Now as soon as most people see the word “profit”, they think of money.  Well, that’s natural if your mind is on money.  But God’s mind isn’t on money.  In fact, God doesn’t have a penny in heaven.  And if you’re asking God to give you money, He can’t, because He doesn’t have any.  He can cause money to come to you, but that’s another teaching for another time.  Today I’d like to focus on PROFIT.

It is written in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11:
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he wills.

Did you see the key, hidden in verse 7?, But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  You see, God wants you to profit by the Gifts He has provided you.  Every believer is given at least ONE of these gifts, some have more, but they are given as the LORD sees fit, as He knows our particular personality and how to best equip us for our particular calling.  I know people who have several of these gifts working in their lives.  Now think about this, what good is the Word of Knowledge if you are out in the boonies standing beside someone who has been in a serious car wreck, laying there bleeding to death? Yes, word of knowledge will tell you he is dying, but what you REALLY need is Working of Miracles right now in order to help that person.  I’ve taught occasionally on this subject from the very beginning of my ministry, and the LORD wants me to do it again today.  If you are fully submitted to God, He can and will equip you with whatsoever gift you need at the time to fulfill His purposes, and you aren’t limited to just your one particular gift.

You see, the gifts of God can not only profit YOU, but they will profit the recipient, and many times to the point of making a new believer out of an unbeliever, and overall, the calling of every believer is to enlarge the Kingdom of heaven.  What did the Lord Jesus teach about?  The Kingdom of heaven, and how you can be part of it.  Sadly, many “Christians” only are concerned about themselves getting into the Kingdom of heaven, and they couldn’t care less about anyone else getting there.  My particular gift seems to be healing, and He has also given me the ability to teach people in ways so they can grasp principals of the Bible.  But like I said, He also equips us with the particular gifts we need at the time, if we are submitting unto Him.

There are many so-called “Prophets” whose only goal is to profit themselves financially.  Do they have a true gift?  They CAN!  But that doesn’t guarantee they will use that gift for the Kingdom of heaven.  Here’s an example of that in Acts 16:16-21;
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

Here we see the woman was telling the truth, actually advertising for Paul, but Paul knew she had a devil and God doesn’t need the devil to advertise the Gospel, so he cast that devil out of her right then and there.  Now there are people out there who were given a gift from God that perverted that gift for their own monetary gain, in fact there are MANY doing that right now, all you have to do is turn on the TV and you will see them in operation.  Do they have a gift from God?  Some do, but they use it to get your money.  As the Lord Jesus said, You will know a tree by its fruits. Can they give you a true Word from God? They CAN, but most likely will tell you what you want to hear so you will give them a nice, fat offering.  I know of one particular “Prophet” who calls himself the Master Prophet who calls people time and time again to give them a “Word from the LORD”, and those people pay him a lot of money. I call him the Profit Prophet.  And I openly rebuke those people who are exploiting the gifts of God for their personal profit, and in time God himself will deal with them, and I sure wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.

Do I ever get a “Word from the LORD” for people?  Yes, often, and no matter what it is, I will give it to the person, whether it’s what they want to hear or no, because it’s my desire that THEY profit from it, that it will draw them to serve the LORD more fervently.  I was recently given a Word myself, that sometimes I go to a church with a rod in one hand and a sword in the other.  What does that mean?  The Sword is the Word of God. The Rod is what is used for correction.  Sometimes the LORD uses me to bring the Word to bring correction to an erring church body, or a person.  Believe me, I don’t like going somewhere to preach and end up swinging an axe.  But when that happens, the result is cutting out the rotten and unfruitful stuff and bringing refreshing and direction and correction, and the end result of that is a person or a church coming out of unprofitable ways and into the blessings of the LORD.

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5;
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

So that’s my job, too, along with teaching about how to receive healing.  You can go to many churches and hear, “Sow into my ministry and God will give you a hundredfold return….”, but you will never hear it from me.  I’m not in the ministry to get rich like some are.  In fact, I use my own money most of the time to preach the Gospel.  I’m in it for YOUR profit, so one day when you stand before the Lord Jesus, you will hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” I would MUCH rather you hear “Well done”, than for you to BE “WELL DONE”, if you know what I mean.  So always remember to use the gifts God has given you to bring increase unto the Kingdom of heaven, instead of increase to yourself.