When I was young, I often coveted the birthday presents of others. My birthday is January 4th, and growing up my Christmas presents were twofold. I never had a birthday party as a child; in fact I usually didn’t even get a cake let alone a gift, so when others had parties, cakes and gifts…jealously ruled my heart.
Sad to say, but I see the same thing in the
Body of Christ, when it comes to our Spiritual
Gifts. (click)
As with any gift, we have an expectation and
can’t wait to see what’s inside. No matter how beautifully wrapped, there are
some who just go for it and rip the wrapping off as quickly as possible. Then
there are those of us who savor the wrapping and painstakingly take our time.
But deep down we are all excited to see what it is.
Then—Boom! Joy! Elation! Disappointment!
Take your pick. We can experience great moments of joy, shed tears of
happiness, or be very disappointed and ungrateful depending on what it is.
We can also experience these same emotions
when it comes to our spiritual gifts.
One of the most wonderful things I found out
as a babe-in-Christ, (Besides I didn’t have to bring home the bacon and fry it
up in the pan too because I was a woman.) was that I was going to get a
spiritual gift or two. Woo Hoo! But who knew I was going to take a step into
bondage versus freedom?
I was instructed to purchase a book on the
gifts of the Holy Spirit! The author went into great detail as to what each
gift meant and what it was used for. There was even a chapter of questions you
answered to help you pinpoint what your gift(s) might be. Here is where the
trouble started. I didn’t see where I had any real gifts and this lead to disappointment
in Christ. At the time I had a deep root of rejection and so I found myself
feeling that I somehow was not as good as those around me. It brought up
feelings of “God loves them more than me.” Where is the joy and freedom in
that?
One of the biggest problems I encountered
was being in a church with a bunch of proud folks who often had to let you know
what their gifts were and how fantastic it made them. This causes envy amongst
the saints for sure. But, since hindsight is 20/20, half the folks were
pretenders. Yup—faking it all the way! Perpetrating a fraud! Just making up
stuff—but nothing has really changed—we still do it today.
A few years back I was looking for a congregation
to be part of because I had moved. One morning I went to a Sunday school class
of a congregation I had been to a couple of times. They were winding up a study
on “The Gifts of the Holy Spirit,” (go figure), and the teacher had handed out
a printed sheet with all her gifts (so she said) and with her chest stuck out,
she went down the list…in detail. What a horrible display of pride and how
confusing that could be for a babe in Christ. In answer to your question, “No,
I didn’t go back.”
Over the years I have come to realize that
most of us are functioning in a gift long before we are aware of it. Unlike
birthday parties—we are not the center of attention for everyone else to ooh
and ah when we are given a spiritual gift.
Reading a book on how to find out, recognize
or use your spiritual gifts to further the Kingdom, is a waste of good reading
time that could be spent in the Word.
The Bible states the Holy Spirit gives
everyone in the Kingdom gift(s). And that there is not one that is greater or
better than another. They are all needed. So, don’t covet a gift you might see
in someone else. For one, you don’t know what they have had to go through in
order to function in their gift(s). I have yet to meet a missionary that didn’t
have the gift of helps. The life of a
missionary is not pampered nor is it easy. Every encourager I’ve met has most often lived through some type of hell
and some more than others. You know that praise and worship leader everyone wishes
they could be like—well, often their praise and worship comes from some type
of hard living they had to do.
In the natural, humility is always grateful
for the gift, even if it’s something they won’t use, or even like that much. That’s
because they see past the gift itself and are grateful for the love and thought
that went into it. In Christ, our humility should send us over the top in
whatever gift we are given and whatever capacity we are chosen to use it in.
You see…everyone is not going to be on television or have a large ministry for
all to see. Some of us work in the shadows and go unseen by many—but never unnoticed
by God.
It’s not our choice—it is our service.
If you are not sure what your gifts are or
how they should be used? Ask the One who gave them to you. No need to buy a
book on the subject at all.
Think about it…would you give someone you
loved a car without making sure they could drive? No! And neither would the
Holy Spirit.
The bible tells us that He gives all gifts
at His discretion. That speaks volumes! In other words, it shows us that He
knows what is needed to enhance the Body and who can handle what? If He wasn’t
going to instruct us, it would be like giving someone who lived in the Amazon
rainforest a Mac card that gave them access to $10,000,000.00. What good would
it be to them without instruction, pin numbers and access to an ATM? None! And
that’s my point.
God never leaves us stranded and it is the
Holy Spirit's job to guide and instruct us. And another thing…where does it say
in the Bible we get all our gifts at one time? It doesn’t.
Study your Bibles sisters. Study so you can live in
the great Freedom our Lord and Savior
has provided for us. Study what it really means to live in the Kingdom of God.
Study and learn that the Holy Spirit is not abstract, but real and how important a role
He plays in our everyday lives. Amen!
Next Week: The
Bondages of Christendom, Part 5…(Reading the Bible Through In One Year)
Until next week...
No comments:
Post a Comment