Unwrap your gifts
1 Corinthians 12:7-14
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Message:
Today the Lord wants me to share with you the importance of knowing and using your Spiritual Gift(s) for the good of the Body of Christ – the Church. It is for this reason that gifts from the Holy Spirit were imparted to Believers like you and me to build up, encourage and bless the Church – the called out ones. Many people today are unsure about these Spiritual Gifts and some even think it is contrary to think about such things in our day. Some think that these Spiritual Gifts were only for the Early Church and that God no longer works in us the way He worked in people when the Church was first born. But our Bible says that God is the same yesterday today and forever.
Malachi 3:6 For I the Lord do not change,
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
I can assure you that Jesus promised just such gifts to us in
John 14:15-17
15 “If you love me, keep my commands.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
Jesus promised that this Spirit of Truth would live with us and live in us.
Pastor Randy Frazee says this….in Believe.
“The One True God has partnered with His people to accomplish His purposes on earth. The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is the driver of this initiative. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit only indwelled select individuals for a period of time to accomplish God's purposes. The Spirit instilled gifts in artisans, architects, builders, priests, and prophets. In the New Testament, Jesus promised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for all believers.
That promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2. The Spirit deposits gifts in every believer for the express purpose of building God’s Kingdom on earth. We do not all have the same gift(s). In unity we are to celebrate the giftedness of others and work together to accomplish God’s will in our lives and in the world. Source: “Believe” Randy Frazee – Zondervan Publishing 2015 page 288.
Having said this, do you know what your Spiritual Gift is? Can you find it in the list that we read in today’s scripture?
A message of wisdom
A message of knowledge
Faith
Gifts of healing
Miraculous powers
Prophecy
Spiritual discernment
Speaking in tongues
Interpreting tongues
I want to be clear that these are all very real gifts of the Holy Spirit but no one person possess all of them at the same time. They are supernatural gifts of God used by God through people for a specific purpose. These gifts reside within an individual and are demonstrated according to God’s will not the will of the person in whom they dwell.
By that I mean you cannot activate your spiritual gift at will. Only God can turn it on. We see this example whenever we witness someone claiming to be a healer. They invite needy and vulnerable people to come to them for a healing as if the person making the invitation has some special power. Well that’s not exactly how it works.
Only God can activate that gift within such a person and only for God’s glory and purpose not for the purposes of promoting a faith healer.
Jesus wants to heal people from their sin first and foremost as well as their bodies. Just such an example exists for us in Luke 5:17-26
It is clear that many of us need to use the gift of spiritual discernment before we submit to people making such claims. However evidence of documented miraculous healing can be found at: http://www.is-there-a-god.info/life/tenhealings/
Here a Doctor took ten cases of reported miraculous healings and examined them all using the available medical evidence. His findings shocked the medical world and himself. He concluded that prayer had a definite impact on the healing of these ten people. Dr. H Richard Casdorph 1972 research.
Lisa Larios a 12 year old girl suffering from bone cancer in the hip had her hip miraculously restored.
Marie Rosenberg age 44 had a brain tumor removed and was expected to die She was healed after her husband prayed over her.
Jan 25, 2014 Therese Daoud arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital with a huge cancerous tumor. She was told her leg would have to be amputated. She chose to pray to Jesus for a healing and after 3 months her cancer was completely gone baffling medical science.
Source: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24348/Default.aspx
St. Paul lists these different spitualities so that we might know them when we see them and know that they come from God and the Holy Spirit as miraculous evidence that God is very much in our presence in the person of the Holy Spirit. From time to time these Spiritual Gifts are being seen in our day and age but mostly in parts of the world where Christians are persecuted or face great trials.
It is at times like these when we see people reporting miraculous healings, or receiving a world of knowledge or a word of wisdom from God about when or when not to travel from one place to another and situations like this.
Again St. Paul tells us that He was prevented from going to certain places and was led by the Holy Spirit concerning such decisions or words of knowledge. See Acts 16:6
The same Spiritual insight is given to people serving today as they pray for openings to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to one country or another. You may possess one of these miraculous spiritual gifts right now. You may never discover it unless you open yourself to the possibility that God wants to use you and your gift for His glory.
Surrender yourself to God's will and see how He directs your life and uses your gifting. Ask the Lord to reveal your gift so the church might benefit from how the Holy Spirit intends to use you to encourage, build up and bless the Body of Christ today. Amen.
