Growth Why Spiritual Gifts?

[K2CHRIST]

Recently on this part of the Forum, sadly a thread on what is the work of God got closed. There is probably knowing more important to our "spiritual growth" than understand what the work of God is. The work of God is to grow us! But that growth happens in our faith. We see lesser and greater faith when doing a study in the Bible. So if we read Jn 6:29 "This is the word of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent", - that verse is not talking about a one time acquiring of a fixed amount of belief, but are growing of that belief.

So what does this have to do with the Spiritual Gifts? Well obviously the Holy Spirit (God the Spirit) is trying to grow you by doing the word He does, which is getting you to believe (more and more) in Jesus Christ!! That is why we need to desire those gifts!!! We need to grow in our belief!!

Now just the other day I got to talking to a young man that I was very excited over. He was faithfully coming into a mystery, which I help run, to pray. What I do is basically babysit a nice bueatiful place where people can come in and spend personal time in prayer with God. It really is a wonderful spot with a great view and we run a little quiet praise music, but not many people come into pray there. But a few do, and this young man was one of them.

There was a dedicated Christian,.so I got to talking with him. It turned out, to no surprise, that he was going to a seminary school. He obviously was very concerned about HIs growth in the Lord. So I asked him about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, because there is a lot more to growing in the Lord that what men can show you.

His responded, "Well, we know that the devil perverts the Gift of the Spirit."

Ok, the devil certainly will try to mess with anything the Lord is trying to do. If you go to seminary, the devil will mess with the teaching. That doesn't mean it is not good to go and do more studying.

So how did this zealous young man looking to improve his life come to decide he shouldn't want the gifts? It was the devil messing with him. He wasn't fearing God with that conclusion, but was fearing the devil with that conclusion, so the very thing he feared was messing him up!

WE HAVE A COMMAND IN THE BIBLE TO DESIRE THE GIFTS!

1 Cor 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts...

Paul knew the Lord, and Paul knew what he was talking about. He wrote "desire the earnestly spiritual gifts" He also wrote about problems and structure when using them, so it seems he was certainly aware that indeed the devil, and often through our pride, messes with us. But the conclusion to reach is to desire earnestly spiritual gifts.

 

[K2CHRIST]

Now the young man in the prior post attended our church, which is 'Charismatic Spirit filled church', albeit a very conservative one. The ministry that ran seminary school he was going to would be consider a 'Bible based' church. I don't mean that in a bad way. It is an excellent church. In fact the Lord had asked me to go there for a season before He had me come back to the one I am at, and I like that church a lot. Not as much as I like my current church, but I could certainly why the Lord took me there and would have that young man involved with both. Again, the Lord grows us in our belief and both these Christian churches help people grow. It something like why we both need to study our Bible and desire the gifts. They both cause you to grow in the Lord, which is to say they both edify you.

Edify means "Instruct or improve (someone) morally or intellectually."

1 Cor 14:4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

And we know that one of the primary jobs of the church is to edify (teach, instruct, and improve people). This part of the Forum is dedicated to that, is it not? God is growing people. That is He work, and He uses us. So how is it that we seem to miss the fact that it is the "Work of God" to do that! We have missed it if we are not promoting the Gifts of the Spirit, because the Spirit (being God) is looking to increase our belief in Jesus Christ. That is why the Spirit gives us Gifts!!

The Spirit of God does the work of God and so the Spiritual gifts increases your belief in the One God sent, and that teaches and instructs us. We get edified, by both going to Bible school or studies, and by getting and using the Gifts the Holy Spirit has for us. You need both!!

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

Recently on this part of the Forum, sadly a thread on what is the work of God got closed. There is probably knowing more important to our "spiritual growth" than understand what the work of God is. The work of God is to grow us! But that growth happens in our faith. We see lesser and greater faith when doing a study in the Bible. So if we read Jn 6:29 "This is the word of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent", - that verse is not talking about a one time acquiring of a fixed amount of belief, but are growing of that belief.

So what does this have to do with the Spiritual Gifts? Well obviously the Holy Spirit (God the Spirit) is trying to grow you by doing the word He does, which is getting you to believe (more and more) in Jesus Christ!! That is why we need to desire those gifts!!! We need to grow in our belief!!

Now just the other day I got to talking to a young man that I was very excited over. He was faithfully coming into a mystery, which I help run, to pray. What I do is basically babysit a nice bueatiful place where people can come in and spend personal time in prayer with God. It really is a wonderful spot with a great view and we run a little quiet praise music, but not many people come into pray there. But a few do, and this young man was one of them.

There was a dedicated Christian,.so I got to talking with him. It turned out, to no surprise, that he was going to a seminary school. He obviously was very concerned about HIs growth in the Lord. So I asked him about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, because there is a lot more to growing in the Lord that what men can show you.

His responded, "Well, we know that the devil perverts the Gift of the Spirit."

Ok, the devil certainly will try to mess with anything the Lord is trying to do. If you go to seminary, the devil will mess with the teaching. That doesn't mean it is not good to go and do more studying.

So how did this zealous young man looking to improve his life come to decide he shouldn't want the gifts? It was the devil messing with him. He wasn't fearing God with that conclusion, but was fearing the devil with that conclusion, so the very thing he feared was messing him up!

WE HAVE A COMMAND IN THE BIBLE TO DESIRE THE GIFTS!

1 Cor 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts...

Paul knew the Lord, and Paul knew what he was talking about. He wrote "desire the earnestly spiritual gifts" He also wrote about problems and structure when using them, so it seems he was certainly aware that indeed the devil, and often through our pride, messes with us. But the conclusion to reach is to desire earnestly spiritual gifts.

Thank you, this is a wonderful topic.
The problems we have today is that so many Christians don't believe in all the gifts mainly because they were taught that they no longer exist.
So it's a big victory for the evil one, as Christians go through their lives believing they have no power.
All I can see is to now after 33 years, is to use the gifts God has given to me, and to teach and encourage those who want to know more of the gifts.
It's odd that we believe that God will save us, but not give us gifts to empower us against the enemy.
The greatest gift of all that God has given us is eternal life.
We should at least want to share that gift with everyone we meet.

 

[Edward]

The Spirit of God does the work of God and so the Spiritual gifts increases your belief in the One God sent, and that teaches and instructs us. We get edified, by both going to Bible school or studies, and by getting and using the Gifts the Holy Spirit has for us. You need both!!

Well said Brother. Many focus on learning and growing in the word, but neglect the gifts. We all have the gifts from the Holy Spirit. Stepping out in faith and using them is what we are to be doing. The Lord is healing people enmasse all over the world at this time. Most of it is outside the united states, like in Africa and even some muslim countries.

Not walking in the gifts is dangerous to the individual. It stagnates your personal growth and to a lesser degree (but still real) the Kingdom of God. As a whole, we don't seem to be taking it seriously enough. The world is covered in gross darkness at this time...and that is the time when the light of God will shine the brightest. Jesus didn't like having to "prove" Himself to people. He called them a wicked and adulterous generation for it. But this is not the case in our generation! The world is much different now than it was then.

The way that I understand it, is that the Lord is trying very hard to bless people in these times. For a demonstration of the works and power of God. So that men may be able to see the light through this darkness. But people are not praying like they should. When we pray for others, it releases the Lord and His Angels to come do the work. It used to be that, if you weren't healed in church that they'd tell you I guess you don't have enough faith...this is not true. These signs shall follow those who believe. It says nothing about they have to believe. I've heard multiple testimonies where people have prayed for witches and the like, who stood there and said they do not believe, but go ahead and pray for me so we can prove your God is bunk...and they got healed of their infirmities and consequently converted.

So, Arise and shine Brothers and Sisters! Go heal someone today. If they don't get healed, pray again...PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens)

 

[K2CHRIST]

The problems we have today is that so many Christians don't believe in all the gifts mainly because they were taught that they no longer exist.

Yes - It is amazing to me that it could ever be taught that they no longer exist. It makes no sense Biblically. It makes some sense historically, but not if you look closely. It was clear that the early church had all the gifts of the Spirit and were actively and regularly using them. They kind of seem to go away when the church became institutionalized about 300 AD, when we started seeing church councils and bishops started calling other bishops heretics. Possible the church did need to go through what it did, but the more it seemed to depend on men, the less the Spirit seemed active. Still, a closer look finds the gifts were still around a bit..

Not walking in the gifts is dangerous to the individual. It stagnates your personal growth and to a lesser degree (but still real) the Kingdom of God. As a whole, we don't seem to be taking it seriously enough.

That is a bold statement, that I actually have to agree with. I do think that not walking in the gifts can even be considered "dangerous" to both the individual and the church as a whole.. And certainly it stagnates and stunts the growth of the individual, since the gifts edify us. We don't seem to be taking it seriously enough. Perhaps it is because we do not spend much time correctly teaching them, and that we don't really encourage others to seek them like Paul was doing, by writing earnestly desire the gifts.

 

[Soul man]

Yes - It is amazing to me that it could ever be taught that they no longer exist. It makes no sense Biblically. It makes some sense historically, but not if you look closely. It was clear that the early church had all the gifts of the Spirit and were actively and regularly using them. They kind of seem to go away when the church became institutionalized about 300 AD, when we started seeing church councils and bishops started calling other bishops heretics. Possible the church did need to go through what it did, but the more it seemed to depend on men, the less the Spirit seemed active. Still, a closer look finds the gifts were still around a bit..



That is a bold statement, that I actually have to agree with. I do think that not walking in the gifts can even be considered "dangerous" to both the individual and the church as a whole.. And certainly it stagnates and stunts the growth of the individual, since the gifts edify us. We don't seem to be taking it seriously enough. Perhaps it is because we do not spend much time correctly teaching them, and that we don't really encourage others to seek them like Paul was doing, by writing earnestly desire the gifts.

Paul imparted Spiritual Gifts, Romans 1:11,
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

His most precious gift was his knowledge, he longed to be with other believers that he might impart some spiritual revelation.

Eph. 4:7-14, 7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

The gifting and offices are for the edifying and building up of the body, into Christ, spiritual growth.
When read as written the gifts and offices are given to the children or for them.

It reads "that we henceforth be no more children" no longer a child. But growing up into Christ, unity will always be found in maturity.
Schisms is always a sign of immaturity, it does not matter the length of time the individual has been in Christ.
Neither office holder nor layman are exempt from lack of growth.
It is a sad fact the gospel can be turned to fit the culture.
Example: prosperity, when it's perverted it will not work on a global level.
I personally believe Christians should prosper as the lord will. But to focus all of your attention on one specific area of the gospel is to pervert it.
A successful culture will preach prosperity, that is a twist of scripture.
The most successful person alive is the one in Christ.

 

[K2CHRIST]

His most precious gift was his knowledge, he longed to be with other believers that he might impart some spiritual revelation.

I loved the above post, but did want to make a comment.

I do agree that perhaps Paul's most precious gift was his knowledge. But I wanted to point out that was "Paul's gift" and not a Gift of the Spirit!

Yet in the same say the Spirit's most precious gift is His knowledge, and that is what we get with the gifts of the Spirit! That is to say there is a gift mentioned in the Bible, which is the gift of God. Thus God Himself is a gift to us. Yet God has gifts in Him that are not Him as a whole but aspect of Him. He can give you healing. He can give you words of knowledge, that only He has. He can use your mouth and have you speaking in tongues, if you will let Him.

So it is good to learn what Paul had to say. He was inspired and instructed by God. We should read and study what Paul wrote, because God was using him. But it is more important to get what God personally has for you. He can personally instruct, help, and work through you, but only if you will desire that. Sometimes people are looking for the gift or Paul, meaning the writing of Paul, instead of a personal relationship with God, and what He personally has for them.