1 Corinthians 12:11

I'll bet you twenty dollars that as you think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you go through a mental checklist, hoping to find one of the gifts that you might actually have. I've done this a hundred times. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, the interpretation of tongues. My bet is you get through the list and come out the other side worrying that you might not have any spiritual gifts at all. You're not alone.

The problem is simple: we are human. It is our nature to take control. We do it every day. We do it every hour. We do it in the morning. We look at ourselves as the main actor in our little dramas, and so when we think about the spiritual gifts, we think only of ourselves, and what gifts we might possess. We don't think about the Holy Spirit for a second, even though they are His gifts. Because of that moment on the cross a couple thousand years ago, when Jesus took our works of the flesh upon Himself and gave us His fruit of the Spirit, we are still regarded, whatever our fleshly works look like, as bearing the fruit of the Spirit and as possessors of all kinds of spiritual gifts.

When Jesus went to be with His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, and to give us all the good gifts we could never earn on our own. When God looks at us, His gaze finds what His voice has declared! We have been given gifts by the Holy Spirit. And the real miracle is, it actually happens! We have faith where none existed before. We are given wisdom in a difficult situation. We understand God's will in a situation without even knowing how we do so. Each one of these things is a miracle, because they come directly from God. They are His gifts, freely given to us.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,