DAY 283 - Concerning Spiritual Gifts

John 14:12-14 (NIV) ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

I Corinthians 12:1, 12-18, 25-26  (NASB) Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. ¹² For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵ If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. ²⁵ so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Fifty days after the Resurrection the disciples began learning that they could do the works that Jesus did. And, like Jesus, the disciples began to draw people into a new kind of community where they discovered a new relationship to God and to one another. Peter called this ability to do the work of Christ the “Grace Gifts.” Paul used various names, but tended to call this ability “Spiritual Gifts.”

Concerning spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be unaware. How aware are we about spiritual gifts? Do we know what they are and what they do and how they are meant to be used? There is much we do not know, but this much we do know: there are a variety of gifts, a variety of ways to use them, and a variety of times and occasions when these gifts are needed, but always it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God being served. These are some of the things we know about spiritual gifts, but possibly the most important is this: to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. If you are committed to Jesus Christ, He has committed some part of His present ministry and work to you, as He wills.

As we give from the gifts of the Spirit, we receive back. We receive that illusive gift called fulfillment. Fulfillment comes not because what we are doing is special or glamorous or highly profitable. We receive fulfillment because we are doing what we were created and designed to do. We are doing what fits us and it fills us full. We each have a gift, and we have a need to put that gift to use not only for the common good, but for our good.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 9, 1994

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell