We began a Bible Study on Spiritual Gifts just recently, and once again I found myself faced with two familiar stories. First there was the statement from a couple of folk that the gifts that they read of in the New Testament simply aren't operating today; the result= no expectation for God to work in and through us in any way.
..the other story sadly familiar was of people who have been told all manner of rubbish about speaking in tongues, and folk who were told that unless they were "slain" in the spirit (?) then they weren't Christians and were obviously beset by some terrible sin; the result= fear and distrust of anything spiritual.
These two stories turn up in some form every time I teach on spiritual gifts and I have learned to give space to them for they must be spoken out and acknowledged as experiences before we can hope to move forward...
But the fact is that I believe in a God of the super-natural, a God who works and moves, equips and encourages his church through spiritual gifts today. I have seen and experienced healing, have given and received words of knowledge and have watched as folk who dare to trust in God have grown in faith and in grace as they have received the Holy Spirit's gifts, not for themselves but for the body of Christ that it might be an effective and transformative agent in the world. To put it bluntly without the Spirit we cannot be either salt or light for real Christianity is not a choice to live by a moral code but a choice to enter into the life of God through Christ, and to be equipped just as he said we would be!
I find myself grieving again and again as I encounter resistance to a God who asks for our all, don't get me wrong, for I resist too, but I don't want to, and I am willing to enter into the battle ( for it is a battle) with my selfish self...
So where does all this leave me? I find myself in a place where I am not only thirsty for the waters of the Spirit to refresh my soul but where I long to see the desert bloom, to see waters flowing in the wildernesses of faith, and where the body of Christ is effective and life giving...
O Lord hear my prayer...
..begin with me...
Holy Spirit by Colleen Shay.
