GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 27, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 43.

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT.

Apostles.

“THE gift [singular] of the Holy Ghost,” or the Holy Spirit, is for every believer, it matters not who that believer may be; “for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This is the Word of the Lord to every soul, and to every soul the promise will be fulfilled if he will but accept it by faith.

That Spirit if received will cleanse, sanctify, purify, overcome, blot out, obliterate, sin in the heart and life. It fits the soul for the family of God. It makes him capable of serving in God’s household. It prepares him as a soldier in Christ’s army; it furnishes full equipment for all required service in the gifts bestowed. But the gifts are as the Spirit will, not as the man will. They are bestowed upon the church, the body of Christ, divided among its members, that the body may rightly represent the Head.

Only a complete body can properly represent a head, let it be the body of man or beast. From the brain go impulses to every part of the body, to every member, to incite to united and perfect action. The eye is to see, the hand is to grasp. If the hand or the foot is wanting, the body fails to represent the heart.

Bear these self-evident truths in mind as we consider what God has said concerning His church and her equipment for service. “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” 1 Cor. 12:28–30. The evident answer to each one of these questions is negative. All are not apostles, or prophets, or teachers, or miracle-workers. And yet just as truly as all are not, it is God’s design that some of the all shall be apostles, and some prophets, and some miracle-workers, and some teachers; that each of the all shall possess some one or more of the gifts God has “set in the church.”

“Apostles.”

“And He gave some, apostles.” An apostle is “one sent forth.” In the case of the chosen twelve, it was necessary (1) that they should be eye and ear witnesses of Christ’s work and resurrection (John 15:27; Acts 1:21, 22; 1 John 1:3); (2) they were called, chosen, and sent by our Lord Himself (Luke 6:13; Gal. 1:1); (3) they had the Spirit of God, and were endowed with gifts sufficient for their work (John 16:13; Mark 16:20; Acts 2:43; Rom. 15:18, 19; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:4).

But these mighty powers were not confined to the apostles alone, as we shall see later.

Neither was apostleship confined to the twelve first chosen by our Lord. Paul and Barnabas were apostles (Acts 14:14); so were Epaphroditus, and others (2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25; the word rendered by messenger is apostolos). The great apostle of all is Jesus Christ. Heb. 3:1.

From the above considerations we may conclude that an apostle is one chosen of God to lead out in the presentation of His message to the church and to the world, and one who always bears a message in advance of the people of God at the time he goes forth. This was true of Jesus, of the twelve, of Paul, of Barnabas.

Have there been no apostles since? Let us not be deceived. God has had His chosen messengers for advance work in every age. The gift is set in the church. John Wycklif was God’s apostle of the Reformation in England, Martin Luther in Germany, Ulric Zwingle in Switzerland. John Wesley was an apostle for vital, heaven-born Christianity in the Church of England. And how many apostles in mission fields has God called and chosen and sent forth such, as Peter Heiling to Abyssinia in 1632; Ernst Von Welz, of Germany, to Guiana a quarter of a century later; John Elliot, among the Indians of America; Hans Egede, to Greenland; the Nitzschmann brothers (Moravian), to the West Indies; and others, elsewhere; and Carey, “the Cobbler,” of the nineteenth century, to India!

William Miller was truly an apostle in the great advent movement of 1840 to 1844, to arouse a people to the importance of Christ’s coming. And there are yet apostles of God leading out in grand latter-day reformations, their messages ever based on the truth of the Word of God, backed home by the Holy Spirit.

God calls those whom He can use. He endows them according to their ability, and He gives to every one of His people the grand privilege of catching up the message of the apostle and bearing it to those who sit in ease and darkness. Blessed gift of God! All may not be apostles, but all may be blessed and builded up by the gift.