Claim Your Inheritance From the Bank of Heaven

The importance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the essential functioning of the Church of Jesus Christ cannot be over-estimated. Without them, the Church lacks the spiritual equipment outlined in 1 Corinthians 12, which is so necessary for an aggressive conflict with the powers of darkness. Without a study of these gifts, the Church is also deprived of that edifying enrichment derived from the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in her midst.

The Bible is full of God’s supernatural dealings with His people.

The experience of regeneration, whereby we become new creatures in Christ, is supernatural; Christians also readily admit that the devil is supernatural in his person, power, and activities. Yet the same Christians are inclined to shrink from the thought of a supernatural baptism in the Holy Spirit, with supernatural signs attending it, and the ensuing supernatural gifts.

Promised to Us

The Lord Jesus said: “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also.” (John 14:12). He also promised: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” (Acts 1:8). But if we ignore the gifts of the Holy Spirit we despise the heritage which is granted to us in Christ, and forget what the apostle Paul exhorted in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.”Should any advance the argument that the gifts were bestowed merely to usher in the present dispensation, and that they are “not for today,” let us quote the apostle Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, who said: “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39).Therefore, if a person is “called” to be a son of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, that person is also, in consequence, a prospective recipient of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.Possessed by UsThe following true story serves to illustrate the wisdom of “possessing our possessions.”The celebrated preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, was a very charitable man. He built almshouses for elderly people and loved to visit them in their homes. On a certain day, in one of these cottages, he noticed on the wall a slip of paper in a frame, on which was some writing. Upon asking the old lady what it might be, she said that it served to remind her of an aged gentleman whom she had nursed many years before. He had been very appreciative of her work and could not thank her enough for all she had done for him.As he lay dying, he wrote his name on the piece of paper, and handed it to her. So she had framed it, and whenever she looked at it, the old lady said it reminded her of the kindly old gentleman. Mr. Spurgeon requested that he might borrow the paper and persuaded her to remove it from its frame. Hastening to the bank, he asked if they knew anything about it. They told him they had been wondering to whom the old gentlemen’s money belonged.There were hundreds of pounds standing to his credit for the old lady, who had kept the cheque in the frame just to remind her of the one she had nursed.

She was living in poverty, although actually worth hundreds of pounds! Thus, can it be with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

It is not sufficient to regard God’s promises in His Word merely as a token of His love toward us. We need to present them at the Bank of Heaven, and thus turn into the currency of spiritual experience the inheritance provided for us.