The disciples were able to preach the history of Israel in Acts. The Spirit works with the word of God to empower us. We begin to speak the word and we feel the power of the Spirit. The word of God is spiritual. It is the instrument the Spirit uses to testify about Christ.Christ is empowering us by sending the Spirit who empowers us in working by the word.The Spirit always the reason we experience saving effects. The OT saint could not be regenerated without the Spirit. But Christ was baptized with the Spirit. Then He breathed on the disciples who had been regenerated and they received the Spirit. So it was a testimony.Its very hard for us to get out of the habit of looking for the natural gifts in people. We seldom communicate in a way where the spirit gifts begin to appear in a person. We must meditate and pray in the scripture until it becomes our language. When we speak the wordwe begin to exercise our spiritual gifts. This is why the apostle warns us of carnality. We are living in the natural.We are supposed to be fellowshiping by giving a spiritual gift to someone in sharing the word. Its the show of the power of the Spirit. We can only find true joy in experiencing power that comes over us when we speak the word. This is why we cant control our spirit giftWe are commanded to meditate on the word of God. This means that we are to go over the same chapters and books a million times. We can never be satisfied that we have exhausted the process of understanding and mastering the words. The only life of God that will breathlife into us is through the word.

 Thats why sanctification is so difficult to accept. Because we fail when we do not use the means of faith. Its a race to learn as much as we can because life is short.Sanctification is telling God we love Him. He says prove it. We cannot escape prove it . We can only use the means to prove it.Matt 546If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.What does being perfect half to do with loving the unlovely? Because God does things in our lives that are surprising. So we should not avoid the unlovely when God shows up and we are called to love.throw parties. He was accused of being identified with sinners. Jesus like the sinners cause they did not put on the righteous act. When they did not like someone they were honest. But the Pharisees were always worried about appearing to be sinners.Matt 9 10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples.11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"the people accused JesusNo shortcuts to being holy. You must bleed Gods word. The real authentic person is the one who is.Knowing God is meditating on each word and asking all the questions. Some of the laziest people who get into a discussion are the ones who narrow everything down to doing what the bible says. They show up for a few weeks and they are gone.