Epiphany 11 How Important Are Spiritual Gifts?

[HKHaugan]

Epiphany 11 How Important Are Spiritual Gifts?

A-one priority! Why? “Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (1Cor.12:27).” Not only that but back in vs.12-13 “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.” The idea of gifts is so important Paul has three passages on them, 1Cor.12:28-31, Romans 12:4-8 and Eph.4:11-13. Their surrounding passages emphasize the Body and the atmosphere in which the individuals in the Body exercise those gifts to realize their final purpose. Note, when you read them God’s love is the predominant quality that enables them to function. In the Ephesians passage the word ‘love’ comes before and after the list of gifts. The ‘love’ chapter follows the Corinthians passage and the Romans passage opens with an appeal to offer one’s self as a living sacrifice immediately conjoined with the admonition that our love must be sincere.

If we were to liken the spiritual atmosphere of the Body to that of the physical atmosphere on earth it would make grace and love the oxygen we breathe and the other fruit of the Spirit the remaining elements. With the lungs of faith in Jesus we inhale and the Holy Spirit brings the nutrition of His fruit and gifts. We exhale through repentance and confession and breathe in that much needed element of forgiveness. The Body can only be the Body as God intended when grace and love are consciously understood and trusted toward one another as the atmosphere of the Kingdom of Heaven, which we bring to bear on this earth through faith. God’s love is the lubricant that removes the friction of sin enabling the Body to work together smoothly.

Embracing the importance of grace and love neutralizes the spirits of pride, fear, envy, judgmentalism, legalism and manipulation. Grace and love enable us to exercise our gifts in concert with those of others. One principle that may help us to grasp how they operate together is that of how we grow spiritually in contrast to the way we grow in the world. In the world we go from dependence on parents to a kind of groping independence as individuals. In the Kingdom of God we move from dependence on parents and their spiritual growth to learning how to function spiritually independent.

However we are always part of the Body. It is in the Body that we learn to live interdependently as we rely on the gifted spirituality of our spiritual brothers and sisters. Briefly, we go from dependence to independence to interdependence. That is the process of spiritual maturing. We are matured in the Body and equipped to minister within the Body and while we are doing that we build the confidence to bring the Lord Jesus to the world. Simply, to know Christ and make Him known is a lifetime maturation process.

Institutions, governments and social programs do not change the world. God has given us the way. It is a heart way, one at a time, heart to heart, person-to-person and person-by-person. The world changes only as hearts are changed. Spiritual gifts are the means to enable the Body to reconcile the world of hearts to their Creator.

There is only person who has all the gifts and that is the Lord. They are distributed to the whole Body as the Holy Spirit works. Whether we are clergy or lay people, His gifts equalize our importance to the Body. No one but the Lord runs the Body. He balances the Body through His Spirit. No one hears from God alone. When we believe we are hearing from Him we seek one another’s counsel through the gifts. The gifts enable us to sift His messages, His teaching, His will through His gifts. That is if we are willing to trust Him to work through them. Each of us has to remember we are just one of the Body and called to share our gifts with God’s purposes in mind. We need each other. We carry no agenda into the Body but rather let the Lord be our agenda as He moves us every next moment through the gifts with which he has blessed us. Next, the gifts one by one…stay tuned……..