Spiritual Gifts: Life on Mission
“You are the light of the world! A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and shine it for everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:13
As a child in Sunday school, we use to sing this song “This little light of mine” and I love the piece of Scripture that coincides with it; so we chose it for my oldest son’s life verse. When our boys were little, every morning before school, we would pray over them: that they would remember Who they belonged to, that they would be light bearers and shine the light of Jesus everywhere they went. As they hopped on the bus, we would yell out to them:
“Go! Let that Light shine!”
Isn’t it funny though, how we can give advice so freely but then sometimes neglect to apply it to our own life? Often times, we may be tempted to dim the Light within us or retreat altogether. Perhaps set up camp and stayed a little longer than we should have? For me, it wasn’t always that way, but the world is hard and our adversary is really good at trying to keep us ineffective. Past hurts can create a vicious cycle of insecurity and self-doubt. It seems safer to hide out in isolation, so that no one gets the wrong impression or assumes something that is untrue of us. Isolation is a self-protective mechanism, but if we are not careful, it can absolutely destroy us and worse, it can quench the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 29:25 says it is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you are safe. Man’s opinion pales in comparison to the plans our Chief Commander has for your life. Don’t let the enemy’s voice become louder than the voice of your Maker. If you need some reminders of what God thinks of you (I know I do), spend some time looking up these truths:
- Romans 8:31
- 1 Corinthians 1:27
- Luke 1:27
- Jeremiah 1:5, 29:11
- 1 Peter 2:9
- Ephesians 2:10
- Isaiah 43:1
- Psalm 139
You are a priceless, one-of-a-kind creation, and you have permission to shine the Glory of God on earth as it is in Heaven. God’s plans for you are good, and you were made for a purpose only you can fulfill. So get out there and be who God created you to be before the foundations of the world were laid–and make no apology for it!
Alex Seely “Tailor Made”
“HIDE IT UNDER A BUSHEL, NO!”
Time in and again, God will place people around us that have strengths we don’t. Remember Aaron and Moses? This relationship is a beautiful, yet overlooked dynamic. Aaron was the older brother of Moses. God asks him to be his brothers right hand man (to essentially assist) and then appoints him as a trusted Prophet, executor and spokesman. Aaron likely had a great reputation in the Hebrew community and had the connections necessary to assemble the Jewish leaders to hear what God had told Moses. (Exodus 4) But God didn’t choose Aaron to lead His people…He chose Moses. However, Aaron was necessary right where he was at. What if Aaron decided to abandon His brother because He was the oldest son and no doubt also had leadership abilities? What if Moses had been too proud to accept help from his brother? Instead, by working together, the brothers are able to accomplish much more than either could have done on their own. Truth is? We will never go far when we go it alone. Imagine trying to be active, but we are missing a foot or hand? If we unconsciously believe certain parts of the body are expendable or unnecessary (even our part), the Spirit of God’s work is weakened. What if we are that missing piece on someone’s team? What if we are the answer to a prayer in someone’s life? What if we are the only Light someone will ever see?
“DON’T LET SATAN BLOW IT OUT…”
If you have been doing some self-reflection throughout these weeks and you realized we were likely neighbors at the same camp site…my encouragement to you is fold up that tent, lift your head up and remember your calling. You have gifts that need to be dug up, dusted off, ironed out, nurtured, fanned, brought back to life and lit up by the Holy Spirit! Time is narrowing. And the body of Christ needs you.
LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE!
I have a friend who is like a second mom to me and I remember as a child, she would have a purse full of Bible tracks. Everywhere we went, she’d sprinkle them about: at the post office, gas station pumps and bathroom stalls. She would even toss the tracks out her window with this uproarious laugh and prayer that they would find someone who needed to know Jesus. 30 years later, many call this “littering” but in an only-God way, there really was someone who came to know Jesus through one of these simple acts of intentional planting. As a child, I used to think she was totally crazy but over the years, I watched how Jesus overflowed out of every single conversation she would have. She has these beautiful gifts of evangelism, discernment, prophecy and encouragement. And everywhere she goes, she is sharing the Light of Heaven in ways that she was always supposed to.
Each of us has one spiritual gift or a blend of the different gifts the Holy Spirit has put together for each of us. Like a painter who is able to create an infinite number of colors by mixing any combination of the 10 or so colors he carries in his pallet, so the Spirit of God blends a little of one gift with a little of another, to create the perfect combination within you. As a result, you have a unique position in the Body of Christ, with an ability to minister as no one else can.
John MacArthur
We’re not all going to be tossing Bible tracks out our windows, but we can grow where God plants our feet. And a little secret? God wastes nothing. He will use everything about you: your personality, life-experiences, sphere of influence, job choice, gifts, abilities, seasons, even our pain, to further His message of redemption and hope to a lost world.
BY THIS, EVERYONE WILL KNOW YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES: IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Something I find really interesting, is the placement of the chapters on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians. Right in the middle of those Chapters (12 & 14) it looks like Paul breaks his train of thought regarding gifts, to talk about love. But Chapter 13 is outlining the manner of which we are to exercise these gifts in the context of building up the body of Christ. Before he describes what love looks like, he begins the chapter by saying,
“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love…I am nothing. If I give away all that I have and deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Scary verse right there, but it’s great heart check. The church can do a lot of things in human (even supernatural)strength, power and abilities. But if we miss all the things Chapter 13 outlines about the motive – Paul is saying it’s a complete waste of time. Our gifts are not about us.
Now let’s look at Chapter 13 with some fresh perspective on spiritual gifts.
- Love is patient
- Love is kind
- Love does not envy or boast
- It is not arrogant or rude
- It does not insist on its own way
- It is not irritable or resentful
- It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth
- Love bears all things
- Believes all things
- Hopes all things
- Endures all things
- Love never fails
“If loving the people in front of us is too small of a ministry opportunity; then we’ve forgotten the simplicity of the gospel.”
unknown
In closing, I just wanted to share the most powerful ways we can love those around us. And that is by the ministry of presence. I could retell a thousand stories of how profound this has been in my life but I will leave you with just a few.
I remember countless times people ministered to our family over the years. When my Grandad died, we lived in TN at the time and a woman right here at MBC, who had never flown before, got on a plane and flew half way across the country, to meet us in Oklahoma. Years later, when my Grandma died, this same woman hopped in her car in the middle of an ice storm, and made the journey to Arkansas to be with us. We had no idea she was coming, but I’ll tell you what: I’ll never forget it.
About 13 years ago, my dad almost died from a mysterious illness that left him with a 5% chance to live. Someday I’d like to share that whole story with you, but this time period in our life is where one of my Ebenezer stones is placed. This display of God’s power, mercy and faithfulness in that season, left me forever changed. But when my Dad was still in a coma, our cousin got a prophetic word from the Lord that he was eager to share in person. Despite living 13 hours away, he drove straight through the night to tell us that God was going to do a miracle and restore my dad’s life. He stayed about an hour to encourage my mom, to pray over my dad and then turned right back around to make the long trek back home for work the next day. Who does that!? God’s people do that.
Later in life, I remember my parents doing this for us. About 10 years ago, we were walking through a difficult season in our church ministry. It’s just like the enemy to pull the rug out from under your feet when God’s just done something miraculous, isn’t it? But during the middle of that season, we had suffered a miscarriage. Half a year later, I was overjoyed to be pregnant again with our daughter Norah and things were going okay, until they weren’t. We thought we were losing her too, so I remember calling my parents. I couldn’t even get the words out of my mouth but they knew something was wrong. About ten minutes later, we heard this quiet knock on the door: it was my parents. They wrapped their arms around us and we sobbed together. What they did was nothing extravagant, but it was everything we needed. We didn’t need words, we needed their presence.
Using our gifts, in the day-to-day, whether that’s something big like these life-altering moments or in our homes with our babies or teenagers… all they need is for us to simply be present. Or when we’re out in the world, making eye contact and giving a smile to a stranger or engaging with the weary worker in the check-out line… the ministry of presence really is – LOVE. People will most likely forget everything we say… but they will never forget the ways we showed up in their lives.
I would like to encourage you to stop thinking of what you’re doing as ministry. Start realizing that your ministry is how much of a tip you leave when you are eating in a restaurant; when you leave a hotel, whether you leave it all messed up or not; whether you flush your own toilet or not. Your ministry is the way that you LOVE people. And you love people when you write something that is encouraging to them, something challenging. You love people when you call your wife and say, “I’m going to be late for dinner” instead of letting her burn the meal. You love people when maybe you cook a meal for your wife sometime, because you know she’s really tired. Loving people-being respectful toward them-is much more important than writing or doing music.”
Rich Mullins
Is that it?! Could it be that we’ve missed it all this time by making our dreams, ambitions, ministries and opportunities about US? My prayer for you is that you never forget that YOU ARE THE ECCLESIA (The Church) and it is the most powerful organization on the planet when it’s united and yielded to the purposes of our Messiah. Sisters – we have work to do. It has always been and always will be, about God’s rescue mission for mankind. Let that mission also be ours.
Now Go – Let that Light shine!
Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being unified with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being in one spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Philippians 2:1-8