Scripture

I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

Observation

In this passage, Paul explores the area of spiritual gifts. He says that nobody can curse Jesus if they are speaking by God’s Spirit.

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit gives them all. God works in each person in different ways, but He is still the same God.

God gives His gifts to help us serve one another. These gifts include words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues.

The gifts all come from one God and are given as He determines.

Application

Back in the 1970’s during the charismatic revival, spiritual gifts were controversial. Not so much today, in most parts of the church.

Back then there were people who claimed to be “tongue testers”. They could tell whether a person was speaking in tongues by the Holy Spirit or some other spirit. So they were using the gift of discernment of spirits to prove their point that the gifts of the Spirit are fake.

Here is the good news about spiritual gifts, and tongues in particular. Nobody curses Jesus while speaking in tongues. If you love the Lord you will want to please Him. These gifts, even the ones we cannot rationally understand, will glorify Jesus.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are available to all who love the Lord. They are there to help us minister to one another and to glorify God.

Prayer

Father, I thank you for the Holy Spirit. Please help me to understand how to flow in the gifts of the Spirit so that the Name of Jesus is lifted up through me. Amen.