(In my previous post on February 12, we began to explore what it means to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. If you haven’t read that yet, I encourage you to read it now for context – http://www.claytonford.net/personal-renewal/receiving-the-gift-of-the-spirit-a-helpful-model – as we continue with Part 2.)
What else can we find in this amazing Gift called the Holy Spirit? More wonderful things! We can find a package labeled Koinonia, the Greek word used in the New Testament for fellowship, sharing, and participation. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:41, 4:32) is a splendid gift that joins our hearts in loving communion with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. This gift makes us aware of our full acceptance as members of God’s family. Its depth motivates us to share the deepest parts of our being with one another and to carry one another’s heaviest burdens. And its breadth, encompassing the entire planet, enables us to find instant “family” in the Holy Spirit with Christian people wherever we go. With this gift unwrapped, we cannot be Lone Ranger Christians. We are Christ’s body — together, toughing it out in this world; together advancing His kingdom on earth; and together waiting eagerly for His coming – and doing what we can to hasten it.
Let’s unwrap another package! There’s one called Power to Witness. Opening this one, we experience an empowering of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses for Christ and proclaimers of His gospel (Acts 1:8, 4:31). And here’s another one labeled Praise and Thanksgiving. One result of being filled with the Holy Spirit is that we become grateful — even enthusiastic — worshipers. Like David in the Psalms and like Paul and Barnabas as they sang songs of praise in prison, we love praising Him. Paul the apostle says, “. . . be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Ephesians 5:18–20).
We could keep on going: there’s a package called Guidance, another one labeled Revelation. God wants us to unwrap, appropriating by faith, all the “blessing” packages he has already given us in this Gift called THE HOLY SPIRIT. In the Old Testament, the Israelites ventured across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. God had given them the land and it was now theirs — “See, I have given you this land” (Deuteronomy
1:8). But the Israelites were not to sit passively on the river bank after crossing over. They had to move into the land and take by faith what God had given them — “Go in and take possession of the land” (Deuteronomy 1:8).
And so it is with the Spirit-filled life. Our part is to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and to open every one of the packages God has given us. In order to discover all He has made available to us in spiritual workings, manifestations, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, we’ve got to seek His face and study His Word. Our heart’s attitude should always be, “God, I want everything you have for me. . . I want to make a difference in my world for you.” If ever the full working of the Holy Spirit in and through Christians and churches was needed, it is today! It is inconceivable that God would want His people to be powerless in a world that is increasingly being challenged and assaulted by the powers of darkness.
People Differ In Their Experiences
This model of the “The Gift of the Holy Spirit” as a box filled with gift-wrapped packages helps us understand how our experiences in the Holy Spirit can be so varied. Some people appear to experience every working of the Spirit at once. They are born again and seem to be “zapped” by the Holy Spirit with gifts, fruit, power right at the outset of their Christian experience. On the other hand, others develop more gradually, seeming to experience the Spirit’s work in stages. All believers receive The Holy Spirit at conversion, but we often seem to
unwrap the packages inside at different times and in different sequences. The point is that God intends for each of us to open all the packages and appropriate them by faith, praying that we receive the fullness of His Gift of the Holy Spirit.
An Encouraging Approach
This approach to understanding the gift of the Holy Spirit, or the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has the power to encourage us all. First, it encourages us by the fact that we Christians have all been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, filled with at least some packages that are uniquely customized for us, to help us know God better, to grow in Him, and to serve Him more effectively. No “haves versus have-nots” culture exists; we all have “the Gift.” Now we no longer find any basis for judging ourselves or others by a particular experience. All of the
packages in the box represent normal, beneficial, desirable workings of the Holy Spirit.
Second, this way of looking at these issues encourages us by freeing us from the pressure of feeling like our experience must conform to a set pattern or norm. God doesn’t make us all the same. We are not identical clones but unique and beloved individuals. We are wrong if we erect doctrinal or experiential hurdles and barriers that the Word of God does not erect. We are also wrong when we absolutize our own experiences — or lack thereof — and judge everyone else by them.
Third, this model encourages us to appropriate by faith everything God has given us. We all need to continue appropriating the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes this is demonstrated in gradual and steady growth, and sometimes it is demonstrated in momentous breakthroughs. Whatever the case, not one of us can rightly say we have all of the Spirit’s fullness. Who can honestly say, “I have everything the Holy Spirit has to offer. I am completely Spirit-filled at all times!”? Certainly not I! In truth, Jesus Christ is the only one who can legitimately make this claim.
We all need to grow: Some of us need to focus our growth toward love, joy, peace — the fruit of the Spirit. Others of us haven’t “unwrapped” the spiritual gifts package; remember, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts…”. Many of us need to repent of our lone-ranger mentality and open the Koinonia (fellowship) package. And so on. It is true that in Christ, we have already been blessed with every special blessing (Ephesians 1:3). But He wants us to take initiative — hungering, thirsting, reaching out for a more dynamic, energetic, expectant faith and for more fruitful lives. He wants our faith to move us ever further into the promised land of life in the Spirit, appropriating and acting on what He has already given us.
Some glorious day, we will meet Christ face to face, and His fullness will be realized in each one of us. Until that day, we must press on — there is always more!