Know Your Spiritual Gifts

At my church we are studying the gifts of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12, 13 and14). My pastor wants us to be as effective as we can as Christians. Each member was asked to take a spiritual gifts test, get their results, and then speak with one of our associate pastors about those results. (http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php)

Additionally a website has been built inviting people all over the world to pray for revival(www.worldrevival.org). Knowing our gifts will prepare us for when God answers these prayers.

As a counselor, I am aware of how many of us don't claim all that God has given us. Spiritual gifts are often not taught. How effective can we be if we don't even know what our spiritual gifts are?

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy:" and 1 Corinthians 12:1 states, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant."

Now that is a pretty clear statement concerning God's intentions for us regarding His gifts. Because I test people's natural God-given aptitudes (non-learned abilities) that give career and/or volunteer direction to their lives, I know how much being aware of our gifts gives critical information regarding what we were created for: our ministry if you will.(www.highlandsco.com)

Some people believe we operate out of one gift, others believe we operate out of a number of gifts. My first teachings on the gifts indicated that we each have one major gift. This gift can be funneled through one of the five fold ministries as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 (apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers). Our gifts are then distributed as the Holy Spirit directs to the people involved in whatever you are doing. For instance, a person may have the gift of teaching that is funneled through one of the five fold ministry gifts, say, the ministry of pastor. This gift of teaching is received by others listening to him, possibly as encouragement to one, to another a word of knowledge and to another faith. There are numerous combinations that can be formed by the Holy Spirit.

Others believe we have several spiritual gifts. I am not sure which one of the two views I side with. Regardless, spiritual gifts are given to us for the purpose of ministering to others as 1Corinthians14:12 states, we are to, "try to excel in the spiritual gifts that build up the church". If we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us He will direct our spiritual gifts in helping others.

My spiritual gift test results are exhortation, wisdom, teaching and leadership. I enjoy my gifts because the Holy Spirit gave them to me, but better yet, I love to see how God uses them in people's lives. They are not given because we are special.

I am often amazed and humbled when people tell me how much what I said changed their lives. I ask, "What did I say?” When they tell me what I said I don't remember ever saying it, and if I did, it was just teaching to me but to them the Holy Spirit made it life changing. Twice I prayed with people and they exclaimed, "What did you do to me?" I am thinking, "I didn't do anything but pray." Both of these people reported feeling a heat rush through their bodies from head to toe. I am baffled as to what happened, other than it being the Holy Spirit. Both of these people later reported accounts of emotional healing in certain areas they had struggled with for a long time.

I just want to praise the Lord for being used by God without me even knowing. I was led to be born again as a woman was speaking about how her expectations of life always seem to crash and burn. I identified. When she came to the invitation I prayed with her because I heard, "Invite Jesus into your life. Let Him use your hands, your mouth, your feet to walk around the streets of Atlanta and be Jesus to hurting people." I had struggled with the "I can't live the Christian life syndrome" for so many years and beat myself up for being such a failure. I was instantly drawn to the Lord, hearing Jesus would live His resurrected life in and through me. I was overjoyed and prayed to receive Christ. I bought the tape of her talk and looked forward to hearing it again, especially the part that explained the “how to” of Christianity. I never found it. I rewound it and listened again and again. Did the Holy Spirit take her teaching gift and manifest to me the way I needed to hear it? I think so.

I received an e-mail today I would like to share with you. It is from Os Hillman who speaks indirectly about spiritual gifts. His interesting title Jesus Could Not Heal the Sick reminds me of what Billy Graham once said. I was taken back when Dr. Graham said, "I have never saved anyone." I thought, "What does he mean? He has held hundreds of worldwide evangelical campaigns and hundreds of thousands of people were saved." What, of course, he meant was God saves people. People do not save people.

As you read the article, think about how God can use your spiritual gifts. (Jesus Could Not Heal the Sick TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman) "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know" (Acts 2:22).

In his book, When Heaven Invades Earth, Pastor Bill Johnson makes an insightful observation about Jesus. "He could not heal the sick. Neither could He deliver the tormented from demons or raise the dead. To believe otherwise is to ignore what He said about Himself, and more importantly, to miss the purpose of His self-imposed restriction to live as a man." Jesus Christ said of Himself, "The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing" (John 5:19). In the Greek language that word nothing has a unique meaning - it means NOTHING, just like it does in English! He had NO supernatural capabilities whatsoever! While He is 100 percent God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man would face. He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God - not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle.

Recapturing this simple truth changes everything - and makes possible a full restoration of the ministry of Jesus in His Church. What were the distinctions of Jesus' humanity?
1. He had no sin to separate Him from the Father.
2. He was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him.

What are the distinctions of our humanity?
1. We are sinners cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Through His sacrifice He has successfully dealt with the power and effect of sin for all who believe. Now nothing separates us from the Father.
2. There remains only one unsettled issue - how dependent on the Holy Spirit are we willing to live?

You too might want to take the free Spiritual Gifts test I took and experience the miraculous. You can find it at http://www.churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php

WHAT DOES BEING A CHRISTIAN REALLY MEAN?

If anything good has come of all the political turmoil we find ourselves in, it is the mainstream media's discussion of God and what it means to be spiritual. Last night my husband and I watched PBS's second in a three part series entitled "God in America." Even though it covered various God oriented religions, I am a spokes person for Christianity.

A recent Pew survey tells us that not only secular people but also Christians don't know much about Christianity. Christians not knowing much about their faith seems strange to me, yet I was one of those people brought up in the faith and at age 30 still had little idea of what Christianity was all about.

From the time I was little, up through high school, I was taken to church weekly. I went to a church where the Bible was taught; thus I should know a lot. Even the high school I attended taught the Bible. Yet I missed what the Bible was saying. I knew the stories and the characters from Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and all, but what were those stories telling me? All I understood was there is a God and that these people loved God and were obedient. Jesus is God's Son sent to earth to show us how to live. He loved God and was obedient. What was the bottom line application for me; love God and be obedient?

Around the age of 16 or so I decided I had nothing against Christians or my Christian upbringing, but I could not muster up the love for God others seemed to have, nor could I come close to "doing what Jesus would do." Obedience was not an option for me. I could not pull it off. I drifted from the faith of my family for 14 years.

Due to some difficult, unexpected things happening inside my home and outside my home, I began to think about God again. But what to do, I did not know. A friend invited me to a "Prayer Breakfast." I liked my friend, had nothing against Christians, so I went. Little did I know my life would be changed forever that day.

The speaker told her story; how each thing she desired and pursued, upon getting it, her bubble of excitement would bust. The entity did not satisfy. Off she would go chasing another goal and so on. I was mesmerized as I identified with her. Our goals were different yet the pursuing, obtaining, and the let down were the same. Why this melancholy, I would ask? I have the thing I so desired.

Being caught up in her story, I was suddenly brought back as I heard her say, "If anyone would like to invite Jesus to come into their lives, pray this prayer with me." Oh no! I thought. I was raised being asked this question Sunday after Sunday. What in the heck are they talking about? I never did understand the meaning of "invite Jesus into your life." Like, where was He to live and what was I to do as a result? What are they asking of me?

Anxiety rose up in my stomach. I so identified with her story. I so wanted to understand what this "invite Jesus into your life" meant. As I later found out, God looks at the heart of people not necessarily their actions. He looked at my heart that day. Of all the things my heart might be holding that were not so godly, there was one thing He saw and I knew also. I was desperate to know Him.

As she continued, I heard something that would forever change me and take me out of the kingdom of my own darkness and translate me into the kingdom of His son (Colossians1:13). She said, "Invite Jesus into your life and let Him live His resurrected life in and through you. Let Him walk around the streets of Atlanta using your hands and your heart to reach out to the hurting people of Atlanta."

My immediate thought was, "Do you mean Jesus will live the Christian life for me? He will live His resurrected life in and through me?All I have to do is to invite Him into my life and He will do His Father's will as I allow Him?" Reality hit me. Me, in my own strength, trying to be like Jesus was not Christianity. Conversely, Christianity is God's strength in me doing God's will, not vice versa.

Now this is doable, I reflected. Jesus will do for me what I cannot do for myself. A pin hole of light hit me as I began to understand with Jesus in me, actually it is the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), I will have to have a very close personal relationship with Him as we will be working together. This is what Christians are talking about when they ask, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?"

I was ecstatic! What a relief! I felt free. A burden came off of me that day and was put onto Jesus, just like He asked in Matthew 11:28. I am to let Him work through me. Why does it have to be this way? God knows we are sinful (missing the mark of perfection). No big surprise to God. Because God is perfect and demands perfection (perfect good works, perfect Godly thoughts) from us, He knew we could never measure up to His standards. We were stuck, mired down in our own imperfections and dysfunctions. In order to bring us into His family and begin to change us from the inside out His Son would come to earth, live a perfect life "for us", take our punishment on Himself for every sin in the world (past, present, future) and give us the opportunity to take His perfect righteousness, if we so choose.

You and I are not Christians because of our good works. Good works are the icing on the cake and come after we have fallen in love with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We do not earn any "brownie points" with God by doing good works. The bottom line is I cannot fix you. You cannot fix yourself. Only God can fix us. He happens to have already done this 2000 years ago in Jesus' finished work on the cross. We either accept Jesus' righteousness for ourselves or reject it and do our own good works by trying to do what Jesus would do.

If you allow Jesus to live in you and do His works, then God gets all the glory. As you will know I could not have done that by myself. If you live doing the works of Jesus yourself, then you will get the glory and it counts for nothing .You get to choose. Do good works your way or God's way, "Christ in you is your hope of glory." Amen

Colossians1:13 [The Father] has delivered and [a]drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son [b]of His love.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God?

Matthew 11:28 and Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will [a]ease and relieve and [b]refresh [c]your souls.]"

Leave a comment or question please or send on to a friend who might benefit from this post. Micky