I’m guessing that people are entirely fractious beings. We can seem to argue about anything. The Bible tells us that the Lord hates division, which means that the enemy must love it. I was put in motion to think about this as I overheard a discussion about the gifts of the Spirit. I am shocked that the enemy uses the move of the Holy Spirit for the healing of mankind to create division within the church proper. 

I think the most frustrating gift that gets the most attention is the gift of tongues. All churches seem to be good with praying for healing, revelation, and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but tongues creates debate. Guess what — I’m not in that debate, or even remotely interested in it. I am concerned with Christians who feel superior to other Christians as the Lord always shut that down in the New Testament: first will be last, leader servant of all, etc. Sorting each other into categories according to our understanding seems to be dangerous because it can so easily involve competition, ego, and pride — dangerous companions.

I do have a personal opinion, which I offer to you. Please feel free to disagree. I’m willing to be wrong. I’m ready for you to be right. I tend to think that salvation and transformation as the ongoing move of a person into the presence and life God intended as being the most important (if there even has to be a most important. Could there be something God does that is “less” important — see the issue. Can man judge God or what or how He does?) This is my favorite because it is personal.

Jesus made Himself known to me. I thought that was pretty powerful because I was a practicing athiest who was totally opposed to God and anything related to Him. Each day, in small to great ways, Jesus continues to make Himself known to me. I can read a Bible verse so many times that I can’t know the count and suddenly come to see it as I never saw it before. I don’t know any Christians who haven’t experienced that. That light bulb insight can only happen through the presence and revelation of the Holy Spirit, and it always leads to personal growth and development.

Greg, a friend who preached recently, said that if you haven’t changed since you’ve been saved, you need to take a deeper look. Salvation changes people. That change is powerful evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. People are like the laws of motion and entropy. It takes more energy to put something in motion than to keep it in motion.  The Holy Spirit must use a lot of heavenly energy to get some people in motion, like me, who was determined in the opposite direction. Change in a person’s life is evidence of the power of God to intervene on this earth to love, to free, to heal, to redeem, and to show who He is to us. 

We, the saved, are where the rubber hits the road, where heaven touches earth in a physical and tangible way. We are the ones being transformed by the Holy Spirit, the proof of heaven, the proof of the truth of Jesus. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the residence of Jesus, and the proof that God is personal, intimate, powerful, and, most of all, completely real according to all He taught the world to understand through scripture. 

Salvation and transformation bring us, through the generous love of God, into a place of awe and worship for the Jesus who did it all for us when we were unwilling and unworthy. I know the gifts of the spirit are important because they are the power of God moving forward in ministry to others. However, I am most grateful that Jesus saved me and works to make me a better person. He has freed me from addictions, given me family and friends, taught me how to keep them, and so much more. I have hope in my darkest days because He is in my life and holds on to me when I can’t hold on to Him. Jesus is Lord, and my, or anyone’s, personal priorities and understandings must bend their knee to Him.