We conclude our study of “The Riches of Our Inheritance” with a look at “The Blessings of Christ,” which include Christ’s promise to ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. Many of us are able to sense when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us or is particularly present with us, but how do we describe our experiences with Him to others?

The Holy Spirit expresses Himself through us and encourages us when we do good things - things that are a blessing to Him. He is also the love expression between God the Father and Jesus, His Son. A key point brought out during our study is that we should think of God as one, rather than focusing on one portion of Him. So, a good way to describe our experiences with the Holy Spirit is to describe our feelings of love toward God and how we sense His love being expressed to us.

We also contrasted worldly peace and spiritual peace. We noticed that worldly peace doesn’t last and that it is dependent upon worldly circumstances, while spiritual peace comes from within, finding its power in our trust of our Lord.

Finally, we took a quick look at the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. We reflected upon the spiritual gifts that are strong and weak in the SJUCC congregation. Love, shared history, care and hospitality were all mentioned as strengths in our small church. Meanwhile, we noticed weak spots in the areas of vision and encouragement.

In closing this study, we were reminded that we need to be careful not to look outward for the greater blessings of Christ. Peace between people will always be fleeting. And prayers for young families, more money and better programs may miss the point. In order to fully experience Christ’s blessings, we need to seek out His Spirit of love. We need to pursue a peace that settles our hearts. We need to look at our church with spiritual eyes - not just praying for “more people,” but instead, praying for people with the necessary spiritual gifts to help us better express God’s Spirit to one another and to the community around us.