The Holy Spirit, gifts, and you

There are plenty of great essays and books on the Holy Spirit. I particularly like this one that the Christian & Missionary Alliance wrote. As our Adventures participants go out on missions trips, they often have little understanding about what the Bible says concerning spiritual gifts and have a lot of questions.

Recently I shared some thoughts with a group of World Racers in Guatemala beginning with this story:

I remember when I was about eight years old. I wanted a helmet for Christmas. I’d seen it advertised somewhere. It had a flashlight on top and it did everything but give a kid superhero powers. It was called a “Super Helmet 7” and I was desperate to get one.

Then, when all the presents were gone from under the tree, and my heart had sunk with disappointment, much to my everlasting surprise, my parents brought it out from some hiding place.

I was elated! It was the one gift I wanted more than anything.

Remember the boy in the movie A Christmas Story who gets a Red Rider bee-bee gun for Christmas? He had visions of all he would do with it to save people from danger. Well, that was me with my Super Helmet 7.

The importance of gifts
What is the greatest Christmas present you ever received? Why was it special? If you think about how you felt, you know the power that gifts can have. They can appear magical in the imagination.

As a father, I love to give my children gifts. Nothing is too good for them. Yet, I realize that gift-giving can be tricky. Give too many gifts and the gift recipient can begin to think that he deserves them. He can begin to develop an expectation about those gifts. He can take them for granted.

You can’t make a person give you a gift. It must be in their heart to do. Gifts are spiritual that way — whatever practical value they may have, in giving gifts, you impart something of yourself. You are saying that you care about the recipient; you are saying something about your relationship to them.

Covenants are usually marked by gift-giving. You give yourself and you give your word, and as a sign, you give something of value.

When we’re married, we give a diamond ring. In many societies, the bride’s family gives a dowry. In Swaziland, eight cows is a good price.

Of course in redeeming us, his lost children, God paid the ultimate price, giving us his son. It was a very expensive gift indeed.

Spiritual gift giving
God loves to give his children gifts too. He delights in equipping us for a life of setting others free by giving us gifts that you can’t see — gifts that are spiritual in nature.

We are born with an in-built awareness and drive to meet our own needs, but the needs of others tend to show up in our consciousness slowly over time.

As our own needs are met, we become free to look around and see who else needs help. God gives us gifts because he wants to see his people functioning as a unit. Since we don’t do this naturally, we need supernatural help.