The God Of Possibilities: “Baptisms - Earth: Water, Wind and Fire” - Part 2e

Recap of 5/2/2011:
We concluded with the remaining gifts of the Spirit. As a reminder, the purposes of spiritual gifts are:

• Equipping believers to share the Good News – Matthew 10:19-20; Luke 4:18; 1 Corinthians 2:13
• God confirmed the message of the Good News – Hebrews 2:3-4
• Strengthening the church to serve – 1 Corinthians 12:7; 14:26

Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12 NIV). It should always be remembered that one purpose of all the gifts is to strengthen and build up the church.


Listing of spiritual gifts (Part 2 for this week):

1 Corinthians 12:27-29

• gifts of administration (organizers) – able to keep things organized and in accordance with God's principles.
• able to help others – always having the desire and ability to help others, to do whatever it takes to get a task accomplished.

Ephesians 4:

• apostles – one sent by God with a holy mission to fulfill; and the supernatural power and spiritual gifts to fulfill the mission.
• prophets – one that speaks with divine authority, what God has made clear. Supernatural power and events to verify God has given the message.
• evangelists – one with the heart of God that all should come to the knowledge of the truth that God loves everyone.
• pastors – one with supernatural ability to love and care for the body, soul and spirit of many people at the same time.
• teachers – one with the divine mind of Christ to make the things of God easy to understand and live by in daily life.

Their responsibility is to equip (to furnish or provide with whatever is needed for use or for any undertaking) God’s people to do His work and build up the church.

Romans 12:

• prophesying – supernatural ability to receive a message from God to strengthen, encourage, and comforts the body of Christ or a believer. Supernatural ability to know the heart of God through a dream, vision or any divine encounter God would use to manifest Jesus Christ.
• serving - supernatural ability to do for others whatever needs to be done. Divine ability to carry another burden or task without notice or earthly reward.
• teaching
• encouraging – supernatural ability to motivate members in the body of Christ to do the works of Christ.
• giving – supernatural ability to give money or time where and when needed with a cheerful heart.
• leadership – supernatural ability to know when something needs to be accomplished, who can accomplish it and how it can be accomplished.
• showing mercy/kindness – supernatural ability to love and care for those who are not able to care for themselves. Divine knowing of who to help and when to help. Divine ability to care for those who no one else would care for.

Well!  This concludes the coverage of the Gifts Of The Holy Spirit - it took us awhile, but we made it. As a closure on this section of our study, let's do some important point recapping:

Do only select people receive spiritual gifts?
Are spiritual gifts given to an elite group of people? NO!! They can be given to anybody, anywhere, at any time of the Holy Spirit’s choosing.  “Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.” (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11 MSG) A major factor that plays into “who” gets “what” and “when” is, as Paul says: “earnestly desire the most helpful gifts” that would be appropriate for the circumstances at hand, again, motivated by love.

The use of all spiritual gifts is motivated by Love:
A tree is identified by its fruit (Luke 6:44 NLT). In other words, it's who you are, not what you say and do, that matters. When we have a desire to operate in the spiritual gifts, the spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-24) must first motivate us. There is a difference between spiritual gifts and fruit. Gifts are the Spirit’s manifestation through a person, but Fruit is the result of spiritual character. The Holy Spirit gives gifts as He desires; the Fruit is a by-product of the Holy Spirit’s influence and effect in our lives. In the natural, fruit is produced when a tree is fertilized, watered, and given sunshine. In the spiritual, Fruit is produced supernaturally when we are fed by the Word of God (having our mind changed and re-educated), watered by the Spirit (washed clean and our thirst quenched), and living in the Light (the illumination of God’s Word working with the power of the Holy Spirit showing us sin in our lives, leading us to repentance, and being renewed).

The Fruit of the Spirit is the display of the character of Christ. It has several attributes and, as Christians, we possess them all. We each can yield to the growth of the Fruit of the Spirit at varying rates. Spirituality isn’t measured by gifts, but by the evidence of Fruit. Though all of the Fruit of the Spirit is important – even critical to successful Christian living – we will focus primarily on the highest attribute of a spiritual person … love.

1 Corinthians 13 (often referred to as “The Love Chapter”) describes the action of love:

patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud, not rude, does not demand its own way, not irritable, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and endures through every circumstance.

Love is the greatest evidence of spirituality (1 Corinthians 13:13), without which, spiritual gifts cannot function effectively (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). Paul said we should have a desire for spiritual gifts, but it should follow the greater goal of love. “Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives,” (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT).

When love motivates us as described in 1 Corinthians 13 in being available to the Holy Spirit’s use of spiritual gifts, it removes the concern and fear of this topic entirely and the end result is exactly what God intended and desires for His church.



For 5/9/2011:
Brief: We will move forward to our last segment: “Baptism In Fire”. Though this was a topic of concern for me as we started this journey, I've come to appreciate what the scripture has to say about this topic and welcome with an open mind, open heart, and open life. I trust you will find the same attraction to have and be ALL that God wants for you.

Homework
As part of our response to this learning, consider the gifts we've covered thus far and spend time with the Lord asking which of them are areas He wants to begin moving you into. If we have time, we'll spend some of it talking about this … don't worry, we have a few weeks to cover this part of the homework. So, we'll give it the time and space needed - as He leads.

“God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!”
-- Genesis 2:7 (MSG) --