HOLY
SPIRIT: SPIRITUAL GIFTS; ACTIVITY: RELIGIOUS; PASTORAL MINISTRY: NEED FOR
SPIRITUAL REALITY

Let me shock you at this point. A naturally bright person can carry on religious activity without a special gift from God. Filling church pulpits every week are some who are using only natural abilities and special training. Some are known as Bible expositors, for it is possible to read and study commentaries and then repeat what has been learned about the Scriptures. Yes, it may shock you, but it is true that anyone able to talk fluently can learn to use religious phrases and can become recognized as a preacher.

But if any person is determined to preach so that his work and ministry will abide in the day of the judgment fire, then he must preach, teach and exhort with the kind of love and concern that comes only through a genuine gift of the Holy Spirit—something beyond his own capabilities.…

A Christian congregation can survive and often appear to prosper in the community by the exercise of human talent and without any touch from the Holy Spirit. But it is simply religious activity, and the dear people will not know anything better until the great and terrible day when our self-employed talents are burned with fire and only what was wrought by the Holy Spirit will stand.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5; 1 Corinthians 3:12–14; 1 Thessalonians 2:4–6

Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts, 21, 22, 23.