I am convinced that there is one single reason why we do not have the manifestation of the Spirit in believers today. We cannot have the manifestation if we do not understand where the power comes from. The source is far more important than the manifestation because without the source there is no manifestation.
The conduit of this power is the love of Jesus Christ. What does Paul say at the end of his explaination of the manifestation of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12?
“And now I will show you the most excellent way.”
He then says that even if he had all of these manifestations of the Spirit but remained without love he was in essence nothing and he possessed nothing.
“This is nothing new”, some people will say. “I understand love”, they say.
Really? Funny, after all this time I am still plumbing the depth of understanding the very two things Paul uses to define love: patience and kindness.
“But we aren’t perfect. We can’t love like God?”
If this is true then God is a lair. Do you want to accuse him of lying? Jesus commanded us:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)
He would not have commanded if it was not possible.
Our problem is we do not want to surrender control to the Holy Spirit who has been given to us to enable us to live this command. If we can grasp this, really come to understand the depth of this love and allow it to be the motivator of all that we say and do, we will discover the manifestation of the Spirit in us. There will be power in the Body of Christ once again.
It has always been about God’s love.
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