Written Word

The Power of God Is Present to Heal Us 1

Part 1 of 2

The Scriptures tell us that the people of Jesus’ day were amazed at His teaching. His teaching had a ring of authority like nothing that came from the mouths of the scribes and Pharisees of the time. But if the people had only known who was speaking to them, they would have been blown out of the water by the very concept. Jesus was the great Creator God, come down from heaven to tell the people what He – the Creator God Himself –  expected of them in grateful worship and service. Their Teacher was the Almighty Himself squeezed into – and “limited” by, if you will –a frail, mortal frame for the purpose of redemption and teaching and living a perfect life before them.

But, as we do not today focus on our weak “earthen vessels” in which the Spirit of God is pleased to dwell, we should not concentrate too much on the physical limitations of Jesus. Rather, we should focus on the power of heaven that was sent here to redeem us and all mankind. The people had God in their midst and did not know it; we have God within us and are not always aware of that dynamic fact.

“And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by...and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” (Luk 5:17)

The Spirit of God was “present to heal them.” The Spirit was still there yearning to do them good despite the fact that they who heard Jesus’ life-giving words were busy criticizing Him about such insignificant matters as His healing a man on the Sabbath! What irony! He came bringing life to them and they refused life because the day was not right!

We cannot deny that the Spirit of God is present today to heal us and to make us every whit whole, but we too insist on bickering about spiritual minutiae: doctrinal differences between our denominations, variances that matter little if we all trust in the same God. The Spirit is moving to heal our doctrinal discrepancies while we, like the Pharisees of old, are mouthing words that tend at times toward blasphemy.

While the Spirit of God is present to heal our minor doctrinal disagreements, we have ballooned the same disagreements from the small scratches they were into festering, life-threatening wounds. We seem not to know that we are all of the same sheepfold. Whereas Jesus said, “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold,” we – the Apostolic/Pentecostals and the born-again believers in many of the denominations – are one people who fail to recognize their oneness. We believe in one God and that there is salvation in no name other than Jesus. We are clearly of the same fold. Why are we at odds over small details?

What does it take for us to see the asininity of quibbling about pennies and nickels when we are in a veritable goldmine of truth? All Christians counted worthy of the name of Jesus hold to the following essential beliefs:

1)            there is only one God;

2)            we are saved by faith in Christ;

3)            water baptism is required of the believer; and

4)            the Holy Spirit is needed within us to be born again.

We differ only on the smaller details of these prime articles of faith.

Is it that difficult, then, to admit that we are all in the great economy of God, where God has placed us by our faith in Jesus Christ? Does my faith become null and void because I either believe or do not believe in three persons in ONE God? Am I anathema to other true believers, despite my living faith in Christ, because I have not yet been baptized in water in Jesus’ name? In the worldwide Church the individual members are at varying stages of growth. But they all belong to God; they are all His children through faith in Christ.

Part 2 of The Power of God Is Present to heal Us will be posted in this space this coming Friday, 3/31/06. 

The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine 3

Part 3 of 3

What Would the P.A.W. Pioneers Say?

For those who knew and honored our predecessors in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., this is indeed a serious question. We were spiritually nurtured by these stalwarts who loved the Lord and walked close to Him. What would they say to the belief that one is saved solely by faith in Christ, without having spoken in tongues or been baptized, which are two main tenets of the Apostolic/Pentecostal doctrine?

It is my belief that those who were reasonably open-minded and scripturally logical would at first hear of this “heretical” doctrine with a great deal of skepticism about the spiritual condition of those espousing it. Frankly, they would oppose it vigorously. But then, upon seeing the evidence, such as that presented in Virgil Cox Jr.’s book, A Polemic to the Apostolic from an Apostolic, and closely examining the reasons for the “new" belief (which is certainly NOT a new belief), they would grudgingly and slowly come around to accepting it. It might not happen overnight nor over a month, but it would happen. They could be much like me. I did a turtle walk into this way of thinking. I certainly did not rush pell-mell into this different slant on the Godhead and the means to attain salvation. The full illumination slowly came on me as I looked at the personal evidence, studied the Scriptures and prayed —and then concluded (after some years of gradual approach) that it was scripturally sound.  The advantage I had over some of my peers in Pentecost was that God dealt with me over the years, slowly accustoming me to the cold waters of the fuller truth.

Unless God was dealing along that specific line with the late Bishop Karl F. Smith back in the sixties and early seventies (and Bishop Smith showed signs of advanced theological thought even back then), he would have responded brusquely to this new illumination. At first he would be completely turned off by the views propounded in this discourse. But, of course, when he died in 1972 there was not this wave of evidence to alert his mind as it has done mine. Today, with its abundant evidence all around, would have been different (and there are some among us who believe these “new” ideas at this moment, but have not said it openly). There is no doubt that Bishop Smith's theology was not a stagnating belief. I had personally seen instances of his theology expanding and grasping more truth while never wavering from the essential doctrinal beliefs that all true Christians have.

I have read in the various histories of the Church that “one God” was the belief of most Christians, with a corollary belief in three persons in the Godhead. That may be, but I know from personal experience that there were some lay people at least who believed in three separate Gods. That, of course, no Apostolic/Pentecostal worthy of his salt could agree to. We had to keep the truth, which it undoubtedly was, of one God indivisible from forever to forever. But as time went by, all reasonably well-taught Christians came to accept the idea of the one God – and there the Apostolic/Pentecostal and the denominations parted company. The denominations had the concept of three Persons in one God, more clearly termed the Godhead. We Pentecostals also believed there was and is one God, but He is not seen as three persons, rather, we see in Him three “manifestations.”

Bishop G.T. Haywood, the eminent first Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, was (next to my father Bishop Karl F. Smith) a man whose memory I have most respected over the years. He was a staunch defender of the concept of “one God, three manifestations,” as there was real confusion in the minds of average Christians over just how many Gods there were. He, Bishop (then Elder) Smith,  Bishop Grimes and a number of other stalwarts were actually defending a truth that had been obscured. There had to be an Apostolic/Pentecostal core of believers in those days to carry the truth from which the average believer had unwittingly defected.

Concerning Bishop Haywood, who had passed away in 1931, Bishop Smith made this remark perhaps a decade or so later:

"Now when he [Bishop Haywood] died in April of 1931, I do not believe that the revelation died with him. I believe that God has continued to bless us and give us new revelations that Bishop Haywood did not have in his day. Had he lived, he would have had them also."

What Bishop Smith was saying in so many words was that our theology could not stand still as monolithic and imperturbable as the God on whom it is based. God is perfect, while our theology is far from that attainment. It is imperative that we avoid looking down our spiritual noses at all the evangelists on television. We should not arrogantly write off all the decisions that have been made for Christ via television exhortation (as though our doing so would affect the mind of God!). It is very easy for some of the “old-line” preachers to lump all television evangelists together as being insincere and driven by the desire for money and prestige. This is patently unfair.

There are numerous examples of drug addicts, homosexuals, and just plain morally corrupt persons who have experienced a change of life through nothing more than faith in Jesus Christ – a faith brought to them by television. They have obtained salvation as Cornelius did: upon their heartfelt acceptance of Christ before they were baptized. Many have gone on to be baptized when they were told of the need for baptism in Jesus’ name.

But we older Apostolic/Pentecostals of this day have been stubborn. God has had to drag some of us, obdurate, and futilely flailing our arms, into the newer illumination of His Word. Others are still resisting, But  a sincere group are finally becoming convinced of the validity of these “other” views by looking long and hard at the personal evidence. The results they discovered were more convincing to these reasoning Pentecostals than any long polemical statement could have been. By our looking long and hard at those who were converted we have uncovered these impressive facts:

·               There is definitely a new-birth experience, giving the convert a change in his or her way of thinking and acting.

·               Real deliverances are experienced from drugs, violence, illicit and perverted sex, and sin of all kinds.

·               The convert experiences an intimate relationship with God. This gives him or her a sense of peace and stability in a world careening  totally out of control.

The above three results are precisely what the old Apostolic/Pentecostal salvation procedures pro­duce except for speaking in other tongues, which issue we have already considered and resolved. What further evidence is needed to confirm the authenticity of the many new conversions made via the airwaves? We must not deliberately become blind to the evidence because it does not fit our traditional views. As we go tap-tapping around with our cane of disability, we are apt to fall into a ditch.

It is important to remember that no one group has a lock on all truth. God is still working through us, but He is also doing a great work outside of our tight-knit group and we should align ourselves with Him in whatever venue He chooses to operate.

This concludes The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine. 

The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine 2

Part 2 0f 3

I must tell you: this work by Elder Cox does not consist of a bunch of ill-conceived theories that are unsubstantiated by Scripture. Elder Cox has done his homework. He is well-versed in the Bible; he is an inveterate student of Scripture, is knowledgeable in Greek and is now studying Hebrew. Furthermore, Elder Cox lives according to the way he was brought up – He walks in holiness, which in this instance is not a denomination but a way of living that comes straight from the Scriptures he studies so avidly.

Elder Cox has done a superlative job in presenting the more abstruse facts that come by study and an adequate grasp of the Greek and Hebrew languages. My task, after Elder Cox has done the arduous spade work, is to help him plant the seeds of this fuller truth in the ground. Because I have a less scholarly background, I base my conclusions, which coincide in great measure with his, primarily on a study of the Word, prayer and gleaning much knowledge from learned, devout men who are conversant with Greek and Hebrew. These men, despite the Apostolic/Pentecostals’ previous opinions of them, are Spirit-filled scholars. I can never fully agree with any one person, but neither do I greatly disagree with these scholars who are Spirit-filled and Spirit-led born-again believers.

Now – after you have been convinced of the truth of this doctrine handed down from Christ and the Apostles, remember that we are not into forcing what we believe on anyone. Let’s not get so caught up in our own supposed doctrinal infallibility – once again! – that we lose our effectiveness. If we want to convince the gainsayers, we must know our subject and be  persuaders, not debaters. Debates seldom win converts to a cause. Gentleness and love can win the most stubborn of doubters, that is, if we have the truth on our side.

We wholeheartedly welcome all who will read and pray and walk with us in this particular truth. I cannot believe that any single person  can do what needs to be done in our Pentecostal ranks. One, two or three individuals may lead the charge against doctrinal error, but it will require many sincere ministers and lay persons to complete the work. To those who are not convinced of what we espouse, you are still our brother or sister and we are all members of the Church, the body of Christ. We have not ceased to love and respect you simply because our views are slightly different from yours.

I hope I have said enough to whet your appetite and that you will purchase A Polemic to the Apostolic from an Apostolic. As I have previously indicated, I will let you know when it is on the market. It should be within a month or two.

For your information, I have no financial interest in the book. I am pushing it only for the sake of unity in the worldwide Church. It is my conviction that this book is a must-see for all Apostolic/Pentecostal believers.

Part 3 of this discourse will consist of remarks taken from a booklet I have written, Salvation II, in which I also deal with salvation and baptism. These particular comments give serious thought to what our sincere spiritual forefathers would think of our daring to think of “abandoning” the ship that has brought us thus far on the way. Well, Elder Cox and I honestly do not see it that way. Nor do we denigrate our spiritual fathers; we are only building on the section of the doctrinal building they erected. And where we see flaws, which every generation must make and has made since the foundation was laid, we correct them – and know that we will never attain to the great stature to which some of them attained.

We don’t dare to compare our spiritual accomplishments to theirs and we owe them a great debt for the legacy they have left us. But read further and see how we look at the situation as it pertains to these men and women who walked this way before us.

Part 3, the conclusion of The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine, will be posted in this space this coming Monday, 3/27/06.

The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine 1

Part 1 of 3

I want to speak to you about doctrine. Hold it! Don’t surf to some other Web site. This will not be boring. In fact, it may surprise you and start your mental juices flowing.

In this discourse we shall define “doctrine” as the basic official beliefs of a religious group. We need to remember that in any group, religious or otherwise, there will be members who differ with the official line, usually in minor matters. This should not be a cause for alarm. There  probably is no unity of thought within any religious or secular group. When the difference is on a major issue, if the differing party is sure of his stand, he ought to try for a reasonable length of time to smooth out the doctrinal wrinkles. And he should do it in a spirit of love and not contention.

We the Oneness Pentecostals have a doctrine to which we cling. It is in many respects a good doctrine, but, as with any other group’s set of beliefs, it has its flaws. For the sake of clarity, let’s liken our doctrine to a building in the process of construction. Our spiritual fathers erected their section of the building on the sections that the fathers before them had built. All of the superstructure, as we might call it, rests on the solid foundation laid by the doctrine of Jesus and the Apostles. We are now building on the latest section (inherited from our immediate fathers), based on what God has revealed and is revealing to us. At times we respectfully remove, from the section our fathers left to us, erroneous ideas as a builder might take out a flawed brick or other construction material that is ill-suited for the building. The fathers did not realize while they lived that a particular brick was not strong enough to be incorporated in the structure..

Despite the inevitable doctrinal mistakes made by each generation of builders, which were due to their not possessing the greater knowledge and revelation that God would give to future generations, our fathers built well before us. In doing so, they too had to take out defective material from the section that was left to them, material that was not suitable for the work. I have seen this happen more than once or twice. Ever since the foundation was laid – laid flawlessly, I should add – by Christ and the Apostles, no new generation of builders has structured their section perfectly. You cannot expect perfection from imperfect builders. Of course Jesus, the corner stone of the foundation, was perfect and He built perfectly. The twelve Apostles (including Paul and disregarding Matthias – I do not believe that those who chose him were Spirit-led) laid the rest of the foundation and were given special grace by God that would preclude any error in doctrine. Yet, despite human error that has inevitably crept in since then, if each generation of sincere builders after Jesus and the Apostles corrects the innocent errors of the preceding generation, we will one day, perhaps, have the perfect, complete doctrinal structure that God wants.

We have knowledgeable people contributing to the work, people who do not always see exactly eye-to-eye. But the differences are small and they are good men and women who have the love of God in them, so they work together in harmony. For instance, if Joe Bloke should think that there are three persons in the Godhead while John Brown can conceive of only one person, it can remain of minimal importance as long as they agree firmly that there is only ONE God. Yet at times the doctrinal disagreements grow beyond the embryonic stage and become major issues with which the group has to deal.

I have written often about the doctrinal differences between the Apostolic/Pentecostals and the other denominations, but I have a limited readership. I do not reach enough people to make a difference. Now, however, that is about to change. I have a confederate in this effort to show that Apostolic/Pentecostals and other sincere Christians are very close in their beliefs. This bold ally is Virgil Cox Jr. of Kansas City, MO. Elder Cox is the retired pastor of Good Shepherd Assembly in that city. As I am, he is the son of parents who were staunch Pentecostal believers for many years. It seems that God was working on Pastor Cox’s heart about the basic beliefs that Pentecostals hold so dear, at roughly the same time He was speaking to me.

There are several important items in this setup:

·               Elder Cox is well acquainted with a greater number of people than I am.

·               He is more extroversive than I; and consequently better able to present his views to more than one or two people at a time.

·               He is more of a scholar than I,

            and, more importantly –

·               Elder Cox has essayed to write a  compelling, interesting and, at times, disturbing book on these beliefs that he and I share about 1) baptism in Jesus’ name (no, neither he nor I advocate doing away with that tried and true formula), 2) speaking in other tongues (again, he nor I advocate doing away with this gift of the Spirit), and 3) the makeup of the Godhead. The title of the book is A Polemic to the Apostolic from an Apostolic. It should be on the market in another month or two. I am doing what I can to prepare the minds and hearts of my readers for accepting it.

Part 2 of The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine will be posted in this space Saturday, 3/25/06.

Are You Using What You Have?

"Talent," as we use the word today, denotes an ability, a partic­ular bent or a flair for doing something. Originally it was a balance or a weighing device. Eventually it came to mean the value of gold or silver that was equal to the weight of a talent. It seems that Jesus' parable of the talents, in which a talent was a sum of money entrusted to a servant, has fostered the present meaning of a "talent" as a gift or ability.

We shall look at "talent" in this essay as Jesus used it in the Para­ble of the Talents. We shall also consider the kindred Parable of the Pounds. In it the pound, like the talent, was a sum of money a lord gave to his servant for him to use wisely.

The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 and the Para­ble of the Pounds in Luke 19:12-27 are similar enough so that some authorities believe they are identical. These scholars believe the Gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, placed the respective identical parables in different chrono­logical order in the story of Jesus' life. This is not unprecedented. An example of it may be found in Jesus' lament over Jerusalem. Matthew places the occasion in Jerusalem on the Tuesday before His crucifixion. Matthew 23:37-39. Luke, however, recounts it as having occurred in Perea before the time Matthew assigned to it. Luke 13:34, 35.

The two parables in question, though, are probably separate events and have a slightly different lesson to be drawn from each. In the Parable of the Pounds, a pound, depending on the particular version relating it, was equal to $20 (MLV), $2000 (LBV), or "about three month's wages for a laborer (RSV)." It does not mat­ter because the value of a pound is not pertinent to the lessons implicit in the parable. Re­garding the Parable of the Talents, a talent has been respectively estimated to be worth $2,000 (MLV), $1,000 (LBV), and fifteen years' wages of a laborer (RSV)! Again, the respective estimates do not matter.

What does matter is the different way in which the master in each instance distributed his money to the servants. In both para­bles, of course, the servants are analogous to the children of God. Each of ten servants received the same amount in the Parable of the Pounds: one pound. In the Parable of the Talents the amounts the lord gave to the three servants differed: one received five talents, another two talents, and the last one received but one.

In the Parable of the Talents the amount of profit the two good servants received on their investments was the same: they doubled their original amounts. The first of the three servants added five talents to the five he had received, giving him ten. The second also doubled his two talents, thus giving him a total of four; but the third hid his one talent in the earth: no gain at all.

In the story of the pounds, the returns the servants received on their money varied. The first man gained back a tremendous ten times what he had originally. The second man gained five times his original amount, but the third did nothing positive at all with his pound: he wrapped it in a napkin and laid it aside.

The equal number of pounds given to the servants in the one parable may be likened to the equality of life and salvation that all of God's children possess. Some will do excellently with what they receive and will receive a reward commensurate with the gain they made. Others will do well and receive in ratio to the more modest gain they accrued. Some will do nothing at all and receive to themselves the wrath of their Lord. Although they too are children of God, the Lord will take from the last class the one pound they each received. He will give the respective pounds to the ones who gained the most with their pound. If the pound in the parable does represent life and salvation, the slothful children of God will then be in a critical situation.

The talents given to the servants (children of God) in the other parable relate to real life differently. They denote the disproportionate manner in which God allots abilities to His servants. In real life one person may have many talents or abilities while another has a few and another has only one.

Note that the lord of the servants in the story of the talents did not reward the two enterprising servants proportionate to the total talents each possessed.  In each instance the lord said an identical "Well done, thou good and faithful ser­vant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." . But the slothful servant gave some song-and-dance about knowing his lord was a hard and unjust man, and that he (the servant) was afraid to do anything with his one little talent. The truth was that the servant despised his one talent and disobeyed the lord’s tacit command to invest it. He was thoroughly berated by his lord and thrown “into outer darkness: [where] there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In looking closely at the two parables, it ap­pears that God will not base the Christian's reward  on his aggregate abilities, but on the amount of gain he makes with what has been entrusted to him. Both parables contain two very important items: 1) encouragement to put whatever God has given us to good use; and 2) a stern warning of severe everlasting punishment if we fail to produce a profit for our Lord.

Use your abil;ities wisely and well -- you have only this brief stay on earth to do so. If you fail, the consequences will be utterly and eternally devastating.

Growing in Christ 3

Part 3

I try to fulfill all the will of God for my life, but I am sure there are times when I am not fully effective in reaching out to the quiet, desperate ones who are about to die because I am not yet close enough to God. Their silent cries go unheeded by me, not only because I don’t hear them, but because I am not close enough to the Lord to sense them and/or the Spirit within me can’t get my attention through all the “chatter” in the air around me.

It is not enough to pray regularly and earnestly. Without doubt, that blessed prayer life is required to please God and to grow into His likeness. But we have to go a step further (there is always a “step further” that we can take when following Christ). We have to sense when the Spirit taps us on the shoulder and tells us to take a few minutes or however long it may be, so that He (the Spirit) can alert us to the fact that “so-and-so is in need – pray for him or her!” Or the Spirit may give us a burden of prayer that we cannot articulate and He will then cause the feeling of heaviness to come welling up from the depths of our beings in sighs and groans or in other tongues.

“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8.26, 27)

If we should draw back from the Spirit’s nudging us to pray because we have already come before the Lord in  extended  communion one or more times that day, we are offending the Lord. Beyond that, we are failing to reach out a hand of deliverance to a soul who may at that moment be sinking, quietly and tragically, beneath the waves. Do we really want to be chargeable for that disastrous sin of omission? It seems that we both – you and I – need to get our priorities in the right order. Which is better – that we talk with a friend or watch TV or that we heed the voice of God and help a soul in trouble? If you have to think before answering, you are in serious trouble.

Growing in Grace (Compassion and Empathy)

As I have noted, grace has a variety of closely allied meanings. When a person has what we believers call “the grace of God upon his life” (a wide-ranging term),  he shows a remarkable number of characteristics and traits of His Master, Jesus – the essence and perfection of love.

Compassion and empathy are closely tied in with love. You have no love if you fail to exhibit at least a small amount of compassion and empathy toward others. Compassion  is “sorrow for the sufferings or trouble of another or others, accompanied by an urge to help.” Empathy is the “ability to share in another's emotions, thoughts, or feelings.” (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1999 The Learning Company, Inc.) The greater your love, the more compassionate and empathic you will be.

As (and if) we grow in Christ, we will undoubtedly display the characteristics I have spoken on in this essay. We will

·        Grow in a General Understanding of God

·        Grow in the Word of God

·        Grow in Grace as it pertains to the Favor or Blessings of Christ

·        Grow in Grace as it pertains to Our Compassion and Empathy

If you are not growing at least minimally in the above areas, you should search for places where you are not diligent in your service and worship or consult with someone who is wise and spiritual, to find the cause of your stunted growth. Your spiritual health is at stake. It could, in turn, affect your eternal life.

This is the conclusion of the discourse, Growing in Christ.

Growing in Christ 2

Part 2 of 3

God alone is GOD and He lives forever, which is why He is called the Ancient of Days. But that does not make God an old man out of touch with the needs of today. God will be to  you, in this very “hip” day, everything you want Him to be. If you still see Him only as a babe in the manger, that is what He will be to you. But be warned: the babe in the manger had not yet died. As a human infant, He had not yet grasped what His mission in life was. The Spirit of God within this infant always knew and always knows all things. The Spirit knew what Jesus' grueling mission would entail – but the human side of Jesus was not yet aware of these things while He was still a babe.

Your infant Jesus hasn’t the means to bring salvation to you. The babe  in the manger cannot comfort you; He cannot deliver you from the dangerous snares in which you become entangled at times. As long as He is to you, at this stage of your mental grasp, a helpless infant who depended on others to fill all His own needs, He cannot fill yours.

Growing in the Word of God

You cannot mature in Christ without ingesting the Bread of Life, namely, the Word of God, the Bible. The Word will cause you to grow, especially when you take time to study and meditate on it. God will reveal to you, in your quiet hours before Him, little gems of truth that you would not otherwise have seen. These small illuminations on the Word may not make you a great Bible teacher or a powerful declaimer against sin, nevertheless they will be very rewarding to you. “Just think – God gave this little insight on His Word to me!”

But you must involve yourself in studying your Bible and getting its precepts and lessons and warnings into your mind (heart). The Holy Spirit will not bring to mind that to which the mind has not already been exposed. At times the Spirit will give a small illumination on the Word God has spoken throughout the centuries, but the Spirit will not illuminate any portion of the Word of God which has not previously, in some way, been presented to your mind. Therefore, if you fail to read or to hear the Word of God, you cannot expect God to bring treasures out of what you have not taken into your mind by reading the Word or listening to someone teaching it to you. If the Word is there in your mind where you have accepted and incorporated it into yourself, God will further open up that Word to you.

Growing in Grace (the Favor of Christ)

There are various subtle shades of meaning to the word "grace." In this context I want to use the term as being God's general favor upon an individual's life.  As we get closer to God He will give us small glimpses of His grace working in our lives to touch, to edify, to uphold  and to help our brothers and sisters who are in need in any area of their lives. God will not cause you to be the  help you should be if you are not walking close to Him. You cannot give what you should and what your suffering brother or sister requires if you don't really have a compassionate heart. Even the prayer that you pray in the Holy Ghost will not be so quickly forthcoming if God sees a heart that doesn't feel for others.

Although it is true that, when you pray in the Spirit, it is obviously the Spirit uttering the prayer for  you, the Spirit will be hindered in this very needed task, if you are not one who feels for the downcast, the sick, the rejected and the "fifth wheels" in society. And you certainly have to have a heart that is torn  by the plight of those who are lost. Theirs is the most urgent need. They are who and where you would be if it had not been  for the grace of God. Other needs that we fill, by the grace of God, are temporary; they exist only in this life. The soul who is lost is facing an eternity of dreadful suffering. His is the ultimate need. Why are we sitting on our hands – don’t we care that souls are marching in lock step toward perdition?

Part 3, the conclusion of Growing in Christ, will be posted in this space tomorrow, Saturday, 2/11/06

Growing in Christ 1

Part 1 of 3

Growing in Christ

The main theme of this discourse is just what the name states: “Growing in Christ.” A secondary theme could be this: “The Need to Draw Closer to God.” Why should we have such a powerful God who loves us if we don't  take advantage of the potential that inheres in our partnership with Him? As followers of  Jesus we should live a Christ-centered, compassionate life.  We can’t reach our maximum outreach and  output by timidly splashing in the shallow waters of Christianity; we have to strike out for the deep. The joy in swimming is not in splashing in the shallows with your feet; it is in immersing yourself  in the water and being embraced and buoyed up by it. The deep is where we belong and we will never be content to idle our hours in playing in the kiddies' pool. Let's venture out, out, out into what were once the fearsome depths. Time is slipping by us so fast! I'm convinced there are not many days or months or years left to us. The day of our being raptured is not very far away, and since I can't pinpoint the day, I intend to be ready to go at any time.

Growing in a General Understanding of God

When I was a child,  I would do things that I thought were pleasing to  my father just to see the look of approval pass momentarily over his face. It was not exactly a smile, but a faint, slight, almost imperceptible mellowing of his face. When I occasionally did things of which he disapproved, he did not put me out of the house, he never withheld food and clothing from me; he would simply discipline me in one way or another, whatever way was just and appropriate for the misdeed. Incidentally, although it is not the main theme of this discourse, that is the way God reacts to our wrongdoings. He does not put us out of the body of Christ, He does not evict us from home to face the unfeeling elements of nature. No, as the loving Father He is, He disciplines us to bring us to our senses. But that is another story for another time.

As a child, I didn't do what was right just for the sake of doing right, I did it to please my human father – and also to avoid discipline. But that was all right with God for that time of my life. Of course, as I grew older, I evolved spiritually and did what was right  in order to please God and to get the same sense of approval from Him. I did right for His sake, which was doing righteously for righteousness’ sake. As a matter of fact, I have evolved so much that my righteous deeds are not just a means of avoiding punishment. On the contrary, they spring from the love I have for my Savior. I have grown; my love for Him has developed.

Additionally, my vision of Jesus has matured from seeing Him only as a glorious but helpless infant to the present heart image I have of Him as a powerful but loving, all-knowing yet gracious Savior. It is interesting that, unlike my love for Him, God's love for me is static; it does not grow nor improve nor change.  It is a perfect love, and perfection needs no change. His love remains the same, steadfast and solid, year after year, decade after decade and age after age. It is in fact ageless. But that does not mean divine love is lifeless and stagnant like the waters of the Dead Sea. Far from being a dead love (as though true love could ever be dead!), it is dynamic, warm and vibrant.

Part 2 of Growing in Christ will be posted in this space tomorrow, Friday, 2/10/06.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 8

Part 8

Our Process of Being Refined

Let’s deal now with the process of refinement we all have to go through for God’s perfect will to be done in us and through us. Whatever gift or gifts of the Spirit you may have, you have to go through the refining process to make you fit to use the gift optimally. There is no need for me to recite a long list of biblical figures who had to endure testing of various sorts before they could do what God wanted them to do. You know all this. You should know by now that the fire of adversity is the only means by which this refining is accomplished. A true story will impact this concept in your mind:

There was once a well-known naturalist who had taken a cocoon out of the wild and kept it in his home. He wanted to observe the pupa inside the cocoon as it emerged from its confinement. What made the experiment more interesting was that the lowly pupa was destined to become a strikingly beautiful emperor moth. One day he noticed the cocoon begin to shake. As the naturalist watched, the insect within made a small hole in the cocoon and began trying to squeeze its body through the very small hole.

The observer waited expectantly as the moth struggled valiantly to free itself from what was fast becoming its tomb. He felt a twinge of empathy and thought he would help this insect in its efforts to live and become a thing of beauty. Gently he took a penknife and enlarged the opening, thus permitting the moth to escape. What happened then was a big disappointment to the moth’s would-be benefactor.

The moth didn’t look at all like the lovely creature the naturalist had expected. It was a bulbous ungainly insect with wings too small for its body. The unfortunate insect never became beautiful or delicate and capable of flight. As it crawled awkwardly about, weakly fanning its tiny wings, a hard truth struck the naturalist. He realized — too late — that the struggles the insect had to go through to escape its entombment were vitally necessary for its becoming the exquisite creature that God meant for it to be. The intense struggle was intended to slim it and dehydrate it as it pushed its way to freedom. The naturalist’s help was woefully misguided and fatal.

There is certainly a lesson here. There are certain adversities in life that we have to go through in order to develop and become the thing of beauty God wants us to be. If a friend or brother mistakenly frees us from our struggles, it will severely hinder our growth and development. After our release we will lie there, misshapen and ungainly, awkwardly trying to fly as the divine will has always meant for us to do. But, by being prematurely released from our prison, we will have stumbled badly in our press for excellence.

Trouble, adversity, affliction — we greatly need these ingredients for our spiritual health and perfection. Let’s not try to evade them, let’s not refuse our cross. If we glory in the cross, the glory of the resurrected Christ will rest upon us.

A Brief Recap

You are obligated to use whatever ability you have that can glorify God. Make full use of your gift, first, as the Spirit leads you and, second, as you see a need anywhere that your ability can fill.  The Spirit should not always have to tell you to fill a need that clearly cries out for your ability. For example, if an accident victim is dying as his lifeblood gushes out of a wound with every beat of his heart, you don’t have to ask God if you should apply pressure to the wound to stop the flow. You have two arms and two hands: you simply do what is required. Stanch the flow of your fellow creature’s lifeblood. So it is with your abilities. Use them where they are needed. You of course will pray, as you go about your business of daily following God, that God's will might be wrought through you. And who can tell... It may be that you will not by chance come upon the need of the accident victim, but that God will lead you there. Think about it.

Don't force a certain use of your ability that ill suits you. Use it in a way that is in line with what God wants and that is comfortable to you. You don't always have to be uncomfortable (this is not to say never) in doing God's work and following His will. Don’t think that every step you take has to be a step of pain.

Dedicate every ability you possess to God; reconsecrate your whole self with its traits of character and temperament and be yourself; then stand back and see the hand of God working in your life and the lives of others you contact!

This is all God is asking of you.

This is the conclusion of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 7

Part 7

For example, John Jones and Joe Green may both be, separately and falsely, charged with a crime and threatened with imprisonment. But the prosecutor charging John may be a fair minded  man who doesn’t go after his victim and hang on to him like a pit bull, while Joe’s prosecutor will be just the opposite, looking for the kill, justly or unjustly. In addition and without regard to what seem to be favorable circumstances, John will moan and bewail his fate and be frightened out of his toupee. Joe, meanwhile, although he realizes the seriousness of his predicament, is calmer and more inclined to leave the matter in the hands of the Lord. This doesn’t mean he experiences no stress; he just doesn’t undergo the same stress that John does – whose case is much more likely to end in an acquittal.

That is an example of differences in experiences that are caused by how the respective persons go through the experiences. If John had exercised his faith more and followed scriptural admonition more closely, he could have had less anxiety despite his natural inclination to be a worrier. The God was the same in both instances; the individuals were different in spiritual depth and in innate temperaments. Some persons are naturally less inclined to get into a frenzy when they suffer severe testing. But they have the same God as their less distraught brother, a God who can, if they get close enough to Him, calm their anxieties and soothe their fears. Therefore, it comes down to this basic fact: A believer in Christ does not worry because of his natural temperament but because of his lack of faith. Natural characteristics are a definite factor in every person’s life, but they do not have to control him – if God does.

Let’s take another and different example of differences of experiences from the Scriptures. The Prophet Elisha worked many miracles and God delivered him at times from perilous situations. Jeremiah, on the other hand, worked no miracles, he was vilified, smitten and once he was cast into a slimy dungeon from which God did not choose to deliver him by a miracle. He had to suffer a while in his dark hellhole until a servant of the king persuaded the king to have him rescued by means of ropes let down to him. These differences in experiences were not controlled by the individuals, but by the God of whom we say that He never changes.

But, granting that God never changes, why does He treat individual be­liev­ers differently? First, know this: God acts toward each person just as He knew He would from an eternity ago. So He is not changing in His basic nature, characteristics or set plans of action. There are rea­sons for this vary­ing manner in which God treats His individual children. Some we know, some we don’t. The reasons we know are as follows:

·        Some tem­per­aments require their own individual treatment just as one child may require different treatment from his parents than his brothers and sisters.

·        God may want to glorify Himself through one person in a different way than through his spiritual brothers and sisters.

·        Finally, there is the sovereign will of God Himself to take into account. He decides how to treat each individual for whatever reason and who can say Him nay? But He never loves one person more or less than another. He simply does what He wants with whom He wants and when He wants. Are we going to argue with Him or stomp off in a huff and refuse to serve Him because of this? That would be sheer stupidity. Where would we go?

You may not only go through the waters of adversity; you may have to be deluged with the flood. Or you may require refining in the fire of purging or being tried with great sorrow. Your stroke may seem more than you can bear. But be assured, my brother, my sister: God is the Master Refiner. He closely checks everything that goes on in the lives of His children. What is right He will do. What is needed He will do. What is His will, He will do in every instance if we will let Him have full sway in our lives.

Some through the water, some through the flood,

Some through the fire, but all through the blood.

Some through great sorrow, But God gives a song

In the night season and all the day long.

So, if you wonder why God allows certain things to happen to you that don’t seem to befall your brethren, just calmly accept it. He has His own way of doing things and that way is always for your good and the glory of God.

Part 8 of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities will be posted in this space tomorrow, Tuesday, 2/7/06.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 6

Part 6

Stay Within the Sphere Allotted to You

God is not looking for a clone of Moses or Elijah. He does not want you or me to become another Paul. Why should He when He has such a wide variety of personalities in the Church that are available to Him? God does not need anyone today to be like anyone in the past – except in faith and submissiveness.  Nor does God want anyone today to be like any other of His servants who are living today. His other servants are doing what He wants them to do. What God wants and needs right now is YOU, doing exactly what He wants you to do.

You may be a man in Peoria, Illinois who is very reserved and quite inhibited, not given to much show.  God wants to use you. Or you are a woman in Hamburg, Germany and you have the kind of temperament that God can use to give you significant dreams ands visions (but not the kind of dreams that come from a busy day or a disoriented mind). God wants to use you. You may be a young person in Timbuktu, Mali in Africa and you are assertive and outgoing. Come along: God can use you too.

Don’t try to change your temperament. Changing your temperament or personality is not required for serving God. If you try to do so, it could be a hindrance to God’s working through you. He uses His servants according to the personality and character traits with which they were born. Apostle Peter’s boldness was not taken away from him by the refining process through which he went; it was merely brought under control. Paul’s zeal and fierce loyalty to what he considered a worthy cause were not eliminated; they were only directed aright.

What if Peter had decided he wanted to be like John, or Paul like Daniel? Do you think either one of those what-ifs would have been a good combination? In either case there would have been a misshapen personality whose effectiveness would have been sharply curtailed. God used the features of character that were unique respectively to Peter and Paul for the furtherance of His Kingdom. He by no means wants a hybrid personality composed of two personalities artificially merged into one.

But God in His wisdom used the individual facets of personality of Paul and Peter to spread the Gospel. No doubt He can do the same with your temperament and characteristics if you will only get out of His way and quit trying to be like someone else. When you are trying so much to be like, say, your father or some well-known public figure, you are bending your personality out of shape. You will then end up with a mixed up personality that God will have difficulty using. It will not be a lack of power on God’s part; it will be your failure to discern what God wants of you.

You realize of course that with all this talk about being yourself we do not mean that you should be your carnal self. The carnal unreborn self is what we are daily trying to kill. That fellow is always in conflict with God. We exhort you to be your reborn self as it fits neatly into the framework of God’s will. Do all things according to the will, and for the glory of God.

Quit trying to be like someone else whom God made quite different from you. The human race is not just a vast mob of mindless clones spread over the face of the globe. It is far from that. Everyone who has ever slogged through this morass known as life-on-earth is unique. Each person’s self is made up of a distinct temperament, intellect, personality and specific experiences that no other human has known or ever will know. Whereas there is only one God and He never changes, there have been trillions of individuals and each one is different from every other one. 

Different Temperaments, Different Experiences

All of God’s children have a certain commonality of experience with Him. In a general sense they were all stamped by the same cookie cutter. All were saved by the same means (their faith in Christ) and all have some type of communion with Him, even if the degree of closeness varies by the choice of the individual. Scripture also tells us that no one has a temptation that none of his brothers and sisters experiences, but this does not get into the varying subtle ways the temptation confronts each person and the different ways the individuals may deal with their testing.

Part 7 of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities will be posted in this space tomorrow, Monday, 2/6/06.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 5

Part 5

Repent and Use the Gift Profitably

Yet, in today’s world of Christendom, there are people who, like the old prophet, seem to have drifted as far away from the Lord as possible. And, like the old prophet who lied in the name of the Lord, they still have the gift or gifts that God once gave them. And again, like the old prophet, they rarely have the chance to use the gift, but if they will return to God and give Him their all, He will once again use that ability through them. It all depends on the totality of submission to God. We don’t have to follow a biblical character in his sinful ways. That is why God gives us these shameful examples: that we might avoid the same trap.

Would you walk with the Lord in the light of His word,

And have peace and contentment alway?

You must do His sweet will to be free from all ill,

On the altar your all you must lay.

O we never can know what the Lord will bestow

Of the blessings for which we have prayed

Till our body and soul He doth fully control,

And our all on the altar is laid.

If you are any sort of Christian, even a lukewarm one, you want God to use you. But your tears and beseeching the Lord to use you will be effective only to the extent that you yield your all to Him, That means giving the gift or gifts of the Spirit back to Him by zealously using them. Then, when you have done that, if you are wise, you will not attempt to go “outside the box,” or try to use your gift in the way someone else uses an identical gift. That would be going outside of the way God intends to use you. Remember: God wants to use you, not James, Sue or Mabel. The following illustrations will show what I mean:

Various Modes by Which God Talked with Men

·      God appeared to Moses and talked to him out of a flaming bush (Ex. 3.1-4).

·      He called Samuel with a natural voice (1 Sam. 3.1-10).

·      Abraham saw God talking to him in a vision (Gen. 15.1) and as a natural man (Gen. 18.1-33).

·      Elijah heard God in his inner consciousness (1 Kings 19.9, 12-13), without there being a physical sound or sight.

Various Temperaments of Men of God

Now let’s consider the various temperaments of men to whom God talked. Peter was a very impulsive man given to direct action; no subtleties with him. John was more introversive and reserved. Paul was a zealous energetic type, and James the Lord’s brother was an austere, no-nonsense person. God spoke and was close to all of them in spite of the fact that not one of them conformed to the temperament of any one of the others.

The interesting fact is that many of them had the same spiritual gifts in common. All of the leaders of the Early Church more than likely had an abundance of the gifts of the Spirit. I believe the apostles in particular were endowed with a plurality of gifts. I have no direct scriptural basis for this, so you may accept it or not. But for the work that was required of these men of God, more than one or two abilities would have been needed. Look again at the list in the chart and consider how each gift might have been necessary for an apostle to have. Nevertheless in personalities they were widely divergent one from another.

What do we get out of this? That God is not limited to one mode of action in dealing with men nor is He limited to one type of person with whom He interacts and through whom He works. The main thing that men of God have had in common through the centuries was their faith and their submissiveness to God. We have the same faith and submissiveness today and there is no reason why God cannot speak to us and work in and through us. And He certainly does.

Part 6 of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities will be posted in this space tomorrow, 2/4/06.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 4

Part 4

Using the Gift Unprofitably

Some people have the gift of speaking in other tongues. I know indirectly of at least one person who left the Lord, but was still able to speak at will. Yet his use of the gift profited no one, not those who heard him nor himself. When he spoke in tongues it seemed to be the genuine thing, but it also had a hollow ring. His use of the gift was a mockery of the gift. It was like a circus sideshow act: freakish. I am sure God was not pleased. The hard fact is that he could have unknowingly been speaking condemnation against himself as he spoke in tongues! Scary.

This wayward son was like the old prophet in 1 Kings 13. You have to read the full account to see what I mean, but below is a brief summary:

The old prophet, who lived in Bethel, lied to another prophet whom the Scripture designates only as “a man of God.” God had given the man of God specific directions to go to Bethel and prophesy against the altar there and not to eat or drink while he was there. He was also to return home by a route different than the one he took to Bethel. The younger man complied and was the center of a mighty act of God. The Scriptures do not say why God did not use the old prophet, who was already in Bethel, for the work. It is likely that he had grown old and lackadaisical in his worship of and service for God. His spiritual hearing had flown south and he couldn't hear the voice of God very clearly.

When the old prophet heard of what had happened and that the younger man had departed for home, he saddled his donkey and went to find the man of God to persuade him to come home with him. He was glad to see someone of the same profession as he. But the younger man told him what God had commanded about not eating at Bethel. Not willing to give up on a bit of socializing with a colleague, the older man lied to the man of God.

"He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him." (1 Ki 13:18)

The younger man went back with the old prophet. But as they were eating and drinking, the Lord suddenly spoke through the old prophet, pronouncing judgment on the younger man. This was a sudden turnaround in the young prophet’s fortunes. He had just been a part of a mighty work of the Lord – and now a fellow prophet who had lied to him foretells his (the younger man’s) own death! Unfortunately the prophecy came to pass. After the young man had departed for home, a lion attacked him and killed him.

There are two things we should learn from this tragic story:

·        If God tells us something, we should never believe anyone who tries to tell us differently. I believe that if God gives us a command directly from Him, without an intermediary, then we should not accept any change of the divine mind. Why would God change His mind? He foresees any possible happenings and doesn’t have to rethink His method of operations and then, to save face, have to send someone else to tell us.

·        God does not take away the gift He has given you. You may lie on Him, as the old prophet did, but the gift remains. According to our limited way of thinking, the old man should have been the object of judgment. He lied on God; he dissuaded another prophet from doing what God had told him to do, and it was all selfishly motivated. He wanted the company of a fellow prophet. How self-centered, to seek for the fulfillment of his own social life by causing the downfall of someone else cast in the same prophetic mold as he! If we had been God, we would have turned the fate of the younger man back upon the sinning pate of the old prophet.

But God does not see as we do, and His way is the only way for those who trust in Him. Additionally, the era of the Mosaic Law was not one that was as sprinkled with grace as our day – the day of the “law of liberty.” The younger prophet had disobeyed God and He had to be judged. Furthermore, the things that happened in those days were brought down to us today as lessons of encouragement or warning. This incident happened to be a warning not to play with God. Take His commands seriously. What about the older prophet who lied in the name of the Lord? We’ll have to leave that in the hands of the Lord. But we shouldn’t be like him. He was motivated by selfish reasons and he brazenly lied, in effect putting words in the Lord’s mouth in order to get the younger prophet to stay and eat and drink with him. Such characteristics would scarcely become us who follow Christ today. It is, without question, a different world now.

Part 5 of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities will be posted in this space tomorrow, 2/3/06.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 3

Part 3

God Works As His Will Dictates

God gave all of us whatever ability we have whether we belong to Him or not. We can truthfully say as Job did, “Naked I came into this world and naked I will leave it,” but within that naked physical being are abilities for doing or being various things. These temperaments and traits, which figure prominently in how God uses us, do not always come to us unalloyed from God. Sin has succeeded in twisting and perverting some of them so that at times they are positively demonic. But when we turn to God we are giving all that we have to Him, including unsightly warts and blemishes and whatever abilities we have. The Spirit will then repress the bad characteristics and give the potentially good ones (traits/gifts) back to us and refine them by experience and/or purging. He will then use them, through us, in various aspects of Kingdom work. The extent to which He uses them will be in direct ratio to the degree in which we sanctify ourselves (consecrate or set ourselves apart for God.)

As we know, the Holy Spirit has no shortage of ability and power. Consequently He may at times use one of the many gifts of the Spirit outside of the natural ability of the person in whom He resides. It is not a matter then of refining or sharpening native skills; it is God doing a new thing without respect to native bent or ability. He will work through the yielded person whatever it is that God pleases.

The Spirit of God can move upon one who doesn't have a flair for writing and anoint him so that his pen will be a veritable geyser of words carrying the message of God to whomever the Spirit has targeted. A person who has trouble giving a five-sentence speech can, at the prompting of the Spirit, deliver a full-length sermon. It may be the only time in his life in which he will do this: it is possible only at God’s direction. In these peremptory moves God is showing us that He is not at all limited by our inadequacies and limitations: He is God Almighty who does what He pleases, as He pleases and when He pleases.

But we can be sure that God will not work in this way with just anyone. He will work in this fashion only through those who consecrate themselves to Him. But if He uses you in a signal fashion outside of your natural ability, don’t discard that one small talent you have as an inborn gift. Don’t despise it, no matter what it is or how small in your sight. Always remember there is a caveat or warning that comes with any spiritual gift. Even though you may possess a gift of the Spirit, you still need the Spirit Himself to help you to operate the gift fruitfully. All of us have at least one spiritual gift and it will never be taken from us:

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance [are irrevocable - NRSV]." (Rom 11:29),

God has plans for you if you will only break through the shell of carnality encapsulating you (we all have it) and get down to the serious business of seeking your God. Seek Him often and persistently – He is not likely to budge from where He is just for a lackadaisical “Lord, help me!” Get real with God. I would even say, “pester” Him. He responds to such an attitude. He knows we cannot use the gift profitably without the Spirit's aid.

·        If you want to take the one gift “that is death to hide” and use it to the fullest extent possible...

·        If you want to be all that you can be...

·        If you seriously want God to use you wherever and whenever He pleases...

fall on your face in entreaty before your resident Holy Spirit long and earnestly. He wants to use you; He’s just waiting to hear your “effectual, fervent prayer.” It will definitely “avail much.”  (Jas. 5.16b)

Don’t hold back any of your miserable, miserly self. Give all you are and all you have to Him. If the Holy Spirit has thought enough of you to give you a gift, you should be seeking Him for the ability to use it to the max. We are not talking now about a friend or relative giving you a Christmas present; you can do with a human-donated gift whatever you please. A gift of the Spirit is another matter. We are dealing here with the Spirit of the living God. He gave you a precious gift and it was solely by the grace of God. But with the gracious gift comes responsibility: God has the right to demand a return from the gift He gave you.

Part 4 of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities will be posted in this space tomorrow, Thursday, 2/2/06.

Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities 2

Part 2

Apostles

The word of itself means, “one sent forth” and has been used in the Bible to denote the vatious evangelists and helpers who aided in proclaiming the Gospel. But Jesus used it in a narrower sense that referred only to the twelve disciples who were closest to Him. It is clear that the word is used in that way when Paul includes it in the gifts of the Spirit. Only an apostle (as Jesus used the term) had the gift of apostleship. There are no more of that select group today.

Prophets

Those who have the gift of prophecy as described in the first list above. In listing this gift again, as a special gift to the Church, Paul underscores its importance to the well-being of that great organization.

Teachers

An instructor in the Way of Holiness. One who takes those who are already saved and reveals to them the way of Truth more perfectly. This is another important position that is needed in the Church for its spiritual growth. A teacher can also instruct persons who do not know Christ, but want to learn more about Him before they give Him their all.

The rest of the list reverts to the gifts the Spirit gives to individuals.

Miracles/Healings

These have been sufficiently described at the very beginning of the list of gifts.

Helps

Please see this gift described more fully under “An Example of a Little-Known Gift” below.

Governments

Administrations. This refers to those who have the competence and skill to govern others under them in whatever endeavor they engage in for Christ.

Diversities of Tongues

The same as the gift of tongues described at the beginning of the list.

Now that we have gone through both lists of the gifts of the Spirit as given in 1 Cor. 12.5-10 and 28-30 respectively, we can focus on the gift of “Helps,” – a vague word – and see what seems to be implicit in the term:

An Example of a Little-Known Gift

Not all of the gifts of the Spirit are specifically named. For instance, under the listing of “helps” (1 Cor. 12.28) Paul implies there are a variety of other abilities within that one word. One of them could be the capacity some people have for adeptly dealing with other people. With those who have this capacity there are no strangers. They are natural-born mixers who enjoy social interaction. There are several ways in which they can utilize this “factor of friendliness”:

They could use this outstanding talent by welcoming visitors who come to the church. Make the visitors want to come back to such a friendly place.

They can also be a tremendous help to new converts who need someone with whom they can relate. New members, even if they themselves are social mixers, need someone to help orient them in the unfamiliar land they have entered. They perhaps have never seen you before and some may not have ever opened a Bible before they came to God.

Or…

These warm, outgoing individuals can befriend and draw out the inner warmth of someone who has been saved for a number of years, but who has trouble mingling with others. No one can survive alone and unaided – not even those who appear to need no one else.

Mr. or Ms. “Friendly,” who relates well to all people and would be desolated without someone to glad hand and talk to, could work in any one or all of the above ways. If you have the “heart of a servant,” you can find little tasks that are waiting for you to perform them. The Spirit should not always have to tell us what to do when the need is so obvious and we have the ability to fill it.

The Spirit has all of the gifts of the Spirit within Himself, but this does not mean that you have  all of these gifts at your immediate disposal simply because your divine House Guest has all wealth and all power. You have only the gift or gifts your Guest (rather, your permanent Resident!) chooses to give you after you have first given your all to Him. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Spirit takes for His own use the natural abilities that you already have. He then gives these traits back to you as “gifts” of the Spirit and uses them as He deems appropriate. Of course, since the abilities are a native part of you, God uses them within the confines of your natural makeup. But He is by no means limited to how He works through someone who is yielded to Him. We will deal with this thought shortly.

Part 3 of Gifts of the Spirit and Individual Personalities will be posted in this space Wednesday, 2/1/06.