Gifts Received At Salvation

On Pentecost Sunday, we listened to a testimony of a lady whose life was transformed when she received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. However, Pentecost is about more than just speaking in tongues. This is what I want to address today: the gift we received at Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

2 Corinthians 13:14

When you get saved, you receive three gifts; one from each of the Godhead. This verse contains three gifts that we receive at salvation. The first gift given to you is the Father’s gift of love. It sounds simple but what moves, motivates, and sustains us in life is love. Many people find themselves in bad situations simply for searching for love. Common sense tells us to run when we are in danger but the yearning for love can cause us to stay even in abusive relationships.

God the Father’s Gift Of Love

You and I were created with a God-shaped hole inside us and only God, Who is love, can fill it. If we don’t have love in our lives, something is missing. Love is the essential building block to your psychological and physical development. Love is all that you need and all of us have the need for it. When we are saved, God gives you the gift no one else can give you – unconditional love. If you do not allow God to fill you with His unconditional love, you will be empty. Have you received God’s gift of love?

What sets Christianity apart from any other religion is that God is not looking for what you can do for Him but what He can do for you. We need God’s love and we cannot earn it by our works; we just have to receive it.

The Gift Of The Son: The Grace Of Jesus

The second of the gifts we receive at salvation is the grace of Jesus Christ. Without God’s grace, we cannot see or come to God. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. This means God is taking your sin and giving you forgiveness. The great exchange that happened on the cross is what grace is all about. Jesus Christ took your pain, sin, suffering, and addictions and gave you His blessings – He took what you deserve and gave you what He deserves.

Many Christians start the journey of their walk with the Lord by grace but as they grow and begin to learn the importance of sacrifice, fasting and other Christian principles, they begin to slip into works. These principles are given to us to help us make our Christian lives full and strong. However, when we begin to bring them into our relationship with God, we approach Him based on the strength of these virtues in our lives, instead of His grace. This makes it difficult for us to come into God’s presence because we feel bad that we did not pray enough yesterday.

Grace and Mercy

When we slip out of grace to works in our relationship with God, we begin to live by mercy. Mercy is not receiving what you deserve, which is different from grace. In this state, instead of embracing the mindset that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, by the grace of Jesus, we come to Him as a prodigal son saying we are not worthy of being Your son, make me Your slave. We live a mentally enslaved Christianity. But in the parable of the prodigal son, the Father not only ran to embrace him but reinstated his sonship, putting a ring on his finger and a robe by grace.

This is a wrong mindset. You don’t have to try to achieve God’s love through your works or merit. God rebuked the church in Revelation that started living by grace but soon fell back upon works. Let’s depend on God’s grace.

Grace is not a license to sin; grace is power to overcome your addiction, oppression, and sin. Let us not settle for a slavery mindset in God’s house. Embrace sonship; embrace grace.

The Gift Of The Holy Spirit Is Fellowship

The communion, fellowship or friendship of the Holy Spirit is the third of the gifts we receive at our new birth. The Holy Spirit is not just about speaking in tongues. What you have received at salvation is much bigger than only speaking in tongues or any other gift. You have received the gift of the Holy Spirit who is God living inside you, fused with your spirit. It is the Spirit of God within you that gives you the mind of Christ. This is not a gift from the Holy Spirit but a gift of the person of the Holy Spirit Himself.

Every Christian has the same Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit does not have every Christian the same way. What determines the degree and level that we walk with the Holy Spirit is how much have you surrendered to the Holy Spirit.

We often hear people pray with good intentions to have more of the Holy Spirit but the truth is you cannot have more of Him. He gave Himself entirely to you. You don’t get a part or a measure of the Holy Spirit like He is a power, wind or other thing than a person. You either have a person or you don’t. What we mean is not to have another part of the Holy Spirit but what we want is a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Everybody gets the Holy Spirit at salvation but the Holy Spirit gets us at surrender. The more we surrender to the Holy Spirit, the deeper that relationship and fellowship grows. The Holy Spirit wants fellowship, communion, and to talk with you more than you want to talk with Him.

The Gift of the Person of the Holy Spirit

Something that helped me to grow in my relationship with the Holy Spirit was the revelation that He is a person, not a thing or an object. I don’t want us to reduce the person of the Holy Spirit to a gift, a cloud, a power or manifestation. The Holy Spirit is a person.

“And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.”

John 14:16

We cannot have fellowship with the Holy Spirit if we see Him as a force instead of a friend or a power instead of a person.

The Holy Spirit is with you; He wants to disciple you; He wants to speak to you. He can speak to you when you are awake and when you are asleep. We should see the Holy Spirit the way we see Jesus. He is just as much of a person as Jesus Christ is. Do this, and you will go on such a beautiful journey with the Spirit of God.

It is time that you understand who the Holy Spirit is. It is time for you to develop your relationship with Him.

Instead of feeling guilty, be hungry; feel like you miss Him because He is a person. Don’t let guilt stop you from fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. Other than this, there are three sins against the Holy Spirit which I want you to avoid in your walk with Him.

Sins Against The Holy Spirit

1. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit – Matthew 12:31 – The Holy Spirit is blasphemed when you attribute the works of the Holy Spirit to demons. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. You cannot develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit if you are blasphemous (1 Timothy 1:13).
2. Quenching the Holy Spirit – 1 Thessalonians 5:19 – When we restrict the power of God from moving, we quench the Holy Spirit. Don’t be hunters of the fake but be pursuers of the real. Our hunger for the real power of God has to be greater than our fear of the counterfeit.
3. Grieving the Holy Spirit – Ephesians 4:30 – The Holy Spirit is grieved when we ignore His promptings. Disobedience grieves the Holy Spirit. If you feel like you are stuck in your relationship with the Holy Spirit, go back to your last place of obedience or disobedience. Go back to the last place where He told you to do something and you ignored it. Repent and do it if its still applicable.

Watch The Full Sermon Here: