© 19 Colin Melbourne, Transcribed and annotated from The Pentecostal Evangel 1923
A Warning
I have seen some who have been terribly switched. They believe in Gifts, in prophecy, and they use these Gifts apart from the power of the Holy Ghost.
We must look to the Holy Spirit to show us the use of the Gifts, what they are for, and when to use them, so that we may never use them without the power of the Holy Ghost.
I do not know of ‘anything which is so awful today as people using a Gift without the power. [ie. Operating the Gifts in the flesh, instead of under the anointing. Ed.]
Never do it
God save us from doing it!
An Encouragement
A man who is filled with the Holy Ghost, while he may not be conscious of having any Gift of the Spirit, can have the Gifts made manifest through him.
I have gone to many places to help, and have found that under the unction of the Holy Spirit many wonderful things have happened in the midst when the Glory of the Lord was upon the people.
Any man who is filled with God, and filled with His Spirit, might at any moment have any of the nine Gifts made manifest through him without knowing that he has a Gift. [ie. The Gift of tongues speaking in a language not known by the speaker, but is known by an unbeliever present.]
Sometimes I have wondered whether it was better to be always full of the Holy Ghost and to see signs and wonders and miracles without any consciousness of possessing a Gift, or whether it was better to know one has a Gift.
If you have received the Gifts of the Spirit, and they have been blessed, you should never under any circumstances use them without the power of God upon you pressing the Gift through. [ie. As the Spirit wills, not as your flesh wills. Ed.]
Some have used the prophetic Gift without the holy touch, and they have come into the realm of the natural, and it has brought ruin, caused dissatisfaction, broken hearts, upset assemblies. [Regrettably this is still common in many charismatic fellowships. ie. Fleshly ones “giving words” to all and sundry.]
Do not seek the Gifts unless you are purposed to abide in the Holy Spirit.
They should be manifested only in the power of the Holy Spirit
The Lord will allow you to be very drunk in His Presence, but sober among people.
I like to see people so filled with the Spirit that they are drunk like the 120 on the Day of Pentecost, but I don’t like to see people drunk in the wrong place.
That is what troubles us, somebody being drunk in a place of worship where a lot of people come in that know nothing about the word. If you allow yourself to be drunk there, you send people away, they look at you instead of seeing God.
They condemn the whole thing because you have not been sober at the right time.
Continue reading… Smith Wigglesworth: Concerning Spiritual Gifts
Preached at Springfield Assembly of God in 1922
© 19 Colin Melbourne, Transcribed and annotated from The Pentecostal Evangel 1923
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