I love cheering The Church on. I love meeting with women and watching and hearing them learn and grow in the knowledge of Jesus. I love stories of victory over sin or depression in Jesus’ name, or when one comes back and says, ‘I heard God say to me…’ because they actually [and finally] believe they are worth being spoken to by the One, true God. My heart is blessed when I know people are reaching out to their neighbors, co-workers and doing life with those who do not yet know Jesus as their Lord and Savior but loving them as they are, where they are. When they are bold in their faith. This sets my heart ablaze!
I’ve seen friends in my life overcome anxiety and depression in the power of The Spirit and have seen them feel a refreshed call on their lives to be a light in their workforce. I’ve seen their love for all people, and in turn, people drawn to them as not just a coincidence but an opportunity to get really bold in their faith and that the love she had for them was just a glimpse at the love Jesus has for them.
I’ve seen parents draw closer to their Savior and in turn, their children and loose a sense for needing to control because the Spirit was doing a work in them. I have seen renewed relationship between parent and child and a breaking of generational sin in Jesus’ name, AMEN!
I’ve seen people more willing to do life with their neighbors and even invite them in for dinner for the sake of loving them as Jesus calls us to.
How does this happen? How do we get to a place where we are emboldened in our gifts and start to freely walk in them? First, God is the giver of gifts! And we must believe that if we are a member of Christ’s Body, if we follow Him, then we have been given a gift to use
Ephesians 4:11-16
“11Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church; the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be immature like children.We won’t be tossed and blown about every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the Church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
Part of realizing your gift is, as you do community with people, seek out wisdom from those who have been following Jesus longer than you. See and ask what they see you gifted in. For some, it may be so so obvious, and for others, it may take some soul and heart searching and take more time.
But what I think is really important to understand is that we don’t get to pick a gift and claim it as ours for whatever reason. It’s important that our gifts are confirmed by God first and foremost, but also, so we aren’t left to guessing if we heard God right, confirmed by trusted people who are out for our good, we love us and want to see us blossom into who God has created us to be.
So, for those of us who know our gifts, it’s vital that we not only walk in our gifts in obedience, but realize part of our call is to look away from ourselves, and our agenda, and see and call out the gifts in others.
We need to let ministering and calling out gifts in others a priority in our daily lives. It’s vital for Church maturity and will bring us closer to fulfilling whatever God has for us to in any given season.
verse 16 “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.“
Love is calling out the gifts in others. Love is not self-seeking or afraid of how calling out someone else in their gifts may take away from ours.
Love is loving the person more than loving or desiring the gifts they have and wanting them for ourselves. We can’t let jealousy get in the way of the Church healthily growing into what God’s calling us to do!
The Body of Christ has many parts (or we can just say it has many gifts) and all are meant to be used in order to be healthy and growing. We grow when we Growing in number of souls being saved! That should encourage us and get us excited!
I believe we are in a time, this time of the Corona Virus, where God is using a quieter, less-chaotic life in this quarantine and His voice is getting a little louder- or are we just quiet enough to listen? What is He saying to you? What has He called you into? A new role, a new season? God has a call on your life, He has uniquely gifted you to play a part in His kingdom come and He doesn’t want you to be in denial or take it lightly. We are all called to share His gospel message for the world, what is your part in it?
I could do a whole series on this but I’ll close with this. This very season we are in now, I believe God is waking up His church and He is doing so that we would each walk in the calling and the gifts He has himself given us, so that the Body of Christ is working together, helping each other, not competing with one another, full of love, doing what He called us to do in The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) To make disciples of all the nations.
When we have waken up, I believe The Church is going to grow in number and more souls will be saved. And who doesn’t want to be a part of that?!
….can I get an amen?!