Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
When you think about a person being ‘gifted’ what comes to your mind? An unusual gifting in the arts or perhaps an academic genius or maybe a child prodigy? Did you know one of the miraculous things God does in the life of EVERY person who trusts Jesus Christ to deliver them from their sin bondage is that the Holy Spirit of God gives Spiritual Gifting to those Jesus saves? Do you feel gifted, my friends?
Let’s rejoin the apostle Paul in the mid first century as he is writing a powerful letter of instruction and encouragement to the first Christians in the great city of Corinth. Paul is likely dictating, and Timothy is likely scribing Paul’s words onto the parchments: “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore, I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”(1 Cor. 12:1-3) Words are important aren’t they, my friends? Words spoken come from thoughts in the mind and feelings in the heart. Words give us insight into what’s going on deep inside a person. Words show us the character of a person.
Do you see Paul calls his Corinthian friends to look back and remember who they were before they met and trusted Jesus Christ to save them? Paul reminds them that they were ‘pagans‘. It means they were far from God, in fact they were worshipers of idols, fabricated from stone or wood. Lifeless things people, both then and now, give priority in their lives but things which have no power to help those who worship them. Pause a few seconds. Is there anything like that in your life or mine today? But in Christ everything is different, and Paul is making a powerful declaration and truth claim here. Paul declares that Spiritual words spoken by any person are a direct reflection of the Presence and Power of the Spirit of God in that person.
For the born-again follower of Jesus Christ, their words should be clear evidence that the Holy Spirit of God resides within them, is refining them more and more into a God honoring person and is guiding the thinking of their minds while protecting and cleansing their heart. Pause again… what do your words tell us about what is going on down deep in your soul…spiritually? I don’t mean the Sunday words we speak to each other in Church, I mean our everyday words spoken in the normal course of our daily life, or maybe even more telling, our words when we are frustrated or disappointed or upset or in pain?
Paul continues with these powerful words: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all of His people.”(1 Cor. 12:4-6) In my recent trip to Israel I was again reminded how different we all are from each other as human beings. I saw and heard people from all over the world and no two of them looked exactly alike. I heard many different languages being spoken and usually they were groups of people speaking the same language as they toured the Biblical sites.
Oh, such diversity among the peoples of the world and yet Paul reminds us that when we come to God through Jesus Christ, we all walk through the same narrow gate, Jesus. We all recognize and repent of our sin, and we all experience the powerful work of the Holy Spirit of God as He does a profound spiritual transformation work in us. That’s why Paul writes “Therefore if anyone is IN Christ, they are a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come and all this is from God.” (2 Cor. 5:17) So the one and only Holy Spirit of God does His glorious, powerful, life changing work in every person who fully trusts Jesus Christ to save them. But that glorious work is personalized by God so that the spiritual gifting the Holy Spirit is working in you is unique to your life! Now ponder that a second.
I hope you’ll embrace that concept my friends. God does not produce ‘cookie cutter’ Christians. There is no spiritual assembly line process in which the Spirit of God mass produces spiritually transformed pagans into God honoring followers of Jesus.
Every human being is unique by God’s design and each person has walked a unique personal journey from the time of their birth, and therefore as the Holy Spirit does His glorious life transforming work in each of us no two people in the world experience exactly the same relationship or transformation with God!
I hope you are celebrating my friends, that the work God is accomplishing in YOU is resulting in a UNIQUE you! That’s why Paul continues with this general statement which applies individually to every Christian: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is given for the common good.”(1 Cor. 12:7) Oh my, I love that!
The magnificent work of the Holy Spirit IN your life and mine is not simply for our improvement or our benefit, it is for the benefit of the global church, ALL Christians. But there’s more… it is also for the benefit of our extended families and our cities and our nations. Yes, the people who have no interest in God should benefit from the work of God in your life and mine. Now ponder that a moment!
Now listen to how Paul paints a very clear word picture of what this should look like: “To one follower of Jesus there is given through the Holy Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another great faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different languages, and to still another the interpretation of languages. All these are the work of one and the same Holy Spirit, and He gives these gifts to each person just as HE determines.” (1 Cor. 12:7-11) Oh my what a wonderful, powerful, far-reaching proclamation of God truth. Do you see that at one and the same time the Spiritual gifting which the Holy Spirit gives to EVERY Christian benefits BOTH their fellow Christians and the world in which they live, no matter where they live?
Now I think it’s time to pause and ponder. Here are some questions to help us look at this Monday with a great sense of anticipation and through the lenses of the truth Paul has written:
1. What spiritual gifting is the Holy Spirit working in your life right now?
2. How does that gifting work of the Holy Spirit in your life change you, improve you into a more God honoring person?
3. How does that Spirit gifting in you benefit your family and your church?
4. How does that Spirit gifting work God is doing in you benefit your neighborhood, your city, your friends far and wide?
Oh, my friends, as we reflect on these questions, I found a wonderful song sung by an African choir and I hope it awakens celebration in our hearts this Monday…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Cor. 12:1-11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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