Wed.’s Devo - Let Love be our Motivation

Read: 1 Corinthians 12-14
Paul explains the way the Spirit works in the church. If a church service is moving in the Holy Spirit then he will disperse his manifestations throughout the crowd. To one he will give a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, faith to another, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues to others. It was never God’s intention that the pastor led the whole show and did all the work of the Spirit. We are a body that all has the same Spirit and we all need one another to get the complete blessings the Holy Spirit has been sent to give us.
There are also offices in the body that God has set. The order is apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues. We can all move in the manifestations of the first paragraph but these offices are set by God.
Then Paul tells us to earnestly desire the best gifts and shows us the best way. The best gift and the best way is love. You can be very gifted and be able to navigate the spirit life but if you are not doing it through the best gift of love, then your gift will be tainted and not effective in bringing life to the receiver. Love is the only gift we can take to heaven. We won’t need to prophecy or heal in heaven but we will always have love. Love is the gift that most makes us like Jesus. It should be our prime and only motivation to use the gifts. If it is not them we have moved to witchcraft and sorcery and our aim is selfish gain.
Chapter 14 tells us much about the gift of tongues to help us understand what they are for. Verse 14 and 15 says that praying in tongues is your spirit praying. Verse 16 says that you can bless others by praying in tongues. But, like Paul said, if there is no one in the congregation to interpret what you are saying in tongues it is not going to do anyone much good. So we pray in tongues in our own prayer time unless our church has an interpreter of tongues. In the Old Testament it was prophesied that men would one day speak in tongues so the fulfillment of that prophecy is a sign to the unbeliever that the Word is true. But prophecy will cause an unbeliever to repent because he will hear someone tell him the secrets of his heart.
Lord, thank you for your gifts. Let us walk in the Spirit.