The gifts of the spirit
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
One of the greatest divisions today among the bodies of believers in the community deals with spiritual gifts. In the time of Paul's ministry to the church there was a need to constantly stamp out fires that were started by the enemy of God who was trying to bring about divisions through teachings that would divide us against one another. This has been going on for centuries since, and is still very active today. There are a lot of half truths and half teachings that deal with the gifts of the spirit.
Most people really don't understand much about the gifts of the spirit; what their purposes are, are just where they fit into the family of God. People tend to either shy away from the subject, or ignore it altogether. Today I want to tackle the subject for just a few moments with you. I feel much the way Paul did when he wrote in the book of 1 Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts. Started out by saying "now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says "Jesus be cursed "and no one can say," Jesus is Lord "except by the Holy Spirit." This is one of the first areas that we need to deal with. It is relatively simple to understand that the Holy Spirit does not curse God, and that someone without the Holy Spirit will not say that Jesus is Lord.
Actually we need to understand that spiritual gifts are given to each one of us by the Holy Spirit and they are special abilities that are supposed to be used to minister to the needs of the body of believers that we worship with. In fact in the book of 1 Peter 4:10-11 it says, "each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." Instead of getting hung up on one another's gifts and how they are being used within the church we need to be more concerned about those gifts be used to minister to the body, and drawing people into a state of unity in mind and heart. There are many different gifts that people have, and some people have more than one gift. We need to remember that one gift is not superior to another gift. All our spiritual gifts and they are all from the Holy Spirit. Their purpose is to build up the body of Christ. Our our concentration as the church needs to be on being fruit inspectors. It is fine for the gifts of the spirit to flow freely throughout the church without us trying to control them. All spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit and for the Corinthian church instead of building off and unifying the body, the issue spiritual's was being used to try to split the church up. For many of us still today the use of spiritual gifts is thought of as symbols of spiritual power, and that causes rivalries because some people thought they were more spiritual than others because of their gifts. It is the same old theme was Satan of divide and conquer. Even with the spiritual gifts we can easily get into the competitive mode and that is a terrible misuse of spiritual gifts because the purpose for them is always to help the church function more effectively and not to divide. If we insist on using our gifts in our own way and having them under our own control without being sensitive to others they will very quickly be misused. We must never use spiritual gifts as a means of manipulating or serving our own interests.
I have found that almost everyone can claim to speak for God and the world is full of false teachers. Paul gives us a test to help discern whether or not the messenger is really from God. 1. Does he or she confess Christ as Lord? Don't just naïvely accept the words of all claim to speak for God, but tested credentials by finding out when they teach about Jesus Christ. All Christians have faith, some however have the spiritual gift of faith, which is an unusual measure of trust than the Holy Spirit's power. Prophecy is not just a prediction about the future, it can also mean preaching God's word with power. Distinguishing between spirits means the ability to discern whether a person who claims the ability to speak for God is actually doing so, or speaking by an evil spirit. Paul also discusses Tom's and their interpretation in more detail in chapter 14, but no matter what gimps person had each gift is given by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that decides which gifts each one of us should have. We are responsible to use the and sharpen our spiritual gifts, we can take no credit for what God has already given us. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
One of the greatest divisions today among the bodies of believers in the community deals with spiritual gifts. In the time of Paul's ministry to the church there was a need to constantly stamp out fires that were started by the enemy of God who was trying to bring about divisions through teachings that would divide us against one another. This has been going on for centuries since, and is still very active today. There are a lot of half truths and half teachings that deal with the gifts of the spirit.
Most people really don't understand much about the gifts of the spirit; what their purposes are, are just where they fit into the family of God. People tend to either shy away from the subject, or ignore it altogether. Today I want to tackle the subject for just a few moments with you. I feel much the way Paul did when he wrote in the book of 1 Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts. Started out by saying "now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says "Jesus be cursed "and no one can say," Jesus is Lord "except by the Holy Spirit." This is one of the first areas that we need to deal with. It is relatively simple to understand that the Holy Spirit does not curse God, and that someone without the Holy Spirit will not say that Jesus is Lord.
Actually we need to understand that spiritual gifts are given to each one of us by the Holy Spirit and they are special abilities that are supposed to be used to minister to the needs of the body of believers that we worship with. In fact in the book of 1 Peter 4:10-11 it says, "each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." Instead of getting hung up on one another's gifts and how they are being used within the church we need to be more concerned about those gifts be used to minister to the body, and drawing people into a state of unity in mind and heart. There are many different gifts that people have, and some people have more than one gift. We need to remember that one gift is not superior to another gift. All our spiritual gifts and they are all from the Holy Spirit. Their purpose is to build up the body of Christ. Our our concentration as the church needs to be on being fruit inspectors. It is fine for the gifts of the spirit to flow freely throughout the church without us trying to control them. All spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit and for the Corinthian church instead of building off and unifying the body, the issue spiritual's was being used to try to split the church up. For many of us still today the use of spiritual gifts is thought of as symbols of spiritual power, and that causes rivalries because some people thought they were more spiritual than others because of their gifts. It is the same old theme was Satan of divide and conquer. Even with the spiritual gifts we can easily get into the competitive mode and that is a terrible misuse of spiritual gifts because the purpose for them is always to help the church function more effectively and not to divide. If we insist on using our gifts in our own way and having them under our own control without being sensitive to others they will very quickly be misused. We must never use spiritual gifts as a means of manipulating or serving our own interests.
I have found that almost everyone can claim to speak for God and the world is full of false teachers. Paul gives us a test to help discern whether or not the messenger is really from God. 1. Does he or she confess Christ as Lord? Don't just naïvely accept the words of all claim to speak for God, but tested credentials by finding out when they teach about Jesus Christ. All Christians have faith, some however have the spiritual gift of faith, which is an unusual measure of trust than the Holy Spirit's power. Prophecy is not just a prediction about the future, it can also mean preaching God's word with power. Distinguishing between spirits means the ability to discern whether a person who claims the ability to speak for God is actually doing so, or speaking by an evil spirit. Paul also discusses Tom's and their interpretation in more detail in chapter 14, but no matter what gimps person had each gift is given by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that decides which gifts each one of us should have. We are responsible to use the and sharpen our spiritual gifts, we can take no credit for what God has already given us. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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