Why Bother with Gifts?
Why Bother with Gifts?
Why even bother with gifts of the Holy Spirit? They are so messy. Passionate aggressive people abuse them, immature people are like oxen in stalls creating messes everywhere they go, ignorant people reject them, and they are flat out hard to manage for most leaders, so why bother? Often gifts of the Holy Spirit are directed to the corner like a naughty child. After all we don’t want messes and we definitely don’t want to offend anyone.
Please reread that last sentence again.
Are we wiser than God?
He is the One who gives gifts—they are gifts of the Holy Spirit!
Ok, then, as some strategize, let’s just have a special place for gifts to operate, like the prayer room or the midweek service or small groups. That way we can still be Charismatic/Pentecostal and still keep the Sunday service a manure-free zone (Proverbs 14:4).
I love spiritual gifts. I love them on the streets and I love them in the church. The very first time I went to church as an unbeliever, dead in my sins, a man gave a prophecy that was exactly my thoughts. Exactly my thoughts! It was a bland prophecy about the love of God. Really not what anyone would consider a wow prophecy…
except me…
and God.
This morning I was reading Hebrews. Hebrews has been my favorite book for decades having studied it more than any other book. This morning it again surprised me. (Thank You, Lord, for the tasty treat this morning.)
Chapter 1 opens the curtain by pronouncing that God now speaks to us through His Son, Jesus: the heir of all things, Creator God, the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of God’s nature, the One Who upholds the universe by the word (rhema) of His power, He made purification for our sins, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. All this couldn’t be framed more magnificently than by the testimony of the Father about His Son in Hebrews 1:8: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.”
Now let’s look at Hebrews 2:1-4 (this is what caught me this morning):
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, 4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?
Hebrews 1:1-4
It’s pretty easy to pass over the details of what the Author is saying without them branding our thoughts, therefore I’ll set out an outline. Verse 3 introduces our great salvation. This salvation:
- at the first began to be spoken by the Lord. [Then],
- was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
- God also bearing witness [to this salvation] according to His own will
§ both with signs and wonders,
§ with various miracles,
§ and gifts of the Holy Spirit
According to Hebrews 2, our great salvation is revealed though—gifts of the Holy Spirit. Not just through reading the Bible or through preaching or someone sharing salvation with us. Not to minimize these, but gifts of the Spirit also bear witness to our great salvation. If or when we send the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the corner, we are removing one of the ways in which God Himself wants to reveal His great salvation. This is not just by what is said through these gifts, but also by the very gifts themselves manifesting through people.
Consider this: The New Covenant was provided by Jesus, but it is ratified by the indwelling Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes into a person, He regenerates them and they are born again—without the Holy Spirit’s indwelling no one is born again. Furthermore, when He comes in He also gives gifts. These gifts proclaim that the Holy Spirit is indeed within, which is the hallmark of the New Covenant (Ezekiel 36:26, Jeremiah 31:31-34). The manifestation of His gifts is far more important to the New Covenant life than giving a prophecy or a word of knowledge. The manifestation of these gifts themselves provide proof of the New Covenant and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
That is pretty awesome!
If you have restricted the Holy Spirit’s gifts to the corner, you have done a great disservice to both the church and the lost. It is wrong to do so. Without realizing it you have stunted the growth of the people of God and some who would have received Christ, due to a prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:24-25), didn’t. Furthermore, the body of Christ is built up as each member does their work (Ephesians 4:16). Pastoring the gifts of the Holy Spirit takes wisdom and patience, but the increase that comes from the ox far out weights his mess.
