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

Christianity vs. the Christian

Believe it or not there is a difference between Christianity and Christians.
Christianity is the full account of the life and works of Jesus Christ. Jesus emptied Himself of any Godly powers while here on earth. This is called gnosis (Philippians 2:7). He operated not as God but as you and I operate, as humans. Jesus was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning (Hebrews 4:15). Thus Jesus was perfect in all ways for us.

Why would Jesus have to come to earth to be perfect in all ways for us?
First you must know God is love (1John 4:16). Love desires fellowship, connection, bonding. God who is perfect in all ways is referred to as a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). If we were to step into His presence with all of our imperfections (sins), we would literally be toast. This leaves us with no way to connect with God. This love God, however, made a way for us to connect with Him. That way is through His perfect son.

Secondly, we already know, yet we must take seriously, that we are imperfect (sinners). The great forefathers of us all, Adam and Eve, were created to live and walk in perfect harmony with God forever. We do not know how long the three of them walked in perfect harmony, yet we do know they eventually transgressed the one and only boundary set by God. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned them that “in the day you eat of this fruit you will surely die.” Now we need to understand what the word die means. It means to be cut off from "Life" - the life flowing connection to God.

Prior to that day Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good or evil. They were innocent children, so to speak, enjoying life, enjoying God with no cares or foreboding conscience+ to hound them. They were free of all restrictions but one. They eventually caved in to that one restriction. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then they had to live with that knowledge. That knowledge is repressive and heavy to live under- knowing that the world, the people of earth, and even yourself, are not as you should be or could be. Our conscience can and does harass us, judge us, and condemn us. We lie, steal, cheat, manipulate, puff ourselves up believing we are better than others, murder, embezzle, gossip, stir up trouble and on and on.

So what did God do about our disconnection from Him? When the perfect "Jesus" was crucified on the cross, Romans (2 Corinthians 5:21) tells us, "He (Jesus) who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." Prior to the moment of Jesus' death, Jesus literally became sin for every person who ever lived or was to live. He took your sins, my sins, everyone's' sins onto Himself. His Father departed from that sin and Jesus cried out, "Why oh why have you forsaken me (Mark 15:34).” At this very same moment all of us people - past, present, and future - were given Jesus' righteousness. We call this the Great Exchange. Jesus got our sins. We got His righteousness.

Now we are free to have an intimate relationship with God again. Why? Because of Jesus' sacrifice for us we are not only forgiven, but no longer judged. We are the children of God, loved and accepted in the beloved. All anyone has to do to have this relationship with God is to desire to have a relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then ask and accept this free gift God in Christ has already prepared for you and He will give it all to you.

What is the truth about those of us who do accept and ask to have a relationship with God; those of us who are called Christians? Having a relationship with God is like the beginning of a new marriage. We come into this new relationship with all of our family of origin baggage. A teacher once said, "If you are squirrely the day before you ask Christ into your life then you are squirrely the day after you ask Christ into your life.”

Christians are in process from the day they become believers until the day they die. We never reach perfection this side of Heaven. We screw up every day and sin in a many diverse ways. People look at us and think, "You tell us you are a Christian. Aren't you supposed to be perfect, no longer sinners? You project to us (the non-Christian) that you are better than we are because you are so very perfect and we are the sinners, but I see your imperfections. You are nothing but a hypocrite."

I will admit that this is the way many Christians conduct themselves. It breaks my heart. They are sinning when this is their attitude. This way of being is not God's desire for us. Mature Christians know if it were not for Jesus they would have zero reason to have a relationship with God. Mature Christians know it is only because of God's grace that we can say, "I am loved. I am accepted by God not because of anything I did or could do. My acceptance is totally dependent on God's merciful grace.” We know we have nothing to offer God. We operate out of humility due to this knowledge, not arrogance. This is the heart of a true Christian. I am broken and God is fixing me. Thank you Lord for doing what I cannot do for myself.).”

I often say I live at the first step of AA. Some of the additional steps are slightly modified for Christian purposes. This is the outline of where we start as Christians and where we are headed as Christians. "God who began a good work in us will complete it (Philippians 1:6).

• Step 1- I admit I am powerless over my (sin) addiction- that my life has become unmanageable (in some particular area de jour)
• Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves (Jesus Christ )could restore us to sanity
• Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God
• Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
• Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
• Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

• Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

  Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them a
• Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or othe
• Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted i
• Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge  of God's will for us and the power to carry that out
• Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other (sin) addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs