The Spirit gives one person a message full of wisdom, while to another person the same Spirit gives a message full of knowledge.

The Spirit gives one person the power to work miracles; to another, the gift of speaking God's message; and to yet another, the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not. To one person he gives the ability to speak in strange tongues, and to another he gives the ability to explain what is said.

It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message.

So 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.

And if the one who plays the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle?

Then he uttered this prophecy: "The message of Balaam son of Beor, The words of the man who can see clearly,

I look into the future, And I see the nation of Israel. A king, like a bright star, will arise in that nation. Like a comet he will come from Israel. He will strike the leaders of Moab And beat down all the people of Seth.

The nation of Israel will trample them down And wipe out the last survivors."

In his vision he saw the Kenites, and uttered this prophecy: "The place where you live is secure, Safe as a nest set high on a cliff,

Balaam uttered this prophecy: "Who are these people gathering in the north?

When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!'

Then I will say to them, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!'

You should think of us as Christ's servants, who have been put in charge of God's secret truths.

Jesus answered, "The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.

Let us give glory to God! He is able to make you stand firm in your faith, according to the Good News I preach about Jesus Christ and according to the revelation of the secret truth which was hidden for long ages in the past.

and if you will read what I have written, you can learn about my understanding of the secret of Christ.)

And pray also for me, that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so that I may speak boldly and make known the gospel's secret.

which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all human beings but has now revealed to his people.

No one can deny how great is the secret of our religion: He appeared in human form, was shown to be right by the Spirit, and was seen by angels. He was preached among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, and was taken up to heaven.

One and the same Spirit gives faith to one person, while to another person he gives the power to heal.

"It was because you do not have enough faith," answered Jesus. "I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, 'Go from here to there!' and it will go. You could do anything!"

Jesus answered, "I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, 'Get up and throw yourself in the sea,' and it will.

Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God.

I assure you that whoever tells this hill to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

The apostles said to the Lord, "Make our faith greater."

The Lord answered, "If you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!' and it would obey you.

I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned ---but if I have no love, this does me no good.

Whoever does not love the Lord---a curse on him! Marana tha---Our Lord, come!

What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.

The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned ---but if I have no love, this does me no good.

For whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing; what matters is to obey God's commandments.

So then, about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the one God.

He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, "You will never again bear fruit!" At once the fig tree dried up.

I am acting like a fool---but you have made me do it. You are the ones who ought to show your approval of me. For even if I am nothing, I am in no way inferior to those very special "apostles" of yours.

If you think you are something when you really are nothing, you are only deceiving yourself.