More about Gifts from the Spirit

1 Corinthians 14 It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message. ²Those who speak in strange tongues do not speak to others but to God, because no one understands them. They are speaking secret truths by the power of the Spirit. ³But those who proclaim God's message speak to people and give them help, encouragement, and comfort. ⁴Those who speak in strange tongues help only themselves, but those who proclaim God's message help the whole church.
⁵I would like for all of you to speak in strange tongues; but I would rather that you had the gift of proclaiming God's message. For the person who proclaims God's message is of greater value than the one who speaks in strange tongues--unless there is someone present who can explain what is said, so that the whole church may be helped. ⁶So when I come to you, my friends, what use will I be to you if I speak in strange tongues? Not a bit, unless I bring you some revelation from God or some knowledge or some inspired message or some teaching.
⁷Take such lifeless musical instruments as the flute or the harp--how will anyone know the tune that is being played unless the notes are sounded distinctly? ⁸And if the one who plays the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle? ⁹In the same way, how will anyone understand what you are talking about if your message given in strange tongues is not clear? Your words will vanish in the air! ¹⁰There are many different languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. ¹¹But if I do not know the language being spoken, those who use it will be foreigners to me and I will be a foreigner to them. ¹²Since you are eager to have the gifts of the Spirit, you must try above everything else to make greater use of those which help to build up the church.
¹³The person who speaks in strange tongues, then, must pray for the gift to explain what is said. ¹⁴For if I pray in this way, my spirit prays indeed, but my mind has no part in it. ¹⁵What should I do, then? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray also with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will sing also with my mind. ¹⁶When you give thanks to God in spirit only, how can ordinary people taking part in the meeting say "Amen" to your prayer of thanksgiving? They have no way of knowing what you are saying. ¹⁷Even if your prayer of thanks to God is quite good, other people are not helped at all.
¹⁸I thank God that I speak in strange tongues much more than any of you. ¹⁹But in church worship I would rather speak five words that can be understood, in order to teach others, than speak thousands of words in strange tongues.
²⁰Do not be like children in your thinking, my friends; be children so far as evil is concerned, but be grown up in your thinking. ²¹In the Scriptures it is written,
"By means of people speaking strange languages
I will speak to my people, says the Lord.
I will speak through lips of foreigners,
but even then my people will not listen to me."
²²So then, the gift of speaking in strange tongues is proof for unbelievers, not for believers, while the gift of proclaiming God's message is proof for believers, not for unbelievers.
²³If, then, the whole church meets together and everyone starts speaking in strange tongues--and if some ordinary people or unbelievers come in, won't they say that you are all crazy? ²⁴But if everyone is proclaiming God's message when some unbelievers or ordinary people come in, they will be convinced of their sin by what they hear. They will be judged by all they hear, ²⁵their secret thoughts will be brought into the open, and they will bow down and worship God, confessing, "Truly God is here among you!"

The Woman from Shunem Returns

2 Kings 8 Now Elisha had told the woman who lived in Shunem, whose son he had brought back to life, that the LORD was sending a famine on the land, which would last for seven years, and that she should leave with her family and go and live somewhere else. ²She had followed his instructions and had gone with her family to live in Philistia for the seven years.
³At the end of the seven years she returned to Israel and went to the king to ask that her house and her land be restored to her. ⁴She found the king talking with Gehazi, Elisha's servant; the king wanted to know about Elisha's miracles. ⁵While Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought a dead person back to life, the woman made her appeal to the king. Gehazi said to him, "Your Majesty, here is the woman and here is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!" ⁶In answer to the king's question, she confirmed Gehazi's story, and so the king called an official and told him to give back to her everything that was hers, including the value of all the crops that her fields had produced during the seven years she had been away.

Elisha and King Benhadad of Syria

⁷Elisha went to Damascus at a time when King Benhadad of Syria was sick. When the king was told that Elisha was there, ⁸he said to Hazael, one of his officials, "Take a gift to the prophet and ask him to consult the LORD to find out whether or not I am going to get well." ⁹So Hazael loaded forty camels with all kinds of the finest products of Damascus and went to Elisha. When Hazael met him, he said, "Your servant King Benhadad has sent me to ask you whether or not he will recover from his sickness."
¹⁰Elisha answered, "The LORD has revealed to me that he will die; but go to him and tell him that he will recover." ¹¹Then Elisha stared at him with a horrified look on his face until Hazael became ill at ease. Suddenly Elisha burst into tears. ¹²"Why are you crying, sir?" Hazael asked.
"Because I know the horrible things you will do against the people of Israel," Elisha answered. "You will set their fortresses on fire, slaughter their finest young men, batter their children to death, and rip open their pregnant women."
¹³"How could I ever be that powerful?" Hazael asked. "I'm a nobody!"
"The LORD has shown me that you will be king of Syria," Elisha replied.
¹⁴Hazael went back to Benhadad, who asked him, "What did Elisha say?"
"He told me that you would certainly get well," Hazael answered. ¹⁵But on the following day Hazael took a blanket, soaked it in water, and smothered the king.
And Hazael succeeded Benhadad as king of Syria.

King Jehoram of Judah
(2 Chronicles 21.1-20)

¹⁶In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab as king of Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah ¹⁷at the age of thirty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. ¹⁸His wife was Ahab's daughter, and like the family of Ahab he followed the evil ways of the kings of Israel. He sinned against the LORD, ¹⁹but the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah, because he had promised his servant David that his descendants would always continue to rule.
²⁰During Jehoram's reign Edom revolted against Judah and became an independent kingdom. ²¹So Jehoram set out with all his chariots to Zair, where the Edomite army surrounded them. During the night he and his chariot commanders managed to break out and escape, and his soldiers scattered to their homes. ²²Edom has been independent of Judah ever since. During this same period the city of Libnah also revolted.
²³Everything else that Jehoram did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁴Jehoram died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

King Ahaziah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 22.1-6)

²⁵In the twelfth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab as king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah ²⁶at the age of twenty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for one year. His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of King Ahab and granddaughter of King Omri of Israel. ²⁷Since Ahaziah was related to King Ahab by marriage, he sinned against the LORD, just as Ahab's family did.
²⁸King Ahaziah joined King Joram of Israel in a war against King Hazael of Syria. The armies clashed at Ramoth in Gilead, and Joram was wounded in battle. ²⁹He returned to the city of Jezreel to recover from his wounds, and Ahaziah went there to visit him.

Jonah Obeys the LORD

Jonah 3 Once again the LORD spoke to Jonah. ²He said, "Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to the people the message I have given you." ³So Jonah obeyed the LORD and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to walk through it. ⁴Jonah started through the city, and after walking a whole day, he proclaimed, "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!"
⁵The people of Nineveh believed God's message. So they decided that everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented.
⁶When the king of Nineveh heard about it, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. ⁷He sent out a proclamation to the people of Nineveh: "This is an order from the king and his officials: No one is to eat anything; all persons, cattle, and sheep are forbidden to eat or drink. ⁸All persons and animals must wear sackcloth. Everyone must pray earnestly to God and must give up their wicked behavior and their evil actions. ⁹Perhaps God will change his mind; perhaps he will stop being angry, and we will not die!"
¹⁰God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behavior. So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would.