Wondering about my Wanderings

Spiritual Gifts

I am being asked by a pulpit committee define spiritual gifts. The odds are that someone will read this. If not today then tomorrow. I believe a spiritual gift is an evidence offered by God that Jesus word about sending the Holy Spirit/Comforter has been fulfilled. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit revealed God's power and ability to connect with all people. People who were from all over the world were able to hear the gospel in their own language. It is out the reality of relationship of all given over to God that we learn all that God has to offer.

The expression of spiritual gifts underlined the new reality that we a gift sent by God to a waiting world that has not yet heard the gospel. Paul shares the gifts of the spirit that are still in evidence today. There is speaking of tongues, teaching, administration, interpretation, healing and other gifts that share that God is as active today as God was in times past.

As a church community we enter the experience of Holy Spirit joy. People thought Peter and the disciples drunk. The response is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Enthusiasm means God is inside and has been coined by a man by the man by the name of Father Martin as a spirituality in direct opposition to addiction. All the gift are given to the church, the body of Christ in order that the church might be built up. We are not only a gift sent to the world, we are God's presence. We all have a role to play in getting God's work done. What we do with our gift is our gift back to God. To God be the glory.