The Takeaway from All this Listamania
and where we go from here

So just to recap, here’s my list of reasons for desiring the gifts of the Spirit:

1. The Bible teaches that we are to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts (1 Cor 14:1)
2. It makes the Bible, and therefore faith, come alive
3. It is a sin to quench the Spirit (1 The 5:19)
4. They enable me to better love my neighbor
5. It enables me to more effectively share the gospel
6. It is the primary way in which the church today is failing
7. The continuation of the gifts makes sense in regard to logic
8. The continuation of the gifts makes sense in regards to the nature of the Holy Spirit
9. The charismatic gifts of the Spirit glorify God
10. Both I, myself, and people who I know are in need of the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit at this time
11. I believe the charismatic gifts must be sought to be received
12. They enable the poor & uneducated to carry out the mission of the Gospel
13. They edify me
14. They open up incredible potential for knowledge of God and intimately walking with him

I didn’t come up with these just for the fun of it. I want to put out there the fact that the charismatic gifts are important and are worth debating and understanding. I also want to dispel the popular notion that charismatic gifts are all about ooo and aww and that’s it.

So if you are not a charismatic then why not? I can certainly understand that people have had bad experiences in the past with charismatic gifts that were not anything like what I described in my posts, but experience must not inform our thinking when it contradicts the Bible. If the Bible teaches what I have said about the charismatic gifts then like it or not, they must be accepted.

If you are a charismatic and are not hastily pursuing the gifts then why not? Again, if the reasons I have given above are valid then there is no reason to not earnestly desire the charismatic gifts to become a more real part of your life. Indeed, it is unloving not to.

For those out there who are earnestly desiring the gifts of the Spirit I hope that my thoughts encouraged you to press on and lay hold of everything for which Christ has laid hold of you.

So with the groundwork established, let us move on to actually understand the gifts. We will start where the Bible starts, at the baptism of the Spirit, and we will go from there where the Bible goes, to the gift of tongues. We might then touch on some other important subjects in the charismatic gifts, but we’ll see how long before my mind explodes with other things I want to write about.

So to release the cognitive pressure a little bit before I dive back in, I’d like to do a couple of posts on John 3:16 and the love of God before we get back to the (comparatively) normal stuff.

Challenge yourself with the reasons I have provided. If I am in error, say so, if not, let’s get on with obeying the Word of God and earnestly desire the charismatic gifts of the Spirit!