FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE GIFTS
OF THE SPIRIT – II
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Last
week, we ended with this comment:
Getting rid of ignorance about spiritual gifts begins
with getting rid of ignorance about the Spirit.
As
I said last week, during my childhood, I was raised in the Baptist
denomination, where it is virtually a tradition to sing the 1st, 2nd
and 4th stanzas of hymns. The
3rd stanza is typically the verse about the Holy Spirit. It is little wonder the Baptists know next to
nothing about the Holy Spirit. It is
almost as if the denomination has a blindness cast upon it with regards to the
Holy Spirit. What little is taught regarding the Holy Spirit, not only in the
Baptist churches, but all mainline denominations, is seldom more than a trite academic presentation
to document the denominations’ doctrinal position. It isn’t taught with a view of changing your
life. It is intended merely to insure
your doctrine is correct (according to the denomination).
To
illustrate this point, let me share a personal experience with you. When I was a student in college, I was a
member of a “Christian” singing group.
This group decided to have a Bible study, and the topic chosen was the
Book of Acts. In the very first meeting,
they began to read from chapter 1. The
leader of the study would stop to allow discussion any time they reached a
verse where there was a question or a comment.
They read right through verse 8, and no one had a comment. They were content to just keep on reading.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come
upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth
I
interrupted the leader’s reading, who had reached the end of the next verse by
then; and I asked the simple question, “What do you suppose was the power they
were talking about in verse 9?” This
group of university students began chiming in with: “Oh, I couldn’t get through
the day without the power of the Holy Spirit,” and, “I have such a heavy
schedule this semester. If it weren’t
for the power of the Holy Spirit; I don’t know what I would do.” To this idea, they all tended to agree; then
I said to them, “The tens of thousands of unbelievers who go to school here
seem to make it through the day just fine without the Holy Spirit. Is this really the power you think the
Messiah told his disciples they would receive when the Holy Spirit would be
sent to them; the power to get through a day of tough classwork?”
They
became a bit indignant; and they asked me what I thought the verse meant. I told them, “I think it is quite obvious
what he was referring to because of what happened next. They spoke in tongues, they healed the sick,
they raised a lame man, Men were healed as Peter’s shadow crossed their infirm
bodies, they raised the dead, they cast out demons. That seems like power consistent with the
Spirit of the Almighty. Anyone can make
it through the day no matter what hardship or difficulty they face; but these
things they cannot do without the power of the Holy Spirit.”
It
is a constant battle in religious circles (and by that, I mean the
congregational church) to receive Truth, when doctrine is the focus of all
teaching. Anyone can learn and even
understand doctrine whether a believer or an atheist; but Truth is only
comprehended by revelation. I have said
this repeatedly in this blog, from the very beginning until now. Doctrine is merely advertising. You can study and know all there is to know
about something; but until you actually experience it, all you really
understand about it is the advertising.
You really don’t know the thing at all personally. (I knew an Army
chaplain serving in Germany who said he didn’t believe a thing he
preached. He thought the whole concept
of Christianity was nonsense. When I asked why he was a chaplain, he said,
“It’s a good job.” He was able to
adequately teach all of his denomination’s doctrines and craft sermons around
his denomination’s credo; but he did not believe a word of it. Such is doctrine without the revelation of
the Truth.)
I
say this because the Holy Spirit is not real to most believers. He is little more than a doctrine. They think that “Holy Spirit” is His
name. They have never contemplated that
He is the very essence of IAUE Elohim; and that “holy” is an adjective, not a
noun. It isn’t His name. It is His attribute. He is the Spirit of IAUE; and his purity and
moral perfection burns like a fire cauterizing all that comes near Him. He was first manifested in the book of Acts
as tongues of flaming fire sitting upon the disciples.
It
is my desire that the reader be shaken out of a traditional mindset about the
Holy Spirit; because the reality of His working in and through our lives is one
of the most desperately needed thing on this planet, today. Consider, if you will, the beginning of 1
Corinthians 12, the chapter in this epistle, where Paul begins to address the
gifts of the Holy Spirit.
1
Corinthians 12:7 But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
Have
you ever watched a movie or a TV program where someone receives a super
power? It makes them different from
everyone else because of what they now can do that isn’t natural to man; but it
is now natural to them. You have probably thought to yourself, “Wouldn’t that
be great to have a super power?”
For
the moment, try to put aside your religious thinking. Close your eyes and imagine that you are in a
private conference room with a hundred other people. A man walks on to the stage wearing a very
expensive suit. He is perfectly groomed
and walking with a countenance that exudes confidence and authority. This is no
flim-flam man. You know just from his appearance alone that he is serious; and
he has the resources to back up what he is about to tell you. He begins to speak to your group:
“Good
morning. I have come here with an offer.
It is within my ability to endow you with supernatural powers. I can
give some of you the ability to know things outside of your natural ability to
know them. I can give others the ability to have wisdom that transcends your
personal experience to deal with situations and circumstances. I can give some
of you the ability to heal the sick with your touch or your spoken word. To
others I can enable you to cast out demons and to do miraculous things. I can
give some of you the ability to know when spiritual beings are present around
you, what spirits they are and whether they are harmful or beneficial. Are any
of you interested?
Can
you imagine how a group of worldly unbelievers would react to this
opportunity? The idea that they could
receive “super powers” of any kind would fulfill lifelong fantasies for
most. However, after the gentleman up
front begins the endowment process, can you not imagine how, immediately, some
would be upset that they were empowered to know things; instead of being given
the power to do miracles or to heal people? There would be an instant
experience both of dissatisfaction and envy in some and pride in others who
felt they were given the better super power(s). Such it is in with believers, today. Why is this?
It is because, like the example above, they too are worldly and
incapable of understanding both the purpose of the enablement and their role in
the bigger picture as one possessing that power.
The
gifts of the Holy Spirit are specific abilities…supernatural abilities that
represent a function within the Body of Messiah. For a disciple who realizes his primary
purpose in life is to do the will of IAUE; the gifting he is given is seen
merely as the Father’s choice to enable him to do what He requires of him. There is no room for such a man to
contemplate dissatisfaction, envy or pride in what he has been given. Such thoughts are alien to a genuine
disciple; but they are very real to the believer who is still ego-driven or who
is a man-pleaser. The believers in
Corinth to whom Paul wrote this epistle, were ego-driven man pleasers. Chapters 12, 13 and 14, of this letter were
corrective in nature. They are not
written as a manual on spiritual gifts; but serve rather to bring correction
and understanding both to the way the gifts fit into the life of the church;
and to address the wrong character that interfered with the outworking of the
purpose of the gifts in the church.
In
the weeks to come, we will begin to examine the nature, manifestation and
function of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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