Wow, I don’t even want to think about how much time has passed since I wrote the first post in this series. All I can say is that I’ve been really busy. And lazy. Ok, mostly lazy.

Back in the original post, we talked about how discipleship isn’t just memorization of scripture, commandments, or traditions. Discipleship goes way beyond just “knowing” stuff. If it didn’t, then I’d have to say that Jesus chose the wrong types of people to be his closest followers: most were fisherman, some were tax collectors or zealots, not exactly an Ivy League crew. (But I bet they’d be really good at rowing). Some of the disciples were at the bottom of the intellectual barrel, but Jesus knew that being a disciple was about more than just brains.

Today I’d like to take a look at how we oft-times confuse gifts of the Spirit with spiritual maturity. If you come from a pentacostal or charismatic tradition, this post may make a little more sense to you. If you don’t, just bear with me and I’ll do my best to bridge the gap. In every pentacostal or charismatic church there’s the super-spiritual man/woman who always manifests some “Gift of the Spirit” during the service. It may be praying in tongues during the worship service, or having a Word of Knowledge for everyone, or, my personal favourite, having an interpretation for someone else’s outspoken prayer in tongues. Like I said, I think it’s mandatory for every pentecostal or charismatic church to have one of these guys/gals. In the church I grew up in, we had “Bob”. (Don’t worry, Bob isn’t his real name)

Every time there was a prophecy, or a tongue, or an open alter, or dead space in the service, Bob was there. Once, during a Sunday Evening Service, we had some visitors who, unbeknownst to Bob, were from South America. Our guests, who were missionaries from Argentina, spoke English, but prayed in their mother tongue of Spanish. (If you grew up in a pentecostal or charismatic tradition, you should be able to tell where I’m going here.) After the worship service, our pastor asked one of the gentlemen to pray for our church and the message he was about to give. This is where the “unbeknownst to Bob” part comes in. When the missionary stopped praying, our pastor made the fatal mistake of leaving some dead air. Bob, sensing the moment was absolutely right, began to interpret. Luckily for Bob, our pastor was used to dealing with situations like these and quickly moved in to fix the situation. But I’ll never forget the looks on the faces of those missionaries. I can only imagine him thinking: “Hey, I didn’t even know I was speaking in tongues!”

Bob is a good example of Spiritual Gifts not equalling Spiritual Maturity, but unfortunately he’s not the only one. There’s the world renowned pastor who gets caught in an adulterous relationship. Or the worship leader who’s become completely self-obssessed. The problem is that all too often, we confuse Gifts with Fruit.

We’ll pick up with the topic of Gifts vs Fruit next post. I hope it’s not two months from now. :)