25 November 2007, 10 AM
by Apostle Andre

1 Peter 4:10- 'As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.' Each one has received a gift. You need to say 'I have a gift. I will minister it to others.' You have received a grace gift, so you become ministers of grace. It is a gracious gift that we minister. Further on it says that if anyone speaks let him speak as the oracles of God, if anyone ministers let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that God, in all things, may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever.He says that each one has a gift. I want to stir up the gifts that are within you. Every gift of God is a good gift and we receive it by grace and operate it by faith. The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts.If we look at 1 Corinthians 12:1- 'Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.' It means that 'I want you to know about it.' verse 3- 'Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.' v.4- 'There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of ministries, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.' Then he mentions some of those gifts, it is not the only gifts, it is just a few, a list to remind us: words of wisdom, words of knowledge, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues and different interpretation of tongues. We had most of those operate here this morning in church already. 'It is the same Spirit that works all these things, distributing to each individually as He wills.' He decides. God is in charge of the whole operation, Jesus chooses the person that He is going to work through and the Holy Spirit distributes the gift. But you have to work with God in order to let that gift operate. I want to give you a different perspective on operating in the gifts of the Spirit. It is not just a few gifted individuals that have gifts; it is everyone, each one. Each one has received the gift that you can minister to others. If you come to church just to receive it, it means that you are not coming to minister.

Amos 3:7- ' Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.' John 2- The servants new where the wine came from. Jesus turned the water into wine, He told the servants what to do and they did it. The master of the feast did not know where this nice wine had come from. But the servants knew. If you have a servant's heart God will use you. You must come to church to serve. A servant's heart puts you in position of being used by God but you have got to want to be used of God. It is still a step of faith. It is a choice. God will use you, but where He uses you He will fill you. When Jesus used Peter fishing boat, He returned it full of fish. When God uses you He will not just empty you, you will not feel abused, you will be rewarded for Him using you. He does not use you and then drop you. That is what the Devil does, he use people and still send them to hell. But when God uses you He will fill your boat. He will make your life full of good things. He will restore all the things. To a fisherman, the best thing you can do for him is to give him a boat full of fish. You do not give him a stone collection.
God is not a bad heavenly father, if you ask Him for a fish He will not give you a snake. If you ask Him for bread He will not give you a stone. And He says that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give us good things. So the gift He has given you is a good gift.

But why do people not use their gifts? Why do people not minister their gift in a body, where they move, where they live and have their being? There is a reason for it and your view of God either limits you or releases you. We limit God because we have faith, we develop faith because of negative views of God, we then develop faith in God's reluctance to do something for us. If you say, 'God won't do that for me' you've got faith in what you have just said and it will be like that. You'll prolong your own suffering; you'll prolong your own ignorance, because you think that God is a respecter of persons.
It is the attitude that God wants to change. The way you think, the way you speak, the way you are, and you are developing faith in God's reluctance. You are saying that God is reluctant. He is not, God is willing. God is a willing God, He wants to. The leper came to Jesus and said 'Lord if you want to, you can heal me.' Jesus answered him 'I want to heal you if you will.' Take the “if” out. If makes you doubt. When you ask a question with “if” in it, it gives options. “If
you would like to come”, and immediately people have the option to say no. So they approached Jesus saying 'if', He just dropped the 'if.'
If we just drop the 'if' we'll find that He will. Don't if so much,
then the “will” can operate. Let God use you. Say 'I am available.'
God will give you, the Holy Spirit will distribute the gift but then you must still choose to operate in the gift. It is not your gift, but it is His gift. He has given it so that people can be blessed.

God does not play hard to get, it is Baal who plays hard to get, because he does not exist. 1 Kings 18, the Baal prophets danced around all day and nothing happened. Elijah mocked them, saying to them to shout a bit louder. He literally said to them that Baal might be in the toilet, he said that he might be covering his feet. Elijah then just step to the podium and said that God will answer with fire; it will not rain, and it did not rain, and they were all astonished about the things that he has said which came to pass. But Elijah just read the law, the law says that if you do not keep the Sabbaths for so many years, it will not rain for so many years. Did you know that your tithes influence the rainfall? Malachi 3 says that if you bring your tithes into the storehouse I will bless you and multiply you and increase you. And I will give you the early rains and the latter rains in their time. It is because Harvester tithed so well this year that we have so much rain. The whole world is blessed because we tithed so well.

We think that God is a man and that He plays hard to get, so we want to twist His arm. We try to fast and pray and think that this will make Him change His mind. We think it is our determination and our sacrifice and our discipline and our high degree of faith that does all this. But Elijah just calculated the three and a half years, because it was according to their disobedience. Jeremiah prophesied that for three years all the Sabbaths that you have disobeyed will lead you into exile for so long, and he worked it out to be for 70 years. Daniel got hold of Jeremiah's scroll that Baruch wrote, and he calculated it and said that they have been in here for about 68 years and it is almost finished and that they should go back. That is why he had prayed three times a day. It was not a religious duty, but he had something to pray about. When you pray you should have something to pray about, not just empty words. I think before I pray, what do I really want to talk to God about. If you go and see a general, a CEO of a company or a director, you don't just walk into his office and sit down and say 'I don't really know why I am here but…' We do this with God, 'God I don't really know why I have come into your presence.' You don't have to come in to His presence, He is with you. Where are you going to go in to His pre