Before we get into this topic, lets look at one thing that really brings us controversy in the doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants.
Catholics us the verses in Isaiah 11
Protestants typically stick to what is written by Paul in 2nd Corinthians
We are not going to do either, we are going to look at our Father and let His spirit show us what the gifts are as He gives us the answer and we don’t have to choose. I believe there are more things to the gifts than either viewpoints of the Catholics or Protestants. I believe that years of theology and biblical study by these groups have left them with blinders on giving them tunnel vision as to why they perceive as the gifts of the spirit. I say this because most theologians do a lot of leaning on others understanding and perspectives rather than allow the Spirit of Elohim to be their teacher. Let’s get started.
Genesis 2:7
7 And יהוה Elohim formed the man out of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of lives. And the man became a living being.
The gift of life is the first gift from the spirit that every human being gets to experience when they are brought into the world. It is the iconic gift that everyone overlooks and takes for granted. We are lost in a sea of distraction, not able to appreciate the beautiful gift of life. Its amazing how much you come to appreciate your life when it is seems that you are losing it or you come close to losing it. When you’ve tasted death, met death or even stared death in the eyes, you garner a greater respect for life. When I was in my 20s and younger, I faced death. I found myself staring death in the face on a three-story fall, but death didn’t have me that day. The Father had different plans than a loss of life so many years ago. I didn’t appreciate life then but what got me to appreciate life was the understanding that after life, there is two places that one may go, to righteousness or to death. That’s when I gained a better respect for life. When you grab hold of the truth that your actions here on Earth determine what happens to you after your last breath makes you realize that your little life has major repercussions on your afterlife destination. This is why the Father is the author and we are the participants with a very powerful weapon, free will choice.
Years ago the Father made a choice and that choice was to create life and to give life.
Job 33:4
4 The Spirit of Ěl has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
The breath of life being the Ruach.
Ruach: wind, spirit
The spirit of life is given to each being created from the creature that creeps that has breath fro the spirit of life is from the breath or spirit of Father. It’s quite a wonderful understanding when you can grasp the magnitude of this gift.
Nehemiah 9:6
6 “You are יהוה, You alone. You have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that are on it, the seas and all that are in them, and You give life to them all. And the host of the heavens are bowing themselves to You.
This gift of life has another side to it, an opposite side to it that helps a person realize what they have if they ever face it and that side is death. Father is the author of life and death. As we will soon discover, we have a Father who warns us about His power over life and death. He explains how to obtain it, how to lose it and how to maintain it. We just don’t listen, disobey and decide to do the opposite of what we’ve been shown.
Proverbs 19:16
16 He who guards the command guards his life, He who despises His ways dies.
Yeshua says this;
Matthew 15:2-6
2Why do Your taught ones transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.
3But He answering, said to them, “Why do you also transgress the command of Elohim because of your tradition?
4“For Elohim has commanded, saying, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
5“But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me has been dedicated,”
6is certainly released from respecting his father or mother.’ So you have nullified the command of Elohim by your tradition.
So the author of life has a few stipulations, He gives you life but He may take it away if you disobey His commands or usurp them with your own traditions. Let’s show some examples from King David.
Psalms 103:1-5
1Bless יהוה, O my being, And all that is within me, Bless His set-apart Name!
2Bless יהוה, O my being, And do not forget all His dealings,
3Who forgives all your crookednesses, Who heals all your diseases,
4Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving-commitment and compassion,
5Who satisfies your desire with the good, Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Matthew 6:15
15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither shall your Father forgive your trespasses.
The forgiveness comes from the Father that you receive when you transgress or commit sin. He is who you petition, the author of life, the judgement between life and death. We all must work to understand the truth behind these gifts. We are just given all this ooey gooey feel-good tolerant story about the gifts from both the Catholic and Protestant but we aren’t given the other side of the coin. The gift of the Spirit also brings the judgement of Elohim. For it is through His spirit that all things are carried out. The spirit carries the out the word of our Father. Therefore, we can deduce that the gifts of the spirit are more than just 7 or 9. There is an infinite number that this quantifies to due to the fact that everything that Elohim does in your life, whether you perceive it to be good or bad, is a gift from the Spirit for it is the intervention of the Most High Yah. It could be life, healing, knowledge, wisdom, tongues, resurrection, forgiveness(Micah 7) , righteousness, teaching, etc. This list is just unending. I believe that man has to limit Yah so they can try to determine who He is and how to relate them to others. We all want to understand Him and know Him. Most of us actually look to others for that connection through their knowledge and wisdom rather than seeking this out on our own,
Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the plans I am planning for you,’ declares יהוה, ‘plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and an expectancy.
12 Then you shall call on Me, and shall come and pray to Me, and I shall listen to you.
13 And you shall seek Me, and shall find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
essentially not searching out the Father and looking at your neighbors’ cheat sheet. Not all the gifts present themselves as gifts but again any action in your life that Elohim directs, is a gift of His Spirit. Nothing that comes from Father is negative in His perception but in ours, a misguided perception, can perceive some incidents as negative or bad. Everything from Father is good and good unto us.
Deuteronomy 32:39
39 See now that I, I am He, And there is no Elohim besides Me. I put to death and I make alive. I have wounded, and I heal. And from My hand no one delivers!
2 Kings 5:7
7 And it came to be, when the sovereign of Yisra’ĕl read the letter, that he tore his garments and said, “Am I Elohim, to kill and keep alive, that this man sends a man to me to recover him of his leprosy? For consider now, and see how he is seeking an occasion with me!”
1 Samuel 2:6
6 “יהוה puts to death and makes alive, He brings down to She’ol and raises up.
He provides so much to us that it grants us so many opportunities to seek Him and to find Him. He sent Moses, Yeshua and many others to show His grace and mercy. To give examples of what to do and what not to do. He gave us freedom and a passage way to find it. He gives us life and if we choose it, He gives us death. Death is a choice and we are protected from death as long as we live according to the way described. We have this gift as a possession in our hands and we choose whether we hold on to it or whether we let it go.
Isaiah 66:16
16 “For by fire and by His sword יהוה shall judge all flesh, and the slain of יהוה shall be many –
17 those who set themselves apart and cleanse themselves at the gardens after ‘one’ in the midst, eating flesh of pigs and the abomination and the mouse, are snatched away, together,” declares יהוה.
Jeremiah 25:31
31“Tumult shall come to the ends of the earth, for יהוה has a controversy with the nations. He shall enter into judgment with all flesh. The wrong He shall give to the sword,’ declares יהוה.”
Our Father brings life and can judge life, He can execute whatever command that fits rightfully and justly. He judges perfectly and none is safe from His judgement. We will all face our Creator and we will, in one way or another, account or be forgiven and covered. It’s all up to how we live our life now. The life that we were given from this Creator, it’s ours to decide how it ends. We are given the tools, the gifts and the power to choose how we live and how we die but it’s the Creator that judges if our intent was with truth or selfish preservation, that latter in which does not lead to life. We need to examine our lives and see how it stacks up to the letter of our Fathers expectations. Let us not squander our life but utilize it to the best of our ability and make the most of our opportunities to please our Father and obtain everlasting life.
Some ask, how do you suppose this is the way it is and the answer lies in a couple of places, lets look at those.
Daniel 12:1-2
1 “Now at that time Miḵa’ĕl shall stand up, the great head who is standing over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of distress, such as never was since there was a nation, until that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book,
2 and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth wake up, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches, everlasting abhorrence.
Ezekiel 18:20
20“The being who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor the father bear the crookedness of the son. The righteousness of the righteous is upon himself, and the wrongness of the wrong is upon himself.
The gift of Life from our Father’s spirit has choices and these choices are between you and yourself to determine which way you lead yourself. We only live life once and we don’t get another chance after the gift of life that gives you your existence here on Earth and that breath taken away.
Any Questions?
Shabbat Shalom
