Gifts Bestowed by Grace

Who are we to apply worldly standards to Godly gifts?

"Over time, and I believe unintentionally, we’ve created our own criteria for those who we believe can best fulfill the will of God. We’ve placed education, organizational skills, leadership experience, communication skills, and positions of influence at a higher value than full surrender to the Holy Spirit. We’re convinced that the church’s mission cannot be fulfilled without leaders with these skills and experience. This has led to a false sense of self importance and it has marginalized those that don’t fit into that box.”

This statement was written by a friend of ours and really hit home for me and my own experience within the church body. **I have attached the original post on my Embracing The Mess facebook page if you are interested in the full article.

As I was reading his post, the following scriptures were laid on my heart. They talk about the gifts God has given each of us to build up the body of Christ as we make Jesus known to every tribe and every nation.

1 Peter 4:10

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Romans 12:3-8

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

What immediately jumped out at me from these two scriptures is that our gifts are given to each of us solely based on God’s grace. This means there is nothing we could do to earn these gifts. They were gifted in perfection to us by the grace of God so it can not be denied that they are from God. These gifts can not be manifested in our human power; not by education, organizational skills, leadership experience, communication skills, or positions of influence. They can only be manifested through the power of the Holy Spirit. I have frequently thought of all God has bestowed on me through his amazing grace, but had never really given much thought to my spiritual gifts being drenched in grace.

In his writing adapted from The Gospel According to the Apostles © 2000 by John MacArthur, McArthur says, "One of the best-known definitions of grace is only three words: God's unmerited favor. A. W. Tozer expanded on that: "Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving." Berkhof is more to the point: grace is "the unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit.” https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/grace-to-you/read/articles/what-is-grace-10339.html

Our spiritual gifts are given to us in full measure by the grace of God. I like to think of it like this...It is the good pleasure of God that bestows these gifts on us with unmerited favor even when we don’t deserve them. God not only created us uniquely in His image for His good purpose, but has gifted us uniquely for His good purpose.

Our spiritual gifts are given to us to build up the body of Christ.

To bring life. Eternal life.

So I ask again, who are we to apply worldly standards to Godly gifts?

Love,

Chrissy

Part 1 of 2. To be continued….