We have been hearing a lot of sermons on The Holy Spirit, the Anointing, Tongues and etc. We know all of these well ever since our childhood. But, why do we need all of this. Why is the Holy Spirit so significant? Does the Holy Spirit mean anything for me? Personally?
Well, let’s see how “personal” He is to us..
First of all, Rom 8:2, He freed us from the power of sin and death. Isn’t that like the greatest thing? We were not saved because we wanted to but it was the Holy Spirit who convicted us, prompted us and lead us to confessing our sins unto repentance.
There are many roles the Holy Spirit plays generally, even in our life, like He is the Comforter, Restrainer, etc etc., But let's take a quick look at 10 important ‘personal’ roles He plays in every born again Christian’s life. We’re not going to look at every point in detail. Each one is a separate sermon in itself. However, we’ll just remind ourselves of those points and concentrate more on the 10th point.
1. John 16:13 - He guides us into all truth. He teaches us from the word, counsels us, reveals new things to us. —> Guide
2. Luke 4:14, Acts 8:24 - He navigates us to where we ought to go. Have you experienced this, like being Led by Him to go and talk to someone, to pray for someone, to go to a place where you need to go? —> Navigator
What’s the difference between a guide and a navigator?
A guide just tells orally to do a certain action in a certain way but a navigator plans, directs the course and stays with you all through the journey. Have you experienced this? Amazing, isn’t it?
3. Ezek 36:27 - He not only guides and navigates us, He makes us to walk in His teaching everyday. It is only because of the Holy Spirit that we are still “in the Lord”.
4. Acts 16:7 - He prevents us. Have you felt the Holy Spirit preventing you from doing something or from going somewhere or from talking in some way? I’ve felt it many times. Praise God for preventing us from falling into many traps.
5. 1 John 5:8, Rom 8:16 - He bears witness before the Father about us. He testifies too.
6. Mat 10:20, Rom 8:26b - He speaks through us and intercedes through us for others. He gives us the right words to speak when our friends & colleagues corner us with tough questions.
7. Rom 8:26a - He helps us in our weakness. Haven’t we felt tired or bored or too out-of-mood to pray, times when we didn’t know what to pray? Yes, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. He is such a Loving God.
8. 1 John 4:13 - I’m reminded of the song ‘Blessed Assurance’. Wow! He confirms, affirms and assures us that we are still in Him.
Have you ever felt that God does not care for you any longer?
Have you ever felt that your prayers alone are not being answered?
Have you ever felt that you’ve moved away from God?
Have you ever felt the devil tell you that there is nothing more that God has for you?
Well, God the Holy Spirit is the one who affirms, re-affirms and assures us of our salvations, of our eternal home, of God’s never ending Love for us & He is still with us and that we are still ‘in’ Him.
9. Gal 5:22 - He makes us to bear fruit. He makes us to be useful to others, at our home, at our schools, at our workplace & even at our church.Awesome! So 9 points over. Even if you didn’t pay much attention to the above 9, listen to this one carefully. This is the main part of this blog.
10. 1 Cor 12:1-11 - The Holy Spirit is the “Gifter”.
What are the gifts?
Word of Wisdom
Word of Knowledge
Faith
Gifts of healing
Working of miracles
Prophecy
Discerning of spirit
Different kinds of tongues
Interpretation of tongues
The Bible says in the last verse of this Chapter to “desire for the best gifts”(verse 31). Now listen to this statement very very carefully.
“The Holy Spirit and His gifts are ‘personalised’ for you by God. Never try to ‘customise’ it.”
What is the difference between ‘personalise’ and ‘customise’?
Personalise - to design or produce something to meet someone’s individual requirement
Customise - to modify something to suit a particular individual or task.
Consider a car. Designing it right from the beginning design phase to meet a person’s requirement is ‘personalisation’. Modifying parts of it post the production to suit your own need according to the way you like it is ‘customisation’.
“The Holy Spirit and His gifts are ‘personalised’ for you by God. Never try to ‘customise’ it.”
So, consider you got the gifts. How do you make it grow? How do you mature in it?
Verses 12 to 28: Talks about ‘fellowship’
Fellowship is vital to inculcate and mature in the gifts. Routinely meeting for prayer, for meditating the Word & to pray with and for one another is important… very important..
Never think your gift is greater or lesser than one that another has. God has given to each one of us ‘personalised’ according to His Will. Just because you can’t speak in tongues does not mean you are lesser than the other. You might have the gift to interpret tongue which is actually a more useful gift that brings edification to an entire congregation rather than just to the person who speaks in the tongue.
God is able to give us new gifts and also to help us discover the long last ones that He has already placed in our lives.
The only thing that we need to do is to “ask”. Do you want to receive the gifts that God has in store for you, those ‘personally’ ‘personalised’ gifts?
Three things that we need to be cautious about
1. John 3:5 - Without being born again of the Spirit and of Water, one cannot enter the Kingdom on Heaven.
2. Eph 4:30 - Never ever grieve the Holy Spirit by your thoughts, actions or words.
3. 1 Thes 5:19 - Do not quench the Spirit. Yes, Godliness with contentment is great gain, but not for the anointing.
“Yesterday’s fire is today’s ash”.
Are you thinking “Will God be so gracious on me despite knowing that I failed Him so badly till now?”
Luke 11:13 - How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who “ask” Him.
Do you want to receive the Holy Spirit’s anointing and be filled with His out pour? Do you want to get drenched in His presence and be filled with the Gifts He has for you?
Take a minute to pray and “ask” the Lord, the God who pours out His Spirit on all flesh to fill you right now.
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