Gifts Bestowed by Grace, Part 2

Who is man to apply worldly standards to Godly gifts?

In my last blog I wrote "Our spiritual gift 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. Our spiritual gifts are given to us to build up the body of Christ. To bring life. Eternal life.”

It was based on these two scriptures:

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[a] 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 I want to talk about in this second post is specific to Romans 12:3-8. "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 do not all have the same function, but we form one body according to God’s word. I have heard this teaching many times using our physical body as an example of how each of our body parts make up one body but they do not necessarily have the same role. Simply, each member of our physical body is uniquely made to produce the whole body. Created solely by God and his design.

What I find interesting is that while we may not fully understand how our brain tells our heart to beat or our lungs to breathe without our conscious effort, we accept those organs and functions without question as vital to the function of our overall body. Vital to life. Physical life.

Do we believe with the same unquestionable faith that our spiritual gifts are given to us to build up the body of Christ. To bring life. Eternal life. That they are unique to us just as we each are created uniquely by God?

Have you ever found that within the church body some spiritual gifts are overlooked because they are not fully understood? As a Christians we need to be very careful not to marginalize the gifts of others because we don’t understand them. It is ok, if we don’t understand them, but it is not ok to stifle the gifts that God has poured out on our brother or sister in Christ.

What if we had as much faith in God’s ability to place the right people with the right gifts in the right place without a well versed resume or strategic planning? After all, we trust his ability to place the right organs with the right function in the right places within our body so that when we close our eyes at night we have perfect peace our heart will beat and our lungs will inhale and exhale.

There are many who are qualified on paper, but not qualified by Kingdom standards. There will be many who are lead by self importance rather than being led by the Holy Spirit. We easily fall into the trap of valuing status, degrees, experience over the unique gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has strategically placed within the church body to spread the message of the redemptive, saving grace of Jesus Christ to all of the world.

If we only coddle those we deem “qualified” based on our human measuring sticks, we miss the “least of these”. Those people Jesus himself declared qualified and justified through his sacrifice on the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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….