GIFTS AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE BELIEVER

PART OF SERIES ON SPIRITUAL WARFARE BY LORI CLAYTON

Dr David Livingstone, Scottish Missionary 1813-1873.
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.
Speech to students at Cambridge University (4 December 1857)

LORI CLAYTON

I think David Livingstone’s perspective is good, he had a hard time in Africa and he did not waiver in his faith.  There are many things that come against believers in Christ.  Sometimes they are demonic in nature.  Christians can have demons, I know that this can be a controversial subject but we have to think this through without being emotional.   Have you ever known of a Christian to lie, cheat, steal, physically hurt someone, emotionally abuse someone or over use alcohol?  Sure you have, there are plenty of people like that in our very churches. 


One of the problems we have is trying to help these people get free yet it seems like they continue to make the same mistakes over and over.  If we are not ministering to the root of the problem we are not setting people free.  How we do that, is what we need to look at, but first we need to look at a few more verses on our power.


Rom 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power [dunamis] of the Holy Ghost.KJV
Rom 15:19 Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power [dunamis] of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.KJV

READ THE REST OF THIS POWERFUL PIECE BY LORI HERE