Spiritual Gifts, 41

 ~ All Spiritual Gifts Are A Blessing ~

 

Opening Comment  ~  “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:16-18). 

 

Key Reality #1  ~  All your gifts and talents are grace gifts from God. 

 

Implications  ~  No matter what gifts you have or how strong they are they are precious gifts from God Himself to you.  Therefore, there is absolutely no room for inferiority or superiority complexes.  It is a rebellion against God to be dissatisfied with the grace gifts which God has given to you. 

 

“For who makes you different from anyone else?  What do you have that you did not receive?  And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7 NIV).

 

This includes all of your natural abilities, spiritual gifts, your personality and its temperament as well as your acquired skills and experience (or lack thereof).  All these God given gifts combine to make you the unique image of God which He designed for you!

                

Since this reality does not allow for either an inferiority complex or a superiority complex just be the best you can be to the fullest – seeking excellence in all that you do. 

Do not quarrel with your Maker, rather cooperate with Him and the tasks He has for you to do while you are on earth. “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker” (Isaiah 45:9).

 

Scripture  ~  “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29 KJV).  Literally, the gifts and calling of God are without change of thought or are not revocable.  “For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29 NIV). 

 

Key Reality #2  ~  The Scriptures include several metaphors of the Church of Jesus Christ and one of the most prominent and well-known is the human body (i.e., 1 Corinthians 12:12-31).  All parts of the body are important – the prominently visible head is not more significant than a functioning heart.

This is the same lesson our Lord taught Moses: Who gave man his mouth?  Who makes him deaf or dumb?  Who gives him sight or makes him blind?  Is it not I, Yahweh?  Now go; I will help you” (Exodus 4:11-12 NIV). 

 

Another metaphor of the Church is farming: “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:7-8).  

 

Key Reality #3  ~  Correct Christian character is a person who is mature, balanced, complete, and fitted to serve God in the role his Creator gave him or her.  “Thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).  “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

 

Closing Comments  ~  “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.  Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.  Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.  Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.  Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.  Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:12-16).

 

“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

 

“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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