One More Post on the HOLY SPIRIT

One More Post on the HOLY SPIRIT
Contributed by a woman who was young during the 1960s, the age of "The Military Draft." 

When I was newly saved, I told everybody about Jesus and how they needed to give their lives to Him. I was not always discrete, my enthusiasm exceeded my wisdom. 

A young man with whom I worked told me that he expected to receive a draft notice (the draft went by a number system in those days....if your number came up, Uncle Sam snatched you away from your life and put you into the Army.)

I blurted out to him that God didn't want him in the army...he was too good a teacher and God wouldn't let him get drafted.

The day his draft notice arrived, he got a little drunk and showed up at my house to rub it in. He handed me the envelope and said, "This is how God doesn't want me in the Army."
Something took over my mouth (it wasn't common sense) and I said, "I don't care what this paper says; you're not going in the Army."

I guess I gave him a moment of comic relief because he no longer looked like he'd like to drive off a bridge.

I came up with a plan...we'd have all the kids in his classroom and mine write to the Selective Service System and suggest to them that they really didn't want our teacher in their Army. Weeks went by and we heard nothing.

It was Sunday, the Sunday before he was to go to boot camp on Tuesday. Some friends called and invited me to church. I said I wasn't in any mood to go and besides, I was mad at God and very embarrassed at myself. I couldn't think of anybody I knew who'd ever made a bigger fool of herself than I had.

My friends, knowing my reliance on sleeping pills and anti depressants said, "You'd better be dressed and ready to go when we get there because if you're not we'll take you in your pajamas."

I got dressed and sullenly went with them.

I stood quietly with my arms folded, not saying a word while everyone else was singing and praising God and clapping--I'd have fit right in at a sedate mainline church, but I wasn't cutting it here in this Pentecostal Church, appropriately called "Wildwood Chapel." 

I was depressed and totally indifferent to the service until there was a message in tongues (which I would once have thought was crazy and impossible) but something quickened within me and I knew it was for me. 

The interpretation was, and I will remember it word for word as long as I live, "THERE'S A DAUGHTER OF MINE HERE TONIGHT WHO THINKS SHE'S MADE A FOOL OF HERSELF AND CAST ASPERSIONS ON HER FAITH, BUT I WANT HER TO KNOW THAT TOMORROW MORNING, SHE WILL SEE MY GLORY."

HE--GOD--JESUS--the HOLY ONE--the RULER of the universe--the ALPHA and OMEGA--the GREAT I AM had called me HIS daughter. Me, the unloved orphan. Me, reject of the century, me the poor, homely little nobody ... I was called HIS daughter.

The next morning when I pulled into the school parking lot, my colleague was there, waiting for me. He said, "You'll never guess who called me last night." Of course I couldn't guess.

"It was Mr. Robert Ford (the head of the Selective Service System in our state). He said the draft board had reviewed the letters from the children and agreed with them--they need me more here at this school than they need me in the Army...I don't have to go to boot camp tomorrow."

Our MIGHTY GOD, our EVERLASTING FATHER, our PRINCE OF PEACE had shown HIMSELF strong in the eyes of a young woman who had wanted to serve HIM but didn't quite know how, and in the eyes of a young man who had denied HIS power.

In doing so, the HOLY SPIRIT had moved mightily with HIS word that was backed up with HIS POWER.

Here is a list of the "gifts of the Holy Spirit." They are in operation today--to one degree or another--wherever people name the name of JESUS.

I Corinthians 12:1-11
Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

12 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 2 You know that at one time you were unbelievers. You were somehow drawn away to worship statues of gods that couldn’t even speak. 3 So I want you to know that no one who is speaking with the help of God’s Spirit says, “May Jesus be cursed.” And without the help of the Holy Spirit no one can say, “Jesus is Lord.”

4 There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. 5 There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. 6 There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.

7 The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. 8 To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. 9 To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. 10 To others He gives the power to do miracles. To others He gives the ability to prophesy. To others He gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others He gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others He gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. 11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as He decides.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
1. gift of wisdom
2. gift of knowledge
3. gift of miracles
4. gift of prophesy
5. gift of discerning spirits
6. gift of speaking in tongues
7. gift of interpretation of tongues
8. gift of faith
9. gift of healing

Don't deny yourself the rich treasure of receiving the HOLY SPIRIT once you are saved. HE will transform your life from the ordinary things of time to the wondrous things of eternity.