A list of the gifts are at the end of this reflection

The gifts of the holy spirit……
There are seven, and I’m sure you know them…
Wisdom
Understanding
Knowledge
Fortitude
Counsel
Piety
and
Fear of the Lord
These gifts are given to us by His presence in us, invited in through our baptism and stirred up through our confirmation,
but always present …moving us, steering us and correcting us. Our supernatural power.
Here’s a story about the difference it makes to living with the gifts and presence of the Holy Spirit
I met Pam through work, she was a difficult lady, desperately ill and with a drink problem. On this day I had started to clear up around the flat…’oh just leave it all’ she said, I couldn’t. I was twitching to at least clear the debris even if we didn’t get to clear the clothes. On the side was a round terracotta tapas type dish, it was filled with big blue pills. ‘ Shall I just bin these if you’re not taking them?’ I asked, ‘No’ she said they need to be bagged up and taken to a pharmacist. I was irritated but walked away, then as I came back around to that side of the room I just tipped them into the bin bag in frustration at not clearing nearly as much as Id wanted to.
We sat and had a coffee after, the chat was difficult and dark, she shared she didn’t want to be here any more that it all seemed just pointless.
‘Have you thought about this in a serious way?’ I asked.
‘Well you’ve just put pay to that’ she said motioning at the bin bag that Id emptied the pills into.
Just over a year later Pam died naturally, she had come to faith, been received into the church and passed away clutching a rosary in her hand.
It wasn’t with any prevention in mind that I was prompted to throw those pills away that day, it was an unconscious desire to see order and tidiness in her flat. But I know it was the Spirit that ensured she had a chance to die peacefully and with an assurance of the one she was going to meet.
I wonder what your superpower is? Maybe you think you don’t have one, but I know you do.
If you’re racking your brains going through a list of
Invisibility – nope
Bi location – nope
Shapeshifting- nah
Spidy web casting – err no, shame though.
Seriously though, if you are present here tonight, if you’ve been baptised you have these supernatural gifts, maybe you haven’t unwrapped them yet, but friends you have them, that’s a promise. not from me… but from God
John 14:12 Jesus tells us
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…..
Anyone here believe in Jesus? …He’s talking about you then.
The purpose of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are to move us from where we are to where Jesus is in Character and nature. The end goal isn’t to just be a nice person, the end goal is to be like Jesus Christ.
As we live day to day in the power of the Holy Spirit, it’s easy to assume this is a normal everybody experience…but it’s not.
In my job I visit a lot of people who are suffering, many facing the last months of their lives, many who are isolated and lonely, I can tell you that those who have a faith, who know the Lord have a different experience of all these things, externally things look the same.. but the internal disposition, how these things are faced is very, very different.
This is the transformation the gifts and the fruits of the gift bring us.
You see your own Will power can help you hold your tongue from making a cutting remark, but we can’t fight alone the deeply rooted parts of our hearts that wanted to make the comment in the first place.
Non christians can say “I forgive you” and want to mean it, but without the Holy spirit we can’t change that feeling of anger or hurt into one where we come to love and pray for the offender.
We can accept suffering as part of the human experience, but it takes something beyond us to embrace it with joy and find some purpose and meaning in it and to join it with Christs on the cross
That difference is a supernatural reaction to a natural circumstance.
The natural responses are ones that have been formed over years of worldly influence, of wounds, fears, disappointments, humiliations, wrong teachings. For the most part they can be very deeply entrenched. For these parts of us to change or be healed we need The Holy Spirit, something or someone beyond us. In fact we need that power in us to even desire that change or know it’s possible.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not a wish list, or a summary of areas you need to work on.
Patience …yep nailed that one
only 4/10 for fortitude…
No, They are supernatural gifts that come from the continuing presence of God, the Holy Spirit working in us. Our job is to submit to them be open to the work He wants to do in us.
Perhaps like me you can feel a little impatient with how slow the progress appears to be at times.
Deep character changes come from the 1000’s of small ordinary moments of perseverance and faithfulness.
The Lord knows these need to be deep changes, ones that last and that takes time.
I have a thousand moments when I know the Holy Spirit has stepped in and saved me from myself, when I’m about to say something and I’m interrupted, and oh those prompts to pray … so powerful, I had this a week ago when I heard of two different friends, not connected but had both chosen to turn away from God, one as a decision and one just through neglect or lack of formation. God broke my heart for these two people, though my head knew this wasn’t a rational response, that this wouldn’t really impact my life in any way, but I literally was heartbroken over it, my response of course was to pray and pray hard, ……for one of them at least I know things are going to be ok, this gives me hope for the other one
The thing I think I want to share though is that this feels normal for many of us, that this isn’t always the falling of a horse blinded encounter,
it isn’t that I turned from a life of hard crime and now I’m a missionary, this isn’t that I spoke today and three thousand were baptised the next, these are some peoples stories yes,
but for most of us it looks like mere daily faithfulness, in our everyday lives the gifts of the spirit look like serving with something more, it’s the giving that goes beyond, it’s the showing up for your daily prayer when your to do list needs a roll of wallpaper its so long.
We can over focus on those charismatic gifts, the praying in tongues, the healings, the prophesying, all massive miraculous gifts, wow, but let’s not overlook those day to day miracles that you perform in the strength of the Holy Spirit
Perhaps your patience sat listening to someone gave them space to lay down their burdens today,
Perhaps the way you knelt in prayer at mass or said Grace in that restaurant was seen and the start of a journey for someone you may never meet
Perhaps that smile gave someone hope,
Perhaps that word of advice, that you could see so clearly turned a situation round and you will have no idea of the ripples that flowed from it.
Perhaps the strength you showed to keep going when anyone else would have given up meant that someone else felt they could keep going too.
Perhaps the chat with a work colleague made them feel loved and seen.
Perhaps that hug was the only human touch that person had experienced for months and it healed some deep longing or pain.
Perhaps your two minute testimony gave someone the strength to cut their own chains… the beautiful thing is, we may never know many of these stories being written through our gifts until we reach heaven.
These are warm, fuzzy good feel moments aren’t they?
But what about those times when things feel really tough, when your failures are looming large and neon? when the last thing you feel like is a vessel for the Holy Spirit?
That is when the deepest work is being done. This is the university of gift expansion, No great testimonies start with sitting by a pool with a margarita. They are always in a time of trial, the rock bottom place, the struggle. This is when we are ripping off the paper of those gifts rather than gently picking at the bow, humbled and aware of our limitations, is when we become the most receptive and responsive canvas.
God uses the days when I’ve fallen flat on my face to teach me mercy through His, to teach me resilience, to teach me patience for others through His for me. To show me what forgiveness looks like for me and those I need to forgive. It looks ugly sometimes but it’s all gift, if we receive it as one.
The gifts you have are not just for you either, they are to build up the church as a whole,
so maybe that person is more generous or better at speaking to strangers than you, your own gifts will be just as needed in their own right. Your superpower has a place and a purpose that only you can bring.
That need in our church, in your home is to be filled by your unique reception of these gifts. You don’t bring them, that gap remains.
So our gifts …we need the grace and power of God to discover them, to use them and to grow in them…..your part… like Mary a simple yes and God takes on flesh through you.
What would you like to be a strength of yours? If you were to be known for your gift which would you choose? ( you will get some measure of all of them but some are more evident)
- When Jesus says you will do the works He had been doing and even greater things, what does that mean to you personally? Do you think its possible ? Why or why not?
- In what ways can you see the Holy Spirit is alive and working within you?
- Have you ever specifically asked for the gifts of the Holy Spirit ? What and Why?
- If you were to be extraordinarily filled with the Holy Spirit today, how do you imagine life would be different?
- What would you most like changed in you? How would you like to be different?
- What has the Holy Spirit already changed in you? What work has been done to bring you more into the image of God?
- How do you feel about the Charismatic gifts ? What is your experience of this?
