The Holy Spirit and His Gifts

I haven’t posted in a full month… “clear­ing my plate”

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I know of life with­out the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I can’t think of liv­ing with­out Him now. With­out his pres­ence, with­out his encour­age­ment when I’m down on myself, when I feel inse­cure (The Great I AM has me in His hands, AMEN!), or his rebuke when I fall short and/or am pathetic.I love how he teaches me and reminds me of what Jesus says (John 14): a direct word, the scrip­tures (which make wise unto sal­va­tion), the occa­sional Oswald Cham­bers, speak­ing through the Body, dreams, rev­e­la­tions… some of what is mirac­u­lous, some what seems nat­ural. He is real. He is speak­ing. He is Active!Joel 2:28,29: And it shall come to pass after­ward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daugh­ters shall proph­esy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female ser­vants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Peter quotes the above at Pen­te­cost, con­firm­ing what the Jews see hap­pen­ing: Men speak­ing in other tongues, as God gave speech.

It is proph­e­sied of Jesus in sev­eral Gospels that he was the one that would bap­tism (immerse) in the Holy Spirit and Fire. It hap­pens in Acts 2 (read it!). Power From-On-High comes down and indwells these raga­muf­fin group of dis­ci­ples. We see them work­ing mir­a­cles and great signs, heal­ing the sick, cast­ing out demons, rais­ing the dead… speak­ing in tongues, inter­pret­ing, proph­esy­ing, reveal­ing the secret of men’s hearts… the Holy Spirit giv­ing this one a word of wis­dom, this one a word of knowl­edge, to another faith, to another the abil­ity to dis­tin­guish spirits!

We see God fill­ing posi­tions in his body: First apos­tles, sec­ond prophets, third teach­ers, then mir­a­cles, then gifts of heal­ings, helps, admin­is­tra­tions, var­i­ous kinds of tongues.We see God’s chil­dren com­ing around and wor­ship­ing Jesus: each one bring­ing some­thing to the table that builds up the Church: each one has a psalm, has a teach­ing, has a rev­e­la­tion, as a tongue, has an inter­pre­ta­tion. As one is gifted, let him wisely and zeal­ously make use of that gift in the body.

“The stuff” doesn’t just hap­pen in Acts or over­seas… it hap­pens HERE as well.

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Don’t despise prophetic utter­ance. Hold fast to what is good. 1Thess 5:20Chapters 3, 8 & 9 cover this topic pretty well.