The Holy Spirit: Power Presence and Purpose Part 191

The Gifts Part 96

Interpretation of Tongues continued...

We are nearing the end of a journey that began over six months ago. During this time we’ve discussed the person of the Holy Spirit, the attributes of the Holy Spirit, the names of the Holy Spirit, as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If there is one thing I hope this protracted study has accomplished, it’s that it has ignited a fire, and stirred within your heart the desire, for the presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Why settle for less than all that God has for His children, especially in times such as these, when the enemy is doing all that he can, from without and from within the church to utterly destroy any remnants of the fire that still burns in the hearts of believers?

We are at war, and with each passing day it is becoming clearer. It’s open season on Christians and Christianity. Speak against sin, speak against perversion and you are automatically labeled intolerant and bigoted. Say the most hateful, vile, despising things about Christians, and well, that’s alright, it’s about time someone put the Christians in their place; they had it coming anyway.

The journey from words to deeds is far shorter than we would like to believe, and though I’ve said it often enough over the past few years, I feel the need to repeat myself once more: persecution is coming! It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when, and if we are caught unprepared, if we are found void of the Holy Spirit and the power thereof when persecution descends upon us, though we think ourselves strong and capable of standing, we will bend and we will break.

Now, while there is still time, may we seek, may we knock, and may we ask, for when the darkness descends and covers all, when the night has come, it will be too late. Too often we are given to procrastination, we are given to putting off until tomorrow that which we know we ought to have done today, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit and the gifts thereof, when it comes to seeking after the fullness of the power of God in our lives, we can’t afford to put it off any longer. Time is short, and every sign we are seeing throughout the world today highlights the reality of this truth.

One of the beautiful things about the Holy Spirit is that He requires no theological degree, no seminary diploma, and no letter of recommendation from a certain denomination in order to use someone. All that the Holy Spirit requires in order to use an individual is that they are willing to be used of God, in the manner that God sees fit.

Although it might sound simple, in reality those willing to submit and labor wherever God has need of them are fewer in number than we might think. After all this time, the laborers are still few, and the harvest is still plentiful.

When it comes to working in God’s harvest field, such things as ego and pride must be wholly removed from the equation. If pride is still embedded somewhere in our hearts, there will come a day when God will ask us to perform a certain task that our flesh will deem beneath us. Because the flesh has not been mortified, and pride has not been altogether uprooted from our hearts, we continue to believe that we are somehow more special than our fellow brothers in Christ if God chooses to equip us with certain spiritual gifts.

No man possesses a spiritual gift we are merely vessels in the hand of a holy God, who uses us as we are needed. God can take away a spiritual gift, just as readily as He has given it to us if we begin to think that it is we who are doing great and mighty works and not God doing them through us.

No matter the extent to which God chooses to use you, no matter the great and wondrous things He chooses to do through you, remain humble, and give God the glory rightly due Him. You can never go wrong with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

I think it fitting that we end this particular journey as we began it, with the word of God, reiterating the scripture that has been the foundation of this entire teaching on the power, presence and purpose of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom, through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

Thank you for coming on this journey with me, and I pray that you have been edified and encouraged by it. Tomorrow we will discuss the start of a new journey, and I will require your input as to which road would be more fitting to travel.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.