Spiritual Gifts Contents - Grace Notes

Eucharist 23. A believer is spiritual, not because he’s goodor mature, but because the Holy Spirit is incontrol and leading the believer. - Gal. 5:22-23Fruit of the Spirit4. Spirituality is accomplished simply byyielding to the Holy Spirit; the will of Godand permitting the works of God is our lives. -Walking in the Spirit and being Led by theSpirit. - Gal. 5:18;255. Yielding to the Holy Spirit (being Filled withthe Holy Spirit) is accomplished by desire,confession, and dependence on Him. - 1 John(the theme of the epistle)6. Desire (repentance), Confession(acknowledgment of sin), and Dependence(faith) are the three aspects of Spirituality andprovide the mechanics to ensure fulfillment ofGod’s plan for our lives.7. When a believer is Filled with the Holy Spirit,his Spiritual Gift can function within the body(church) of Christ as it was intended to do -Eph. 5:188. Spiritual gifts are given to every believer themoment he believes in Christ - 1 Cor. 12:13;the Christian cannot choose his gift, butmerely receives it as one of several benefitsoccurring at salvation. - (pos. truth)9. It’s important that each believer discover hisSpiritual gift, develop his skills in utilizing hisgift efficiently, and then put the gift intoaction as God provides opportunities.10. Spiritual gifts are designed to be used in thelocal church or in conjunction with theministries of the local church; Evangelism,missionary work and similar forms ofministries that occur outside the church aredesigned to help expand and build the churchworldwide.11. In order to discover our gifts, we first mustknow what gifts are given by God and how torecognize them.12. We have three main passages in the NewTestament that outline and list the differentgifts. Rom 12:3-8 1 Peter 4:10-11, and 1 Cor.12:8-10;28-30; 14:6,26Christians are the Hands of GodDuring the Second World War, a church inStrasbourg was destroyed. After the bombing, themembers of this particular church went to see whatwas left and found that the entire roof had fallenin, leaving a heap of rubble and broken glass.Much to their surprise, however, a statue of Christwith outstretched hands that had been carvedcenturies before by a great artist was still standingerect. It was virtually unharmed except that bothhands had been sheered off by a falling beam. Thepeople hurried to a sculptor in town and asked ifhe could replace the hands of the statue. He waswilling, and he even offered to do it for nothing.The church officials met to consider the sculptor’sproposition - and decided not to accept his offer.Why? Because they felt that the statue withouthands would be the greatest illustration possiblethat God’s work is done through His people.Jesus Christ chooses human hands (gave gifts tomen - Eph 4:8-14). Sometimes they seem to bethe most infirm hands, the least potentiallysuccessful hands, or the least qualified hands – butthose are the hands He uses.Romans 12:3-8• Paul wrote the book of Romans to theChristians in the church at Rome• The theme of the book of Romans is:Justification by faith and the Righteousness ofGod• Several basic Christian doctrines are taught inthis book: Natural revelation; universality ofsin; justification; propitiation; faith; originalsin; union with Christ; the election andrejection of Israel; spiritual gifts; and respectfor government.• In chapter 12, Paul discusses the importance ofSpiritual Gifts and how these gifts arecategorized by God into two permanentcategories.Rom 12:3-5, For through the grace given tome I say to every man among you not to thinkmore highly of himself than he ought to think;but to think so as to have sound judgment, asGod has allotted to each a measure of faith.For just as we have many members in onebody and all the members do not have thesame function,so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,and individually members one of another.Paul introduces the team concept in the Body ofChrist. He shows that each believer shares equally