Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2.

1 Cor 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant (NKJV)

In Part 2 I showed how the word ‘gifts’ was not in the original Greek text and I proposed that it is concerning the spiritual that Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant about. I want you for a moment to think of Grandpa trying to use an iPhone. Does he use it to its full capacity? Probably not. Can you do more things with an iPhone than Grandpa? Probably yes. Do you have a different iPhone that can do all these extra things Grandpa’s can’t? No. Same phone, same functions and capability but Grandpa is merely ignorant (without knowledge, uninformed, misinformed) about the phone’s capabilities while you are not. This is what I believe Paul was getting at. Lack of knowledge or wrong knowledge is deadly.

Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (NKJV)

So Paul had learned a couple of spiritual truths and he wanted to share them with the church. But it is one in particular that I am interested for out of this truth flows all the others.

Eph 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (NKJV)

After you trusted in the word of truth, the gospel, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The most awesome gift we could ever get, the Spirit of God inside us!

1 Cor 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (NKJV)

Not only does the Spirit live in you, the sealing actually makes you one spirit! There is no distinction between where His Spirit ends and yours begins. You are one Spirit. There is nothing in Him that is not also in you.

John 1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. (NKJV)

We didn’t receive just a little part of Him, we received of His fullness.

Col 2:9-10 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (NKJV)

In Jesus lives the fullness of the Godhead, and since Jesus lives in you through His Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead lives in you too. You are complete, you lack nothing. This was actually Jesus’ prayer for us!

John 17:20-23 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (NKJV)

The glory the Father gave to Jesus, Jesus gave to us so we can become perfectly one as they are one. That is almost too much to comprehend! If you really think about it, the holy of holies used to house the cloud of His Glory. You are now the holy of holies housing the cloud of His Glory in you!

1 Cor 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (NKJV)

You are the vessel carrying the glory of God everywhere you go. You don’t have to ask Him to show up, come down, send His glory or anything like that. You are His glory, you are the holy place, you are one spirit with Him. Where you go, He goes. Where you show up, He shows up. What He has, you have too.

1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (NKJV)

AS HE IS SO ARE YOU IN THIS WORLD!! Think about that. As Jesus IS, now, so ARE you too, NOW. You are an heir of God and CO-EQUAL heir with Christ (Rom 8:17, Gal 4:7). Everything Jesus inherited, you got equally. You can’t give the same thing to two people, unless you first make them one. One spirit, that is! Don’t be ignorant, misinformed or uninformed. There is no spiritual gift you don’t possess because the Spirit of Christ contains all the promises, gifts and inheritance, and He sealed it in you.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (NKJV)

Blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing! Every gift in 1 Cor 12 is a spiritual blessing and you have them all because you have all of the Spirit.

2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (NKJV)

His divine power (which is the Holy Spirit) has (present perfect tense) given us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness. We are partakers of the divine nature because we are one spirit with the divine nature, the Spirit Himself.

Philem 1:6 that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.  (NKJV)

You might think this sounds good on paper but you don’t see it in your life. Well, Paul told us to make our faith effective by acknowledging every good thing that is in us in Christ Jesus. Not by standing around praying for more, waiting for impartations and new anointings. No, just know what you have, acknowledge it and make your faith effective! And this it not name-it-claim-it either. This is believe it and live accordingly.

Rom 1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift (NKJV)

Wait a minute? We just read all these verses that tell us we have everything? What is it that Paul wants to impart? Is there something they don’t have? Might you and I actually be lacking something? How can Paul say we have all yet here he says he wants to give them something? If you want to know, you’ll have to read part 4…

Sorry about the cliff hanger…

Cornel

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We all know the fruits well enough, love, joy, peace etc., but let’s quickly look closer at those verses because I want to propose something that might upset a couple of people but be liberating to so many more!

Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (NKJV)

The thing that caught my attention when I read this a while ago was the last sentence. “Against SUCH there is no law.” That one word threw my theology about the fruits out of whack. It is the Greek word toioutos and means ‘of this sort’ or ‘things like these’. That would imply that this list is by no means complete and that there are more than 9 fruits of the Spirit. The fruits are the representations of the nature and character of God manifested through us. Obviously God has more than 9 characteristics! The works of the flesh have 15 fruits listed and we know that list is nowhere near complete. Don’t tell me sin and law can out-produce God and grace!

I believe any characteristic that was embodied by Jesus as the exact representation of God can be included in this list. I have tried to think of as many as I can and list them here. So far I have added humility, honour, courage, purity, compassion, forgiveness, hospitality, loyalty, fairness, righteousness, innocence, friendliness, mercy, favour, justness, integrity, empathy, dependability and politeness. I am sure there are even more. If you are wondering how to determine if a characteristic can be a fruit of the Spirit, the answer lies in “Against such there IS NO LAW”. This means there is no limit to how much of a thing you can have or how many acts of it you are allowed to commit. There is no limit on how much love you can have and how much love you can show and give away. Same goes for all the other fruit too. You cannot be too kind, too fair, too compassionate, too innocent, too hospitable or too Jesus. There is no law against the how much of Jesus you can have or against how much of Jesus you can give away!

Glory to Glory!

Cornel Marais

Click here to read a preview of Cornel’s new book, “So You Think Your Mind Is Renewed?” If you’re tired of religion, legalism and the traditions of man, this book will be a great starting block for you to starting living the life you were destined to live in Christ!