Gifts of the Holy Spirit

If John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from before the time of his birth, how much more was Jesus, the seed of the Holy Spirit!   Yet, at His baptism by John in the river Jordan, "the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove."

As we emerge into our own as persons, we take up the ministry of our lives---that which we were born to accomplish on this earth.  At that moment, or in those moments, we are given a measure of the Spirit of God to prepare us, to strengthen us, for ministry. 

Isaiah describes the Spirit of the Lord as the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.  As a result of the release of the Spirit into the world, "the wolf will lie down with the lamb......they will neither harm nor destroy...and the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord" (Is. 11:1-9).

Any mother or father knows that he/she has need of wisdom and of understanding, of counsel and of power, of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.  We cannot operate on a day-to-day basis without the gifts of the Spirit, for only the Spirit knows what is going on the heart of a child and what that child needs.

We often think of "ministry" as what we do outside of the home, but if we would only begin by seeking the gifts of the Spirit where we are, we would find that we are not alone in our daily work.  As Paul said, "I planted the seed; Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth."  No matter what we are doing today, we are hoping that something or someone will grow from our efforts; to that end, we open our work to the Holy Spirit, awaiting and expecting His gifts in our lives.