11. What gifts does Jesus place in the church to help her serve her purpose? 1 Corinthians 12:28. Compare Isaiah 11:2.
NOTE: ‘The promise of the Spirit is not appreciated as it should be. Its fulfilment is not realised as it might be. It is the absence of the Spirit that makes the gospel ministry so powerless. Learning, talents, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment, may be possessed; but without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner be won to Christ. On the other hand, if they are connected with Christ, if the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, the poorest and most ignorant of His disciples will have a power that will tell upon hearts. God makes them the channel for the outworking of the highest influence in the universe.’ Christ’s Object Lessons, page 327.
12. Who decides who should have these gifts? 1 Corinthians 12:6-11.
NOTE: ‘Before He left His disciples, Christ “breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Again He said, “Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you.” ... “Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ,” the Spirit “dividing to every man severally as He will.” The gifts are already ours in Christ, but their actual possession depends upon our reception of the Spirit of God. God does not ask us to do in our own strength the work before us. He has provided divine assistance for all the emergencies to which our human resources are unequal. He gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait, to strengthen our hope and assurance, to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts.... There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God.... Christ declared that the divine influence of the Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end.’ My Life Today, page 37.
LESSON INSIGHT: It is to the glory of God that the church should be filled with the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. He alone can bring living power to keep and maintain the people who will demonstrate the success of the plan of salvation. And He alone gives the gifts of God that are needed by the church, for the work of the Lord in the world.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT: The Holy Spirit is part of our Three-in-One God. We have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Here are three texts that show us the Godhead. [See Paul’s use of this word: Acts 17:23.]
‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’ 1 Peter 1:2.
‘Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.’ 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.
‘This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost He hath now shed forth this which ye now see and hear.’ Acts 2:32-33.