“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8).The Spirit of God is essentially the Spirit of empowerment. Whenever the Spirit comes, He impacts on us the ability to do good works. It’s very important to know that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is manifested in every Believer comes in two ways; the gifts of the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8-10, Gal. 5:22). It is therefore impossible for any Believer to make maximum profit in his undertakings without the combination of these two.
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” (1 Cor 12:7)
It may not be a surprise how the present Church culture has subordinated the fruits of the Holy Spirit to His gifts. More often than not, the measure of God’s dwelling power is more attached to miracles, healings and prophesies than godly characters of love, joy, temperance, peace or meekness. We count it more of God’s demonstration of power to perform healings and wonders than to walk in love and temperance. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). It is one thing to live in the Spirit, while it is another to walk in it. And until we walk, there is no doubt if any progress may be achieved.
Living with gifts of the Spirit at the expense of the fruits has simply turned the present generation of Believers to “formed” Christians (2 Tim 3:5). This in turn has made it easy for us to disguise and hide our unseemly attitude inside “spirituality”. We place most emphasis on Church activities and replaced true Christian walk with it. Although there is nothing wrong about miracles or Church activities, however, the latter is not meant to be at its expense. It is the combination of the gifts and the fruit that makes for the empowerment of the Church.
Every time I think on how Solomon ended with his wisdom, my mind kept signaling something out of order. It was of recent that it comes to my consciousness that Solomon’s wisdom was simply a gift (1 Kings 3:5). Gifts are simply given and you don’t necessary need to know how it comes or what it cost the giver. However, fruits are grown. You are not only actively involved in its cultivation but such engagement also instills in you the essential character of patience and temperance required for it maturity.
It’s good to know that God rather waits to “eat” from your fruits and not from your gifts; after all, He gave the all those gifts to you in the beginning. This was what justifies Jesus action when He saw the fig tree in leaves (full of gifts); yet without fruits (Mark 11:13). In every case this happens, Jesus considered no reason why such tree should exist (Luke 13:6-9).
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