A Uniquely Unified Body Of Spiritual Gifts

Have you ever met a Christian who you met at just the right time when you were feeling discouraged and upset, and they made you feel better? Have you ever talked with a Christian who seemed to have a wisdom about decisions and life that was beyond what you expected? Have you ever met a Christian who could teach the word in a way that made you understand it in a new way?

Have you ever met a Christian who spoke a word from the Lord over your life, something they couldn’t have possibly known?

How about a Christian who is always there to serve? Someone who always volunteers to help? Or maybe you’ve met a Christian who has a unique discernment about the world? They’re able to see down to the truth of culture, television, government and so on.

Still other Christians place their hands on you and you are healed. Others have knowledge beyond their years.

All of these gifts are what we call spiritual gifts. They are gifts distributed by Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to us who serve as his body on the Earth. And as the body of Christ, we are his arms, his legs, his eyes, his voice, his ears, and his hands to a suffering world lost in sin. Each of these gifts are very different. But they all fit together to form us into a complete body of Christ, serving together, to win the world for Christ.

First thing to understand about spiritual gifts is the word spiritual. These are not gifts that exist in the natural world. They are spiritual. The second word is gift. They are not of ourselves. We didn’t create them by our own genius. They are gifts. Just like we receive a gift on Christmas morning or on our birthday, spiritual gifts are gifts given by God for us to use to His glory. Always remember that, don’t ever think it’s coming from you. Give glory to God, put the credit where it belongs, if we’re the body of Christ, being Jesus through our spiritual gifts the proper understanding when we’ve just used a spiritual gift to help someone is: Jesus did this. Jesus did this. Jesus did this.

No one on planet Earth, not a single human being, can properly say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. That’s what it says in 1st Corinthians 12:3. You can turn in your Bibles there and follow along.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth, long long ago, yet speaks to us today saying, “4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

This is all God at work. Different kinds of gifts, one God, one Spirit, one Christ.

I’d like to skip forward a bit to verses 12 through 14: “12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

Together we as the body of Christ make up a unique fighting force. Right now your area of combat is this sector, this neighborhood, this region of Flint. My battleground is Owosso, Shiawassee county. Yours is Genesee county. Your job is to do acts of mercy in accordance with your spiritual gifts to bring the light of God’s love into a dark world.

That means disrupting the broken world around us. Disrupting the stale, barren lives of those who haven’t seen loving kindness is years, or longer. There’s a thousand ways in a day to show mercy, and use your spiritual gift. But I think we sometimes get into a pattern of selfishness and laziness where we aren’t using those gifts. We just let them sit. And that is just not acceptable. God insists that we use those gifts. Remember the parable of the talents? God rewarded those workers who put their talents to use for his kingdom, but the one who hid his talent was cast into outer darkness. Use your gifts.

God will provide opportunities. As you pray about it, and watch for holy moments, God will open doors and point you to people in need around you. God will lead you to people and people will come to you for help. And as you do it, you’ll get more and more used to it, until it’s your normal. That’s how a habit is formed, through repetition.