WATER OF LIFE

We can seek to develop our spiritual gifts but we shouldn’t seek the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Fruits are the result of a life centered on and surrendered to the Lord’s will and open to the Holy Spirit’s transformation. The fruits of the Holy Spirit can be experienced on conversion but aren’t lasting until we truly ‘die to live’ each day.

Fruits of the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
There are many passages in the bible that mention the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here is a list I compiled from several tests and books (such as Finding Your Spiritual Gifts Questionnaire, and S.H.A.P.E). They generally have the same list of gifts with only a few different or by different titles:

administration, apostleship or missionary, celibacy, compassion or mercy, encouragement, discernment (of spirits), evangelism, exhortation, exorcism, faith, giving, healing, helping or assisting, hospitality, interpretation (of tongues), knowledge, leadership, miracles, pastoring, prophecy, intercessory prayer, serving, teaching, tongues, voluntary poverty, and wisdom.

I didn’t have to ‘die to live’ to experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I accepted Christ when I was thirteen so I can’t really say whether my gifts were present before I believed in God. But my gifts of apostleship, faith, and discernment were in evidence during my twenty-five years in the wilderness. The difference is that those gifts were not truly blessed until I did ‘die to live’ by surrendering my whole life to His Lordship. For example, my discernment is no longer a muddy, distant, quiet, yearning feeling that I can’t describe; it’s now a very clear and present gift in my life—especially the more I read the Bible.

I’ve studied personality type in depth (I’m a Myers Briggs Qualified Practitioner), so it’s not surprising that I would also take an interest in spiritual gifts. I have taken three different spiritual gifts tests and my results (in order of strength and greatest area of passion) are:

i. Apostleship - these are missionaries, but it’s also the gift of creating new ministries within churches, and the gift of writing (epistles).

Many people don’t realize that the apostleship gift includes writing. When I’m fasting (more than a single day) God really blesses my writing with loads of inspiration. I feel God is calling me to write a new Christian book, which these blogs on Christianity will be the starting point.

An apostle can be a pioneering supporter of new ideas or a cause; for example, I like to write and talk about economic inequality. We can be apostles and missionaries to our workplaces and even to our churches. For this reason, I feel called to share the message of the cross and other books at my church through a group study. Lastly, my book business is largely internet based and I see myself as a Christian missionary assigned to the foreign post known as the Internet.

ii. Faith - unshakeable trust and confidence in God.

I’ve always been a sucker for leaps of faith. In my twenties, I went to live in Japan with only $900 bucks in my pocket and didn’t know a soul. I love stories about, and resonate with, great men of faith. Similar to missionaries, such as Verwey and Hudson, as an author I have to trust in the Lord to provide for our needs. Recently, I’m taking a leap of faith through giving the Lord complete control and responsibility for our finances.

iii. Discernment - recognize what is or is not of God.

I find it hard NOT to read other people: sensing their inconsistencies, motives, and spiritual needs. I tend to be a spiritual catalyst in other’s lives and I also use this gift for spiritual warfare. This is a gift I sometimes wish I could turn off, I have to be very careful of the pitfalls of being judgmental and speaking the truth where I should just be quiet and show love instead.

At first, I made the mistake of thinking discernment is the ability to tell if the Holy Spirit is present. For example, the gift of discernment can tell me if something doesn’t seem right about a pastor or what he is saying, but I am not able to tell whether the Holy Spirit is working through his sermon and touching people. Additionally, anyone can feel moved by the Holy Spirit during a sermon without possessing the gift of discernment.

iv. Wisdom - insight and judgement into how to apply Bible scriptures in everyday life.

I use my gift of wisdom in my writing to apply spiritual truths to real life examples (like in this blog entry). I resonate with many books by pastoral counselors (e.g. Chapman, Evans, and Lewis), who are good at applying Biblical truth and Christian values to marriage, work, and everyday life.

v. Miracles - call on God for supernatural acts that glorify Him.

This is the only gift I tend to wonder about. It still remains to be seen if I have this gift. So far I’ve seen miracles in my marriage. I’ve also noticed recently that God has been calling me to increase my faith in miracle healings.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 11:44 am and is filed under Personality type, Christianity, Holy Spirit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.