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WHAT ARE THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT ?
In 2 Cor. 10:4 the scripture says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We are in warfare against evil (devil) and our weapons as the children of God are the gifts of the Holy Spirit which He gives us. Nobody should be in a battle without weapons and most of us are fighting without the proper weapons because we do not know where they are or what they are. There are nine gifts written in the bible which is the word of God in 1 Cor: 12. It explains that there are different gifts but it is the same Holy Spirit, and there are differences in administrations meaning positions such as a teacher or preacher, but the same Lord. The gifts operate in different ways but once again it is the same God. In these scriptures you can see the trinity. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit. These gifts operate through us by no natural inspiration. In other words our human wisdom or knowledge does not play a role in these gifts. They are a direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit who moves our human spirit with His power and knowledge to manifest what He desires at that moment in time.
A person may feel some physical symptoms when He moves you to accomplish His purpose. You will feel an urgency or a knowing about something that you can not explain. You will feel the urge to act upon the move of the Holy Spirit as He is urging you. It is not from your own emotions, although you can get emotional when He (Spirit) touches you. The way the Holy Spirit accomplishes His job in this world is through people who will listen and obey. He will not force us to do anything. He will motivate you but you will always have the choice (free will) to either say yes and obey or say no and reject Him. That is why it is so important to actually learn about Him and understand what His mission is so we can have a clue as to what He wants to accomplish through us in this world. If you do not know He speaks to us or that He wants to do His work through us we will say no to Him. If we are ignorant then He will stay dormant (of no affect) or silent. The Holy Spirit has much work to do before Jesus comes back. It is vital that we, the church, understand Him.
Let us get into what these nine gifts are, how they affect our lives, how they operate, how to know when these gifts are operating in us. Before we can use these gifts we have to first accept Jesus into our hearts and repent of our sins and try to walk the Christian walk and not just talk the talk. The Holy Spirit is very serious about His mission. You have to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit in faith the same way you accepted Jesus and believed that He died for your sins. Once you have accepted Christ you are ready to receive His Holy Spirit. We will at the end of this teaching pray for every one who desires the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit baptizes you with the evidence of speaking in tongues which is in the word of God in Acts Chapter 2. In other words the Holy Spirit will come into you with all of the power of God and will be ready to motivate you as He sees fit to accomplish His purpose in reaching the world and perfecting us as the children of our Father God. It is a life changing experience that will bless you forever more. Faith does play a role in this as everything that is accomplished in this life is done by faith and that belief that God is real and His word is the absolute truth. People tend to get self conscious when it to comes to speaking in tongues because our mind can’t grab the concept of it so when prayer for the baptism takes place you really have to let go and let God.
To get into the gifts we will start with an explanation. The gifts can be used severally as He (God) wills. He can use any one of the gifts at any time through us; usually a few will work together at one time. The gifts are powerful; they reveal things that God wants to tell us and they can inspire or motivate us when we need it. The surge of power that manifest through us when these gifts are functioning can be felt in our bodies as the Holy Spirit performs a task that is so desperately needed at that moment in time. There will be times when you will not be sure if the Holy Spirit is actually motivating you but as you become more and more aware of His presence you will recognize Him. There will be other times without a doubt you will get so moved by Him that you have to respond as He gently but powerfully urges you to act upon His nudging. You may not want to respond in embarrassment or feeling insecure in whether or not it is actually Him. He understands our flesh and if your heart is open He will help you learn how to work for Him and finish the work He has to do before the return of Jesus. If you want to live the life that God promises for us you have to be able to connect to God so He can help us and equip us to fight this battle. Christ has won the battle but the war is not yet over and the devil will take as many as he can into his world of suffering and sorrow. If the gifts were not necessary God would not have given them to us and would not be moving His Spirit in us. The gifts are essential at times for our well being and at times to even save our lives from impending destruction that the devil may be planning against a person’s life.