The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: - Vital Christianity

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THE HOLY SPIRIT: PERSON OR POWER?
In order to relate to the Holy Spirit in a biblical way it is essential that we understand what or
who the Holy Spirit is. The Bible is clear that the Holy Spirit is a person and not merely a power.
If we think of the Holy Spirit as merely a mysterious power our attitude might be, “How can I get
more of the Holy Spirit?” If we think of the Holy Spirit as a person our thoughts will be, “How
can the Holy Spirit have more of me?” R. A. Torrey spells out the consequences of this
distinction:
“The conception of the Holy Spirit as a divine influence or power that we are somehow
to get hold of and use, leads to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency. One who so thinks
of the Holy Spirit and who at the same time imagines that he has received the
Holy Spirit will almost inevitably be full of spiritual pride and strut about as if he
belonged to some superior order of Christians. One frequently hears such persons say,
“I’m a Holy Ghost man,” or “I’m a Holy Ghost woman.” But if we once grasp the
thought that the Holy Spirit is a divine person of infinite majesty and glory and holiness
and power, who in marvelous condescension has come into our hearts to make His
abode there and take possession of our lives and make use of them, it will put us in the
dust and keep us in the dust. I can think of no thought more humbling or more overwhelming
than the thought that a person of divine majesty and glory dwells in my heart
and is ready to use even me.” 2 GIFTS OF GRACE (GRACE-GIFTS)
The gift of the Holy Spirit is a “capacity for service” which is given by the ascended Lord
(Eph. 4:8) to every true believer without exception and which was something each did not possess
before he became a Christian. Though Paul uses the word “spiritual” (pneumatikon) in
I Corinthians 12:1 stressing the source of gifts as the Holy Spirit, the usual word is charisma
(plural, charismata) which means “gift of grace.” The word for gift (charisma) is derived from
the word for “grace” (charis). One of the results of grace, therefore, is the giving of spiritual gifts
by the Holy Spirit. Griffiths put it:
“It is as though the grace of God shines upon the prism of the congregation and is
refracted into a spectrum of “grace-gifts.” Gifts are not personal attributes or
acquisitions, but rather outpourings of God’s grace.” 3
Gifts (charismata) are the results of grace and God’s grace is ministered to the congregation
and manifested through spiritual gifts. Gifts are “God’s grace finding particular and concrete
actualization.” The origin of a gift is not the person who exercises it, but it derives directly from
God’s grace being poured upon the congregation.