Getting It Together

[HKHaugan]

Epi.13 On the Way to Spiritual Gifts, Their Foundation

I am still convinced that the recovery of any stagnant local church is in the discovery, practice and sharing of spiritual gifts. When I say ‘church’ I am talking about the local ‘Body of Christ’ where each person is a conscious member. It may or may not be growing. I’m pointing to the over stressed denominational efforts vested in maintaining traditional structure and budgets while neglecting the way its individual members function spiritually in their daily lives. The Scripture takes an opposite view. It teaches about Jesus, His attitude, His life, His spiritual nature, how He as an individual lived day by day. He was the true perfect picture of an image of God in action. He was and is THE image of God.

Paul’s letters and his biography in Acts profile the effect of how THE Image of God, Jesus, transformed his life. The Holy Spirit took Paul by the scruff of the neck and remolded him into a man loaded with a treasury of spiritual gifts. Here was man that never lost honesty with himself about being a sinner while, at the same time, knowing he was saved from sin and given a personal mission to bring Jesus into every situation in which he found himself. He knew his pride had to be redirected from self to Jesus. So he became proud of Jesus so that Jesus would be proud of him. Everything he did was for Jesus. This is why he mentions grace so much. He was saved by grace through faith. Grace is the cover God puts over His Creation. It’s His basic attitude of accepting us and always wanting the best for us. Grace is like the abused parents who love their children in spite of their rejection and when the child says one kind word or has a moment of feeling for the parents, it just wipes out all the past hurts. That Grace (charis in Greek) could be personally experienced in the gifts, spiritual gifts, that were grace gifts (Greek, charismata), pieces of grace extended to every believer by the Spirit. Grace is the attitude of God we extend to others through those gifts. A memory jogger might be helpful here. Charis is God spiritually ‘caress’ing (charis-ing) His people as He brings them from being lost prodigals to being caring disciples.

But before we get to the gifts there needs to be a foundation in any group calling itself Christian. That foundation is its vision, its sense of purpose, its reason for being. As Paul said, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Cor.3:11).”

There has to be some honest facing of reality when it comes to what is really taking place in any local grouping of believers, their ‘church.’ Is the vision really being a Body of personal witnesses to Jesus?

How conscious and how verbal are people about Him in their daily walk?

Are members being discipled to know and experience Jesus and share that experience with others? How centered is the leadership in preaching, making decisions and envisioning the presentation of Jesus to the world around them?

Is its spiritual education program from sermon to class to home groups geared to seeing who Jesus is, why He came, how He affects us personally and growing in the knowledge of His Presence?

Are budgets designed to fulfill the vision of Jesus’ calling believers to be His personal witnesses?

Are believers praying for the fulfillment of the vision right where they are, for one another, for direction, for repentance and forgiveness, for healing, for the neighborhood, for the town?

The question of prayer is paramount. Is prayer grace filled, praise filled, thank filled, personal, interpersonal, calling for guidance, feeling for others, their burdens and pains, direction in the midst of turmoil? We are not talking about liturgical prayer that mentions a topic and then rushes on to something else. What we are asking, is there real concerted open prayer for what God is calling a group to be or is prayer consigned only to public worship on a Sunday? The bottom line question has to be faced. Is it a ‘Sunday-only’ group or is Jesus the driving force that occupies the daily life of a believer?

Moving on---if the foundation is Jesus, then how is He presented?

God ordained the way He wanted His Son’s coming into the world to be presented. The word that best describes that way is ‘Gospel.’ It comes from the Old English word, godspel, good story, used to translate the Greek word euanggelion, good announcement. In English it became the word ‘evangelism’ which, unfortunately, has come to mean a program with a formula for recruitment as opposed to someone living and sharing how a personal experience of Jesus, God the Son, has changed their life. It is sharing the Gospel, the good news of Jesus as Savior and Lord.

But what is ‘the Gospel?’ Let’s look at three things, God’s power, God’s event and God’s love.

First, God’s power.

Paul tells us this, “…it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness from God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (from faith to faith-KJV), just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith (Rom.1:16-17 NIV).” Simply put, being righteous is being faithful. Faith is righteousness.

Second, God’s event.

Then Paul spells out the event of the Gospel in more detail, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,  and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born (1Cor.15:3-8).”

Third, God’s love.

But the words of Jesus in John 3:16 are the spiritual core of the Gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Here the words are clear

that have become so dear

that bring us cheer

For Jesus himself has made fear

and its leer disappear

when to His Word we adhere

and keep it near.

What we will do from here is to suggest how we build the base for us to be open to the Holy Spirit who moves within us to bring His gifts enabling us not only to be the Body of Christ but also the bearers of the Gospel.

If a congregation, a prayer group, a home church, is being faithful to its calling to present the Gospel, then what follows is discipling each believer in the way Jesus shared Himself with others through spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit. That’s the ‘boots-on-the-ground’ function of a disciple of Jesus.