Understanding The Gifts Of The Spirit by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Understanding the gifts of the Spirit

Anywhere there are heightened spiritual activities, there is a high chance of disorder, that's why charismatic ministries often don't last. A teaching or gifting anointing on your life carries a high tendency toward pride, entitlement, comparison, and jealousy. Lucifer is the example. So there must be order in how spiritual things function.

In 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 covers communion, chapter 12 spiritual gifts, chapter 13 puts love as the balance over everything, chapter 14 the administration of spiritual things, and chapter 15 reminds them of the gospel. We can quench the Spirit by not allowing him to flow, or grieve the Spirit by doing what is inconsistent with him. Both are possible. The balance is love, chapter 13, for him and for his people. We don't manifest gifts to show we are gifted, we manifest gifts to help people.

The gift of the Spirit is the Spirit himself

Ephesians 1:3: blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. Acts 2:38: repent, and receive the gift of the Spirit, that gift is the Holy Spirit. In the Greek, 1 Corinthians 12:1 reads "concerning spirituals," not "spiritual gifts," because the Spirit himself is the gift. Within that gift, both fruit and gifts function, and if you separate the fruit from the gift you fall into error, the gift of faith is connected to the fruit of faithfulness. Love is compassion, and that is what compelled Jesus to do miracles, not to show power but to do good.

When Paul says to one is given a gift of healing, he is not saying certain people permanently carry a healing anointing exclusive of others. He's addressing a local church coming together so no one is exalted above measure, and inviting them to covet earnestly the best gifts. Spiritual gifts are broader than the list given in this chapter.

1 Corinthians 12:28 — order in the church

1. Apostles

2. Prophets

3. Teachers

4. Miracles

5. Gifts of healings

6. Helps

   Paul equates serving in the church to working miracles. Mary's calling was to carry and nurture Jesus, not to preach, that was helps ministry to the plan of salvation; the eighteen silent years were necessary because the business of the gospel is salvation, not Mary's story. When Jesus fed the five thousand, he needed a small boy's five loaves and two fish before he performed the miracle, what Jesus wants to do is supernatural, but he needs help in the natural. Those who helped share the bread were the ones who ate from the leftover baskets, helps ministry enjoys the crumbs of miracles. Serving in children's church is spiritual: a difficult child responding to you is an anointing, not a coincidence.

7. Governments

   An administrative anointing, someone can build a church through structure and proper teaching alone, without visible gifts, and people are still blessed.

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Pastor Dolapo Lawal
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8. Diversities of tongues

Romans 12:6-8 — gifts in proportion to grace

• Prophecy, in proportion to faith
• Ministry (serving) — like a waiter who takes an order and delivers it
• Teaching
• Exhortation — an admonition ministry, strong in counseling, not the teaching gift
• Giving, with liberality — for some this comes easily, for others God must work on the heart
• Leading, with diligence
• Showing mercy, with cheerfulness — the kind of person carrying real outreach burden

Every gift looks attractive when described, like an advertisement, but you must walk in what you are actually called to, not just what looks appealing. Don't let yourself be spiritually seduced by another's gifting. If it is not full-time ministry, your walk should still show in these places: your presence, a healthy family, evangelizing, a consistent prayer life and devotion, and intercession for your church.

Closing prayer for the church

We are believing God for a bigger church space after over a year of searching and repeated setbacks; there is a spiritual undertone to the resistance, because anything pertaining to expansion draws pushback. Psalm 18:29: by you I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. We are praying in God's will that as 2026 is our year of expansion, we run through every troop and leap over every wall of limitation.