 Hey, welcome back. Yes, Shree Kumar, please feel free to ask your question. Thank you, Dr. I just wanted to ask what you said. Is this grace, the special grace as you are saying? Is that grace is upon the church or any particular individual? How the Paul is referring about this grace? Yes, that's a very, very good question, Shree Kumar. So I would say that this special grace is available to both individuals and the church. Now, to the Corinthian church, he's talking to them about the individuals. And he's telling us as individuals, God has given you a special grace that is to be there in this place, to be a minister of God, to be a light where there is darkness. But I believe that God also grants special graces to the church community as a whole. Now, when we look at history and we look at things that have happened in history, and also we look now, there are places where we see God's special grace and it's required. Now, let's look at this example. To start a church in Bangalore, we don't need a special grace. I hope everyone agrees with me on that. In a city where there is no persecution, there's no, nobody's going to stop you from starting a church. Even maybe probably in other countries as well, Africa, maybe there are certain towns and cities where there's no problem. But probably there are places where it's very difficult to start a church. And even if a church is started, only by God's grace will that church continue. For example, Heidi Baker starts her ministry, she goes to Mozambique in Africa. It was not an easy task. She needed the special grace of God, both upon her life and on the church. And so there are many instances like this. For example, there are churches in Iran, in Iraq, in Pakistan. These are Muslim dominated nations. They need the grace of God. They need a special grace to keep going. So yes, Sri Kumar, to answer your question, the special grace of God is given both to individuals and to the church as a community. Please provide details of general grace. Christopher asks about general grace. Now, what is grace as a whole? The word grace means unmerited favor. Of course, it's a big word that is wrapped up with many, many meanings. Let me just pull that up here. Divine favor, empowering virtues, gifts, these are all, that's the word grace. So unmerited favor. When we accept the Lord Jesus as our personal savior, at that moment we become a child of God. That is general grace. God is not going to ask, okay, are you going to start a church? Are you going to follow me? Are you going to bring 100 people to Christ? It's not my works. It's unmerited, right? So I'm sure when we accept the Christ, the Holy Spirit didn't tell us you have to do this, this, this. Only then you will get the grace of God. It's unmerited. It's divine, unmerited grace. Everyone received it once we accept the Lord Jesus. And here's an interesting thing also. With this divine grace, general grace, there are also divine gifts. So when God gives us his grace, my grace we are saved and it's not by our own doing. He pours out his grace on the grace gifts upon us, meaning, for example, let me think of something. So for example, somebody knows how to play an instrument, right? So God gives a grace for that person to improve in that skill, that gift, and gives him the grace to, you know, use that gift for the body of Christ. Could be even preaching. Maybe somebody is just, you know, he likes to talk, he likes to preach. He never really got an opportunity or it's fearful that gift God begins to pour out grace upon us. So he gives us the grace to function in these gifts, you know, the skills and the gifts that we are naturally in bond with. So Christopher, general grace is the grace that we have all been saved. It's unmerited. We come to Christ not by any works, but by the grace of God. But that's what general grace is. Every one of us will receive that general grace. And I hope that answers your question, Christopher. Yes. Thank you, Pastor. Okay. All right. So let's continue. Any other questions? Can continue from verse five. Stop there. Okay. Let's continue from verse five. Now, here's what I want to encourage each one of us. We did the whole history, the background, right? So let that always be at the back of your mind. Let that picture be there, right? Probably you can picture, you know, Paul, a theme of five, six people, picture the, you know, the place that they are in, the people, the temples, the church, small little church. So when you have this picture, you know, it really helps you to understand, you know, the gospel. It helps you to grasp things very easily, right? So use your imagination. I always tell everyone, use your imagination. Picture what you're studying. Picture it in your mind. When you paint that picture, it's going to stay with us for a longer time, right? So verse five, that you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge. Here's what Paul recognizes that the church is enriched by Jesus, right? All riches, spiritual riches, material riches, everything comes from Jesus Christ because it's God's grace on their lives. Now it was so easy for Paul to say, you know, all that you have got of it, you got to know Jesus because of me. And now you're living this holy life because I chose to come to corner. It is easy for Paul to say that, right? He doesn't say that. He does not count himself in this at all. He says that you were enriched in everything by him, right? And this enriching is evident, especially in all utterance and all knowledge, right? So utterance and knowledge, these two important things we see here are refers to vocal and revelation of the gifts of the Spirit. So we know, right, there are vocal gifts, there are revelatory gifts of the Spirit. Vocal gifts refer to tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy, right? They're vocal, you're speaking in tongues, you interpret tongues and you prophesy a word, right? And revelatory gifts or revelation gifts include word of wisdom, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits, right? So you've got vocal gifts, you've got revelatory gifts. And what is saying, you as a church are enriched in all of this. Such a wonderful thing to know, right? And we know the church in Corinth was a church that is already flowing into gifts. Paul is saying, you're enriched by this. Paul does not say, I thought you heard to speak in tongues. I told you about the Holy Spirit because I told you, you prayed and now God has given you these gifts. That's it, right? A very important sign of a leader here. Whatever we do, give glory to God. God is just using us as an instrument, right? As believers, we have been enriched in everything by Christ Jesus because of God's grace upon our lives. All these gifts, all the gifts of the Spirit, we can grow in them. We can flow in these gifts because it is God who gives it to us. Now, one of the most common questions people have asked me is, why is it that I'm not speaking in tongues? Why is it that I've been praying for five years, I've been a believer for 10 years, I'm not speaking in tongues or I don't have prophetic word? Now, we must understand that His grace enriches us. So we are to spend time with the Holy Spirit. And I always say this, right? If I want to know, for example, let's take somebody here who I don't know at all. I've never spoken, okay, maybe Harrison. Harrison, I've never spoken to Harrison who's here. I don't know about his family. I don't know about his life. But if I have to know him, I have to fellowship with him. I need to spend time and say, okay, let's meet, let's talk. Let me understand. You understand who I am and I can begin to understand who you are. And so when we fellowship, we get to know each other. And so if I need to know the person, the Holy Spirit, I need to fellowship with him. And the more we fellowship with him by the grace of God, these expressions of the gifts of the Spirit begin to manifest. Now, it may manifest in small ways, it may manifest in big ways, but they will manifest because there's God who's giving it to us. Many times we have flowed and the gifts of the Spirit, but we have not known it. Suddenly God, the Holy Spirit will say, don't do this. Don't take this step, go this way. There's a word of wisdom that the Holy Spirit is giving us. So it's a revelatory gift. It's not a vocal, it's revelatory. So sometimes we may have flowed in those gifts, but we may not even have realized. You may have thought it's my own idea, but it's the Holy Spirit. And Paul is saying here, His grace enriches us even in the expression of the gifts of the Spirit. It is His grace. Every time we express the gifts of the Spirit, it is not because I prayed for one hour or because I read my Bible for two days and I asked God for the Holy Spirit to reveal to me. It's less of the eye. It is the grace of God that God chose to reveal it to us. The moment we come into that whole, that position, you know, whether we prophesy, whether there's word of knowledge, there's working of miracles, everything will be God. It's because of your grace. It's sad when we look at the church around us right now and slowly things are changing. Even in our nation, nation of India, there's so much of pride, there's arrogance in ministry. You know, oh, I'm a prophet. I'm an apostle. There's so much of, you know, we majored on these minor things. Oh, I have written this many songs. It's wonderful. These are wonderful works of God, God, you know, songs that have blessed the church, prophecies that have blessed people. But Paul is trying to bring it here and say, okay, church, I know that you'll have flowing the gifts of the Spirit. It's all wonderful, but it is because of the grace of God that this expression of the gifts is being revealed. It is not your own doing. It is the grace of God. And so there's nothing to boast about. Paul himself says, I don't boast in anything. But did he have anything to boast about? He had everything to boast about. A Pharisee of the Pharisee tribe of Benjamin. He could have said, I've started so many churches. Don't tell me about ministry. I know I went on first missionary journey to three missionary journeys. Started these churches. You better listen to me. You don't see that the end of his letter. He says, Paul to Timothy. He says, Timothy, you're my brother in Christ. He doesn't say Timothy, you know, I found you when you were 17 years old. I hope now at least you'll do some good now. He says, you're my brother. You see that, you know, Paul is just saying it's by the grace of God that we are here together working together as a team. No one's higher. No one's lower. Right. So that's a wonderful, wonderful position to be in, especially for us as leaders. Right. Verse six, even as a testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. The word Greek word for testimony is martyrian refers to evidence or the testimony of a witness. Right. So this is the same Greek word translated martyrs, which means witnesses. The testimony of Christ is confirmed in you. That means when the witness of Jesus Christ or the gospel of Jesus Christ must be brought to people in such a manner that there is a resulting evidence. Right. So imagine you become a believer. But people say, hey, I don't see any difference between you and the other person. You see, imagine at workplace where the workplace, everyone are gossiping. And if even I'm gossiping, then I'm not, I'm not seeing as a third person. I'm not seeing the testimony of Christ in that person. As Christ said, it's against, I mean, we should not gossip. If everybody is lying and we are lying, we don't see the testimony of Christ. Right. But Paul here is saying, even as a testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, it has, we have seen a result and not only me, but people around have seen the result. Probably before you were going to Apollo or Apollo or Aphrodite, you were going to those temples. Probably you were doing all those involved in sexual immorality, living a divorced life. But now people are asking, hey, what are you doing? You're not speaking bad language. You're not involved in prostitution. You're not drinking. You're not involved in all these other things. You've been so honest and speaking so integrity and I see there's a change in you. What is that change? That is the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ in our life. So Paul is saying the testimony of Christ is there in you. It is not only seen in you. It is established in you. Wonderful word. The message is firmly established in them. So Paul is wonderfully exhorting the church here. He's exhorting the believers before getting into his part two of the letter. He's trying to tell them, hey, this is what you are. We are seeing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are seeing a change in your lifestyle. We are seeing the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. We are seeing lives being touched. This is what you are. You are a testimony in the place that you live in. Verse 7. So that you come short in no gift eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when the gospel of Jesus Christ is brought in such manner, people's lives are enriched. Now, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church and he's saying, see, as believers, you're not lacking any gifts. Any expressions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You're not lacking it. Now, how does Paul recognize this? Now remember, Paul has also started churches in Galatia. Before this, he started churches in Philippi, in Thessalonica. So he knows what's happening in each church. We don't see an account of prophecies, word of knowledge, expression of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Galatian church. We don't see an account of it. But were there? Yes, they must have been. But it was probably limited to a few times, a few people. But here in the church of Corinth, everyone were flowing the gifts of the Spirit. And it was a common thing. It was so common that they didn't know that as a church they're flowing in it. They were just prophesying, working of miracles. You know, especially nowadays when you go to certain places and, you know, I was talking to a couple of pastors in North India. And North India is a place where, you know, a lot of, it's a difficult place to do ministry. But people are so strong, they have faith. I was talking to a couple of pastors and they were saying, there were some people who were paralyzed. So we prayed and they stood up and they went home. People who were blind, they came for the meeting and they prayed and they began to see and God healed them. They cancelled, so they were just healed. And they're so natural about it. It is a common thing for them. But here in the South of India, these are not common things. They say, wow, really this happened. But why is that? Probably it's the same thing for the church in cotton. For them, prophecy, word of knowledge, it's common now. So Paul is saying that the Corinthian church lacked no expression of the gifts of the Spirit. So they walked in it. And when we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we do it the way Paul did it, rather with the demonstration of the work of the Spirit of the power, we will birth congregations that will walk in that same authority. Right? We will walk, we will birth congregations that will walk in the grace of God, the expressions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the vocal gifts, revelation gives all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But we must proclaim the gospel with two things. The way Paul did demonstrations of the Spirit and demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. And Paul did it everywhere. Right? Yes, go ahead Shri Gopal. Shri, I want to know the difference between the demonstration of the Spirit and demonstration of the power of the Spirit. Yeah. It's basically, it's not, there's no difference. It is the Holy Spirit, right? He can minister to us personally. And there's a, like what we said, right? The expression, the vocal expression. So demonstration of the Holy Spirit is to show that, hey, it's not me. The Holy Spirit's work, right? I love this verse in Zechariah 4-6. It says, it's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by the Holy Spirit. Some of the versions say demonstration of the work of the Holy Spirit. Right? It's not our own doing. Right? And when the Holy Spirit does something, he does it with power. Right? There is no instance where the Holy Spirit did something and it was done weakly. Can we think of any situation? Right? And the Holy Spirit has demonstrated himself and it was something very weak. So Shri, you want to answer that question? It's basically the same thing. Right? It's just that we demonstrate with the Holy Spirit and when the Holy Spirit demonstrates, he demonstrates it with power. Right? So that's what Paul did. What did Paul do? He went everywhere. He went, remember Ephesus? He went there. He was preaching. He preached the gospel. He taught to people and then he followed it up with demonstration of the Holy Spirit. So Paul wonderfully said that example. He said, my preaching is not only in word, but it's also in action and in demonstration of the Holy Spirit. Because if we only talk and it's not followed up by action, what will people say? You know, there are a lot of fans. We will say, hey, this guy is only talking. I don't see, you know, he'll only say we can do this, but I've not seen him working towards it. Right? And I'm sure we have gone through those seasons. Hey, Paul is saying, no, no, no. I'm not talking out of my own ability inside. It is the Holy Spirit bringing out the demonstration and he's bringing out the work. And that work that he's bringing out is going to be powerful because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, go ahead, Christopher. Yes. Pastor, I just wanted to understand, you know, you mentioned about fellowship with the Holy Spirit and I think all of us or rather each of us may be at different levels of fellowship with the Holy Spirit. So I just wanted to ask you if you could share with us some of the things that you did to get more fellowship with the Holy Spirit in particular. And, you know, maybe, you know, maybe it's some years of, you know, that, you know, this happened. But maybe before you even, you know, felt that, you know, you had received the, or received and also being able to demonstrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What did you do? And, you know, what did you personally do to, you know, to get more fellowship? Sure, sure. I'll just quickly share with you, Christopher. Yeah, that's a very important question. But before I start, I just want to say that, you know, I'm still pursuing more of God. There's so much more that I need to learn. There's so much more that, you know, I pursue. But some of the things that helped me, I could probably share. Now, to answer your first part of the question, how, you know, what do I do to grow more intimate with God? Of course, you know, there's this time of, set time of prayer and the reading of the Word of God. Because the primary way that the Holy Spirit speaks to us is through the Word of God. Right? Because we know that, you know, we've got our feelings. We've got our emotions. Sometimes we may think whether it's me or whether it's the Holy Spirit. So the primary way that the Holy Spirit speaks to us is through the Word of God. So we don't spend a lot of time in the Word of God. Just ask God to minister, to speak, you know, ask questions to yourself. Try to understand what we are reading. You know, I remember after becoming a believer, I said, okay, I'm going to read. So I began to read the Bible and I'm reading it. But it was more like, you know, I have to finish it as a task. Okay, two chapters a day. Okay, let's do it. And you just become a believer. You want to learn something. And it just became like a whole thing of, okay, two chapters a day, a target that I had to finish. Okay, half an hour of prayer. You know, it all became a target. Now, it's good to have set times. There's nothing wrong about, you know, having one hour of reading the Word, one hour of praying. It's very good to, you know, that spiritual discipline is very important. But make that time fruitful is what I learned over the years. So there'll be times when, you know, I just try to talk to the Holy Spirit. I say, Holy Spirit, you minister to me. Like, you know, just I'm going to read this. You share, you tell me what can I do? Or how I can, you know, how can this help me in my life? Now, it's not like, you know, immediately I hear a voice of the Holy Spirit. You know, it's not so. But even in the smallest of things, we know that God is interested in everything. So some of the examples I say, Holy Spirit, I don't know this chord. Can you help me? Now, sometimes we limit the Holy Spirit only to holy things because he's Holy Spirit. No, no, he's there. He's there in us. You can ask him anything. You know, many times I've asked him, you know, Holy Spirit, is this shirt okay? I've asked him. Now, why am I doing that? Because I just want to, you know, it's not like the Holy Spirit said, open the book of John, and you will find the answer there. But you just know, okay, hey, you know, you're trying to build this. You know, it's like if you're taking your wife or your children to shopping, obviously you'll ask them, what do you think about this shirt? So the same thing. What do you think about this shirt? So it may sound very silly, but you don't have to do that. But what I'm trying to say is, it's that small, you know, the small steps, small things that, you know, especially one of the things that praise God in the ministry, we as leaders, we have to make decisions. Now, those decisions, you know, it can make an impact on the congregation, on people in the church and say, God, help me to make the right decisions. Help me not to be in a hurry. Sometimes, you know, I've always been a hurry. Okay, let's get it done. It's good to get things done. I've been a hurry. So I would say, God, just leave me. Tell me, how can I go about it? And maybe the Holy Spirit will just remind me what to do, or give me an idea on how to bring, you know, to get things done. Sometimes I may not receive that, right? So I continue to just pray on that. So it's an ongoing, you know, ongoing. So many times, you know, like, you know, we may be praying for somebody and we see an image. Maybe this is the problem that he's going through. Through a picture or a person or it could be even physical sensations. And we read all of this in the Holy Spirit class, right? He's able to minister through all of that. And so we must make ourselves available. We've got ourselves sensitive now. It's not that, you know, it just happens overnight, right? And we know that. So Christopher, one of the things you can do is just involve him in every activity. Like, for example, I'm, you know, taking this class just checking the lightings before we could start. I said, Holy Spirit, I hope this is good. I hope this works out. You know, I don't have to ask some things to the Holy Spirit. We can just figure it out. But what I'm doing is I'm just trying to get him involved in everything. It could be cooking. It could be, you know, in my work, it could be by riding the bike or sometimes I even complain. I say, Holy Spirit, these roads need to be repaired. First, you know, it's not good. It's so dangerous. It's not like the next day the roads will be repaired because I told the Holy Spirit. It's just that you're building that relationship. There are many times I've been complaining about things and the Holy Spirit has just given an idea of which I I never even thought of for something that I prayed about three months or four months back. So you never know he's wonderful. So that's one thing you can do. Involve him in everything that you do. I hope that helps this. Yeah, and I swear just specifically around some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for example, speaking in tongues or interpretation of tongues what I mean, what was some of the things you did to sort of get to that stage where you felt that you could demonstrate that gift. Yeah, so initially when I began to speak in tongues, I felt it was like I was like is that me or is it the Holy Spirit initially? Then I realized that it's not me because I could sense that it was somebody else inside me that was bringing it all out. Paul says the Holy Spirit moans he brings out things in us. In terms of speaking in tongues it doesn't happen to everyone. When I accepted the Lord, I got baptized a couple of days later but I received the gift and it was hard for me to flow in it immediately but then as I began to read and understand what it means to speak in tongues I really started going deeper into it, trying to spend more time in it. That's one thing. The word of knowledge and prophecy I was very excited. I was reading these passages as a new believer that we all can flow in all these gifts and for me I loved that whole aspect of hearing from God seeing from God and the whole prophetic I loved the way Samuel prophesied brilliantly in just every detail that he prophesies so I loved that whole thing. I used to keep praying as I said God, you speak to me. How can I hear the prophetic? How can I understand? Some of the things that I did was I read a lot of books I kept myself updated like reading books and listening to a lot of sermons by great prophetic preachers and then I began to try in smaller settings especially in the prophetic what I would do is I would remember in Bible callers I would make my friends sit and I would say, hey you sit, let me pray for you I would pray for them and say God, you speak to me, give me something about this person so I practiced it many people say we should not practice because God will only give it when he decides to practice it you can practice if we can the more we practice preaching the better we become habit if I go to the stage and I don't practice what I've prepared like practice in the sense verbally prepare and practice the preaching I'm not going to deliver the message very effectively so there's nothing wrong in practicing there were times when especially in smaller settings people say I have headache, we make them sit and I would command this headache to get off in Jesus name and ask them, how are you feeling better they would say no sometimes I would be discouraged sometimes I would be like, okay pray again and sometimes it didn't happen sometimes it happened and when it happened it's an amazing feeling he was healed so during those times you just thank God and ask Him for the grace now we must understand Christopher that there are two things there's a function and there's a gift the function is everyone can function in the Holy Spirit we have all the gifts, for example you can prophesy, I can prophesy we hear from God, you can prophesy or you can pray for sick I can pray for sick that's what Jesus said but the gifting is this special grace an anointing upon people's lives where everything they do is prophetic and you see these evangelists they they just pray over people and people are just healed it doesn't matter what kind of sickness so there's a function and but we all can flow in this so these are some things that I practically did in smaller settings I tried my best in life groups and whenever I meet my friends I would try to exercise those gifts and the more I exercise that I began to it helped me, it helped me to grow and I'm continuing to do that now one of the things that we pray for is the word of wisdom because now in ministry there are so many things that ministries have taken up right now and I need wisdom I really sometimes I fear that I should not be in a hurry and make the right wrong choice to set record giving the wisdom so this is something that I'm praying about I keep reading the Bible how people make decisions, how God led them to make those decisions reading books the wisdom of God and how we need to work so yeah so that's how I did it right so I hope Christopher that helps yeah okay so let's continue from where we start yeah okay so some things that we can think about about verse 7 so that you come short in no gift eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ we later see in the episode that the Corinthian church had a lot of problems yet there was no lack of spiritual gifts now Paul does not tell them not to express the spiritual gifts right he only guides them to use them in a proper way right so what do we see here wonderful right they are flowing in the gifts not in the right way but Paul is not telling them hey you all are you know there's division there's all these problems in the church you stop prophesying stop giving word of knowledge Paul doesn't say that right that's so wonderful he says see I'll guide you on how to go about it right there's a way to express these gifts it's wonderful that all of you all are flowing the gifts but there's a way he teaches them and he makes and his desire is to see them mature to grow to overcome their weakness now this is the heart of a shepherd right you know you see that he's trying to tell them it's wonderful now flowing the gifts but use it properly use it in an orderly manner don't don't use it don't make don't abuse the gifts that God is giving maybe you're unaware of it but this is the way you should do it and this is a very important lesson to us because while we while God is working through our challenges through our mess we do not stop manifestations of the Holy Spirit we do not stop praying in tongues now Christopher another thing that happened to me was my initial days you know I would pray I say Holy Spirit you help me give me the word of knowledge and all of these things and then somewhere along the line I would have sinned I may have got angry or may have you know shouted at somebody or you know I may have seen something wrong or said something wrong and all of a sudden I would feel that I've done something wrong God is not going to speak season I used to go through 3-4 days I would pray but very God if you want to can you please minister to me can you please talk to me whenever you can Yes Shree Kumar Thank you pastor First I just want to know just for the clarification when we were discussing about the sin what they are involved in was not an ordinary sin Yes actually every sin is forgiven but as you can as we read we can find that even the fall condemns certain things that even the sin what you had even in the unbelievers will not do I just want to know that when they are practicing such kind of things even in the lack of knowledge these sort of Holy Spirit can it be possible that the demonic spirit also get influenced to give them the property gift or visions because of the especially in adultery if it is possible that in that area they can be corrected with the things I just want to Thank you That's a very good question Shree Kumar so let me answer it this way now they were all flowing in the gifts of the spirit and we see that the church was being edified spiritually they were being edified if you look at them as a church they were growing in the world all that was there but they had practical problems Shree Kumar they had the gifts of the spirit they were flowing in these gifts because now see they have come from a very different background so you got this is not only a Jewish church now see in the church in Jerusalem I would say 80% of them were Jews I am just saying but they were a church that was everyone listened everywhere this is a cosmopolitan church you got the Jews you got Gentiles you got Romans you got people from different parts of Greece coming in and this with the background of all this idols and all of this they have come in they have a new heart they have changed their believers 2 Corinthians 517 has happened to them meaning they have become a new creation inside they have changed but the mindset and the thinking has not yet changed that is why Paul writes Romans 12 we not conform to this world but we transform by the renewing of your mind so inwardly I love Jesus I thank God that I am not going to these temples or God has changed me but practically they are not right they didn't know how to minister the gifts they didn't know about order maybe they came in and then all of a sudden there was somebody having communion they didn't know that when you come into the church first there is an order there is probably worship like how we do it I am just giving an example probably there is a word you read the word prayer you hear a short message and after that short message is the communion time practical thing probably they walked into church went to the communion drank the bloods table then they went and discussed with people then they sang a few songs then they went back again discussed something about the word there was no order so I wouldn't say that there was a spiritual problem in the church like spiritually they were infants, they were babies they had many practical problems so I hope that helps answer your question it was more of the practical problems so it was not spiritually they are still growing that's why Paul says to them I thank God for you they will all become believers instead of going and sitting in Aphrodite temple temple of Apollo you will have come to church that's because of the grace of God good, I am happy that you are children of God now but as children of God there are certain things so it was more of a practical problem than a spiritual problem thank you Paul so as we were saying as God is working through us there could be we may fail, there could be a mess there may be challenges but we do not stop the manifestation of this we continue sometimes the enemy comes and puts guilt into us yesterday you sinned today you are going to church and you want to give word of knowledge you want to give prophetic word that's his word and immediately we feel I did something wrong I don't think I am eligible I am eligible to do this I don't think the Holy Spirit will speak to me because of the sin it's not so we repent of the sin the Holy Spirit will speak to us now if we have unrepentant sin and we try to ask the Holy Spirit to speak what happens is we have grieved the Holy Spirit so it's like we are building a wall I think I don't want remember initial week we did laying the axe when we are too proud to ask for forgiveness that God opposes the proud that he gives grace to the humble so when we humble ourselves I say God I have sinned I have fallen, please help me and when we stand back again he will definitely continue to manifest the work of the spirit I don't believe the lie of the enemy you sinned how can you do this he is able to work in our lives second lesson that we can learn the expressions of the gifts of the spirit are not to be created with spiritual maturity amazing I think Christopher this really helps us the question that you have these people, these believers were 5, 6 years 7 years, the church was 7 years old so probably you got believers who are 1 year old in the church or maybe 6 months old in the church and they are all maybe you know flowing in the gifts of the spirit maybe a person who is 6 months in the Lord is praying for the sick and they are getting healed so what does it mean it means just because God gives us the Holy Spirit gives us the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that because I am 10 years in the Lord that is why God has given me this so I am mature that's why God has given me no it's not so the people in the church in Corinth were immature they did not know yet the Holy Spirit released the gifts of the spirit upon them if we are waiting to become completely mature and only then we got 5 years or let me finish my bible college course and only then I will manifest the gifts of the spirit that's a wrong understanding begin now and as we begin to flow on the gifts of the spirit maturity will come, we will learn from our mistakes and all of us just because I am teaching doesn't mean that I have not made mistakes we all have made mistakes all of us make mistakes in ministry, making decisions but then we learn out of those mistakes last time help me, the Holy Spirit help me to do the right way this time so maturity comes that way in terms of the gifts of the spirit never think okay God I am only 6 months I know the Lord Jesus only for 6 months or I know only the New Testament, I don't know anything from the Old Testament or I haven't joined a master's course or whatever all these are works coming to God by works God can give it to us even if we are one day old in Christ he is willing to give it to us it's just our ability to receive and thank we learn here that the Apostle Paul would not have only proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ but he also thought these Corinthian believers about the gifts of the spirit and the coming of the Lord okay so we ended our time so we will stop here, we will continue from verse 8 we just make a note we stopped at verse 8 we will continue from next week next week we will try to go a little faster so that we can also finish but we will be open to discussing and having questions as well alright so let's close, let's quickly pray and close Father we want to thank you for this time and we thank you for all the learning Lord, we thank you for all the questions and Lord we thank you that it is by your grace that we are here serving you and we pray Lord that you will continue to lead us, empower us Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit and help us to walk in your anointing of God every day of our lives, we thank you we thank you for all that you're doing Lord bless us Lord and use us for your service, in Jesus name we pray, Amen Amen, God bless you all have a great week ahead, I'll see you next Monday, God bless