November 9, 2010

Stephen Full of the Spirit of Wisdom and of Faith.

Acts 6:3 "Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business."
Acts 6:4 "But we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word."
Acts 6:5 "And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus a proselyte of Antioch;"

Pastor's Blog

What does it look like to be full of the Spirit or of wisdom or even faith? Whatever it is it must have been visible because the Apostles asked the people to choose men who possessed these attributes.

We saw in part what happened at Pentecost with the initial filling of the Spirit upon the Church, but what is it to be full of the Spirit and what does it look like? We know from the teaching of the Gospels that the Spirit of God is a gift given to us in which we play no part. It is based solely upon the grace of God and we only need to receive. Wisdom and faith are different though. Wisdom we are told to ask for in James 1 and it too will be given, but if we doubt we will receive nothing. So asking and not doubting are our part although wisdom is still a gift given. With faith we are told “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God”. Romans 12:3 says “to each man is given a measure of faith” so we see like the Spirit and wisdom, faith is also a gift but it comes in seed form and must be nurtured by hearing. All three are gifts given that can not be acquired by any other means except God Himself , yet the last two require something from us. Wisdom that requires a lack of doubting, which is directly connected to faith and faith which needs the wisdom to know how to nurture it. It might seem all twisted up and in a way it is but not so twisted that it does not make sense. Wisdom also needs asking and faith also needs hearing and both of these are foundational components of communication. When we are communicating with God we call that prayer. We find wisdom in the scriptures as well as our ability to hear comes from them as well, so the Word of God is also critical to our being full of the Spirit of wisdom and of faith.

The Word and prayer go together and can not be separated. If one leans on the Word they will have knowledge/information but without prayer they might well lack the revelation to use it to the glory of God. If they lean on prayer they may receive revelation but lack the knowledge of where it comes from, maybe not from God.

Being full of the Spirit and being full of the Word both have the same outworking according to scripture. In Ephesians 5:18-6:9 and Colossians 3:16-22 we see that being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the Word produce the same result and it is visible and verifiable in the relationships closest to us, our families. This should also extend to our Church family but must start in our homes. I felt the Spirit of God once tell me “if you can not run your house why would I want you to run mine”. Being gifted by God does not mean matured in God. We need the Word of God building us up and at the same time we need prayer to keep us humble that we might become what a dying world needs, full of the Spirit of wisdom and of faith.