Tag: Devotion

he Holy Spirit indwells all believers in Jesus Christ. The action of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell a person thus baptising such a one into the body of Christ, the family of God. This Holy Spirit marks out every child of God and incorporates him or her into the family of God, which is described here as one body. It speaks of unity and it speaks also of diversity. Many members yet one body in Christ. The societal distinction of race and social status by no means prevents any from entering God’s kingdom. All are within the reach of God’s love.

Woolvard summarized well, “This verse forms an excellent three-part summary of the rest of the chapter. (a) The human body is a unit (cf. v. 13 on the unity of the body of Christ). (b) The human body has many parts, with a necessary diversity in its members (cf. vv. 14-20). (c) The parts of the human body work together as one, with a dependent mutuality as each part fulfills an important function (cf. vv. 21-26). Likewise the body of Christ has a diversity of parts functioning together (vv. 27-30).”

Hendricksen observed well, “No one in the Christian community receives all the gifts and no one is without a gift. Paul asserts that the Holy Spirit allocates them to each person in the church, to the one this gift and to another that gift. The Spirit neglects no one, so that the totality of talents in the church constitutes a rich reservoir of ability and proficiency.”

The tongues refer to known languages. The interpreter is given the ability by the Holy Spirit to understand and rightly convey the meaning of the spoken message. This gift enabled the church to receive God’s message for them even though there was a language barrier between the speaker and the congregation.

The ability to speak in a foreign language is given as a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit to those who have no knowledge of the language prior to their bestowment from God. It was given as a temporary sign-gift to authenticate the message of the gospel before the Scriptures were completed.

William MacDonald said well, “Discerning of spirits describes the power to detect whether a prophet or other person is speaking by the Holy Spirit or by Satan. A person with this gift has special ability to discern if a man is an imposter and an opportunist, for instance.”

William MacDonald said well, “The gift of prophecy, in its primary sense, signified that a person received direct revelations from God and transmitted them to others. Sometimes the prophets predicted future events (Acts 11:27, 28; 21:11); more often they simply expressed the mind of God. Like the apostles, they were concerned with the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20). They themselves were not the foundation, but they laid the foundation in what they taught concerning the Lord Jesus. Once the foundation was laid, the need for the prophets ceased. Their ministry is preserved for us in the pages of the NT. Since the Bible is complete, we reject any so-called prophet who claims to have additional truth from God.”

A miracle is a supernatural working by God that defies the laws of the natural created world. There are three epochs of miracles in human history traced through biblical testimonies during the time of the Exodus and Israel’s entry to the Promised Land, the time of the prophets Elijah and Elisha and during the days of Christ and the Apostles. These miracles were wrought to authenticate the Scriptures.

The gifts of healing is available as a temporary manifestation of God’s power during the period prior to the completion of the Scriptures. Christ Himself cast out demons and healed those possessed with demons. He healed the sick, the miamed and blind and deaf. Indeed, He is God. And this power was manifested in the ministry of the Apostles and disciples sent out by Jesus during His lifetime. They were able to wrought healing as Jesus did.

The gift of faith. The believer endowed with the grace to trust God even amidst severe trials to do His will. Joshua and Caleb were endowed with the faith to believe that the Israelites will possess the land of Canaan whilst the other ten spies were fearful of the giants in the land and shriek from even considering to enter the land.