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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit ~ Zac Poonen

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 The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit ~ Zac Poonen





There are three lists of spiritual gifts given us in the New
Testament (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Romans 12:6-8 and
Ephesians 4:11). In 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, the exercise of
spiritual gifts is compared with the functioning of the
members of our physical body. A man may have life and yet be
blind, deaf, dumb and paralyzed. Many churches are like
that. Their members are born again. But they have no gifts
of the Holy Spirit with which to serve the Lord - and so
they are powerless. The gifts of the Spirit are what enable
the Body of Christ to see, hear, talk and walk. Godliness is
the life of the Body of Christ. But what can Christ’s Body
do for others, without the gifts of the Spirit. What would
Jesus Himself have been like if He had no gifts of the
Spirit? He would still have overcome sin and lived a holy
life. But without the anointing of the Spirit, He would not
have been able to preach the way He did, heal the sick, cast
out demons or do any miracle.

Jesus’ anointing with the Holy Spirit at the age of 30 did
not make Him any holier than He was earlier. His 31st year
was not any holier than His 29th year. But with the
anointing of the Spirit, He received power to serve others.
If Jesus had merely gone around showing people His holy
life, He could not have accomplished His Father’s purposes.
Neither can the church today accomplish God’s purposes by
merely manifesting holy living to others. Jesus had both
holiness and the gifts. His Body today must have both of
these too. The tragedy in Christendom today is that some
groups emphasise holiness of life while others emphasise the
gifts of the Spirit. But these are not "either-or" options.
The Bible says, "Let your clothes be white all the time
(live a holy life at all times) and let not oil be lacking
on your head (live under the anointing constantly)"
(Eccl.10:8). We need both.

The gifts of the Spirit do not make anyone spiritual. The
Corinthian Christians had all the gifts of the Spirit (1
Cor.1:7). They exercised "the word of wisdom" (one of the
gifts of the Spirit) in their meetings. In spite of that,
there was not one wise (spiritual) man among them (1
Cor.6:5). A word of wisdom can come through a carnal person.
But wisdom itself is found only in a spiritual person. One
can receive a word of wisdom from God in a moment. But
wisdom itself can come only through many years of taking up
the cross.

We cannot choose our spiritual gift ourselves, because it is
God Who determines what gift will best fit us for our
ministry in Christ’s Body. But we are told to seek earnestly
for those gifts that will build up the Body - and especially
for the gift of prophecy (1Cor 14:1,12). When Jesus taught
His disciples to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit
(Lk.11:13), He illustrated the way they were to ask with a
parable of a man who went to his neighbour’s house to ask
for food. There are two important points to be noticed in
this parable: (1.) The man was asking for food not for
himself but for someone else. (2). He kept on asking until
he received what he needed.

What do we learn from this parable? First of all, that we
are not to seek the gifts of the Spirit for our own benefit,
but for the benefit of others. If only those who have sought
for the baptism and the gifts of the Spirit had kept this
one principle before them, they would have become far more
spiritual. And there would have been far less exercise of
counterfeit gifts in Christendom today. Unfortunately, most
people are taught to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit
only in order to get an experience for themselves, and not
in order to be a blessing to others. There are many around
us who have needs that God wants to meet - and He wants to
meet their needs through us. That’s why He allows them to
cross our path. He wants us to seek Him for the gifts of the
Spirit that are needed to deliver these people and bless
them.

A man came to Jesus’ disciples once with his demon-possessed
child. But the disciples could not help him. The man then
went to Jesus and said, "I went to your disciples for help
but they could not help me." Are these the words that our
neighbours and friends are saying to the Lord today about
us?

If we seek the Lord’s blessing only for ourselves, we will
remain dry. God waters only those who water (help) others
(Prov.11:25). Perhaps some brother near you needs a word of
wisdom to solve his problem. Another may be in need of a
word of encouragement for his depressing situation. Yet
another may need deliverance from some bondage. We must seek
God for the gifts needed to help such people. Every gift of
the Spirit is given that we might bless and edify others.
Luke 4:18,19 tells us the result of Jesus being anointed
with the Holy Spirit. He was enabled thereby to preach good
news to the poor, release the captives, give sight to the
blind, bring freedom to the downtrodden and proclaim the
favourable year of the Lord. Notice that everything
mentioned here is for the benefit of others. The gifts of
the Spirit did not bring any benefit to the Lord Himself in
His life. We must have a concern for others and a sense of
our own inability to help them, if we are to seek for the
gifts of the Spirit in the right way.

The second thing that we learn from this parable is that we
must keep on asking God for the power of the Holy Spirit
until we receive it. God tests us to see whether we are
really eager to receive His power and whether we really
value His gifts. He also waits to see whether we feel really
helpless and unable to serve Him, without His power. Many
give up praying too soon because they are self-confident -
and thus fail these tests.


_________________
CHRISTIAN

 2007/11/16 13:14Profile





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