1 Cor 12:1 “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.”
Dear Soldiers, Above verse is inspiring us to be concern about spiritual gifts. In 1 Cor 14: 4-11 verses Paul explains about different kinds of spiritual gifts. All of us having one or more gifts, but we may be ignorant about them.
After my born again experience, I was longing for the gift of tongues. Every time, I gave prayer request for getting me this gift. It took 4 years for me to activate speaking in tongues. As soon as I got this gift, I started praying in tongues and I am astonished by joy and increased ability to pray by speaking in tongues. Slowly, I became ignorant of the gift, but Holy Spirit always inspiring and insisting me to pray in tongues.
I sometimes pray a little and then forget. I started giving more attention to ministry and slowly my prayer time has decreased and eventually it has gone very down. I started feeling depressed and tense. Though I knew that I have to spend more time in prayer, I was not able to do it. I felt that I have lost relationship with The Lord and stared feeling the bondage of prayerlessness. I have shared my experience with two of my spiritual friends. They encouraged me and gave me hope.
One day, I was just casually praying in my desperate mood on my sofa. Lord urged me to go to the upper floor in separate room. There Lord started talking to me and showed my mistakes and how I slowly became ignorant to the voice of Holy Spirit. I broke out before The Lord and asked pardon. Then, Lord gave me some instructions to rebuild my prayer life. Praying in tongues was one of them to be started constantly and diligently. For last many days, I have started praying in tongues and now I am seeing many changes in my spiritual life.
1 Cor 14:4 says “The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself.” By praying in tongues, we can strengthen our spirit, allow our spirit to be more sensitive to Holy Spirit, able to surrender more to the Holy Spirit, it can also help us to active our spiritual senses, it can help us to understand bible verses and even can give us revelations and so on.
So, Dear Soldiers, we must strive eagerly for the spiritual gifts and use them for personal as well as church’s edification.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for your love and the gifts you have given us. Help us to pursue the spiritual gifts and use them diligently, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sol.Grishma Patel