the scripture says. Because the next chapter talks about the operation and the function and the meeting together in the church. And the exhortation is that we should come with a tongue, we should come with a prophecy, we should come with a psalm, we should come with a reading, and so on and so on. So that the meeting isn't just a one-man show, but it's a moving and a sharing, a contributing and a flowing. And God wants us to move and share and flow, beloved. No one has got the monopoly of the Holy Ghost. There's no one superior in the body of Christ. In fact, the scripture says quite plainly, beloved, that the least member is the one whom God will lift up. We so often think about the people who've got the natural gifts, the natural abilities, the natural endowments, but these don't count in this realm. God can take up a person who's nigh on illiterate and speak through them as an oracle and bring revelation and insight into things that intellectual understanding excludes because of reason. The venue in which God would have these things primarily function is within the context of the church when it gathers together and worships the Lord. And the love of God flows and the Lordship of Jesus Christ is acknowledged and recognised. And God can move and speak and exhort and teach and reveal and meet the needs of men and women, praise the Lord. May he liberate us all. May he give us hearts that are so zealous, so desirous of these things, beloved, that there's an absolute throbbing, almost a clamouring to move. Verse four. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operation, but the same God which worketh all in all. Diversities of gifts, differences of administration, diversities of operation. Beloved, there's something always very precious, original and unique. In the operation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, it's God's nature. There's always something very natural. There's no particular way in which you do these things. In fact, when I hear people and when I become aware of people, as it were, following a method, I have brave reservations in my heart as to how genuine these things are. When you speak in tongues, beloved, God has given you a natural voice. And every person in this room has a different voice. And there's nothing spiritual in adopting a so-called super-spiritual voice that takes on an octave higher than your natural voice and puffs and blows and squeaks and makes a noise that is completely and utterly abnormal. It speaks to me of unreality. I don't believe that we have to puff and blow like a donkey getting up wind. I once prayed. I think one of my first experiences of praying for anyone in this realm, it was in the very early days when we met in the Friends Meeting House in Liverpool and a certain person asked us if we would pray. So our brother was there, fortunately. It's my salvation in those days. I can't tell you the things that used to happen when he wasn't there. But bless the Lord, he knew our hearts. He carried us on and took us through, knew where we wanted to go. I remember we went over to this certain person and he wanted prayer for something or other and we stood behind him and we put our hands above him and suddenly he went, puff, puff, puff. Then Mr Northree's hand on his head and he went, whoo! I said to him afterwards, what was that all about? Oh, he said, brother, didn't you know? He got the glory. No, I said, I didn't know. He said, bless the Lord that you didn't. I was preserved from all these sort of things. I don't know anything about these sort of experiences. I've only come across them as I've gone around. Got the glory in quotes, please. As soon as the person had asked us to pray, we went, whoo! Perhaps you've been the victim. Perhaps you've been bred in those sort of backgrounds, beloved. You've been told how to do it. That's how many people have come into a false experience of tongues. They've been told to copy what someone else has said. People have puffed and blowed over them and shaken them and danced around them, beloved. And they've ended up with some fleshy counterfeit experience which they have been told was the baptism of the Holy Ghost and have dragged on through years of bondage and darkness. That's how dreadfully serious it all is, beloved. God moves in sovereign power. And there's diversity. There are differences. And He will take up, beloved, what He has made you and recreated you to be and function through you and in you. And when you speak in tongues and when you prophesy, beloved, prophesy, it will be with the voice that you were given. And it will be expressed through the personality that God has sanctified unto Himself in you. Every one of us is different. You couldn't get anyone more different than chalk and cheese than us two. We're different temperamentally, we're different in the way of expression. I can't be like him. God help him if he tried to be like me. We're different, beloved. It's hideous when we start copying each other and aping someone else. Of course we will influence each other. Of course we will beget after our own likeness. May that be the likeness of Jesus Christ. There will be things that rub off. But, beloved, when those things come out of a genuine inward relationship with the Lord, they're lovely. But when they are just copies, they're nauseating. There's an awful unreality and it gives ground to the wicked one. Be yourself, sanctified. Be yourself. And let God be what He wants to be through you. This is why when a person speaks in tongues and there is an interpretation, another person may have the interpretation as well. And if you ask both of those people to give the interpretation and they could both have the genuine, real interpretation from God. If you ask them both to give the interpretation, they use different words, they use different phrases. But they would interpret and convey the same truth. The same thing that God was wanting to say. Some people wonder why some interpretations are longer than the tongue. Because the person has the sort of nature and disposition that they express themselves more fully. Other people express themselves more precisely. There are differences, there are diversities. Praise the Lord. But it's the same spirit. It's the same Lord. It's the same God. All coming from the same source. And it's working itself out through your life and my life and your life. And it will be fresh and lovely and genuine and precious. And it will have that crystal ring about it. Verse seven. The manifestations of the Spirit are given to every man to profit withal. And down in verse eleven. All these worketh that one and the self, same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For every man. Every man. Everyone who is born again of the Spirit of God and filled with the love of God shed abroad in their heart for love. It qualifies. It's for every man. Of course that means the ladies as well. You're allowed to prophesy. Daughters of Philip, wasn't it? They were prophetesses. They were allowed to prophesy. A woman wishes to pray or prophesy, she's to cover her head. That's what the scripture says. So you're authorised. You're expected to prophesy. The apostle expected the women to prophesy. Expected them to minister in these precious things. Manifestations of the Spirit are given to every man to profit withal. How greatly are you profited, beloved, of God in your spirit by the operation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. It's one of the ways in which we will grow and develop. It's one of the ways in which God will edify and bless and build us up. It's one of the ways in which God will minister and communicate himself to our spirit by way of revelation. I once heard Mr North say to someone who asked him the question as to how he or where he got all that he had to say. He said, there are times when I just lie before the Lord. He said, Lord ministers to me and I talk and I speak in tongues and he comes to me in prophetic art. You know, most of you have read that book, The Generation of Jesus Christ. Well I heard him say that the Lord gave that to him prophetically. And that's why lots of people who read the original manuscript told him he'd have to do something if people would understand fully what he was saying. Those of us who knew him and had flowed in the vein and sat under the ministry knew exactly what he was talking about. It was meat and it was strong meat. So he came home from India two years ago and got out his mincing machine and minced it up. He said, it's still meat. My baby David, who's only got 16, he's got his seventh coming. All his stuff goes either through a mincing machine or one of these pulverizers. I don't know, what do they call them? Liquidizers, that's right. And it comes out looking like pulp. But it's exactly the same dinner which is on my plate. He gets exactly the same. There's a brother and sister here. They've got a big mincing machine. There it is. It's got a blue stand. It's screwed to the table up there. And they go and get a dinner for their baby, exactly the same as theirs. And they wind it all through that machine and then they shovel it down. It's growing. Fast. Bless the Lord. It's alright, I've got three boys I know. Sometimes it takes some shoveling too. It's profitable. It's one of the secrets of growth in a person's individual experience with God. You will find that when you begin to move in the gifts of the Holy Ghost, beloved, it's one of the ways in which your spirit and the Spirit of God, and you will find access to flow. And that river will begin to flow out and move out. God will impart to you. God will give you understanding. Sometimes before a meeting, God will begin talking to you. Like our sister, she was up on the hill, she said. And God began to talk to her up there long before she came in the meeting last night. It just paved the way for what God was wanting to give to her in abundance. There'll be times before you come into the meeting, beloved, when God will talk to you. God will speak to you and cause you to hide things in your heart. Until it's His time and under His direction, those things will come forth. And there will be a flowing and a moving. There will be times when the wicked one says to you, Oh, you better keep that. You better hold on to it. You might need it. But I find, beloved, that the quicker you give away what you've received, the more quickly you will receive something more. That's the secret of speedy growth in the spiritual life. Give it away. Let it flow. You'll be profited. You'll be encouraged. There'll be times, beloved, when God moves upon your spirit and you don't quite know what you're going to say or what it is that He's wanting to say. But the Spirit of God is moving in your heart and you literally have to open your mouth believing God to fill it. And once you speak that first word, it will flow. You'll have to move in faith. If ever there's a realm in which a person has to move in faith, it's this, beloved. And it will spell death to you time and time again because the devil will say, What about if you get stuck? Especially if you only know the first bit of what he's wanting to say. What about if you get stuck? What about if you can't go on? What will they think of you? Well, what does it matter what they think of you? If you're dead, it doesn't matter what they think. Bless the Lord. Another thing which is very important, beloved, is that we are sensitive to the Holy Ghost in these things and we say what God wants us to say, no more and no less. And sometimes the very cut and thrust of the thing that God is wanting to say to us, beloved, is lost in a collection of a verbosity that takes off the edge of that precious word that will go down into the depths and come with all its cleanness and purity. God wants to speak and it says in the Scripture, the Spirit speaks expressly. He doesn't waffle. He doesn't go all around the bush. He doesn't coat it over with sugar, beloved. He says what He wants to say. And if we, as the vehicles of His Word, operating in the gifts of the Holy Ghost, are going to speak as God speaks, we will speak just as expressly, just as positively and directly, without compromise, leaving the repercussions and the outworkings of it to Him. God says, you are to say one word, say one word. And don't give it a prelude and a conclusion afterwards. Say what He wants you to say. Hallelujah. And that will be profitable. That will be profitable. Some of you have heard the illustration. I'll repeat it because I know no better. A friend of mine who was a young Chinese man, in fact he was my best man at my wedding, he was once in a meeting where there were many people who moved in these things easily. In the middle of the meeting he stood up and he said, do it. And sat down. In fact the person who was his spiritual father led him to the Lord and brought him back to the Spirit was utterly embarrassed by his behaviour. But do you know, there was a man in that meeting, beloved, who'd sat on the fence concerning an issue for years. And he was a leading light. The circles where things of the Spirit are talked about, he was a leading light and he'd sat on the fence. And after that meeting he went to that brother and he said, God has met me. The brother thought that it had been by the preaching or the praying or the great prophecy. None of these things had registered. He was almost oblivious because God had so worked in his heart. He said, well, what was it? He said it was that young Chinese fellow who stood up and he said, do it. And he said, it's done. Glory. It's done. The babes amongst us could say, do it. Two two-letter words, couldn't we? Do it. That was profitable. It accomplished its end. Profitable to him, profitable to the person to whom it was spoken. Manifestations of the Spirit are given to every man to profit with all. Are you profited, beloved, because you're moving in the gifts of the Spirit? Have you been profited this week because you've moved? I believe that many people have been profited this morning because they've prayed. Whereas we've been reminded at least twice during the week that virtually six people have done the praying. Profited because of the release, of the liberation. There's an outworking, there's an outflowing, there's a giving. Much more so, beloved, if you will move in these precious things by the instigation of the Holy Ghost, you will be profited. Much more so than if you just sit and listen and listen and listen, you'll become waterlogged spiritually. God doesn't want us to be like a lot of sponges who sit around soaking up that which everyone else has to give. He wants us to give and receive and receive and give. Thus we will be profited in our own experience. For to one, verse 8, is given the Spirit 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 healing by the same Spirit. To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits. To another, diverse kind of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these work at that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he wills. There are the ninefold gifts of the Spirit mentioned here, beloved. There are others. If you read your New Testament properly, you discover that there are others referred to in the Scriptures. They are again, I will say, the tools of love. No one would have any doubt that the working of miracles was a tool of love, a means of expression. Wasn't this the life of Jesus, beloved, all the time he was upon the face of the earth? He moved naturally, supernaturally in these precious things. He moved in the realm of miracles. He moved in the realm of deliverance. He moved in the realm of healing. It was the outworking of his nature. It was the expression of all that he was. He was gift. If you want another name to describe the Lord Jesus other than love, beloved, he is gift. Gift is the outworking of a loving disposition. If you love someone, beloved, the thing that delights you most of all is to give to them. And here will be the thing that gives you incentive to move in these things. There will be that in you that wants to give to your brothers and sisters, to meet their needs, to share with them all that God is giving to you by way of wisdom, of knowledge, by prophetic utterance. You'll want to minister to them and see them healed, see them delivered. Miracles transacted in their lives, their complications and confusions discerned and unraveled and their needs met. Praise the Lord. I want just now for a few moments to just look very briefly, time's almost gone, very briefly to the gift of the Spirit that causes most discussion and argument and is the biggest stumbling block to many. And that is the gift of tongues and interpretation. And for the sake of time, I want to just point you to the Scriptures. First of all, you will know that Paul said that he wished that we all spoke in tongues. Word to God that ye all spake with tongues. In verse 18 of chapter 14, sorry, we're in chapter 14. In verse 18 he said, I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all. Lots of people say tongues, the baby language of the Church. I say Paul must have been a great big baby then when he wrote this very wise and mature epistle. He said, I speak with tongues more than you all. And at the end of the same chapter he says, verse 39, Wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak in tongues. Word to God that ye all spake in tongues. I speak in tongues more than you all. Forbid not. That's verse 5, verse 18 and verse 39. Then there are three reasons for which tongues have been given. Verse 2, He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God. For no man understandeth him, how be it in the spirit he speaketh mistress. This is the first reason why God has given the gift of tongues. All that we can worship him, love him. Beyond the limitations of our native and mother tongue. Second reason why he has given the gift of tongues, verse 4, He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifyeth himself. It's for the edification of your own spirit. All those of us who move and function in the gifts of tongues, both in our private devotions and in public worship, will testify to the fact that it is edifying. It is releasing. It is life giving. And the third reason beloved, verse 5, I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesy. For greater is he that prophesyeth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. It's for the glory of God, it's for the edification of self, and it is for the edification of the church. Third thing about tongues, and here I will finish, is the question of interpretation. Verse 12, Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he interpret. Beloved, if someone speaks in a meeting in a tongue, if the church is going to be edified by that tongue, of necessity it must be interpreted. If there is no one else forthcoming with the interpretation, that person should pray that God give them the interpretation. I give you an example of this. Some time ago in the Lomkopf where we fellowship, there was a person in tremendous need. And in our Friday night prayer meeting, this person had come seeking the Lord, expecting Him to speak to her. In the course of a meeting someone spoke in tongues. And immediately this person knew that God was speaking to her, but she hadn't understanding concerning the tongue. Therefore she waited almost with bated breath, for she was in terrible darkness and bondage, but it registered in her that God was speaking. But there was no interpretation apparently. This was brought to my notice. And on the Sunday morning in our meeting, I took this whole matter and question up. And I also pointed out to the person who had given the tongue, and this person was totally ignorant. I would not have you ignorant brethren. This dear sweet soul knew nothing wrong with her spirit. She was totally ignorant, that it was incumbent upon her that if no one else interpreted, she should ask the Lord to give her the interpretation. She hadn't functioned in interpretation. She often spoke in tongues, but she'd never interpreted. But she didn't know that she had to pray, and seek the Lord to enable her. Therefore she failed in that sense. She was grateful for the experience in the council. So we waited on the Lord. And the amazing thing was, beloved, a brother came in on that Sunday morning from Nottingham to formally finish it with us. He came in on that Sunday morning. He was totally ignorant of what transpired on the Friday. He came late to the meeting, and therefore he was ignorant of the counsel that had been given. But he came in at the moment when he heard that we were waiting on the Lord to give an interpretation to a tongue which is spoken. And beloved, he'd only been in the meeting about two minutes. And God spoke to him, and he gave forth. And the very word that he spoke was the interpretation to the tongue that had been given, and it ministered life, and that woman was liberated. She was set free. Bless the Lord. So if you speak in a tongue, beloved, and there's no interpreter, you look to the Lord, and perhaps you'll move into another gift of the Spirit. But the norm is found in verse 27. It says, if any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most, three. People will immediately say, then does that mean that there must only be three messages in tongues in a meeting? No, I don't believe that it does say that. It says, if any man, singular, speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most, by three, and that by course. It doesn't say that there should be only three tongues in a meeting. It says that one person, if any man, one man isn't to monopolise the whole meeting. I once heard of a meeting where there was a young man who I think gave ten tongues in the meeting. Ten tongues and ten interpretations. The whole meeting went around him. There was something fundamentally and radically wrong with the situation. It doesn't need saying. But it says, let it be by two, or at the most, by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. Praise the Lord. Beloved, when someone speaks in tongues in our midst, your heart should be open to the Lord, expecting that He should give you the interpretation. Sometimes you'll find if you move in these things that no sooner has the person begun to speak in tongues and the interpretation clarifies within your heart, and as soon as they're finished, there's not the wrong pause waiting for everyone else. It flows out. Thus time is redeemed, and we can move on. The last discipline concerning tongues, beloved, it says in verse twenty-eight, if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. There's no interpreter, and if he having sought the Lord receives no interpretation, he is to be silent. It's very simple, isn't it? It's all there in black and white for us to see. Tongues, Paul says, would to God that ye all speak in tongues. I speak in tongues more than you all. Forbid not. It's given for three reasons. The glory of God, the edification of self, the edification of the church, the discipline of the spirit concerning the interpretation, is that if a person speaks in tongues, there's no one else interprets, they pray that God give them the interpretation. The norm is that as soon as someone is spoken in tongues, a person with the gift of interpretation within the meeting interprets. And if there be no interpretation, the person who spoke in tongues is to remain silent in that meeting. God doesn't wish us to be ignorant of these precious things, beloved. The church of Jesus Christ has been impoverished. The expression and demonstration of the love of God has been impaired because of abysmal ignorance and fear. But where perfect love abounds, fear no longer exists. And under the glorious lordship of Jesus Christ, beloved, your life and my life can be open to be the instrument of God's grace and goodness to minister to his body. Amen. Let us pray. Hallelujah, Lord. That even in a conference like this, we need to know greater liberation in these precious things. Thou hast brought us into an abundance of love, Lord. We've seen thee move and flow in our midst, for which we're profoundly grateful. But we come to thee again this morning, Lord, with our hearts open, telling thee afresh, Lord, that we acknowledge thy lordship in our lives. And all that we are, Lord, spirit, soul, and body, one unified whole in thee, Lord Jesus, is available unto thee to be the instrument of the outworking Lord Jesus, of thy love in the earth, Lord. Open us all up, Lord Jesus, and grant us faith to believe thee to receive of these precious gifts, Lord, with a desire and covetousness within our hearts, Lord, that we might excel in loving.