About Spiritual Gifts
by Sarah Wooten Corinth Missionarry Baptist Church
The Lord has blessed me greatly recently. In His sovereign plan, I hurt my back. It’s been a painful week to say the least.
During this week of weakness, the Lord has provided for me through the service of other Christians.
Someone from church brought me a dinner of home-smoked BBQ, which was delicious! Others helped me get ready for upcoming church events.
I even had help loading and unloading my car.
God has abundantly provided for my physical needs through the service of my brothers and sisters in Christ for which I am so grateful.
Our local churches are beautifully knit together by God. He made us need one another.
Ultimately, we depend on God for everything – absolutely. But so often, He meets our needs through the service of Christians around us.
While I experienced that physically this week, more importantly, God does this spiritually through the spiritual gifts He has poured out upon the members of a local church.
A simple example would be to look at the teachers within a congregation.
As they teach the Word faithfully, God is using them to minister to the hearts of those who listen.
However, in the coming weeks, I hope it is clear to you that spiritual gifts aren’t only for the leadership within a local church;
God has given each member spiritual gifts for the common good of the entire body.
But here’s the thing. Without God giving the gifts, the opportunities to serve, and the ability to serve, then none of us would accomplish anything of spiritual value.
Just as salvation is solely based upon God’s grace, so also are His giving of spiritual gifts.
We see this in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. First, Paul writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (12:4, ESV).
The Spirit is shaping and molding Christians as He pours out a variety of gifts upon us in order to perform the ministry that God has prepared for us to do.
While preparation and hard work can be of great benefit, we can’t train ourselves to become spiritually gifted.
Nor are spiritual gifts based upon personality or natural abilities.
The Spirit is graciously gifting Christians with the abilities to serve.
It’s not our own doing.
Next, we learn that “there are varieties of service, but the same Lord” (12:5, ESV).
Jesus is giving the opportunities to serve, just as He modeled servanthood while He walked among us. “…the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, ESV).
As we serve others, we are mirroring what Christ has already done for us.
The spiritual gifts aren’t for the purpose of serving ourselves, but for serving the body.
We have been graced by God with gifts in order to serve and show grace to other people.
That’s how the gifts work.
Lastly, the text says that “there are varieties of [effects], but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone” (12:6, ESV).
The effects of the gifts are not attributed to man, but to God.
Or to put it another way, any fruitfulness that comes from faithfully exercising spiritual gifts should be rightly attributed to God.
If God is not at work in it, then there will be no spiritual benefit through it.
Ultimately, God is the active agent in ministry.
I have learned this week that I wouldn’t even be able to drink a glass of water without pain if it wasn’t for God’s kindness and sustaining hand towards me.
Why do we think we should receive praise and recognition from the ministry we do?
The ability, the opportunity, and the outcome of spiritual gifts is all in God’s control.
The Christian’s primary role is to walk in faithful obedience to what God is already doing.
The rest is up to God; therefore, He receives all the glory for what He is doing in the lives of His children, and we have no room to boast in ourselves.
