Wk 08*** Tongues of Creation

Tongues of Creation

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

(Genesis 1:2, NIV)

“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them.”

(Acts of the Apostles 2:3, NIV)

It has long been debated whether or not God has a practical, or commercial, application in the workplace. During the early days of the Christian Church, a successful sorcerer named Simon asked if he could buy some of the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter rebuked him for not having a right heart before God (Acts 8:9-24). Dr. Billy Graham once said: "I believe one of the great moves of God is going to be through believers in the workplace." I do not know what Billy Graham had in mind, but God has certainly been evident in the response of global corporations and local businesses to the recent plague of natural disasters around the world. What motivates people to respond the way they do? What gives people the ability, or power, to rebuild a city, or a state, or an entire country, or all the coastal towns of several continents? It must be something of enormous power.

My belief is that the Holy Spirit, whom I believe is God Himself, gives this power to people of the earth, in abundant portions as is best fitting to serve His purpose for Mankind. By and large, I think His purpose is that Mankind would come to know Him. On a small scale (very small compared to the Power who created the universe), I came to know God through His gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts are the manifestations of the same Power which, or who, created the universe. There are many, many gifts, but most people probably only know of a few. A Church issued Spiritual Gifts Inventory and Survey revealed my gifts as prophesy, artistry and writing. I validated the authenticity of my gifts by prophesying God’s Word in letters to the editor of a secular newspaper and by revealing God’s glory in watercolors that I painted for a local art show.

By coincidence, or by Divine Intervention (you be the judge), soon after I discovered my gifts, my lumbar vertebrae deteriorated and necessitated a job reassignment. My employer sent me to school for retraining in computer graphics, where my gifts, or Divine talents, were recognized as something of excellence and I earned acceptance into the National Honors Society. At the same time that I was sent to school, I was reassigned to work in the safety department, where, without previous experience, I designed and authored two dozen technical safety programs. My written programs indirectly gave testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit, especially to His gifts of writing and artistry. In little more than a year, I became the head of a revamped health and safety department.

Four years after discovering the gifts of the Spirit, I submitted artwork to my employer’s art show in Bochum, Germany. I was selected as the employee-artist to represent the United States. A color brochure featuring the artists was published to advertise and to market the corporation (and the art show) to a global market. My bio in the brochure gave testimony to the glory of God and to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, a portion of my testimony was published in the corporate newspaper, which was distributed to 70,000 employees around the world. It is my impression that even if the corporate world has no practical application for God to serve their purpose, God has a practical application for the corporate world to serve His purpose.

I am no longer employed, but I am a full time student studying to become an ordained minister. Before the Holy Spirit was manifest in me as the gifts of prophesy, artistry and writing, I was not a prophet, nor an artist, nor a writer. Now I regularly preach the Gospel (prophesy), paint watercolors of God’s glory, and write essays about the things of God. I may never become a Billy Graham, nor a Leonardo da Vinci, nor a Leslie Miller (my literary essay teacher), but with the power of the Internet and publication venues like http://www.blogspot.com/, I have the potential for reaching a very large audience. Of course, the Holy Spirit will decide how, where, when and who He wants to reach.