Book of Common Prayer

12 Now, my Christian brothers, I want you to know something about the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

² You know that before you believed in God, you were led by other men to believe in idols that could not talk.

³ Therefore, I want you to understand this. No person who has the Spirit of God ever curses Jesus. And no one can say, `Jesus is Lord,' if he is not controlled by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ There are different gifts, but there is only one Spirit.

⁵ There are different kinds of work, but there is only one Lord.

⁶ There are different ways of working, but there is only one God. He works in all people and does it all.

⁷ And the Holy Spirit gives each one a gift so that all people may be helped.

⁸ The Spirit gives one person wise words to say. The same Spirit gives another person words of good understanding.

⁹ To another person the same Spirit gives faith, and to another person he gives the power to heal people.

¹⁰ To another person the Spirit gives the power to do big works. Another can speak words from God. To another person he gives the power to know the difference between spirits. To another person he gives the gift to speak the words of God in other tongues or languages, and to another the meaning of these different tongues.

¹¹ And the same Spirit gives the power for all these things. He gives each person what he wants to give to them.

¹¹ The Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus. They wanted to test him. So they asked him to show them a sign from the sky.

¹² He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, `Why do people today want a sign? I tell you the truth. No sign will be given to them.'

¹³ He left them and went to the other side in a boat.

¹⁴ The disciples forgot to take food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat.

¹⁵ Jesus said, `Watch! Take care. Do not let the bread yeast of the Pharisees and Herod spoil you.'

¹⁶ The disciples talked to one another about the matter. They said, `He says that because we have no bread.'

¹⁷ Jesus knew what they were saying. He asked, `Why are you saying, "We have no bread"? Do you not yet understand? Are your minds so slow?

¹⁸ Can you not see with your eyes or hear with your ears? Do you not remember?

¹⁹ When I broke five loaves for five thousand people, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you gather?' They said, `Twelve.'

²⁰ He said, `When I broke seven loaves for four thousand people, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you gather?' They said, `Seven.'

²¹ He said to them, `How is it that you do not yet understand?'

²² Then they came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to Jesus. They begged him to touch the man.

²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. He spat on his eyes and put his hands on him. Then he asked, `Do you see anything?'

²⁴ The man looked up and said, `I see men, but they look like trees that are walking.'

²⁵ Jesus put his hands on him again. He made him look up. Then he was healed and could see everybody clearly.

²⁶ Jesus sent the man away to his home. `Do not go into the village and do not tell it to anyone,' he said.