Most people who claim to be Christians do not understand the Holy Spirit working in them because they do not have Him. They have religion rather than a relationship with Christ.
They would say they believe in the Holy Spirit when asked but do not conduct their life as though they depend on Him.
I have mentioned the Holy Spirit to relatives who attend church gatherings, who look at me like I am strange for mentioning Him. They seem genuinely embarrassed and they never mention Him as they depend entirely on their own thinking rather than on God Who created them.
They become angry when Scripture is used to explain things. And, worse, I never hear them speak of Jesus Christ; His name never comes from their lips.
Most church attendees today have never been born again. True believers take the gospel being preached in the world seriously.
The gospel was not meant to be preached in the gathering of believers because everyone there has been transformed by Christ into a new creation. The gospel is for the world, and all transformed believers should be speaking it in the community outside the gathering.
The gathering of the faithful is for edifying one another in the faith, preparing each one to go into the world and be a witness through their speech and their lives lived.
Ephesians 4:11-13 "…11 And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ."
Perhaps the gospel needs to be preached within the church gatherings today, because the world has come into the church. There are few authentic believers in the church gatherings today, and most are rejected as fanatics for suggesting we should actually follow the Bible.
Hebrews 13:21 "equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
2 Timothy 3:17 "so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 2:21 "So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work."
These commands from God were not suggestions and they are for every believer. There is no training process except through the Holy Spirit. There is no special school to attend for each believer to be equipped to do the work of God. Each believer has a calling, no one is special and no one is excluded.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills."
1 Corinthians 12:14-26 "14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
19 If all were a single member, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,
25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."
When there is love in the body of Christ, no one is treated as "less than" to elevate others. No one is elevated above anyone else as more important. All believers in an authentic Christian gathering are treated with the same respect and honor as every other believer.
This practice of loving everyone the same is rare in most gatherings. I have seen it practiced, and it is the loveliest thing to observe. The love flows and emanates to everyone without pre-eminence because only Christ is pre-eminent.
Colossians 1:24-29 "24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily."
All believers are called to desire spiritual callings and carry them out as the Holy Spirit reveals them to each one.
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