Do you remember when you were a kid and Daddy held out a hand with ten pennies and in the other hand he held a quarter. Which did we grab? We took the pennies because it looked like more, when in reality we cheated ourselves. Daddy wasn't going to force us to take the quarter, even though it was more and you could do more with it. It was our choice what we accepted.

A lot of people settle for less because they, like children, don't see there is so much more than just surviving. Christians today cheat themselves without even knowing it. God has made promises of gifts but he isn't going to make them take time to learn how to use the gifts and they settle for just a little of God. They accept God and what He offers, they accept Jesus and what He offers and then they draw the line. The Holy Spirit is just a word but how much do they know about what He offers?

When we started school we thought we already knew everything and even some of us decided we would teach the teacher. Had we continued with that attitude, we would still be looking at words with no clue to what they said. The Holy Spirit is a teacher to show us how to use the gifts God has given us. So why would you toss Him out of the picture? If you get a Christmas gift that has to be assembled, but there are no instructions, you have a gift you can't use. What good is it?

Have you ever wondered, why do we not see the gifts of healing, prophesying, demons being cast out, the dead being raised? Have you seen any of these gifts being shown in your church? Wonder why? You can't use what you have no instruction for. We don't know who we are or what we have if we leave the Holy Spirit out of our lives. This is like saying, give me a full four-course meal but keep the drink and hope I don't get choked and die. If I do get choked, had I taken the drink, I could have washed down what was choking me.