January 30, 2012

Today’s Meditation Verse:

 

I Corinthians 12
4) Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5) And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6) There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7) But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

 

I truly believe the key to becoming the New Testament church that God desires, is dependent on how we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, both as an individual and as a body.

 

The Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts.  He gives gifts for the spirit, soul and body, but there are some gifts that are strictly set aside as ministry gifts.  Now before you check out and say that you are not in a ministry so this does not pertain to you – don’t.

 

If you are admittedly a part of the body of Christ, you have a ministry!  You may not want one out of fear of failure or fear of losing control over your own life, but you have one, even if you have not chosen to step into it yet.

 

Usually when the word ministry is thought of one thinks of preachers and teachers and those who work with missions.  But, the ministry of the gospel is much larger than that.  The ministry of the body of Christ is for every second of every day regardless of where we are or what we are doing.

 

We are called to minister, even if only in a small way to everyone that crosses our path. 

 

• You may only need to be kind to that person who needs so desperately for someone to be kind to them. 

• You may only need to offer an encouraging word to a co-worker who is struggling. 

• You may only need to offer to do a chore for your neighbor who is ill.

 

But whatever the ministry is that you have, you cannot do it without the help of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the life blood that flows through the body of Christ feeding and energizing it.

 

The body of Christ was designed for ministry to all people of all places, races, classes, nationalities and simply every single person who lives and breathes on this earth.  That is a lot of people and God needs us all to understand that we do have a part and for us to step into that part no matter how big or how small.

 

The gifts of the Spirit for the ministry are for the body to be able to minister to everyone no matter what their need should be.  We cannot know what is truly needed without the help or the ministerial gifts of the Spirit.  These particular gifts are for the common good.

 

There was time, when I was first introduced to the Holy Spirit and his ministry, that I earnestly prayed for the ministerial gifts.  All those that I knew in my church did as well.  We begged to be chosen to fill one or more of those roles.  And because we desired earnestly the ministerial gifts, our church services, bible studies and prayer groups flourished in those gifts.

 

But through the years I have come to know a different time and a different people in general who may want to volunteer here and there to do what they can for the body, but the hunger to dive deep into the ministerial gifts has grown cold.

 

I believe it is because of a lack of understanding.  There is a lack of understanding that these ministerial gifts are still very much needed in the body of Christ, maybe more now than ever before as the end times grow even nearer and the harvest is so urgent before us.

 

There is a lack of understanding of just who can posses these mysterious ministerial gifts.  We are all equal in the importance of our place in the body and regardless of what your part is, you need some or all of these ministerial gifts.

 

There is a lack of understanding of how to operate in the ministerial gifts.  The teaching in regards to these gifts has diminished greatly through the years.  I believe because many people shy away from supernatural things that they cannot explain and they are afraid of them.  They do not understand that the gifts are given to us to use and we have the ability to control them.

 

You may feel that your place in the body is so insignificant that you would never even consider praying and asking the Holy Spirit for one of these ministerial gifts, but you are wrong.  We all need one or more of these ministerial gifts so that we can fully minister as a body to the world around us.

 

We do need these ministerial gifts in our work place.

We do need these ministerial gifts in praying for our friends.

We do need these ministerial gifts when counseling others.

We do need these ministerial gifts when advising our children.

We do need these ministerial gifts when volunteering at church.

 

The Holy Spirit has given us all personal gifts for our own benefit.  Many of them you are aware of and many you are not.  We need to be strong to fight the good fight so the Holy Spirit has been abundant in giving us individual personal spiritual gifts.  But these specific gifts are for the common good.

 

Let me challenge you today to prayerfully consider where you have been placed in the body of Christ.  Then pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit to empower you with one or more of these ministerial gifts and see if your contribution to the body doesn’t flourish and prosper.  It will also become much more fulfilling as well.

 

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