Sunday Reflections

ABILITY TO SPEAK or act in a particular way...is only a charisma if and as God uses it to edify. Some natural abilities that God has given he never uses in this way, while sometimes he edifies through performances that to competent judges seem substandard.... What constitutes and identifies a charisma is not the form of the action but the blessing of God.

— J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit

MANY BAD MEN have had these gifts. Many will say at the last day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” [Matt.7:21]. Such as these, who have had...gifts of the Spirit, but no special and saving [work] of the Spirit.... Gifts of the Spirit are excellent things, but...they are not things which are inherent in the nature, as true grace and holiness are.... Gifts of the Spirit are, as it were, precious jewels, which a man carries about him. But true grace in the heart is, as it were, the preciousness of the heart, by which...the soul itself becomes a precious jewel....

— Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits

H/T Redeemer, Manhattan