Gifts Of The Holy Spirit

As a quick review of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit we discussed the aspect that All of the Fruit is given to All Christians upon receiving the Holy Spirit in their new relationship with God. In contrast, we further discussed that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are given by the Spirit and He decides which gift each person should have (1 Corinthians 12:7-11 NLT). We read a number of scriptures that have been identified as describing some of the various gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11

• Message of wisdom
• Message of special knowledge
• Wonder-working faith
• Gifts of healing
• Power to perform miracles
• Ability to prophesy
• Ability to discern spirits
• Ability to speak in unknown languages
• Ability to interpret unknown languages
  

Ephesians 4:11

• Apostles
• Prophets
• Evangelists
• Pastors
• Teachers

1 Timothy 3:10 & 3:1

• Deacons
• Elders

Romans 12:4-8

• Serving
• Encouraging
• Contributing to the needs of others
• Leadership
• Showing mercy

1 Corinthians 12:28

• Helpers
• Organizers

1 Corinthians 7:7

• Gift of singleness
• Gift of marriage

The discussion continued with the emphasis of 1 Corinthians 12:31 (AMP) "… earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts" with love being the primary motivator (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT) when we seek to use the gifts that God has given us. In talking about how these gifts are manifested in us through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, we learned about the illustration of Nicander's pickle. This "pickling" or soaking in the Holy Spirit could also be understood in light of "communion" spoken of in Galatians 3:27 (AMP) For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ.

This concludes our group study of the Holy Spirit … but, know that there is so much more and even deeper truths that one could spend time learning and gaining understanding of. With that in mind, be a pickle and soak in what God has given you to share with others!

Blessings!!

Fruit Of The Holy Spirit

The Bible says you can recognize a tree by its fruit (Matthew 12:33) … the same goes for Christians according to Galatians 5:22-23. I think it's interesting that the topic of "fruit" is often referred to when we talk about what took place in the Garden of Eden. The specific tree which Adam and Eve were told to not eat of was the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9). They could eat of any other tree in the Garden - including the Tree of Life - but that's not what they did. The action they took in partaking of that particular tree demonstrated they chose to decide for themselves what was good and evil rather than trusting and believing God to make those decisions. They could choose Life or Knowledge (death). Fast forward to today and we can see same challenge facing us as Christians - will we choose to yield to God the Holy Spirit or choose our way which leads to death (Proverbs 14:12)?

One line of thinking is that "I need more of God to do what He wants me to do". We don't need "more" of God … the day we accept His work through Jesus and trust that what He says is good, we then receive the fullness of God in us. We cannot get more of God, but, what we can do is to give God more of us. The Amplified translation of the Fruit of Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22 says "the work which His [the Holy Spirit] presence within accomplishes" … what this means is that the more God has of us the more His character is manifest in us. The day we decide to trust what God did in Jesus we receive the residency of God and the Holy Spirit begins a process of renewal in us.

When we follow the Holy Spirit, we are actively "yielding" to Him and allowing Him to guide us in what we do. One facet of becoming a Christian (a Christ follower) and trusting what God says is good will result in certain "fruit" being produced in our lives. The evidence of that renewal is the Fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). We don't get the choice to accept only certain aspects of the Fruit and treat it like it's a bowl of oranges, apples, and bananas and pick and choose one or another. But, rather, the Fruit is more like a cluster of grapes … it's one fruit or by-product of having the renewing influence of the Holy Spirit. The question is yielding more and more and more to that influence of the presence in us of the Creator of the universe. When we hear and follow the voice of God, we will experience more of His character in us.

The process God uses is to knock on the door, be invited in, to reside with us to commune with us (Revelation 3:23). The whole act of communion with God comes in the continuation of inviting Him into all parts of our "house" - our life. It's a process and we grow in the Fruit as we grow in yielding more to Him and His work - the choice is always ours - will we choose His way or our way? This process also continues as we grow more in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit - which we'll talk about next time!

Blasphemy Of The Holy Spirit

Previously, as we continue answering the question: Who Is The Holy Spirit?, we covered the topic of the Trinity. Now we've moved on to the "easy" topic of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. We can approach this from two angles … easy and hard.

If we take the easy angle, we can merely look at the scripture in Mark 3:20-30. We see the religious leaders of Jesus' time were saying that He (Jesus) was casting out demons by the power of the devil. Jesus responds in verse 29 that anybody who says such things "blasphemes the Holy Spirit" (NLT), "slanders against … Holy Spirit" (MSG), "speaks abusively against or maliciously misrepresents the Holy Spirit" (AMP). This is a serious charge as they were attributing the works of God via the Holy Spirit as being the work of the devil. There is thinking out there that committing this "unforgiveable sin" was only possible during the life of Jesus here on earth. However, I align with the alternate thinking that, as ambassadors of God (2 Corinthians 5:20) and the residence of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), Christians can do the works of God just as Jesus did during his earthly ministry. As we do the works of God via the power of the Holy Spirit, there is a potential for others to blaspheme Him and His works.

If we, however, take the more difficult angle, there are other scriptures that might support a larger concept of rejection of the Holy Spirit himself or His work. The religious leaders may have taken this path as their accusation stemmed from a hardened, deliberate and conscious rejection of the Spirit's work. Their values were so warped and twisted they attributed to the devil the work of God and to God the work of the devil. They refused to believe that God would demonstrate His power through the man Jesus … some would call this a "hard heart". My only basis for this comes out of a few other scriptures, and I trust I'm not wrestling them to fit. First, I realize these few scriptures would be more applicable to the Christian, but I believe there might be a principle of rejection here that would apply to both the Christian and non-Christian alike. Hebrews 10:26-31 talks about a continuation of sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth. It is the Holy Spirit who enlightens us to understand the Truth of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. If we reject that, in the form of continuing in sin, then we insult the work of the Holy Spirit, and we trample under foot the precious blood of Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross. Hebrews 6:4-6 refers to one having experienced the good things of heaven, having tasted them and sharing in the Holy Spirit, and then turning away resulting in no possibility of repentance (caused only by the conviction of the Holy Spirit). When we look at 1 John 5:16 it talks about "a sin that leads to death". I submit to your thinking that rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit could be this very sin. By a continuing path of pushing away (rejecting) the Truth about the Son of God as it's revealed by the Holy Spirit, eventually, we will push beyond a "point of no return". This point of no return for the Christian would take us back beyond the time where we accepted Jesus. For the non-Christian it would be at the end of life on earth. At what point a person rejects that work and crosses over that point of no return is probably something only God Himself can determine absolutely due to its inner core issue and His ability to know the mind and thoughts of man (Psalm 94:11). Unfortunately, with this track of thinking, we can't press the Staples button and have it echo, "That Was Easy!"

The whole grievous point of the unforgiveable sin is that one has essentially cut off the only lifeline connection that will continue to bring conviction causing us to consider God's goodness compared to our evil and move us to turn back to the Lord in repentance. In simple terms, as it's stated in the Message version, verse 29: "sawing off the branch on which you're sitting, severing … all connection with the One who forgives". Pretty clear picture of the important work of the Holy Spirit!!

Bottom line of all the discussion above, if you are concerned about "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" thereby having committed the unforgiveable sin … your concern alone is evidence enough that you still have an unseared conscience (1 Timothy 4:2) and that the Holy Spirit Himself is still able to work conviction within you which leads you to repentance and restored Life.

Who Is The Holy Spirit?

To get started in our journey of Who Is The Holy Spirit?, we explored some aspects of the Trinity. First, we talked about what God is not as defined by some other belief systems:

• God is not one person, the Father, with Jesus as a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force.
• Neither is He one person who took three consecutive forms, i.e., the Father, became the Son, who became the Holy Spirit.
• Nor is God the divine nature of the Son where Jesus had a human nature perceived as the Son and a divine nature perceived as the Father.
• Nor is the Trinity an "office" held by three separate Gods.

What's so important about the Trinity? It distinguishes this belief system (Christianity) from other belief systems in that it demonstrates the fullness of a God that cares about His creation. At its very core, trinity is a perfect love relationship and, relationships are God's business. One God, who exists in three eternal, simultaneous, and distinct persons known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This Trinity equals perfect unity (think "tri-unity"), perfect love, perfect understanding, perfect relationship, perfect agreement. There is no disagreement or ambitious striving or disregard … the Trinity is perfect in all ways. God, by definition, is Love (1 John 4:6-8) … so, I propose, the same could be applied to the Trinity … it is, by definition, God, since He is perfect Love. This perfect love is shared amongst and with each person of the Trinity.

Richard of Saint Victor (12th century scottish monk) formed the argument for why God must be a Trinity of persons. He said there must be at least two persons in God himself for love to exist - love from one person to another person. Yet God is also perfectly good. A thoroughly good being would not jealously protect two-person love, but would generously share such love with a third. He concluded, "In order for love to be true, it demands a plurality of persons: in order for love to be perfected, it requires a trinity of persons." Wow, if that doesn't cause some brain cells to pop!!!

There are copious scriptures which can also support the Trinity concept and, this is no surprise, there are those who argue against it. One simple argument against the Trinity goes something like this … if there are three persons, then it would be the same as adding "1" three times (1 + 1 + 1 = 3). However, another way of thinking about this using a mathematical formula would be "1 x 1 x 1 = 1". So, that isn't going to prove anything either way. With each point there is often a counter-point. So, how do we resolve this?

The basic element of any belief system is one in which we are a willing party. In other words, you must believe in order to participate. So, for example, if we deny the truth, it doesn't make it any less the truth in the same way that if we believe a lie it doesn't make it any more the truth. Truth is absolute. Now, I know there is a whole segment of our world out there that will argue "truth is absolute", but we aren't going to go there at this time (feel free to Google it and see). If you are willing, let's see what the Bible has to say about this concept of Trinity.

When we look at a piece of creative art, we have an opportunity to learn more about its creator, the artist. Think for a moment of your favorite painting, picture, sculpture, or other work of art. What can you tell of its creator? What thoughts or feelings does that work evoke in you? What characteristics can you learn of the creator? Looking at Romans 1:18-23, specifically, verse 20, we can see that creation evidences God's attributes, power and nature. For example, we can look at creation from three aspects: Time, Space, Matter. Within each, there are distinctions, but all of the same nature. Time has past, present, and future. Space has height, width, and depth. Matter has solid, liquid, and gas. You can look here for more details of this idea. This is the evidence that Romans 1:20 is speaking of … Time, Space, Matter … three trinities, or creation as a trinity of trinities. God, as Trinity, is stamped all over creation. Yet, rather than being impersonal, He is very personal … He is super-personal.

C. S. Lewis, expresses the idea of God as super-personal in his book Beyond Personality:
A good many people nowadays say, 'I believe in a God, but not in a personal God'. They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. Now the Christians quite agree. But the Christians are the only people who offer any idea of what a being that is beyond personality could be like. All other people, though they say that God is beyond personality, really think of Him as something impersonal: that is, as something less than personal. If you are looking for something super-personal, something more than a person, then it isn't a question of choosing between the Christian idea and the other ideas. The Christian idea is the only one on the market.

Ok, I've blown enough brain cells with this post … I look forward to our next discussion as we jump into the topic of blaphemy of the Holy Spirit. That ought to be an easy one, right?

What Does The Holy Spirit Do?

Ok, I've been deliquent about blogging our group discussions … I'll be combining our first two meetings (10/26/09 and 11/2/09) since they are covering the same topic: What Does The Holy Spirit Do?

After brainstorming many of the activities of the Holy Spirit in our first meeting, I attempted to guide us to grouping them together into some relatable buckets in our second meeting. But, you and I weren't seeing things the same. Though some may call this a "coup" or a "mutiny", in reality, this is one reason I so enjoy being a part of this small group … the differing perspectives and ways that people interpret their surroundings. This is what causes us to either become more solid or grow in our belief system. In a nutshell, most of the activities of the Holy Spirit can be grouped into the following:

• Relate: Our relationship with God and others is dependent upon the Holy Spirit - like a life support system. Without it, the relationship is dead.
• Witness: The Holy Spirit is our light and shines upon the Word of God (bible) to enable us to see it. The Holy Spirit allows us to understand the Word of God and, as a witness, confirms its Truth to us.
• Do: The Holy Spirit empowers us with skills, abilities and knowledge. He empowers us to be God's witness to others. He empowers us to live in the fruit of a changed life and operate in the gifts of His choosing to benefit others.
• Change: The Holy Spirit brings a change of mind (heart) to cause us to understand and see differently. We are transformed into the God-like character of Jesus Christ. He is the seal of redemption which is in progress now.

Also, in our first few weeks together, someone questioned the importance of understanding and differentiating God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is a great question and one that demands an answer. Though it seems debatable in importance, it is actually a critical distinction of Christianity from other belief systems. The "who" God is relates wholly with "what" He's done in all of creation and "why" He's done it. We'll begin digging into that in our next meeting.