This morning I felt
the need to remind myself of the God-centeredness of spiritual gifts.[1]
Our sarks want us to keep limiting God to what WE are able to do, while the
Spirit is working to convince us of what HE is able to do.[2]
What should we expect?
That God will do something Beatitudinal in us to break our dependence on our
sarks (along with all the limitations faith in our sarks produces), and that he
will identify something he is doing, and what that requires of us to join him
in his work.[3]
Here are the God-centered
elements of spiritual gifts that are aimed at stirring us up to fully use our spiritual
gifts right now because God is fully able to lead and enable us to do so. These
are found in I Corinthians 12:1-11.
·
Our
experience of spiritual gifts is all about what we are able to do “in the Spirit of God”, or, “in
the Holy Spirit” (vs 3). This means that our gifts are not given for us to
use independent of God, or isolated from God, but to operate “in the Spirit” every time we are using
them.
·
It is “God who empowers them all in everyone” (vs 6). This means there is
no demand on us to empower ourselves, but constant requirement that we do what
is empowered by God to do.
·
Spiritual gifts are “the manifestation of the Spirit” (vs 7). We are not looking for
what we can manifest ourselves, or in our own strength, but what the Spirit
manifests through us at any given time. The focus is not on being able to label
the gift that is in use, but to recognize that the Spirit is manifesting
himself in the body by what he moves each member to do to participate in the
work of God.
·
Whatever the Spirit is doing in us individually,
or throughout whatever gathering of the body of Christ is in place, is “for the common good” (vs 7).
·
The
thing that matters is what each individual “is
given through the Spirit” (vs 8-11). It is not about what we would like to
do, what we are good at doing, or what we are comfortable with, but what the
Spirit gives us to use for the glory of God and the good of his people.
·
All the spiritual
gifts “are empowered by one and the same
Spirit” (vs 11). This has nothing to do with our own strength or power, or
some unique ability or courage we add to the mix. It is only about looking for
what God is doing in each individual through the empowering of the Spirit doing
within and among us whatever is according to the Father’s good pleasure for his
children.
·
The Holy
Spirit “apportions” the spiritual gifts “to
each one individually as he wills” (vs 11). This removes any grounds for comparison
or contrast with other believers. The Holy Spirit has a “will” about our place in the body of Christ, and the spiritual gifting
we need to fulfill our place in the church. He is able to look at us “individually”, and determine what we
need for our place in the body without any limitations because of what someone
else needs to fulfill their place, or how anyone else in the body is doing. And,
the Spirit “apportions” the gifts,
portioning them out based on the placement of the individual, not any rationing
of the gifts because of lack in the supply.
The conclusion is
that we are to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of being so filled with
the Spirit that we become more like Jesus in the fruit of the Spirit,[4]
more productive, like branches bearing much fruit because they are abiding in
the vine (being filled with the Spirit),[5]
and more effective in knowing and using our spiritual gifts for the good of the
body of Christ, and the glory of Christ our head.[6]
Everything comes back to what God will do through his
Spirit, not what he will do through us. Our participation is clearly involved,
but it is not the starting place. We begin by seeking to be filled with the
Spirit, and then doing everything in the Spirit. And, because our hope of
bearing fruit in other people’s lives originates in what God will do by his
Spirit, we have every reason to present ourselves to God as the members of the
body of his Son, and watch him build up the body of Christ as each of us do
whatever God has given us to do.
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Working out of I Corinthians 12:1-11
[2]
Our “sarks” (Greek) refers to our “flesh” (English); that drive to rely on
ourselves and live independent of God.
[3]
When I speak of what is “Beatitudinal”, I mean the blessing of God leading us
to poverty of spirit, mourning our condition, meekly accepting we can’t fix
ourselves, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, which then
transforms us into the merciful who have pure hearts in love relationship with
God and his people, and who so seek to bring people to have peace with God that
they become the peacemakers who are persecuted for the sake of the
righteousness of God’s kingdom (see Matthew 5:1-12).
[4]
Galatians 5:16-16. Here the fruit of the Spirit is contrasted with the fruit of
the sark (flesh). It is not difficult to know which fruit anyone is producing.
[5]
John 15:1-11; Ephesians 5:18
[6]
Matthew 5:14-16; I Corinthians 12:7; cf I Corinthians 14:1-40, where Paul
commands us to “earnestly desire the
spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (vs 1), and then speaks
of the effect of prophesy on outsiders, where they would be “convicted by all… called to account by all,
the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will
worship God and declare that God is really among you” (vss 24-25).
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