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Showing posts from April, 2012

Lesson 4 - Spiritual Gifts: Gifts of Healing

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Healing the sick - photo from the Vatican Not all Christians have the gift of healing, but all Christians can pray for their friends and family to be healed.  Jesus used various methods to heal the sick.  But,  the most common method  used by Jesus was the laying on of hands.  Jesus believed in touching people to comfort and healed them. When crowds came bringing people “with various diseases “ he laid his hands on every one of them” and healed them” Luke 4:40.  Other passages specifically describe Jesus placing his hands on people to heal them (Matthew 8:3); More significant is the fact that people who came to Jesus for healing would come specifically asking him to lay his hands on a sick person: Matthew 9:18 Mark 5:23. So what happens when Jesus touch people that cause them to be healed? The power of the Holy Spirit was conveyed through Jesus’ physical touch, and came forth and healed people.    The power of the Holy Spirit comes to heal you and make you

Lesson 3 - Spiritual Gifts: The gift of Christ

  " But unto every one of us is given grace a ccording to the measure of the gift of Christ" Ephesians 4:5 Christ's gift to us are many, and every one of us have been given gifts to help one another.  You are blessed to be a blessing!  Paul teaches  us that we indeed are all one body, and that all good gifts proceed from Christ alone, who reigns in heaven having mightily conquered all his enemies , from where He graciously gave gifts to his Church. Therefore,  every man ought to be content with the measure that God has given him.  In Ephesians chapter 4; we discussed the 5 gifts (apostle, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists) that are considered to be not titles, but offices held in the church to equip the believers.   1) Apostle's office was to plant churches throughout all the world.  2) The Prophet's office was one of the highest who were men of marvelous wisdom, and they would foretell things to come.  3) The work of the Eva

Lesson 2: Spiritual Gifts - How We Should Treat One Another

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"But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift."  On Sunday, we took a simple spiritual gift test to see what gifts have been given to us. A "Spiritual Gift" is a special divine empowerment bestowed on each believer   by the Holy Spirit to accomplish a given ministry God's way .  We will see the church grow as each member does his/her part according to the Holy Spirit's work,  grace and discernment given to each of us.  This means it is not just the pastoral staff that have gifts or is responsible for caring for God's people. We all are responsible for and to each other.  If you are a follower of Christ, then you have been gifted by God to serve the body of Christ, the church. For the church to be effective, each member of the body must heed the "one another command" of God to function as a body. The Greek word for "one another" is "allelon" which denotes a reciproca