Friday, June 6

Friday

We have been talking all week about the importance of Spiritual Gifts.  We have said that spiritual gifts are the abilities that God gives to every believer for the purpose of serving others and glorifying Christ.  But we haven’t talked much about what the specific gifts are that God gives.  Now before we get into this topic, I have to give you an important caution.  The New Testament gives us several suggestive lists of the different kinds of gifts, but we are not given one definitive or exhaustive list of all of the gifts. 

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?  Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.  – 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 (selected)

As we look briefly at some of the individual gifts mentioned here, pay careful attention to those gifts that seem to resonate best with how God has designed you.

Faith: the ability to confidently believe God for changes and spiritual growth that will enhance the purposes of God. A person with this gift is quick to believe God for things they may never see.

Distinguishing of spirits: Sometimes called discernment, this is the ability to know when truth or error is being spoken and whether a prophet is a true or false one.

Apostles: As a spiritual gift, this is the ability to begin and/or to oversee new churches and Christian ministries with a spontaneously recognized authority.

Prophecy: The ability to receive and proclaim a message from God, simply put ,prophecy is giving a declaration of God’s will to God’s people.  This gift provides a word from God to a specific group, not the normative Word of God to all believers.

Teaching: The ability to clearly explain and effectively apply the truths of God’s Word so that others will learn. This requires the capacity to accurately interpret Scripture, engage in necessary research, and organize the results in a way that is easily communicated.

Miracles: The ability to serve as an instrument through whom God accomplishes acts that manifest supernatural power. Miracles bear witness to the presence of God and the truth of His proclaimed Word, and appear to occur most frequently in association with missionary activity.

Gifts of healings: The ability to serve as a human instrument through whom God supernaturally cures illnesses and restores health. The possessor of this gift is not the source of power, but a vessel who can only heal those diseases the Lord chooses to heal. Inner healing, or healing of past emotional wounds is sometimes associated as another manifestation of this gift.

Gifts of helps: The ability to enhance the effectiveness of the ministry of other members of the body. This is the only usage of this word in the New Testament, and it appears to be distinct from the gift of service. Some suggest that while the gift of service is more group-oriented, the gift of helps is more person-oriented.

Gifts of administration: This word, like helps, appears only one time in the New Testament, and it is used outside of Scripture of a helmsman who steers a ship to its destination. This suggests that the spiritual gift of administration is the ability to steer a group of people toward the fulfillment of their goals. A person may have the gift of leadership without the gift of administration.

Various kinds of tongues: The ability to receive and impart a spiritual message in a language the recipient never learned.  It is worth noting that the gift of tongues is last in Paul’s list. This is true whenever Paul mentions tongues in 1 Corinthians. One thing we should acknowledge is that Paul considered “tongues” to be a part of worship; however, he did not expect that everyone would have the gift of tongues.  The interpretation of tongues: the ability to interpret tongues.

With all of these gifts in mind (and of course there are many others) I want you to imagine a large puzzle, say, one with about 500 pieces that we are going to attempt to put together. As with every challenging jigsaw puzzle, each piece is different in shape and often in color. Every piece is needed in order to finish the puzzle, and there are no extra pieces. If we weren’t certain of that we wouldn’t even start the puzzle. Who needs that level of frustration? Each piece, of course, fits in only one place. If we try to force it into a place where it doesn’t fit, the corners get bent and then another piece is prevented from taking its rightful spot.

Our church is very much like this jigsaw puzzle. There are over 2,000 individuals who call FBCG their church home. Each one has unique talents, abilities, and spiritual gifts.  Every one of us is vital to the big picture, to the proper functioning of this church—there are no spares or extras.  This means we all need to discover our spiritual gift and serve in the most fruitful way possible. Everybody is somebody because we’re in this together.

Jeff Frazier