Gifts of the Spirit

So many times when Pentecostals think of the gifts of the Spirit our minds immediately go to prayer lines, calling people out, prophecy or telling people their zip codes. This is not the way the gifts of the Spirit always work. One of the examples of the gifts in operation that has stood out in my mind over the years was in a revival at James Swindle's church. My father had preached a message and conviction was as heavy as I had ever felt it in my life. Dad had been burdened for a particular man that was husband of one of the ladies in the church, and he was in that service.

After preaching dad began to repeat the phrase, "yes you can, I said you can (I already hear the Obama jokes flying at me now lol)." This man's wife told someone after church that her husband had just leaned over and said to her, "I can't live it," and was immediately greeted with my father saying, "yes you can, I said you can." Needless to say, the Holy Ghost won the battle, and the man prayed through and is still serving God today. That man had no doubt that God was calling him and had his number. That is the real gifts of the Spirit from which God and God alone gets the glory.