The gifts of the Spirit include healing, faith, wisdom, knowledge, prophesy, miraculous powers, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues and more. (1. Corinthians 12,8-10)
How greatly those gifts can uplift others!
How life changing it is for a person to get healed! And how revealing to get a prophesy over your life. Imagine getting a word of wisdom or knowledge that gives you direction in your life. It is amazing how connected to God you can be when speaking in tongues!
The gifts of the Spirit are a huge present from God to us. The Holy Spirit gives them to us to help each other grow to full maturity and build the church, the body of Christ and thus his kingdom.
Paul makes it clear what the gifts of the Spirit are in his first letter to the Corinthians:
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1. Corinthians 12,3
That’s what the gifts of the Spirit are for; to serve one another.
I like the metaphor of the body, which Paul uses to describe how the gifts of the Spirit take effect. The church is described as a human body with limbs like hands and feet. Every member of the body has its own part to play. Therefore it doesn’t make any sense when the hand wants to be a foot or the ear wants to be an eye. Furthermore the eye could never say to the hand “I don’t need you.” This doesn’t make any sense at all. The body needs every part to function and move properly. (1. Corinthians 12, 12-20)
Imagine when the body of Christ is all eyes. Haha! How can it move or speak? Everyone would just be looking around but nobody could do anything. And further, no one could even speak or listen. They would all be viewers and let life pass by. How boring! This wouldn’t do any good for God’s kingdom.
Everyone is an individual with different gifts and purposes. We shall serve God’s kingdom with our uniqueness – together!
It is God’s will for us that we live in unity. Then we can fully benefit from our strength as ONE body! This is the greater use of the gifts!
But we won’t take advantage of this strength when we waste our time by comparing our gifts with each other. It isn’t the purpose of the gifts to make one’s name or value higher than the others.
So now, what about you? What is your gift? EVERY believer has received one or more gifts from the Holy Spirit. God laid something great into you to share that others will benefit from. When you don’t know your unique gifts yet, don’t freak out. Spend time with God in prayer and ask him to reveal the talents he put into you. Also talk to your friends, ask them about their gifts, how they found out and what they see in you. Some churches offer seminars about finding your spiritual gifts or you can even take an online test about which gifts you might have.
When you already know your gifts, one thing is for sure: God wants you to use them to build his kingdom!
What are you waiting for? 😉
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