Workings of the Holy
Spirit
Spirit-filled, fleshly Christians have benefitted one time or other from spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1-11). Yet, Scripture says that in time, these gifts will fail or cease for us (1 Cor. 13:8) because God has made certain they are only “in part” until that which is “perfect” (or complete) has come (1 Cor. 13:10).
No doubt Spirit-filled, fleshly Christians have already experienced
a lessening of the spiritual gifts. If so, we’ve probably done one of the
following:
First, being disillusioned and lacking deep roots of faith,
we’ve either abandoned our Christian walk; or second and worse, we’ve been
“forcing” the gifts to happen—not from a place of faith—but from a place of
desperation. Or, we’ve even blamed the fellowship we’re in and then managed to
find a different fellowship, where the Spirit of God still graces its members
with spiritual gifts. Thus, for our lack of faith in God, ourselves, and others,
we miss out on opportunities to grow up!
Mature Christians, however, blame no one—not ourselves,
others, or God. Our faith has matured enough where we’re able to acknowledge
that God no longer wants us to dwell in experiences that are “in part”; rather,
we are to move on into “that which is perfect”.
Perfection (completion) comes from bringing forth spiritual
fruit, not spiritual gifts. Fruit-bearers are more spirit than flesh. Thus, as
spirit, our validation comes to us in the form of spiritual provisions—that are
outside of 1 Corinthians 12!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Ourselves, and others, we miss out on opportunities to grow up! Pawn My Watch
ReplyDeletepetersmith, thanks for sharing your comment and observation.
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