Holy Spirit: The Gift(s) - Romans 12:1-8

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...Jesus stood and shouted, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the scriptures declare, ‘rivers of living water will flow from their heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.)  John 7:37-39 

In the vocabulary of the Bible. ‘Living water’ refers to water that is out there in the world, and on the move. Like a river flowing from snow caps or glaciers. Like streams filled by rain, or running up and out from a spring. Water that is doing what it is made to do: to move, to flow out, to feed what it encounters, and keep on moving. Jesus says... that will flow from within us!

The question is: What are we going to do about it? 

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Being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ is an ongoing and active thing. It's something that we pursue, that we work out like any family or community relationship. It's like our breath being continuously filled. We don't just breathe once and we're done. It's like a river being continuously filled with water. Like our lungs being continuously filled with air.  

As we are filled with Holy Spirit—as we live our life of faith—scripture writers talk about our “being led by,” “being in step with,” “being governed by,” “being enabled by,” “worshipping in,” and “living according to” the Holy Spirit.  

Being filled is not something that we always do well. The apostle Paul writes warnings in a couple of his letters to different churches: Do not quench, Don't throttle, Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. This is a relationship. It is a conversation. It is ongoing, like breathing in and breathing out. We are to be continuously filled with the Spirit, and as we are filled our reservoirs are replenished with living water, which (who) flows into us and in us, through us and out of us, into the world. We are always being filled and never saying “Enough.” 

Part of that filling is that Holy Spirit gives us what we call “gifts:” God-given ability and inclination to do what He has for us each to do. Holy Spirit gives us the tools, the capacity, the desire, the longing.  

Just as the “fruit of the Spirit” is not something that the Spirit grows so we can take it and enjoy it, or put it in cans on a shelf (rather, it is for us to produce and share) same idea here. The gifts of the Spirit are not given to us to enjoy, and to cherish in a little box, saying, “Isn't this nice!” The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us for the common good. My gift is given to me for you. Your gift is given to you for me. Like a choir singing different parts of harmony, like an Armed Forces brigade with different equipment and different specialties, like a sports team with different positions to cover. If I'm handed a hockey stick, it's not so I can have a hockey stick. It's because I'm supposed to be playing for my team.  

The best understanding of your spiritual gifts comes when you live your life in the Spirit. When you talk with and listen to Him. When you talk to and listen to other believers who look at you and say, “I see in you such a gift, and it gives me joy to see you using it.”  

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Often people don’t understand their spiritual gifts, especially when they fall into the category of what are called ‘gifts of service.’ For example, generosity, helps, serving, mercy, leadership, administration. These are all listed in Paul's lists of spiritual gifts. Some of them may not sound spiritual at all, to you, but they are.  

So who does this look like? As we look at scripture, who do we see living out these gifts of service?  

  • Generosity:  Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (meaning son of encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.  Acts 4:36-37 
  • Helps: Tabitha, a disciple in Joppa was always occupied with works of kindness and charity [providing clothing for people in need]. Acts 9:36 
  • Serving: Onesiphorus came diligently looking for Paul until he found him in prison. Then, Onesiphorus looked after Paul. 2 Timothy 1:17-18 
  • Administration: Stephen and Philip along with 5 others were chosen to distribute food, and make sure it was done accurately. Because they were “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 6:1-7 
  • Mercy: Barnabas acted as Paul’s wingman and support in his first vulnerable days of ministry after his encounter with Jesus. Acts 9:26-27 
  • Leadership: Titus was left in Crete by Paul so that he would “set in order what was unfinished and appoint elders in every town.” Titus 1:4-5 

Each of those people had been given a gift—a gift to share—and having done so, I bet they all went home at the end of the day with a smile on their face, and knowing deep within themselves that, “I did right today. I did what I was supposed to do. I am in the right place, doing the right thing, listening to the right voice.” Because they let flow their spiritual gift. 

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But there's more to it than that. There's more to it than us being nice to each other and doing good things to help people; every time we act on those spiritual gifts, whatever they are, every time I do that... I am changed.  

Holy Spirit is not just working through me.  

Holy Spirit is working in me, to make me more like Jesus. Every time I do what I'm made for and gifted to do, Holy Spirit is changing the way I think about the way I consider ‘my’ time, ‘my’ money, ‘my’ pride, ‘my’ reputation, ‘my’ schedule for today. My idea of who I want to think other people think I am.  

An interviewer once asked Keith Green, “Why do you believe in Jesus?” Keith's answer? “Because He changed me.”  

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The longer I live this life, the more I find it’s the everyday mundane gifts of service, and the people who exercise those gifts faithfully and freely and lovingly and powerfully, that make me shake my head in awe. In the quiet, ordinary ways the Spirit changes us and changes our world through us.  

That's what makes me stop in my tracks: seeing people living out gifts like generosity, leadership, organization, mercy, and service.  

I am blown away when I hear someone pray:  

  • “Holy Spirit, come,” and then they open the fridge to start making the sandwiches.  
  • “Holy Spirit, come,” and then they walk through the door at the nursing home to visit someone who has been lonely.  
  • “Holy Spirit, come,” and then they address the e-mail to start organizing the event.  
  • “Holy Spirit, come,” and then they log into the bank app to send the e-transfer to where the money is needed. 

When people pick up their knitting needles, pick up their pen, pick up the groceries, pick up the phone, pick up the passenger, pick up the hint, pick up the paint brush, pick up the hammer and pray, “Holy Spirit, come.” 

Because Holy Spirit is in our labour, our everyday walking around, getting things done. Holy Spirit gives us the gift of drawing us toward the places where we will be most effective for His purposes in our world.  

As I stand in the choir and sing my note, as I step past the boards onto the rink and put my stick on the ice—as we all and each do those Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered little things—in those simple, unspectacular moments, that's where God is doing big things. 


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