Being present for His Present

Last Sunday evening, we talked about spiritual gifts and the truth that each and every one of us possess at least one, if not more spiritual gifts. It’s not about our talent, our ability or even our ‘giftedness’. It’s about our willingness to be used by God to bring Him glory and serve each other. When we spend more time focusing on our ability than we do the capacity we possess to serve God, we miss the concept entirely. The capacity we have is God-given. We sometimes (mistakenly) think: “I have been a Christian for years and yet, I don’t have any special ‘ability’ to do anything in the church, therefore, God must have not given me a gift.” In reality, God has given every born-again believer at least one spiritual gift! Ability is a state of being, something that exists at the present. A capacity enables for the future. We sometimes think: now that I’m a Christian, I should have all these spiritual abilities to do this or that. That’s not how it works. It involves time, effort, study, prayer and dedication to God. I don’t give my life to Jesus in baptism on Monday and wake up Tuesday with supernatural gifts. And, yet, I wake up on Tuesday with the supernatural capacity to develop the supernatural ability to do this or that. 1 Cor. 12: 4-6 “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And, there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all.” Paul isn’t classifying the gifts into three categories, he’s showing us their relationship to the Spirit, the Lord and our God. Although we think of spiritual gifts as coming only from the Holy Spirit, these verses show us that the function of spiritual gifts involves all three persons of the Trinity. God the Holy Spirit gives the gifts, God the Son places you in the ministry and God the Father gives the results. It’s about Him, not us. God gives us the capacity to serve and by us making it about Him, we’re able to be involved in the process.
 
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you!                                                                 Kevin