Home / Blog / Earnestly Desire Spiritual Gifts
The Bible encourages all believers in Christ to earnestly desire spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:31). Paul told the Corinthian church, "I do not want you to be ignorant, concerning spiritual gifts," and pointed out four bonds of spiritual unity:
They used to worship dead idols, but now they worship the living God. Their idols never spoke to them, but God spoke to them by His Spirit. The Spirit of God lived in them and directed them. It is only through the Holy Spirit that a person can honestly say, "Jesus is Lord." Division and dissension among followers of Christ will weaken their testimony to a lost world (John 17:20-21).
Jesus promised the baptism of the Holy Spirit both before and after He arose from the dead (Luke 24:49 & Acts 1:8). He even told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received this baptism (Acts 1:4-5).
Salvation is not a reward for "works" or "doing good things," because the work of salvation has already been completed on the cross by Jesus Christ. The work of salvation comes from God's grace and is a demonstration of God's goodness with the emphasis always on Christ, the object of faith, not the amount of faith (see Ephesians 2:8-10).
Jesus Christ is the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11) and the Chief Cornerstone (Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 8:14) of believing faith. Both the Jews and the Gentiles needed to be reconciled to God because they were separated from Him by sin.
Today, through His Spirit, God dwells in the hearts of those who have placed their faith, hope, love, and trust in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
"Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people" (Psalm 3:8).
David wrote Psalm 27:
"The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid? .... One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble, He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle and set me on a rock" (Jesus is the rock).
David was living in the wilderness of Judea, away from the sanctuary of the LORD, but he was still able to enter into fellowship with God. The imagery in Psalm 27:4-6 is the Old Testament equivalent of "abiding in Christ" (John 15:1-8).
David took the time to meditate on and contemplate the wonders of God's grace. He came away from his times of worship and fellowship feeling the rock under his feet and seeing with his spiritual eyes the victory God had prepared.
When the LORD's face smiles upon us (Numbers 6:22-27), it means He is pleased with us and will help us. When His face is turned from us, He is unpleased (Psalm 69:16-18; 143:7), and we need to search our hearts and confess our sins.
Jesus is our Savior and Lord. He never forsakes His own. When David believed God and lifted his voice in prayer and praise to God, his faith moved the hands of God.
"Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 29:1-2).
Heaven is a place of worship (see Revelation 4-5), and here in Psalm 29, the command is given for the angels to ascribe to God glory and strength because His divine attributes magnify His name. Psalm 29 begins and ends mentioning God's strength. During this demonstration of God's great power, the angels were watching with amazement and shouting glory! The angels learned about God's grace, wisdom, and power by watching Jesus, the Son of God, when He served on the earth (1 Timothy 3:16). They also learned during the week of creation (John 38:4-7), and are learning today as they behold the church on earth (Ephesians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:12).
The Lord is King today and will sit as King forever! He can give strength to His people and see them through storms of life. After the thunder, lightning, wind, and rain comes the calm when the Lord will bless His people with peace (Psalm 29:11).
Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12).
It's impossible for true believers to walk in darkness. They want the Lord Jesus Christ to be their light and life. Believers in Christ can truthfully decree, they are the righteousness of God through faith in Christ because of His work of grace on the cross. And by His stripes, we are healed.
Call on the name of the Lord in faith and He will show you great and mighty things which you do not know (Jeremiah 33:3).
In John 8:44, Jesus says:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day."
This verse teaches that human beings cannot reach or understand Jesus on their own. God is the initiator who took the first step to reach people's hearts. Everyone who listens and learns from the Father comes to Him. Salvation starts with God. Without His grace opening a person's eyes, no one would seek Him. However, since we were created in His image and given free will, each one of us can accept or reject Him. He loves us despite the things we may say and do.
Drawing people to God is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. If there's no conviction of sin, people remain blind and won't understand the work of Christ on the cross on their behalf because the god of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers.
Believers, however, are no longer unrighteous or unholy. Their heart received conviction, their eyes of understanding were opened, the Holy Spirit brought about conviction, did a supernatural work in their heart, and now lives in them. If you are a believer, your body is a temple of the living God. You are no longer your own – you were bought at a price paid for by Christ's death on the cross. Believers have been adopted into the family of God, carry His spiritual DNA, and belong to Him.
Holy Spirit baptism is empowerment to spread the good news of the gospel. This kind of baptism has nothing to do with water. Joel foretold of this baptism more than 800 years before the birth of Christ. He emphasized a future "day of the Lord," when Christ will return to establish His kingdom on the earth and the nations will be judged. This verse is also referenced in Acts 2:17.
This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophecy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams" (Joel 2:17).
Joel foretells a time of great judgment and signs in the sky, marking the final day of the Lord, but whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21).
Joel says there will be signs in both the sky and on the earth:
The prophet describes dramatic changes in nature, a gathering of nations, and ultimate justice for all people.
Jesus will return to judge the nations and is the One upon whom people must call in repentance and faith. All who have rejected or ignored God's gift of grace and faith will encounter the wrath of Almighty God in judgment and eternal separation (damnation) from Him in a lake of fire and brimstone together with all the fallen angels who are Satan's minions of darkness.
Not everyone can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is one condition to receiving this empowerment from heaven – you must receive salvation. You don't need to take a test or have a special degree. God wasn't lying. He wants to see every man, woman, and child to receive Holy Spirit empowerment to go and be a better witness with signs and wonders following.
Honestly, what Christian wouldn't want the faith to pray for the sick or have passion to see this world saved and set free from the bondage of sin?
Praying in any known language is powerful, but you are praying your own will instead of God's. This isn't bad, but wouldn't it be better to have God tell you what to pray? When you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, God gives you a prayer language that comes from Him. When you pray in the Spirit, you pray the perfect will of God.
The Bible explicitly tells believers to eagerly desire spiritual gifts. God is love and love is the greatest command. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophecy. The believers who speak in a tongue speaks to God in praise and worship – but the believer who prophesies shares the Word of God with the church and helps those who listen.
Prophecy edifies the church, while tongues edify only the one who speaks, unless there is an interpreter. An interpreter must be present before the gift of tongues is released to the corporate body of believers.
The seed that is received in good ground is the seed that bears fruit, but this means there must be an understanding of the word that is released (Matthew 13:23). If a believer wants to be edified, he should prepare his heart to receive the word (1 Thessalonians 2:13). But not everybody who listens really hears. There must be understanding if there is to be any edifying.
2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Unbelievers are both blind and ignorant when it comes to spiritual truth.
Jesus said:
"I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life" (John 8:12).
To "follow" Jesus means to believe on Him, to trust Him – the results are life and light for the believer. Jesus exhorted His followers to put their trust in the light while they have Him with them, so they could become "sons of light" (John 12:35-36). Jesus came into this world as light so no one who believes in Him will remain in darkness.
All kinds of things are handed out by the Holy Spirit to all kinds of people. There are nine distinct gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in the Bible:
Out of the nine gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12, what is the one that pops out to you the most? Why?
For me, words of knowledge strike me the most because I need all the help I can get when praying for the sick and people who need to be delivered from unbearable pain.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 24, in the last days, the hearts of many will grow cold because wickedness will increase. As sin, evil, and lawlessness abound in the world, people's capacity to love God and care for others will fade into emotional and spiritual apathy. The Bible says difficult times will abound before His return.
2 Timothy 3:1-7 describes people's attitudes in the last days – they will have all kinds of self-centered beliefs and immoral perversions.
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