4. The Gifts : The Gift Of Faith

 What is the gift of faith? Doesn’t everyone have faith? Yay, it can seem a bit confusing because of a couple of little words. All of us have been given a saving faith. This is the faith that believes that the actions of Jesus on the cross did for us exactly what he said they would, which is to pay for our rebellious acts, allowing for Father to forgive us. It was a redemptive act, redeeming us to the Father and it is faith in Jesus that gives us the potential to become the children of God.

The gift of faith is of a different nature. In simple terms, this powerful gift enables the possessor to rise up to heroic spiritual acts. It is a gift that gives people the power to believe without doubt every promise of Jesus, enabling them to face overwhelming odds or to do impossible things. Picture David with Goliath. From the start David had the gift of faith, trusting the Lord with the ability to face lions and bears, and eventually giants. 

The gift of faith enables a person to stand in a relationship of trust that can never be shaken. They know, with no doubt, that Father is faithful to every promise he has spoken and he is incapable of being unfaithful. Daniel and the lions’ den is another great example. Or how about Stephen who would not back down, knowing what he possessed was worth more than any life in this world. Or Paul who longed to testify about Jesus to the most powerful man in the known world. These are examples given to us to inspire us to stand against our own giants, trusting Father in it all.

The gift of faith is not for the purpose of making superstars in the Body. All gifts are for the building up, edifying of the Body. The people given this gift have it to be an inspiration to others, to encourage others to reach higher in their faith. Heidi Baker is an example in our modern day, a woman who has inspired thousands, if not millions, to take Jesus at his word. We have many other examples. We need to recognize this gift, honour it and be inspired to live as we have been designed to live, by faith.

Understanding The Place Of The Gifts Of The Spirit

When we talk about the gifts of the Spirit in the Church most people can’t relate. We have become accustomed to honouring talent and abilities over the gifts of the Spirit. Let’s be honest, most of us wouldn’t know the difference. We live in a society that honours education degrees, skills and talents, and it is this that we have adopted in the Church as well.

The gifts of the Spirit are not reserved for the beautiful, the gifted, the talented, the educated:

“All these things are produced by the one and same Spirit who gives what he wants to each person.”

Because we don’t understand this we end up experiencing spiritual poverty because we are shutting out the people who were given to us to enrich our life in Christ. Most of these people are the unexceptable ; the wrong gender, the wrong colour, the wrong background, the wrong sins, the wrong education level, the wrong carisma, the wrong relationship skills. We forget that we don’t choose but he chooses us and that he chooses each of us for a different purpose with a different gift. From the heights of the halls of Harvard or the lows of an elementary education, no one is left on the outside looking in because he has designed it in a way that we need each other to grow into what he has designed us to be.

When he called me I was a messed up kid with no leadership skill. I had no great love for people but I had fallen in love with Jesus. I would have been very content to have been left alone, with just one good friend, a pile of books and some writing paper. It was not my idea or desire to enter into full-time ministry. I did not have the skill set, no natural ability for public speaking nor an ability to lead people. It was actually a bit of a nightmare for me to realize he was calling me to be a pastor.

Leadership is not natural to me. He did not place me in the body according to my comfort level or ability. It was only over a time of exploration that I discovered I had been given the gift of teaching. But that’s not even my dominate gift. The thing I have been given that has become as natural to me as breathing is the gift of encourager, but that took decades for me to realize because people wanted to emphasize other parts of me and ignore what the Lord was doing.

The difference between ability and gifts is that there is power in the gifts. Anyone can be an encourager but the gift of encouragement has the supernatural power to lift people up and fill them with a desire to press on and reach for greater heights. Anyone can teach given enough knowledge, but the gift of teaching has the power to bring understanding and paint with the vivid colours of the Spirit things that could not even be imagined. What about the gift of administration? That’s a weird one to me that I definitely do not possess, but it is a gift with power that cannot be had through any study in this world.

I could disqualify myself by simply assessing it according to the level of my ability. How many have lost out on the experience of their gift simply because they thought they did not have the ability? It’s not ability we should be looking for but the mark of the Spirit that can be seen through a humble, willing and surrendered attitude. These things can be lost on a Church that lifts up talent, ability, charisma as well as education. Those may be great but they do not come with the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. The gifts set us apart from all other religions and groups in the world, because they are Christ working through us, not us working toward Christ.

If we want to see Father’s glory shining out from the Church we have to leave off our pursuit of professionalism and seek out the gifts once again. This is not to say that we do not press into excellence but let’s check the root and make sure it is excellence in the Spirit and not excellence according to the world.

3. The Gifts - A Word Of Knowledge

 Today we move on to the second gift, “a word of knowledge” that can be related to the first gift of “a word of wisdom”. Some people want to define this gift in an either or or situation. Some will say that it is related to receiving revelation on specific portions of scripture. Others will argue that it is a revelation of spiritual situations. I have experienced it as both.

I have sat under ministries that, as the word is being preached, suddenly the preacher is being fed fresh revelation as they are preaching. They are as surprised by it as anyone else. There have been many occasions where it has happened to me. It’s not that what I was preaching was wrong, it was just while I was sharing that word I felt a fresh “download” from the Spirit that took it to unexpected places. As always happens, in the week that followed, situations were given to test out this new revelation where it was proven to be solidly from the Spirit.

Equally I have experienced the revelation of spiritual situations. On a number of occasions I have stood before a minister who told me of private conversations I had had before giving me instructions from the Lord. The purpose for it was to get my attention so I knew it was the Lord speaking to me. In turn, I have stood before people seeking answers from the Lord when I have suddenly known of things that I had no knowledge of. Sometimes it was to help in providing an answer and other times it was to get their attention. More often than not, I was given things to say that meant nothing to me and everything to them.

This is the thing again, many believers may be given something for someone without actually possessing the gift. People with this gift operate in it all the time, like those in the office of the Prophet. But on occasion it will be given to a person for a moment, perhaps because no one with that gift was at hand.

Like everything in the Kingdom, this gift requires some training. Requiring training does not mean it is manufactured by humanity. It means that trainers, believers of maturity and experience are able to help those learning to walk in this gift, to understand and to avoid some of the common mistakes of the past. These trainers are filled by the Spirit and teach from that place of relationship. Thankfully we are getting better at understanding the need for the trainers in the Body.

A reminder, these are the spiritual gifts we need to encourage and build each other up to greater maturity in Christ. We need these gifts, that’s why they were given. It changes us from a “garden club” to the spiritual Body of Christ, where we are dependent on each other in our spiritual growth. Don’t be afraid of the gifts, pursue their understanding and walk in them.

2. The Gifts : A Word Of Wisdom

 As we take a look at the first gift, a word of wisdom, I remind you that the gifts of the Spirit must be kept in the context of a united Body. The gifts are for the enrichment of believers, the growth of the community, the maturing of the saints. I point out to you these simple words from Paul that he wrote to the Corinthians in his first letter, in what we call chapter 12, the third verse:

“except by the Holy Spirit.”

There is a huge difference between an ability or talent, and the Spirit enabled gifts. We thank the Lord for someone's musical ability that they offer to him in service, but it does not have the same life changing effect of a Spirit given gift.

We need to also remember that everything, whether gifts, ministry or activities all come from the same source : Yahweh. And they are produced by him in everyone:

“There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries and the same Lord; and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.”

And we need to keep emphasizing the “everyone” and the purpose is for the good of everyone:

“A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good.”

Now that all this is clear to us we can pursue the understanding of this first gift, always keeping it in the context of community.

“A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person.”

To put this as simplistically as possible, you have most likely experienced this gift in yourself. We all experience some aspect of the gifts from time to time without possessing the gift because all these things are at work in us. They are at work in us because Jesus is at work in us, perfecting us for our eternal home. A word of wisdom is experienced in that moment when you suddenly understand a portion of scripture, or perhaps a Kingdom principle that shifts you and you know how to apply it in your daily living. 

There are times when this happens to us as we meditate on the scripture or sit quietly in Father’s presence. But it can also happen as someone who operates in this gift is explaining Scripture to us. It isn’t the person’s ability to teach but instead the power in the gift that opens us to grasp this truth or perhaps a key of the Kingdom. But the gift also goes beyond simple teaching.

A word of wisdom is also demonstrated through someone who shows us how a truth gets applied to our daily living. It causes the Lord’s word to be a living word, affecting our daily life by becoming part of who we are and the decisions we make. Again, this is something you may experience directly from the Spirit but there are other times, perhaps when we are closed to him, that he will send someone operating in this gift, to move us to a new level.

It’s important to stress here that this wisdom is not as many people understand wisdom to be in this world. It is not based on human understanding or insight. It is not about how this world works but about how the Kingdom works and how we live the Kingdom in this world. A word of wisdom opens our minds to Father’s ways, how he wants us to live in relationship in this world, and how we can demonstrate the Kingdom to this world. It is a powerful gift that works in tandem with the rest of the gifts to move us into a Spirit empowered life.

This is fantastic because we need to learn to trust the Lord and to stop leaning on our own understanding. This gift will shift our perspective so that we see with the eyes of our King. Remember,  the gifts are for the enrichment of believers, the growth of the community, the maturing of the saints.

1. The Gifts : The Context

 To understand the importance and place of the gifts of the Spirit we must understand the context within the Body of Christ. In order for us to properly understand anything in the Kingdom it must always be seen through the heart of relationship with Father and relationship with each other. Outside of these references we can twist, distort and put the emphasis in the wrong place, causing much damage to ourselves and to others.

Let’s start with picturing what a community looks like. We can start a community with just a few families. If these families are all farmers there would be plenty of food but it would be a weak community. Let’s say a blacksmith decides to set up shop in the community. He would be a welcome asset because now the farmers have a place to go to for needed repairs. Then a doctor comes to town. The community has just grown in strength. There is now a place to bring the sick and injured. Then a merchant sets up a general store, a baker opens a bakery, then a restaurant, a bus terminal, a train station, a movie theater. Each person who joins the community with their specific skill set causes the community to grow in strength and richness.

The apostle Paul used a different metaphor. He referred to the body, the diversity of parts and the importance of those parts to the strength of the body. Where would we be without our left foot? Or where would we be without our right hand? Paul warned of the problem when everyone wants to be a hand, or in my metaphor, when everyone is a farmer. It’s important to understand that when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit none are less important than another and we need all the gifts to function in the richness of the Kingdom.

According to Paul, as he wrote to the Corinthians, every believer is a part of the body, as in everyone has a gift in this rich community. One is not more important than another as we need each one of them. And these gifts are not distributed by us but by the Spirit according to the Spirit not according to our determination. We don’t decide what gift we have received. That is important so we can simply accept who we are in the Spirit and get on with living the Kingdom life.

I can’t stress this enough : the gifts are not a reward for good behaviour. The gifts are Christ distributed among the believers. It is in unity that we find maturity and in maturity that we find Father’s glory. The gifts are the supernatural expression of the Kingdom in this world and are supposed to be as natural to us as walking, talking, breathing, and they give us a wonderful sense of belonging to each other. I need what you have and you need what I have. To live anything less is to live short of Father’s design for us in this world.

I discourage you from exploring the gifts outside of the relationship with Jesus. The most important thing is to be in this growing intimate relationship with Jesus that we have been called to and designed for. To try to operate in a gift outside of that relationship is an abuse and comes with terrible consequences in this world. The gifts are a beautiful thing that increase our service to the Lord, to each other and are a fantastic expression of surrendered worship. In these gifts we know it is nothing about us and everything about him, he determines them and he supplies them, we only walk in what he gives. And in doing so we make our community, tribe, body rich and strong.

So it is within this context that we will now begin to explore the gifts of the Spirit.

I Need You

I need you. I am praying for you today because I need you. I need you to be everything Jesus has intended for you to be in him. That is how he designed things to be, that I would need you and you would need me. We call it the Church. Scriptures refer to it as a Body and it is a spiritual thing. We are members and as members we are dependent on each other to be everything we need to be for the glory of Jesus. I need you.

Most of us have a lousy understanding of the Body. Some market it as a commodity to a people they see as customers. Their desire is growth that they manage through various tools of manipulation. That is not Jesus' design and it leads to a distortion that prevents you from understanding how much I need you.

The Body is an amazing living spiritual thing that provides a setting for gifted followers of Jesus Christ to serve as they have been called to serve. I say "gifted" but not in the manner in which you may understand. Gifted, as in possessing a gift or gifts from the Spirit to enable us to serve in the calling we have received. Each of our callings fit together with other believers. No one serves in isolation but our calling and gifts fit together with others to enable us to serve in an overwhelming spiritual manner that brings all glory to Jesus. Read 1 Corinthians 12 for yourself.

The thing is, Jesus also put in place trainers within this body. These are men and women who have been set aside as servants to the members of the Body. The Body does not revolve around these trainers but each member grows up into the head, which is Jesus. Trainers are only there to help people understand their purpose, calling, gifts and to help us understand that we work together, in unity, because we have been designed to need each other. If they take the focus off of Jesus then they have failed in their responsibilities. If they cause disunity and fail to train us to need each other then they have failed. Read this:

He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. (Ephesians 4:11)

He, being Jesus, called these people to be trainers. They are not special, only chosen to be set aside. In order to fulfill their responsibility they must be fully possessed by the Spirit, focused on Jesus to be equipped for this work. And their purpose:

His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. (v. 12-13)

His purpose in setting aside these people was to use them for the equipping of his people, for the work of serving, building up, to the point of obtaining unity of faith and knowledge in Jesus. Amazing, isn't it? And what is Yahweh's goal?

God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. (v. 13b)

Maturity. That is Yahweh's goal for us, what all of us are suppose to be moving into. The whole chapter is well worth further study to put this in context but the important thing to understand is that we need these trainers who help us understand that we need each other. They aren't suppose to be our focus, more like the trainers in a gym, there to help us improve. They know stuff we have yet to learn. They are the least, the servants, those who lay down their lives to serve us, and for this we honour them, because it costs them everything. Or it should if they understand who they are in the Body. Not everyone in the position has been called but if you look close enough I think you will find the authentic trainers.

Bottom line: I need you. I am designed to fit with you, so our gifts work together, and in the process we grow together, maturing and reaching the fullness of Jesus. So be well my friend, seek the Lord with all your heart, be dependent on him and allow the Spirit to possess you fully. Be strong in the Lord, because I need you.

Dare To Be A Daniel

I think we need to follow James' advice and spend more time asking Yahweh for wisdom because it appears we don't have enough. We are an incredibly blessed people having great knowledge of Father through our King, Jesus the Christ. We have been given the keys to unlock great riches in the Word. We have blessings such as salvation, righteousness, holiness poured out on us. We have been given power through the Holy Spirit in us to operate in great spiritual gifts so we can serve Jesus with power. We are rich beyond our understanding and have great joy and peace. Yet, we either don't know how to use any of it or we refuse.

Yesterday we considered how Yahweh equips us for whatever he calls us to do and we used Daniel as an example. We read:

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. (Daniel 1:17)

This is great to read and is encouraging for us but it would have been useless for everyone if Daniel and his friends failed to operate in it. It's great to be blessed in this way but we have to use the blessings. Right away Daniel and his friends were put to work using these tools. The king wanted someone to not just interpret his dream but to actually know what the dream was without being told. He wanted a word of knowledge. Because no one could do it he was going to kill all the wise men. But Daniel used his tools:

Then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel 2:14)

That was the tool of wisdom but Daniel followed this up with the tool Yahweh had given specifically to him:

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision.  (v. 17-19)

Daniel trusted Yahweh and used the tools/gifts he had been given and it resulted in a huge impact in this foreign kingdom. It revealed Yahweh to Nebuchadnrezzar:

Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret. (v. 47)

And it paid off pretty good for Daniel and his friends as well with the king placing Daniel as the ruler of the province of Babylon allowing Daniel to appoint his friends to high positions as well. Now they were in a place to protect the people of Israel.

I will be honest with you: I have received certain gifts that I have often avoided using. I am afraid of them because I am afraid of operating in my flesh instead of the Spirit. It is a trust issue that I have to work through because I have been given those gifts as tools, not to profit myself, but for the purposes of the Kingdom. Many of us are like this, failing to use the tools we have been given for the purpose and mission of Jesus. Some people ignore their gifts, others are timid and others misuse them for their own personal gain.

We have no excuse for the current state of affairs in the Body and in our personal lives. Jesus has made sure that we are equipped with everything we need to be his witnesses, to minister to a suffering world, to demonstrate his love with power and conviction. It is we who choose to fail; who choose to hide; who choose to seek for ourselves. We need to find our courage again; to rise up in the anointing of the Spirit and use the tools we have been given for the mission of our King.

As a little lad in Sunday School, I remember singing "Dare to be a Daniel" which was a great little children's chorus promoting the need to stand in our testimony concerning Jesus, no matter the cost. But we fail to grasp that there was more to Daniel than just taking a stand. There was also the willingness to be the man Yahweh needed at that time to represent him to the king. There was the willingness to operate in the gifts Yahweh had given him for the task. The interpretation of dreams is no small thing. Because of his reliance on Yahweh, his willingness to operate in the Spirit and the great amounts of time he devoted in prayer, he was also available to receive a ton of prophecy. Yet, we are greater than Daniel simply because we have made a decision for Jesus. We are better equipped. We have been called to a greater work. We are possessed by the Spirit. So I do ask, will you dare to be a Daniel in the full context of our relationship with Jesus? Will you do more than stand? Will you also work in obedience according to the will of Father with the tools that have been provided?

Abortion Rates In The USA Have Fallen! So Where Is The Good News?

You aren't going to like what I write and I doubt you will agree with me. I even debated with myself if I should bother, but the latest headlines to grab my attention is eating at me. There is something about this issue that is provoking my spirit. CharismaNews is reporting "Study: US Abortion Rate Hits Lowest Level Since 1973". Sounds fantastic, right? But then we find out that this coincides with a dramatic fall in pregnancies. This would be a direct result of the "morning after" pill and other such instant abortion options.

Yes, the abortion issue upsets me a lot but not as much as the other thing this news indicates. What screams at me from this headline story is that the Church continues to fall into greater disobedience as a direct result of our self-centeredness. People are having fewer children because the values of the world are becoming more of a priority over those of the Kingdom.

People have a ton of reasons for not having children. They talk about the financial impact and how they can't afford it. How fair is it to raise a child without all the bells and whistles? How fair is it to raise a child in a disadvantaged state? If you listen to the latest reports it costs too much. According to the Canadian Living magazine it is going to cost you over $12,000 a year, more than $250,000 by the age of 18 years (How Much Does It Cost To Raise Kids In Canada). Well, I must be a very rich man because I have a lot of kids and they lack for nothing. This is crazy and people are falling for it.

Others will say that they want to further their career first and children will just get in the way. Others cite the supposed world over population. These are all messages from the world thinkers who have different values and priorities. The Christian is not suppose to buy into such a world view. We, a holy people, sanctified, set apart, no longer belonging to ourselves, are suppose to walk in complete obedience to our God, Yahweh. But this is just one more glaring example of how we put ourselves ahead of the Kingdom and the mission.

We sing praises indicating that we only want the Father`s will but then we make all the decisions for ourselves. We ignore the scripture that talks about contraceptive practices. Onan purposefully tried to prevent pregnancy and Yahweh killed him because Onan's actions displeased him that much (Genesis 38). We ignore the Scriptures that tell us that Yahweh is in control of the giving and preventing of children. He opens and closes wombs. And the Word tells us that we must consider children a gift from him:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward. (Psalm 127:3)

Unless it gets in the way of our plans?

Do I dare say that it is not even the issue of the children as much as it is in our failure to understand that we do not belong to ourselves? It is not just this one issue but it is everything about our lives. We are willing to worship Jesus but we are not willing to allow him to be Lord, to rule over us. We want all the blessings but we do not understand or accept the cost of obedience. A completely surrendered life, seeking the will of our Father, engaged in the mission, and following the direction of the Spirit, anchored in the Word. Not at your convenience but by his will.

The Church will rise, beautiful, radiant, loved and cherished by Jesus, but I am not sure how many of us will be counted in that number. My fear is that we are too busy chasing after our own interests to care.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Gifting (3)

Success depends on three things : knowledge, wisdom and gifting. In the last two days we have considered that knowledge is our responsibility. We are the ones who must gain knowledge, which in this day and age, is as close as our finger tips. However, to apply that knowledge within the definition of our relationship with our LORD, we need wisdom. Wisdom is found in Yahweh, who freely gives it when we seek and ask for it. But there is a third element we need for success and it is one most of us neglect. What is your gifting?

Long before we see light or breathe air Yahweh knits into us gifts. Some people refer to these as talents or abilities but gifts is a better description because they have been given to us by our Creator. These are the things that we do not learn but are born with the ability to do. We may have to practice our gifts to become more familiar with them but they are the thing that gives us the ability to do better than most people.

For instance, I am a musician. I started learning how to play a musical instrument in the fifth grade. It was not an easy thing for me but it made me feel like I was part of something; something special. It took me hours of practicing but even with my great effort I could never rise above average. Yet I watched other children around me excel. Certainly they had to work hard at their craft but there was something inside of them that made them shine. I became a mechanical musician, doing all the right things at the right time, but the gifted ones moved people when they played.

We spend a lot of time teaching children the fundamentals in education and we try to get them to pursue what interests them, but we spend little time in investigating their gifts. Many people spend their lives working against the grain, doing the things that are mechanical and average instead of what their Creator had given them to do. Let me give you an example from the Scriptures.

Yahweh was instructing Moses on the tabernacle he wanted built so there would be a place where the priests could carry out their obligations to him, a place for the people to offer worship. He was very detailed in his instructions and something like this, such a holy place, needed to be built of the best materials in the best manner possible. It could not be mediocre or average. It required artisans but the very best of the artisans. This is what we discover:

And I (Yahweh), indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you. (Exodus 31:6)

Here we see the three elements that we have been speaking of: knowledge, wisdom and gifting. A little more specifically we read:

And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship (Exodus 35:30-31)

We can study hard, gain knowledge and even receive wisdom to know how to apply that knowledge but if we want real success, as described by our LORD, then we need to work within our gifting. Uri had the knowledge of his craft, but it was the LORD who called him to be above everyone else by the gifting and wisdom he have him.

Yahweh has given us these gifts for a purpose and the responsibility is on us to know what those gifts are so we can walk in our purpose. Don't just look at what interests you but what you are good at doing. Ask the LORD to reveal it to you. Ask your family what they see in you. Ask your pastor and friends. Understand there is a plan and design for you and the LORD wants you to be successful in it. That doesn't mean money and fame necessarily, but successful in what he has given you to do.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Gifting (1)

The LORD intends for us to be more than what we are, more than that to which we have limited ourselves. The vast majority of us are ignorant and lazy which is not the Lord's desire for us but something we have done to ourselves. We allow ourselves to be side-tracked by useless diversions, things that tickle our flesh desires, that rob us of the LORD's plan for us. Without getting into specific purposes for each person I can tell you it is Yahweh's will that each of us gain knowledge, wisdom and gifting.

The one thing we are responsible for is gaining knowledge. It is simply the study of everything. We used to be a curious bunch and would gain knowledge by observation and experimentation. Then we built schools and called people who did this scientists and the rest of us went off to watch movies and play video games. Yet, we have all been given a great capacity to learn and gain knowledge. It is our Creator's desire for us to learn:

The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge,
And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. (Proverbs 18:15)

The only thing Yahweh asks is that we would keep the acquiring of knowledge within the context of our relationship with him:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,But fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)

It is good to learn, to increase our knowledge but not at the cost of losing our eternity; not at the cost of losing our faith. There are a lot of things that mankind thinks it knows but it's because they have not sought knowledge within the context of our Creator. Unfortunately, the abuse of such knowledge has led most of our western society to replace Yahweh with other things. But this should not be an excuse for us not to seek proper knowledge, even to understand what the world considers knowledge. But we are lazy.

We would rather be entertained by the many diversions offered to us. We have become a society that chases after the ghost of leisure, paying whatever it costs for pleasure. How many books do you read in a year? I don't mean novels but books; biographies, history, science, geography. You may read the Bible but how much time do you commitment to actually studying it? Research? Commentaries?

You say you watch educational television but do you take notes and follow up with some self-studies to confirm it? You say you have the Internet, specifically Google, but do you know how to use it beyond checking your FaceBook and Tumblr? We have so much knowledge at our finger tips but we never actually try to consume any of it. We would rather watch some actors play out a fictitious story that will move our emotions and  soon be forgotten, adding nothing to us. Wow, what an incredibly lazy man I have been.

Gaining wisdom is desired of us by Yahweh because it makes us more useful to him. But knowledge alone will not work. It is possible to be an ignorant idiot or an educated idiot but we are still an idiot. We also require wisdom and gifts to be a well rounded and useful servant of our LORD. Return tomorrow and I will continue on this suspect, but for now, make a decision to make better use of your free time. It will honour our LORD.





  

The Misuse Of God's Gifts

If you are a member of the Body of Christ, you are called, equipped and anointed for the function you have been given. No one can exist in Jesus outside of the Body. Many try due to their lack of maturity. They are too busy looking at the imperfections of other people to understand the grace that has been applied to their own. They use others as an excuse to separate instead of a reason to serve. We are the Body and God has appointed us to our place in it. Verify the truth of the matter in 1 Corinthians 12.

You have been given certain gifts by the Spirit in order to function within the Body. These are not natural to us but are supernatural, given to us supernaturally. We cannot serve God in a way that pleases him in our natural, but he equips us to serve him in the supernatural. The question is, will we use these gifts to faithfully serve his will, or will we use them selfishly for our own gain? Solomon is a good illustration.

King Solomon knew enough to know he was over his head. What he had been called and anointed to do was beyond his own natural ability, and he was wise enough to realize it. So when God asked him what he could give Solomon, this young, wet behind the ears, newly appointed king asked for two things: wisdom and knowledge. But take note of why he wanted these gifts from God:

Lord God, you were always loyal to my father David, and now you have made me king of Israel. I am supposed to rule these people, but there are as many of them as there are specks of dust on the ground. So keep the promise you made to my father and make me wise. Give me the knowledge I’ll need to be the king of this great nation of yours. (2 Chronicles 1:8-10)

Solomon did not ask for his own benefit but so that he could fulfill his calling, the task for which he was anointed, which is why we receive gifts from the Spirit. God was pleased with this and because he asked with this motivation he also provided Solomon with everything else. But Solomon did not stay so pure in his motivation.

Solomon allowed his eyes to turn inward. He indulged in the privilege of his position. Instead of serving God by serving God's great nation, Solomon started serving his own selfish desires. How easy it is to turn what God gives us to serve him into something for selfish gain.

As great as Solomon was he could have become more. He seeded things into his children which caused the split in the kingdom. Instead of being a united people for the glory of God, they became spoiled and selfish, requiring the great correction God visited on them. We are not too far from this ourselves, even in the early days of the Church.

When apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, guiding him in the strengthening of the Church in Ephesus, he said something that we need to take note of today:

You needed to warn them to stop wasting their time on senseless stories and endless lists of ancestors. Such things only cause arguments. They don’t help anyone to do God’s work that can only be done by faith. (1 Timothy 1:4)

We can never forget the purpose of our calling and the focus we have been given. There should never be anything that we are involved in that does not help us to do God's work. That is the entire focus of our life, to do God's work. It is not a part-time thing. It is not a weekend thing. It is something that we are occupied with every moment of our day, and it is the reason we have been equipped by the Spirit.

It is possible for us to waste the gifts of the Spirit, to use them for ourselves instead of for Jesus in the context of the Body. It is possible but it will prove to be our ruin as it ruined Solomon. We will never reach the heights that God has intended for us and we will seed things that will prove to be the undoing of other people as well. For this we will have to give an account. Don't forget the parable of the talents.

Perhaps it is time to allow the Spirit to take an inventory of where we are with the gifts we have been given, and permit him to remove what is not a help in doing God's work by faith.

Church - We Need A Greater Revelation

It's frustrating. The church you know is not the Church that is suppose to be. Our attitude toward leadership sucks. Sorry for the lack of vocabulary but I can't think of a more appropriate word. We have criticized the Roman Catholic church with it's system of priests but then turned around and set up our own. Oh, I know we call them pastors but we treat them like priests.

And why are there only pastors? The Word of God tells me there is a whole team of trainers that are suppose to be at work in the Body of Christ.

Yes, I called them trainers because that is what is suppose to be in place, not a priesthood. We are the royal priesthood, everyone of us according to the Word of God. We need trainers not priests. Look at this:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service. (Ephesians 4:11-12)

Some people refer to this group as the five-fold ministers. To me they are the trainers and they are more than pastors. People say that the age of the apostles is over and that there are no such things as prophets any more. These are either people who don't know the word, or want to shape the Church into their own idea, or just follow the crowd.. Nowhere in the Word does it say there is an end to the age of the apostles. There are apostles who are referred to in the Word who never met Jesus in the flesh. Apostles are not a group that met a certain criteria; they are chosen and appointed by the grace of God, just like the rest of us. We need to stop shaping the Church by man's design and allow the Spirit the freedom to teach and lead us.

These trainers are given to the Body to prepare God's people for works of service. This is training us how to operate in the Spirit, in the gifts of the Spirit, so we can grow and mature in our service. Look how it continues:

^... to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (v. 12-13)

The trainers act as catalyst if you would. As they train us something begins to happen, like a chain reaction:

1. prepare in works of service
2. so the Body may be built up
3. until we reach unity in faith and in knowledge of Jesus
4. we become mature
5. attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ

There is so much more to our Christian walk than we allow ourselves to believe. And we will not discover those things until we allow ourselves to become what our Father has re-birthed us to be. We have to learn how to operate in the Spirit of God so that the Body may be built up, so there can be unity in our faith and knowledge of Jesus, so we can become mature and in becoming mature, attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. I know I am repeating myself but I want this to sink in.

We need more than pastors. We need the complete five-fold ministers. We need to do more than worship. We need to serve. We need to do more than give a cup of cold water. We need to learn to operate in the Spirit. We need to learn how to use the gifts of the Spirit. We need go beyond our flesh and operate in the supernatural. We need the whole measure of the fullness of Christ and it starts with submitting ourselves to the training of the five-fold.

Read the Word. Really read the Word and not just the stuff that fits into a humanistic agenda. It is more than just feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. That is part of it, but we need the whole thing. We need to operate in all the gifts of the Spirit. We need to see the power of God flowing through the Body of Christ again.

Do You Need To Hear Something Positive Today?

One of my great concerns about us as a people of God, as a Church, as followers of Jesus, is that we are so leader oriented. I wouldn't say that we worship our pastors and worship leaders but there is a bit of the world in our attitude. The world likes to elevate people to a demi-god position. Look at what we do to actors. So George Clooney can act, does that make his political opinion more important than yours? So Oprah Winfrey is a good interviewer, does that mean she knows what she is talking about spiritually? We do this to people who are no better than us, lifting them up, making them famous and important, and then treating their opinion as if it is based on some kind of special insight or wisdom. Part of this creeps into the Church.

We are looking for heroes, people we can follow, people we can quote, people we can trust and believe in but we do it for all the wrong reasons. In the Church there is no one more important than anyone else but there is respect. We respect those who are called into positions of leadership. We respect them because it is a difficult place to serve, not because they are better than anyone else. There are all kinds of callings and positions and they are all important to make the body function. We respect those who are called as the servants of the Body because it is a right thing to do, because the Bible tells us to, which means it is what God asks. But don't get it wrong.

We get it wrong when we start losing sight of the purpose and we start making the person more important than who we are in Jesus. We get it wrong when we see one person's calling of greater significance than our own or of someone else's. What is important is our purpose, the mission we were given. What is important is the Head of the Body and what he directs us to do, everyone of us, so we can work together to see the body function as it should.

There are two incidents of this in the Bible that really stand out for me. The first is found in Numbers 11. Moses had brought 70 of Israel's elders together. He caused the Spirit of God to come on the elders and the elders prophesied. Yet there were two elders still in the camp, not with the others, and the Spirit came on them as well and they prophesied.

Joshua, who had been Moses' aid since he was young, took great exception to this. He felt it took glory away from Moses and he told Moses to stop them from doing it. Joshua was making Moses more important than this thing that God was doing. Thankfully Moses was a mature leader and refused such temptation from his admirer:

“Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29)

A leader called by God does not want to keep to himself the secrets or blessings of the Lord. He doesn't want his name to shine in lights. He doesn't want to be lifted higher than anyone else. He wants all of God's children to have what he has and to eat from the blessings he has received. We find this same scene played out with Jesus.

In this case it was the disciples who wanted a sense of being a special class. They were privileged to be picked by Jesus and they wanted to preserve that for themselves. In a sense they wanted to be the elite, belonging to a priesthood, having the inside track, part of an inner circle. They had it all wrong. Jesus had only called them so he could train them to go out and train others, to train the entire world. But the disciples had seen someone casting out a demon in Jesus' name and they stopped him. They actually stopped him. How easily legalism creeps in. Jesus corrected them in the same manner as Moses:

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:39-40)

Later Apostle Paul would run into the same problem with the Corinthians. They were dividing themselves into who they were following, causing conflicts, not unlike the doctrinal fights of our day. Paul had to tell them that one leader was no more important than another and each had his place and purpose and the only one who mattered was Jesus.

We need to get our perspective back in order to be doing what we need to be doing. It is great that there are people like me who are called for a specific reason in the Body of Christ, but there are so many more callings that are equally important. It is great that we have people who are given the gift of preaching, teaching, writing, singing, playing music but we need all the gifts to shine not just a few. Where are those with the gifts of encouragement, prophesying, healing, wisdom, knowledge, miraculous powers? Why have we allowed these to fade while placing special honour on others?

My friend, we need you. We need you to stop living in the shadow of your brothers and sisters and to shine in your calling. We need you to grab hold of your gift. I said your gift, not someone else's. Grab hold of that thing and give it all you have to serve others with it. There is no elitism in the Church, no priesthood because we are all of the royal priesthood. As Paul wrote:

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

This is much longer than I intended to write but I want you to understand, you are important to Jesus, to the Church and to me. Please, throw off any ideas you had on leadership as understood in the world and start to think with your spiritual mind, the mind of Jesus. Be who Jesus has called you to be, and shine for his glory. I need you.











 

The Gift Of Christmas Is An Inclusive Gift

Merry Christmas everyone; the day God surprised the world. The gift was not unexpected but the extent of it, the largeness of it, the generosity of the giver was certainly a surprise.

Israel was expecting their Messiah but they had no idea of God's full plan because they were a self-centered people. They always thought that their relationship with God was exclusive and for their own blessing. They never seemed to grasp God's purpose of raising them up as a nation of priests so that he could reveal his glory to all nations through them. They thought God was only for them, their personal protector and 'genie in the bottle' to meet their every need.

When Jesus explained his purpose to a leader of Israel late one night he did not tell him that "God so loved Israel". No, he told him that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life". The "so loved the world" and "whoever believes" is what we are really celebrating this morning. It is an inclusive statement and we love our Father for it. Regardless of what gifts you have received today I will guarantee you no one has given you a gift like our Father has.

I repeat myself on this Christmas morning, the message of Christmas is not "peace on earth" but "For God so loved the world that he gave" and what he has given is himself. Jesus told us that if we choose to accept this gift we have the responsibility to tell everyone about it. Jesus gave himself to save us from our destruction and he came for the entire world. Maybe it is only the followers of Jesus who celebrate the true meaning of this celebration but the gift was intended for everyone.

As we celebrate and we practice that God spirit of generosity with those we love, let's keep in mind that the gift of Christmas is not exclusive but inclusive. Share it with your family and friends as you gather with them during this season. May your Christmas truly be a merry experience as you allow the joy of the Lord to overflow your heart.

To Each One The Manifestation Of The Spirit Is Given

If the Church is dull it is because we have made it that way. If following Jesus is unattractive and tedious it is because we have limited God. If there seems to be a lack of anything supernatural in the Body of Christ it is because we are denying the work of the Holy Spirit. We have turned God and the Church into a one dimensional thing. We have castrated, hog-tied, and thrown out the Holy Spirit from our relationship and service with Jesus. We have an appearance of godliness but we are without the power of God. There is one very simple reason I say all this:

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

We lack understanding and vision of the Body of Christ. This was the plan from the beginning, as the Holy Spirit fell upon the Church in a great baptism of fire. To each of us the manifestation of the Spirit has been given. This is not an optional thing. This is a given, standard issue, part of our relationship with Jesus. It is not given for selfish gain but for the common good. There is nothing dull and empty about the Church; she is alive, vibrant and bursting with power.

I can't emphasize this enough: if you have accepted Jesus as Saviour and claimed him as Lord then you have been brought into the Church, his Body. You have been given the manifestation of the Spirit, a gift or gifts, for the purpose of serving in the Body. God is too much for us, as is his work, as is his power. None of us could handle the full power of God so it has been split up into various gifts or manifestations of the Spirit. These have been spread out among all the believers. Some of these gifts are listed here:

To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)

Those who want to deny the Spirit claim that these manifestations of the Spirit were given for a time and are not part of our faith now. They are deceived. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that this was for a time or that they had been removed. They are woven into the very fabric of the Body and without them we are just a lecture hall and community centre. Trying to serve Jesus without the Spirit is choosing to be blind, deaf and mute. Whatever we do without the Spirit we do in our flesh and whatever we do in our flesh is rejected by God. We are supernatural creatures and must serve him supernaturally. Everything that Paul has written to the Corinthians climaxes in these two chapters, 12 and 13. They are more important than you could possibly imagine.

All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:11)

This is the work of the Spirit so let me emphasize just how important Jesus said the Spirit is:

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. (Luke 12:10)

Those are the words of Jesus, the one who promised us the Holy Spirit, the one who said he had to leave so that the Spirit could come. The baptism of water is a baptism of repentance which is not a complete work. We require the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that we can live in the full awareness of God and his purpose. The Word says that if we do not have the Spirit we do not have Jesus. Without the Spirit there is no life to the Church or to our service. We cannot deny what is written here, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each believer, they have been distributed by the Holy Spirit to each of us as he has determined.

Jesus said that the Father would send this baptism on anyone who asks. It is time that the majority of believers ask so there can be life in the Body again. The world needs to see the glory of God; allow him to glorify himself through you today. Step into the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Don't be satisfied with a partial thing.