When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, His first priority is to reveal the Lord Jesus to us.

He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:14)

Then, from this union with Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms our lives more and more into His own image.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Those are His purposes – union with Christ and life transformation.

His purpose is never to glorify us or make us wealthy or famous through supernatural gifting.

However, today, many in the Church pursue gifting because they want wealth and fame. Moreover, our Church culture often mirrors the fallen world with the high value we place on gifted celebrities – whether pop stars, movie stars, sports heroes or business icons.

We value gifting much more than character, and we pay a terrible price for that. Many men and women of God have been destroyed because they allowed, and sometimes even encouraged, people to put them on a pedestal, and their hearts were lifted up with pride. Then, when leaders are destroyed by their sin, they often take many others with them. Meanwhile, the world looks on with disgust at such superficiality and hypocrisy and they are further confirmed in their hardness and unbelief against the Gospel.

Moreover, the Church has become a stage for the performance of gifted people who everyone watches and applauds, rather than the dwelling place of God where His people love and serve one another.

This was never the purpose of Jesus in sending His Spirit! We must return to His central priority of seeking union with Christ and life transformation, rather than gifting.

The fact that someone has a great supernatural gifting does not mean they are spiritually mature. Samson (Judges 14:6) and Balaam (Numbers 24:2) were perfect examples of this! They both experienced genuine anointings from the Holy Spirit and yet their lives did not exemplify character or maturity and they ended in disaster.

Having the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 is certainly beneficial and even wonderful but having the fruit of Galatians 5:22-23 is the very foundation of our lives and ministries!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

In Paul’s two lists of requirements for leaders (1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1) there is no mention of gifting, but many character requirements. Thus, it is spiritual maturity that is the prerequisite for leadership and influence, not gifting.

If we return to the biblical pattern, we will have far fewer leadership failures and far more stable and mature churches!