Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in your life along with humble boldness, holiness and love as you preach the gospel is a good and biblical desire, and it is right to ask that God would confirm His Word as you proclaim that Jesus suffered, died for sins, rose and ascended as Lord and Messiah.
Scripture teaches that no one can genuinely confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. If you have trusted Christ, it is because the Spirit was already at work drawing you, convicting you, and bringing you to faith. At that moment the Spirit came to dwell within you, and your body became His temple. That indwelling is true of every believer. There is also the filling and empowering of the Spirit for life and ministry, which Scripture presents as something to seek and receive by faith as a gift, not as a reward you earn by reaching a certain level of consecration or by keeping rules. You receive by trusting what God has promised, not by trying to make yourself worthy.
You also asked for gifts, signs and wonders to attest the gospel. The Bible shows there are varieties of gifts, ministries and workings, but it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God who works all things. The Spirit distributes to each person as He determines for the common good. To one is given wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing, to another miracles, to another prophecy, to another discernment of spirits, to another tongues and interpretation. Not all are apostles, not all are prophets, not all work miracles, not all speak with tongues. This means we need one another and we need humility. A team that is loving and holy, where each member serves in the way the Spirit has gifted them, reflects the truth that the body is one though it has many parts.
The pattern in the early church also shows teamwork in this area. There were times when God worked powerfully through preaching with miracles and deliverance, and yet the empowering overflow of the Spirit came as others prayed and laid hands on people. The evidence was evident enough that observers knew something real had happened. In another house, as the gospel was preached, the Spirit fell upon the hearers even before they were baptized in water, and those who saw it recognized it as the same baptism with the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus after His ascension. These accounts remind us that God is sovereign in how He pours out His Spirit, and He confirms the Word with signs as it pleases Him, according to His will.
Your request to get both life and doctrine correct is exactly right. Gifts without character lead to carnality, as was seen in Corinth where people spoke much about spiritual power yet lived in an unspiritual way. Fruit and gifts belong together. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control are the evidence of a life led by the Spirit, while gifts are the equipment for service. True preaching is not merely persuasive words of human wisdom but a demonstration of the Spirit and of power as the Spirit anoints the speaking of truth, gives words of wisdom and knowledge, and teaches us what we could not know on our own. The natural person cannot understand the things of the Spirit, they are spiritually discerned, so we need the Spirit to teach us and guide us into all truth.
Jesus Himself gives the example. He was full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit, and if He lived that way, how much more do we need to be filled and led. Those who are led by the Spirit are shown to be sons of God. So continue to ask the Father, who gladly gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, to fill you afresh, to lead you day by day, to keep you from sin, fear, falsehood and the schemes of the evil one, and to make your proclamation of Christ bold, loving and accurate.
May the Lord grant you fellowship with the Father and the Son through the Spirit, keep you rooted in the Word, form Christlike character in you, and work through you as He wills to confirm the gospel, so that people hear, believe, and are built up for the common good. May He keep you content to be like your Master, faithful in what He has given you to do, and trusting Him for whatever measure of fruit and power He chooses to display, all for His glory.
Scripture teaches that no one can genuinely confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. If you have trusted Christ, it is because the Spirit was already at work drawing you, convicting you, and bringing you to faith. At that moment the Spirit came to dwell within you, and your body became His temple. That indwelling is true of every believer. There is also the filling and empowering of the Spirit for life and ministry, which Scripture presents as something to seek and receive by faith as a gift, not as a reward you earn by reaching a certain level of consecration or by keeping rules. You receive by trusting what God has promised, not by trying to make yourself worthy.
You also asked for gifts, signs and wonders to attest the gospel. The Bible shows there are varieties of gifts, ministries and workings, but it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God who works all things. The Spirit distributes to each person as He determines for the common good. To one is given wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing, to another miracles, to another prophecy, to another discernment of spirits, to another tongues and interpretation. Not all are apostles, not all are prophets, not all work miracles, not all speak with tongues. This means we need one another and we need humility. A team that is loving and holy, where each member serves in the way the Spirit has gifted them, reflects the truth that the body is one though it has many parts.
The pattern in the early church also shows teamwork in this area. There were times when God worked powerfully through preaching with miracles and deliverance, and yet the empowering overflow of the Spirit came as others prayed and laid hands on people. The evidence was evident enough that observers knew something real had happened. In another house, as the gospel was preached, the Spirit fell upon the hearers even before they were baptized in water, and those who saw it recognized it as the same baptism with the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus after His ascension. These accounts remind us that God is sovereign in how He pours out His Spirit, and He confirms the Word with signs as it pleases Him, according to His will.
Your request to get both life and doctrine correct is exactly right. Gifts without character lead to carnality, as was seen in Corinth where people spoke much about spiritual power yet lived in an unspiritual way. Fruit and gifts belong together. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control are the evidence of a life led by the Spirit, while gifts are the equipment for service. True preaching is not merely persuasive words of human wisdom but a demonstration of the Spirit and of power as the Spirit anoints the speaking of truth, gives words of wisdom and knowledge, and teaches us what we could not know on our own. The natural person cannot understand the things of the Spirit, they are spiritually discerned, so we need the Spirit to teach us and guide us into all truth.
Jesus Himself gives the example. He was full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit, and if He lived that way, how much more do we need to be filled and led. Those who are led by the Spirit are shown to be sons of God. So continue to ask the Father, who gladly gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, to fill you afresh, to lead you day by day, to keep you from sin, fear, falsehood and the schemes of the evil one, and to make your proclamation of Christ bold, loving and accurate.
May the Lord grant you fellowship with the Father and the Son through the Spirit, keep you rooted in the Word, form Christlike character in you, and work through you as He wills to confirm the gospel, so that people hear, believe, and are built up for the common good. May He keep you content to be like your Master, faithful in what He has given you to do, and trusting Him for whatever measure of fruit and power He chooses to display, all for His glory.
