Grace Thoughts
Teaching Notes – The Work of the Holy Spirit (2)
Teaching Notes are Bible studies we taught before GraceLife Ministries began publishing articles online in 1995. Some were presented as sermons, others as group studies.
Our hope is that these older studies will be a blessing to you in your life and ministry. Please use them in any way God leads you.
These teaching notes are from an international radio series. You can read Part 1 of this series here [LINK].
[These notes are from almost 50 years ago.]
A More Excellent Way
Let’s say that you do covet the best spiritual gifts and God gives you the gift of prophecy or teaching (I doubt that you’ll get the gift of apostleship unless you’ve seen the risen Christ and met all of the other requirements for being an apostle). Is that gift God the ‘ultimate’ in Christianity? Look again at 1 Corinthians 12:31 – “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” Paul is saying here that there is something even better than the gifts of Spirit. What’s that? Look at 1 Corinthians 13:1 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
Let’s pretend again that I have the gift of speaking in ‘tongues of men and of angels.’ Let’s pretend for a moment that I have the gift of speaking in every known tongue (language) in the world, plus I can speak the language of angels. Does that make me a spiritual success? Look again at what Paul says – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” In other words, if I don’t use my spiritual gift of ‘tongues’ with ‘love,’ I am just a bunch of noise.
Let’s say that I’m a prophet and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have all faith to the point that I can actually remove mountains. Am I a spiritual success? What does Paul say in the next verse? “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” Even if I am the greatest preacher who ever lived, and had the greatest amount of faith of any Christian alive or has ever lived, if I don’t have ‘love,’ I am ‘nothing.’ If I don’t preach and teach in love, I am a spiritual ‘zero.’
Paul goes on to write – “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” Christian friend, you can DO and GO and WORK and BE, but if you don’t have a heart full of love for God and others, everything you do will profit you nothing.
It breaks my heart to think that thousands of preachers, deacons, board members, youth directors, Sunday School teachers, choir members, and church members are going to get to Heaven after a life of ‘serving’ the ‘church’ only to find out that they don’t have any reward because of their ‘unloving’ spirit through the years.
Summary
Let me briefly summarize what I’ve been saying. Our young listener who wrote from Kingston, Jamaica, has the ‘indwelling’ of the Holy Spirit and the ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit confused. You are indwell by the Spirit at the moment you ‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.’ You receive ‘gifts’ from the Spirit when He wishes to give them to you. He may give you one, maybe two, maybe more. That’s His choice. However, nowhere does the Bible teach that the Holy Spirit gives every Christian every spiritual gift. If you ‘desire’ spiritual gifts, ‘covet earnestly’ the ‘best gifts’ of 1 Corinthians 12:28. But even then, all of the best gifts in the world will never mean a thing if they are not saturated in a love heart and life.
Just in case someone should mistake something I’ve said in this broadcast, let me say that I do ‘not’ speak in tongues. That is not a spiritual gift God has given to me. God has been very kind to give me a gift that allows me to share His Word in a way that I pray will bring glory to His Holy Name.
I’ve shared these thoughts with you in today’s broadcast because God loves you and I love you. God wants what’s best for you, and so do I.
[Thank you for reading these teaching notes from almost 50 years ago. My prayer is they will be a blessing to you and your life and ministry.]
Published by gracelifethoughts
Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts