THE GIFT

Ephesians 2:8  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith....and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God."

Have you ever seen a package wrapped so pretty you did not want to open it and destroy the package?  Like seeing a cake decorated so beautiful you did not want to cut it to taste it and destroy the decoration.  Of course in both cases you will lose as if you don't open the package, you will never know what it contains, and if you don't cut the cake you will never know the sweet taste of it.  When you look at it like this it sounds a little foolish, but I can see how so many people treat the Holy Spirit the same way.

The Holy Spirit comes, bringing the wonderful gifts of the Lord and so many are afraid to let the Holy Spirit operate in their lives, to bring about those wonderful gifts that the Lord wants us to have.  We cannot operate in the gifts of the Lord, the gifts of the Spirit unless we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.  By stiffling the Holy Spirit, we are looking at the outward beauty of the gift without allowing ourselves to experience the gift itself.  We can say we have the gift of prophesy as we hear things from the Lord, but unless we allow the Holy Spirit to bring those words of the Lord into our spirit through Him, we will never have them leave our mouths.  They will remain locked inside.  Inside the unopened gift.

Whatever our ministry is, it is the ministry of the Lord, not of ourselves and if we are trying to do it on our terms, it will amoiunt to an unopened gift.  We are who we are through God's gift to us.  All the ministry, if the ministry is of the Lord, all of it comes from Him through the Holy Spirit operating in us.  Leading and directing us with His gentle ways, His soft voice, His direct conviction when we are in error.  The beautiful grace of God, such a sweet gift to us, giving us all we need to do the work He has brought us to do.  We need to surrender to our Lord, yield to the Holy Spirit and let the gifts that the Lord has given us be fully developed and opened up within us; letting the Lord flow through us, using our vessels as His work room and His channel to all.

No matter how pretty the package is, it is what is inside the package that is the gift.  Let the Holy Spirit have His way, let Him work through you and have that gift opened up so that it will glorify our Lord.  It is not the package, but the gift that is from the Lord.  He made you, you are His vessel, it is His gifts that He wants to bring out of you.  Let the Holy Spirit work in you, work through you, and let the gifts of the Lord be fully functionable to glorify Him alone.

12-17-11