Out and About 6 In God's Eyes and Others

[HKHaugan]

In this ‘Out and About’ sequence we have looked at the overall spiritual dimension with its duel experience of God’s light and the devil’s darkness.  For a moment we need to digress into the atmosphere of Jesus’ light.  There are three reasons for this. 

 

First, Jesus is building in us something that is eternal, our spiritual bodies, “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body (1Cor.15:44).” 

 

Second, just as our physical body needs clothes so also our spiritual body needs to be spiritually clothed, “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality (1Cor.15:53).” 

 

Third, our identity is secured eternally, “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Adam], so shall we bear the likeness of the man from Heaven [Jesus] (1Cor.15:49).”

 

Spiritual gifts are part of our imperishable clothing in this world to ready our spiritual body for entry into Heaven.  When we arrive in the Kingdom of Heaven there will no longer be any needs for the gifts as they operated here on earth, “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1Cor.13:8-12).” 

 

If I may look at this passage a bit more in depth it seems what the Lord is doing by giving us spiritual gifts for this world is to build our individuality so complete in the Spirit that individual spiritual maturity is the goal.  Thus as we grow through the mutual sharing of spiritual gifts, as our spiritual perception and activity mature, we will be so spiritually aware that the need for the gifts will fade during the maturation process and our spiritual body will begin to react naturally in the Spirit.  Where once there were needs they will have disappeared.  We will automatically think, feel, sense and respond spiritually without question.  When we are living like this the Body of Christ is a spiritual ‘admiration society’ which, together in unity, places Jesus so central in our consciousness that time fades, He shines more brightly and we find in one another perfected relationships.  These relationships no longer need any gift system to support them because we will be consciously experiencing this unity in the Holy Spirit.

 

Now let’s take this thought further.  Paul spends the rest of chapter 13 talking about a ‘more perfect way’---love.  Spiritual gifts are the means we are given in this world to love as Jesus loved.  Look at the Cross, keep the Cross central and think the Cross in terms of the spiritual gifts we have been given to lay down our lives for one another in the Body of Christ and, and, and,---be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us to those who have yet to grasp Jesus as Savior and Lord.  Repeat the words of Jesus on the Cross as you come into each new moment, situation or issue, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”  At these moments the Holy Spirit takes over and inspires mind, heart and spirit to respond as He leads.  This is how we love because that is how the Lord loved us.  Jesus was so engrossed in His Father’s will, grace and love He could do noting other than obey Him and through obedience to experience His fullness.

 

So the progression of Chapter 13 takes us from being a child given gifts, then brought into a family of gift sharers in order to learn, practice and develop a giftedly conscious life until we grow into a spiritually mature adult. Spiritual maturity is experienced as our momentary responses are spiritual before anything else.  This is the process of salvation which starts with being born a second time spiritually from above, then being discipled in the Word, discovering and growing in spiritual gifts thus mutually preparing to be His joyful family of children and heirs in this world and finally in His presence.  It is this purpose that our Heavenly Father God originally intended In Adam and Eve.

 

Our physical bodies having been sown in the earth are the containers in which our spiritual bodies take shape, “…it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (1Cor.15:44).”  This is the Lord’s goal for each of us, a spiritual body He is preparing to bring home.  What spiritual gifts do is to draw us out of ourselves toward others since it is the Holy Spirit who has given us spiritual life that is designed to be eternally relational.  They are the gifts that make us a family of brothers and sisters who support each other in our spiritual growth.  Remember when Jesus said in response to the question, “Show us the Father’ He replied, “When you have seen me you have seen the Father?”  Well take that to heart.  The more conscious we are of Jesus and the less conscious we are of ourselves that is when we mature as unique and fully mature individuals.  We no longer act first out of self-interest but out of wanting to give Jesus all the glory.  That is when you are seen not because you want to be seen but rather that is how God wants you to mature and be seen in His eyes and others.  This is when we will have true spiritual recognition in His eyes and the eyes of others.