Category Archives: Holy Spirit

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February 24, 2025

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Attitudes & Behavior, Church & Worship, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts

WHAT DO WE BRING TO THE TABLE?

I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you. Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing, and perfect. … God in his kindness gave each of us different gifts. [Romans 12:1b-2,6a (GW)]

FarmWhen told that the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us are unique for our specific ministries, we get nervous. We already have a career, didn’t sign up for seminary, and aren’t interested in being ministers. While being a minister/pastor/priest is a vocation, the ministry is the work of every Christian. No matter what our professions, we are all called to minister and that doesn’t necessarily mean pastoring a church. It means serving God and His people in Jesus’ name, which is where those spiritual gifts come in. God is not about to send us off empty-handed.

In job interviews, applicants often are asked, “What do you bring to the table?” With God, however, it’s a little different. When we come to him, He doesn’t care about our resume, how much or little we know, or how many assets we bring to Him. When we come to His table, we receive our own personal coach in the way of the Holy Spirit who provides us with at least one spiritual asset personally designed for us.

In Matthew 9, Jesus spoke of the harvest being plentiful but the laborers being few. I wonder—is it the labor pool that is lacking or is it the willingness of the laborers to do His work that is missing? As Christians, we’re filled with the Holy Spirit and yet we often seem void of His promised gifts. Is it that we don’t recognize our gifts or are we simply unwilling to use them? Last week, while receiving Communion with others in the congregation, I wondered what gifts we each brought to God’s holy table and how many of those unused gifts we were taking back home with us.

I suspect that there are enough laborers but we’re just waiting for the ideal job, the perfect opportunity, or the ideal situation to arise. My brother remained unemployed for years because of that attitude; although there were plenty of opportunities, none were the precise one he desired! There should be no unemployment line in God’s Kingdom! We forget that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. Not only does He equip us but He also offers on-the-job training!

I’ve taken assorted Spiritual Gift inventories and, while they can be helpful, I doubt their necessity. All we have to do is look at the harvesting needs around us and show up for work. We’ll soon figure out if driving the combine, baling the hay, swinging the scythe, hand-picking the berries, cleaning the tools, transferring the grain to the silo, managing the logistics, marketing the wheat, bringing water to the thirsty, or feeding the workers is the job for which we’ve been designed. The important thing is to show up for the harvest; in God’s Kingdom, there should be no shortage of laborers! Let’s get to work!

When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them. They were troubled and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is large, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord who gives this harvest to send workers to harvest his crops.” [Matthew 9:36-38 (GW)]

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February 20, 2025

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, God's Plan, Holy Spirit, Thanks & Praise, Today: Make it Count

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. [Ephesians 5:19-20 NTE)]

lotus flowerJoe Btfsplk was a character in Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner comic strip. With a last name that sounds likes what’s known as a “raspberry” or “Bronx cheer,” the poor man had a dark cloud of perpetual bad luck hanging over his head. Btfsplk no longer appears in the comics but I think his dark cloud of misfortune has settled over the head of a dear friend I’ll call JB (in honor of Capp’s luckless character). Since JB’s retirement, if something could go wrong, it has and, as soon as one challenge resolves, another one appears. When I saw the photos from his most recent mishap, JB looked as if he’d been tossed around in a giant rock tumbler filled with broken glass and boulders.

I later learned that one of his wounds became infected (meaning a hospital stay) and, upon his release, JB fell and suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon! A modern-day Job, the poor guy can’t catch a break!

JB, like Job, could be described as an honorable and upright person who fears God. Fortunately, JB doesn’t have a group of friends (like Job’s) who blame his misfortunes on his unrepented sins. Nevertheless, like Job, JB probably wants to know the why of his continual trials. But, as a Bible-reading Christ follower who’s read the book of Job, JB understands that only our sovereign God knows why life unfolds as it does.

Paul’s words to the Ephesians were to always give “thanks for everything to God the Father” but, when considering JB’s trials, I wonder how it can be done. Were I under the dark cloud that seems to plague him with an unending downpour of challenges, I wonder if I could give thanks for it all. While giving thanks in some or most things is doable, the Greek word Paul used was pas which meant the entirety—every kind of circumstance. Rather than just the good or even tolerable stuff of life, we are to give thanks for the whole shebang (trials and all)!

It’s not as if Paul said those words flippantly. Like JB, his life was filled with trials and adversity. He suffered through more than his share of floggings, beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment, persecution, physical infirmity, and pain. Giving thanks in such ordeals and trouble seems impossible until we look at Paul’s words leading up to today’s verses in which he said to “be filled with the Spirit!” [5:18] He also called on the power of the Spirit with his closing words to the Ephesians: “Just this: be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power.” [6:10] He told Philippians something similar: “I have strength for everything in the one who gives me power.” [4:13]

On our own, we might be able to put on a good front—grit our teeth, “grin and bear it,” or wear a martyr’s face while grumbling inside—but we need the power of the Holy Spirit to have a heart that is thankful to God in all things. It is by the Spirit’s power that we can focus on God, on His love, wisdom, and many blessings so that, knowing that He sees the future while we see only the present, we can submit to His sovereign plan with thanks and even joy.

I don’t think Paul’s words mean we have to be happy every time we end up in the ER, are diagnosed with cancer, or lose a loved one. The many psalms of lament show us that grief, anguish, and pain can coexist with gratitude. Rather than denying our pain, sorrow, or suffering, giving thanks during our trials reminds us that beauty, joy, and good still exist in spite of them. We can move from lament to gratitude because there always is something for which we can be thankful in every situation—even if it’s only that whatever happened wasn’t worse! We know that God is present and that He will strengthen, comfort, protect, and guide us through the dark storms of life and, for that, we can be thankful.

Admittedly, being thankful in all circumstances is not easy. Even famed evangelist Charles Spurgeon struggled. “I have not always found it easy to practice this duty; this I confess to my shame,” said the man known as the ‘Prince of Preachers.’ “When suffering extreme pain some time ago,” continued Spurgeon, “a brother in Christ said to me, ‘Have you thanked God for this?’ I replied that I desired to be patient, and would be thankful to recover. ‘But,’ said he, ‘in everything give thanks, not after it is over, but while you are still in it, and perhaps when you are enabled to give thanks for the severe pain, it will cease.’ I believe that there was much force in that good advice.” Indeed, there is!

Always celebrate, never stop praying; in everything be thankful (this is God’s will for you in the Messiah Jesus). [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NTE)]

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November 11, 2024

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Bible Stories, Family, Friends & Fellowship, God's Grace & Love, Holy Spirit

IMMANUEL

“And be sure of this,” He promised, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28:20 (NLT)]

My mother’s father abandoned his family when my she was five; neither she nor her brother saw him again. When I learned this as a youngster, I couldn’t understand how any father could do that. How could he not care about the children he left behind? Didn’t he want to know the beautiful woman who was my mother?

People come in and go out of our lives. Some people leave abruptly as did my grandfather and others just fade away. Either we move or our friends and neighbors do and we eventually lose touch with one another. While we lose some people to the moving van, others depart in a hearse. In this world, even our closest relationships are only temporary.

As Christians, however, we have one constant person in our lives: Jesus. When prophesying His arrival, Isaiah called Jesus Immanuel, meaning “God with us” or “God is with us.” As fully God and fully human when He walked the earth, Jesus was, indeed, Immanuel. But, because He was confined to the limitations of time and space in a human body, Jesus couldn’t be with everyone at once.

Unable to be with people in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Cana, Bethany, Ephraim, Jericho, and Samaria at the same time, Jesus walked more than 3,000 miles during his three-year ministry. It was in Capernaum that He drove an evil spirit out of a man and healed both Simon Peter’s mother and the paralytic who came through the roof. To raise the widow’s son, however, He had to be in Nain and, when He healed the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda, he was near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. He healed those ten lepers somewhere along the border between Samaria and Galilee, had to go clear across the Sea of Galilee to the Gerasenes region to heal the demon-possessed man, and was north of Tyre and Sidon when He was approached by the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus couldn’t be with Martha, Mary, and the dying Lazarus in Bethany while He was with the disciples a day’s journey from Jerusalem. When He lived as a man, Jesus was only Immanuel, “God with Us,” to those who were physically near Him.

When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t leave us alone the way the spouses of so many of my friends have; He returned three days later. When He ascended into heaven, He didn’t lose touch with us as often happens when people move. He certainly didn’t abandon us the way my grandfather did to his family. Although Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven, He never really left us because He gave us His Holy Spirit! His Spirit is with every one of us, all the time, no matter where we are or what we’re doing. No longer confined to a body or limited by time or space, Jesus is, indeed, Immanuel: God with Us.

The best news is that, unlike my grandfather who never came back for his children, Jesus will return!

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. [John 14:16-18 (NLT)]

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February 22, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Fruit of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, Love & Works, Salvation: A New You

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – Part 2

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. [Luke 6:43-44 (ESV)]

pomegranateMy son has a beautiful pomegranate tree in his yard but, when he first purchased the property, he didn’t know what it was. Although showy red flowers eventually appeared, it wasn’t until the flowers developed into deep-red globe-shaped fruit that he knew it was a pomegranate. The tree was recognized by its fruit and it is by our fruit that Christ’s followers are recognized.

We tend to think of the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control) as nine different fruits—like a basket containing an orange, apple, kiwi, pineapple, grape, blueberry, banana, apricot, and mango. The Greek word used by Paul, however, was karpos and it was singular. Rather than describing nine different kinds of fruit, the Apostle was listing nine different characteristics of one fruit—the fruit of God’s grace working in us.

Along with having a delicious flavor that is both sweet and tart, the characteristics of a pomegranate’s fruit include its bright red color, hundreds of juicy edible seeds, being rich in powerful antioxidants called polyphenols, and containing fiber, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins E and K. Just as all of its characteristics are contained in a single pomegranate fruit, all nine of its virtues are contained in the Fruit of the Spirit.  After all, even non-believers can love, exhibit patience, or use self-control at times, but it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome our sin nature and possess love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control all at the same time! These gracious dispositions should be found in the hearts of all who have the Holy Spirit living in them and they should be evident in the lives of all who claim to follow Jesus!

Fruit, however, has to grow and mature. After planting, it takes three to six years before a pomegranate is mature enough to develop a few small fruits. It takes another three to six years before the tree bears a proper harvest. Even then, the fruit doesn’t appear all at once. After the tree flowers, it takes six to seven months for the fruit to develop and ripen. Being reborn takes only a moment but becoming a Christian takes a lifetime. Like a fruit tree, we need to grow and mature before we bear good fruit and, like the pomegranate, our fruit needs time to ripen.

While my son’s tree produces ripe fruit between August and November, we are expected to bear the Fruit of the Spirit all year long! As with my son’s pomegranate tree, it is by our fruit that we are recognized. It identifies us as followers of Christ and, if our fruit doesn’t look a lot like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, there’s a problem! We’re like a diseased plant that bears only rotten fruit or no fruit at all!

Although the Spirit does the planting of this fruit, we are the ones who must tend the garden by weeding out the sin that threatens its health, fertilizing it with God’s word and prayer, and watering it with worship and fellowship. Without staying connected to the Lord, we’ll be like a broken branch from the pomegranate tree—unable to bear fruit. A Christ follower’s fruit comes from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ; it comes from staying connected to the vine.

The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus. [Hudson Taylor]

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. [John 15:4-5 (ESV)]

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February 19, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Fruit of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, Salvation: A New You

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – Part 1

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. [Galatians 5:17-18 (NLT)]

fruit of the spiritAs Christ’s followers, we are saved through our faith and God’s grace. God takes us soiled sinners just as we are because there is no way we could be good enough to earn salvation. Nevertheless, just because God welcomes His immoral, angry, impatient, bad-tempered, anxious, sinful, and selfish children doesn’t mean He wants us to stay that way. When Jesus saved the woman caught in adultery, He told her to, “Go and sin no more” and, when we are saved, He tells us the same thing!

Unfortunately, to “sin no more” is easier said than done and the new saved us still looks and acts a lot like the old sinful one. Accepting Christ doesn’t instantly make us into loving, joyful, serene, patient, compassionate, virtuous, faithful, humble, and self-disciplined individuals. Satan doesn’t disappear when we’re saved and our old sinful self is still there, relentlessly trying to assert itself. There’s a war going on and the enemy whispers into our ears with words of envy, anger, spite, fear, jealousy, lust, dissension, despair, pride, irritation, worry, and self-centeredness. The good news is that God has not left us defenseless—which is where the Holy Spirit and His fruit enter in!

When the Holy Spirit enters our lives, He not only presents us with a Gift of the Spirit but He also plants the Fruit of the Spirit in our hearts. While His gifts are uniquely designed for each one of us, every believer receives the same Fruit—the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

When Paul spoke of this fruit, we know it’s not going to be found in any farmer’s market. Fruit can be seen, touched, and tasted; it contains vitamins, minerals, and fiber beneficial to our well-being. Rather than nutrients essential to our health, the Fruit of the Spirit contains virtues essential for our spiritual health. Although it can’t be touched, tasted, or seen, the positive effects of the Spirit’s fruit are visible to the world around us.

The Holy Spirit plants this one beautiful fruit in our hearts. We could call it the “love-joy-peace-patience-kindness-goodness-faithfulness-gentleness-self-control fruit,” but that seems rather cumbersome. Because the characteristics of this fruit describe our Savior, perhaps a better name would be the “Christlikeness fruit.” These nine virtues could be said to summarize the attributes of a person living in accord with the Holy Spirit. Rather than following guidelines or obeying laws, it is the presence of the Fruit of the Spirit in our hearts that enables us to become like more and more like Jesus in our daily walk.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! [Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)]

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February 12, 2024

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Church & Worship, Holy Spirit, Love & Works, Salvation: A New You, Spiritual Gifts

THE SPIRIT’S GIFTS – Part 1

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. [1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NLT)]

roseate spoonbillJesus promised the disciples, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.” [John 14:16-17] In fulfillment of that promise, the moment we accept Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit moves into our hearts. When He arrives, He helps us but, rather than making the bed or washing dishes, the Spirit comforts, counsels, and convicts us. He gives us the power to share His word, the strength to do His work, and confidence in the fullness of God’s promises.

Like a good house guest, the Holy Spirit also brings us a gift. Unlike most presents, the Spirit’s gifts aren’t tangible, can’t be purchased on Amazon, and are expressly designed for the recipient. Received solely through the grace of God, a spiritual gift is a supernaturally designed ability granted to every believer by which the Spirit ministers to Christ’s church. Like a Craftsman tool, it is meant for building God’s Kingdom and guaranteed to last a lifetime!

Originating from His presence, the Spirit’s gifts are not the natural abilities with which we were born—things like being “double-jointed,” having perfect pitch, or being able to wiggle our ears. Our talents are inherited at birth and developed through the years. Both the unsaved and saved possess talents but only the saved receive the Spirit’s gifts! They are given to us when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior—when we are born again. While talents can be used to serve both ourselves and others, the gifts of the Spirit are used to glorify God as we serve others. Nevertheless, God is not about to waste our talents and skills so His gifts often line up with our natural aptitudes.

Described in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit’s gifts are capabilities that enable each of us to build God’s Kingdom: they include things like wisdom, prophecy, administration, teaching, hospitality, discernment,  exhortation, and service. Scripture’s lists, however, vary with translations and are neither definitive nor all-inclusive. God is not a ”one-size-fits-all” designer and, while the Spirit’s gifts have a common origin, they are customized by Him to fit exactly into each believer’s heart.

Just as the master in the Parable of the Talents decided how many talents each of his servants were given, it is God alone who decides the kind of gift or gifts received. Investing their master’s talents in his absence was the task of the servants in that parable and using the gifts of the Spirit to build God’s Kingdom until Jesus returns is our task. Sadly, just because the Holy Spirit has given us a gift doesn’t mean we’ll use it; it can remain hidden away as was the talent received by the lazy servant. Let us remember—things did not go well for the one who failed to make use of his master’s talents! As Christ’s followers, we must be good stewards of whatever gifts we’ve been given so that everything we do “will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ!”

As God’s children, we are not to be observers; we’re to participate actively in the Lord’s work. Spectators sit and watch, but we are called to use our spiritual gifts and serve continually. [Charles Stanley]

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. … Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.  [1 Peter 4:10,11 (NLT)]

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