There are different kinds of workings, but the same God who works all of them in all men. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. A lot of the abuses were happening in the Corinthian church, and so a lot of the corrections are going to be there. In fact, keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 12. If you have your Bibles, open them, if you will to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4 – it's a common thing we've talked about. Beware when spiritual gifts are used as a means of manipulation, power, or control in personal and/or church relationships. And notice, they're all going to start with “beware.” That's a warning sign. Number one: Beware when spiritual gifts are used as a means of manipulation, power, or control in personal and/or church relationships. You know what? I'm not sure, but this could be a sign of spiritual gift abuse.” And as you're walking with God, and the Spirit of God is filling your life, and you're involved in a local church, and you're asking God to use you – that as you are going through your life, if any one of these red lights begins to flash on the dashboard of your spiritual car, you're going to say, “Wait a second. These certainly aren't the only ones, but I call these “the ten most common abuses of spiritual gifts.” I want you to imagine, you're driving in your spiritual car, and on the dashboard you have ten red lights.
I'd like you to open your teaching handout, if you will, and I want to go over what I think are the ten most common abuses of spiritual gifts.
In other words, if gifts do that much good, if they're abused, if they're misused, if they're misapplied, they can have a very, very dark side.Ĭan anybody think of some times, in your experience, of spiritual abuse, in terms of gifts? Now, what are the warning signs? If you are, indeed, the spiritual paintbrush in God's hand, by your gift, and He wants to dip it into the palette and the colors of His grace, so that your life could literally begin to make imprints of grace, and change another person's life for all eternity – something that powerful usually has a dark side.
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