Jude 1:20-21 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Every time I read Jude I am struck by two things. The first is that even though he was Jesus’ half-brother biologically, he doesn’t claim that, but just mentions that he was a brother of James. (v. 1) The second is the glorious doxology with which he ends his letter. Don Fran­cisco has put that beautifully to music, and I can’t read it without the music running through my head and heart. That said, I heard verse 20 here quoted very often when I was first learning about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and particularly tongues. Many of those quoting it were playing with the grammar a bit and saying that praying in the Spirit is to build us up in faith. It does that, certainly, and Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 14:4, but if we focus on what it does for us, we miss out on a great deal. The reason I desired the gift in the first place was to be able to pray for situations where my knowledge and wisdom were lacking – which is virtually all the time! If we don’t have faith we aren’t going to pray in the Spirit, and besides, we can pray in the Spirit in our native language too! This passage is talking about what we can and should do to live the lives of blessing that God intends. This is yet another of the almost countless passages where the Japanese says, “wait expectantly.” We aren’t to be just hanging around waiting for the Rapture, we are to be active in living the lives God has laid out for us until He says, “That’s enough,” whether that is by physical death or by meeting Him in the air.

I know I have shared in the past about how I delayed my own baptism in the Holy Spirit by insisting that the gift of tongues be part of it, but a couple of months after I was baptized in the Spirit, a friend told me to pray asking God for a “prayer language,” if it would make me more useful to Him. I did, I received, and that’s been 50 years ago now. I have gone through periods in which I used the gift very little (such as when I was attending a Baptist seminary), but at this point I think it’s fair to say I use the gift daily. I am grateful for it, as for each of the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, but I know that my salvation doesn’t depend on it, or any gift.

Father, thank You for all Your spiritual gifts. Thank You for how satisfying, and at times, fun, it is to exercise them. That said, help me never use any gift of Yours strictly for myself, but rather apply it as You intend, building up the Body of Christ, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!