Know Your Spiritual Gifts

At my church we are studying the gifts of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12, 13 and14). My pastor wants us to be as effective as we can as Christians. Each member was asked to take a spiritual gifts test, get their results, and then speak with one of our associate pastors about those results. (http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php)

Additionally a website has been built inviting people all over the world to pray for revival(www.worldrevival.org). Knowing our gifts will prepare us for when God answers these prayers.

As a counselor, I am aware of how many of us don't claim all that God has given us. Spiritual gifts are often not taught. How effective can we be if we don't even know what our spiritual gifts are?

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy:" and 1 Corinthians 12:1 states, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant."

Now that is a pretty clear statement concerning God's intentions for us regarding His gifts. Because I test people's natural God-given aptitudes (non-learned abilities) that give career and/or volunteer direction to their lives, I know how much being aware of our gifts gives critical information regarding what we were created for: our ministry if you will.(www.highlandsco.com)

Some people believe we operate out of one gift, others believe we operate out of a number of gifts. My first teachings on the gifts indicated that we each have one major gift. This gift can be funneled through one of the five fold ministries as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 (apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers). Our gifts are then distributed as the Holy Spirit directs to the people involved in whatever you are doing. For instance, a person may have the gift of teaching that is funneled through one of the five fold ministry gifts, say, the ministry of pastor. This gift of teaching is received by others listening to him, possibly as encouragement to one, to another a word of knowledge and to another faith. There are numerous combinations that can be formed by the Holy Spirit.

Others believe we have several spiritual gifts. I am not sure which one of the two views I side with. Regardless, spiritual gifts are given to us for the purpose of ministering to others as 1Corinthians14:12 states, we are to, "try to excel in the spiritual gifts that build up the church". If we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us He will direct our spiritual gifts in helping others.

My spiritual gift test results are exhortation, wisdom, teaching and leadership. I enjoy my gifts because the Holy Spirit gave them to me, but better yet, I love to see how God uses them in people's lives. They are not given because we are special.

I am often amazed and humbled when people tell me how much what I said changed their lives. I ask, "What did I say?” When they tell me what I said I don't remember ever saying it, and if I did, it was just teaching to me but to them the Holy Spirit made it life changing. Twice I prayed with people and they exclaimed, "What did you do to me?" I am thinking, "I didn't do anything but pray." Both of these people reported feeling a heat rush through their bodies from head to toe. I am baffled as to what happened, other than it being the Holy Spirit. Both of these people later reported accounts of emotional healing in certain areas they had struggled with for a long time.

I just want to praise the Lord for being used by God without me even knowing. I was led to be born again as a woman was speaking about how her expectations of life always seem to crash and burn. I identified. When she came to the invitation I prayed with her because I heard, "Invite Jesus into your life. Let Him use your hands, your mouth, your feet to walk around the streets of Atlanta and be Jesus to hurting people." I had struggled with the "I can't live the Christian life syndrome" for so many years and beat myself up for being such a failure. I was instantly drawn to the Lord, hearing Jesus would live His resurrected life in and through me. I was overjoyed and prayed to receive Christ. I bought the tape of her talk and looked forward to hearing it again, especially the part that explained the “how to” of Christianity. I never found it. I rewound it and listened again and again. Did the Holy Spirit take her teaching gift and manifest to me the way I needed to hear it? I think so.

I received an e-mail today I would like to share with you. It is from Os Hillman who speaks indirectly about spiritual gifts. His interesting title Jesus Could Not Heal the Sick reminds me of what Billy Graham once said. I was taken back when Dr. Graham said, "I have never saved anyone." I thought, "What does he mean? He has held hundreds of worldwide evangelical campaigns and hundreds of thousands of people were saved." What, of course, he meant was God saves people. People do not save people.

As you read the article, think about how God can use your spiritual gifts. (Jesus Could Not Heal the Sick TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman) "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know" (Acts 2:22).

In his book, When Heaven Invades Earth, Pastor Bill Johnson makes an insightful observation about Jesus. "He could not heal the sick. Neither could He deliver the tormented from demons or raise the dead. To believe otherwise is to ignore what He said about Himself, and more importantly, to miss the purpose of His self-imposed restriction to live as a man." Jesus Christ said of Himself, "The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing" (John 5:19). In the Greek language that word nothing has a unique meaning - it means NOTHING, just like it does in English! He had NO supernatural capabilities whatsoever! While He is 100 percent God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man would face. He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God - not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle.

Recapturing this simple truth changes everything - and makes possible a full restoration of the ministry of Jesus in His Church. What were the distinctions of Jesus' humanity?
1. He had no sin to separate Him from the Father.
2. He was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him.

What are the distinctions of our humanity?
1. We are sinners cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Through His sacrifice He has successfully dealt with the power and effect of sin for all who believe. Now nothing separates us from the Father.
2. There remains only one unsettled issue - how dependent on the Holy Spirit are we willing to live?

You too might want to take the free Spiritual Gifts test I took and experience the miraculous. You can find it at http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php

The Holy Spirit

      As a child growing up Baptist, I knew who God was and I knew who Jesus was. I was acquainted with all the stories in the Old and New Testament. Baptists are good in this way. Whether you are eighty years old or three years old, when you are Baptist, you study the Bible on Sundays. However, the third person of the Trinity was never mentioned. He just did not exist at our church other than in Scripture readings or songs. I always wondered who this Holy Ghost might be. I was clueless.

     This is unfortunate because, as I discovered, the Holy Spirit is the how to of the Christian faith; how to live this new life I had just received upon making a commit to follow Jesus. It was two weeks after my conversion that a friend brought me a booklet about the Holy Spirit. It was only then that I realized the Holy Spirit is a person, a person sent by Jesus to lead, guide, direct, convict and be a comforter to me. This was not all He was sent to do. This is Part I of a series on the Holy Spirit as described in the New Testament and the Epistles.

     I am glad we use the term Holy Spirit today instead of the Holy Ghost. We say the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. How can this Holy Spirit be a person as Jesus is depicted? A person is defined as one having intellect, personality, character, is a unique individual, who holds a position and has a role to play with responsibilities to perform. These terms describe all three persons of the Trinity; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

     How these three persons can be one is a mystery. A number of good simple explanations are sufficient, at least for me. One example is, I am a mother. I am a wife. I am a professional. I have at least three identities and each identity has certain functions to perform which come with differing responsibilities. Yet it is the same person performing the tasks.

     Another explanation is H2O. Water comes in three forms. One form is liquid. Another is ice and the third is steam. Yet these three entities are all the same, H2O. Each has a unique form with distinct tasks to perform.

     At this point I will leave the more complex explanations to the theologians. What I want to focus on is understanding the purpose and functions of the Holy Spirit. I am not writing a thesis characterizing every role the Holy Spirit plays in our salvation, I will, however, touch on a few today that I believe will help you better understand some of the ways He plays a practical role in your life. I will continue next week with additional insights. I encourage you to do a comprehensive study getting to know the third person of the Trinity.

     Even though the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Old Testament and we know the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism, it is only just before Jesus' crucifixion that He introduces the disciples to the purpose of the Holy Spirit. In John chapters 13 -17 we find Jesus with the disciples at the Last Supper. He is informing them of His soon departure. This five chapter discourse is filled with an earnest look at the heart of God and Jesus.

     The disciples hear Jesus say in John 16: 7-8: 13-15,

     "However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].   8And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment."

     13But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].  14He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.  15Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

     This is only a partial list of the duties for the Holy Spirit. I will continue His (the Holy Spirit's) story next week. He, the Holy Spirit, is the one who convicts us of a need for a savior by convicting us of our sins and a pending judgment, along with our need for righteousness which Jesus gives freely to each of us upon becoming one of His (2 Corinthians 5:21 ). When Billy Graham traveled the world preaching the Gospel (Good News of Jesus Christ) and hundreds came forward for salvation, it was the Holy Spirit convicting the people not Billy Graham. I once read where Billy Graham said, "I have never saved anyone in my entire life time." WHAT! He knew who does the saving and it is not us.

     From the very moment we enter into God's family the Holy Spirit becomes our "home school teacher" if you will. It is His duty to grow us in our faith by guiding us into all truth regarding God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. He like Jesus will only speak the Father's truth and will for our lives. If you sense something contrary to the word of God, attribute that to what I call the unholy spirit of the antichrist who is in the world at all times until Jesus sets up His reign here on earth.

     When you are reading your Bible or listening to a message from another Christian and something your read or they said jumps out at you with great meaning for you, you have just had a Holy Spirit revelation. The Bible itself is written in words which are called logos . Secular books are written in logos, which means words on a page. That is why people can read the Bible and seem to get nothing out of it, they just experience words on a page. But when the Holy Spirit speaks, the word of God becomes rhema, alive. A rhema is a verse or portion of Scripture that the Holy Spirit brings to our attention with application to a current situation or need for direction. In the regular course of our daily reading of God’s Word (logos), we need to ask the God to speak to us through His Word and give us insight into it. The Holy Spirit can cause certain passages to stand out with significant meaning or application for our lives. These are the rhemas of Scripture and should  become a part of our daily thoughts and actions.

     Next week we will look at additional practical ways the Holy Spirit interacts with and for you.