SUMMER IN THE SPIRIT: GIFTING OF THE SPIRIT

We continue our Summer in the Spirit series!  We hope you are experiencing God’s Spirit as we continue to understand God’s power at work in our world, and in our hearts.  This series would not be complete without some understanding of spiritual gifts.  In the sermon Gifting of the Spirit we turn to 1 Corinthians 12:1-14.  The Corinthians church was struggling with division, doubts about the resurrection, and the darkness of their pagan past.  The Christian faith was foreign and unusual, in that, it required an exclusive focus on Jesus Christ and the living God.  The prevailing attitude in the first century was that there was strength in the number of gods you worshipped!  The Apostle Paul constantly reminds these early believers of the power of the Holy Spirit and how it is at work to empower, enlighten, and encourage them toward a unity and strength that could only be found in Jesus Christ.  The power of the Holy Spirit is the power of Jesus Christ.  How were they to understand the gifts of the Spirit?  Is it just personality traits or something more?  They had a tendency to use their gifts to elevate their pride and empower their arrogance.  Some gifts were prized more than others.  They were being led to confusion and conflict! Paul words are the voice of the Spirit leading them to wholeness and strength!  We pray that you will sense the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in your heart to lead you to wholeness and strength as you read 1 Corinthians 12:1-14. 

1 Corinthians 12:1-14

^​​1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³ Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. ⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. ⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. ¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.