Think Soberly

“Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.”  Isaiah 46: 9-11. NKJV

Who doesn’t want to be strong?  Given a choice between being strong or being weak I believe the vast majority would choose strength over weakness. While we have been talking about growing stronger in our personal faith, there is a caution we all should be aware of and that is as we grow, there is always the temptation to begin to believe it is a result of our own efforts rather than acknowledging that the power we have is from God.  Simply put, it is the emotion of pride which can be our downfall by choosing to not give the glory to God and believing it is our efforts which result in our newfound strength. When talking about the gifts we receive from God, Paul had this to say about pride.

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”                     Romans 12:3. NKJV

It is my personal belief that if we choose to “think soberly”, we can avoid falling into the trap of pride and thinking we are responsible for our own growing strength.  In the passage above from Isaiah, God states plainly that He is the only one who can accurately predict the future because He is the one who created the plan, and He is the only one who has the power to execute that plan.  He has chosen to use those who trust in Him to do just that, but we need to constantly remind ourselves that it is our role to simply allow Him to work through us to accomplish it.

In the book of Daniel, we are told that God reveals His entire plan for this world to King Nebuchadnezzar, which predictably made no sense to him at all.  Thankfully God in His wisdom provided someone to explain it all to the king, (and to us as well) and this is the person we know as Daniel.  In chapter two of Daniel we find that God revealed His plan to the king by way of a dream, and then sent Daniel to interpret the dream so that he, as well as us, can know exactly what God has planned for this world.

“Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding.”          Daniel 2:20-21  NKJV

As might be expected, as ruler of the known world at that time, we will find in the book of Daniel that King Nebuchadnezzar had a rather inflated opinion of himself and his power.  To be sure, He was in fact the most powerful ruler the world had seen up to this point in time, yet as he was about to find out, nothing he had accomplished was by his own power.  The first thing God lets him know is that as powerful as he may be, his own circumstances were orchestrated by God alone, and it is by His permission that he is king.  

God decided to help prove that point by giving a dream to the king showing where the entire course of world history was destined to go, which would prove not only that God knows the future but also that He also knew the very thoughts that the king had been contemplating while lying in his bed.

“As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. “But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. “This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, “its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. “You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.        Daniel 2:29-34  NKJV

While over the years man has tried to explain the history of the world with untold numbers of books, theories, explanations, entire libraries devoted to the subject, our God manages to do so with a simple illustration of a statue made of four distinct parts, each composed of elements designed to reveal the strength and character of the kingdoms they represent.  Only God could show us the plan He has made for the course of world history from the rule of Nebuchadnezzar to the establishment of His Kingdom on earth, with such a simple illustration.

“This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. “You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; “and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. “And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. “And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. “As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.”               Daniel 2:36-43  NKJV

As I often say, one of the reasons I choose to study prophecy is the amazing, unescapable fact of prophecy already fulfilled .  At the time of his dream, Nebuchadnezzar was described by God Himself as a “king of kings”, given “power, strength, and glory”.  Yet God also makes it clear that the entire scope of world history will only entail four kingdoms, as illustrated by the statue Nebuchadnezzar sees in his dream.  History has shown this to be a true and accurate description as Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was conquered and replaced by a coalition of the Medes and Persians (the chest and arms of silver), which in turn was conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great (the stomach and thighs of bronze), which in turn was conquered by the Roman Empire (the legs of iron).  Yet, as many will tell you, the Roman Empire was never truly conquered, but rather dissolved into pieces which, territorially, still exist today.

Now what I find to be most interesting about this prophecy given by God is that today, at this point in time, the world has arrived at the last part of the statue where God chooses to describe a kingdom in terms that many find confusing if not difficult to interpret.  Much has been written about the ten toes of iron mixed with clay, and as you can imagine, there are many different interpretations to choose from.  

However, there are two very obvious facts that present themselves as we look at this picture of world history given to us by Our Father in Heaven.  Of the four kingdoms He describes for us, the most valuable was Nebuchadnezzar’s head of gold.  From then on the value of the metals decreases until we arrive at a point in time where the foundation of the statue is worth basically nothing (iron and clay).  Conversely, if you look at the relative strength of the metals you will see that the statue gets stronger as time goes by.  So the obvious conclusion we can all agree with is that God is telling us that at the time of the end, which is where most believers feel we are, His description of the world could be interpreted as strong yet worthless.  

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. [We are] hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present [us] with you. For all things [are] for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-15 NKJV

When I read this portion of scripture and considered that the strength and power we have as members of His body comes directly from God and not of our own efforts, I saw three points I believe God is sharing with us about our situation as believers in this world.

One...The Power is Gods'

Here Paul makes the point that it is all about God by referring to us as "earthen vessels", which in the Greek means a clay pot. Truthfully, it's another way of saying there is nothing special about us. A clay pot was the most basic implement of that day. It's not made of gold, silver, crystal, jewels, or anything else that might reflect some worth. Just a pot made of mud. And what does a pot do? Obviously it's made to carry something. That's it. We as believers are here to carry Gods' power, not our own, so the focus is on Him. It's not about how strong we are, or what we think we can do, but all about what God can do through us. 

Two...The Strength is Gods'

In verses 8-11 Paul makes it clear that Gods' strength will not be visible unless our weakness is. This is why so many believers are experiencing trials, troubles and struggles. It is required of us to experience these things in order for God to exhibit His strength. Notice verse 11 says "constantly"? It's a part of our life, and like Paul, we should expect these situations to occur. The good news, however, is this. Not only will Gods' strength be manifested through us, it will deliver us. We will not be crushed, despaired, forsaken, or destroyed.

Three...The Glory is Gods'

If the strength was ours, who would get the glory? We would, of course. Unfortunately that would accomplish nothing in regards to advancing the Kingdom of God. But what happens when the world sees Gods' power working in and through His church? This is how God has decided to reach out to an unbelieving world. As He reveals His power through the lives of believers, others see and believe. Paul makes the point that as we struggle and endure trials, our lives then become visible to others. Who notices people who coast through life without troubles? It's the struggles that draw peoples' attention. When people see us struggle, and see the power of God at work in our lives, they in turn are drawn to Him. When this happens, Paul says in verse 15 that the result is..."having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God."

I believe the most important fact we as believers must continually remind ourselves of is that our power comes from God and not of our own efforts. Paul makes it clear that the life of a believer will be filled with struggles and trials. This is, I know, a thought that many believers will have a hard time accepting, yet it is the means by which God has chosen to reveal His power to the world through us. We may struggle, we may be weak, yet God is stronger.  His strength is made manifest in our weakness, and He will never let us down. 

As we seek to grow stronger, and build up our spiritual muscles, we must never allow pride in what we might accomplish enter our thoughts and minds.  We make the decision to grow our spiritual muscles, but we should also "think soberly", recognizing that the results we see after that come directly from God alone.  It is all for His glory and the closer we get to the end of this age, the opportunities to glorify Him with our actions will increase dramatically as the world descends into chaos.

The signs of Jesus’ return, the labor pains He told us would occur, are happening all around us and He could call us home to be with Him at any time.  If you have never made the decision to accept this free gift of salvation, or are in any way unsure of your eternal destiny, I encourage you to pray this prayer and accept God’s promise to save you.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I believe You died for my sins. Right now, I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life to you. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me. Amen.

Keep watching.

Watch Your Fuel

“…as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”   1 Peter 2;2. NKJV

When I was in my twenties, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to rebuild and restore an old 1955 Chevrolet. As you might expect, the motor I chose to put in it was quite a bit larger than the original and slightly more powerful than really necessary.  Unfortunately for me, however, it wasn’t long after I finished it that the government began to mandate a change in the formulation of gasoline which led to the removal of lead as an additive. The result of this was immediate and profound in my car as the motor needed lead and the higher octane that came with it.  As a result, with the different kind of gas in the tank, my car began to run about as lousy as an old lawn mower.

Since we have been discussing spiritual fitness for the past few weeks, it goes without saying that as with any fitness program, you need to be cognizant of the diet you choose and the foods you eat in order to fuel your efforts.  As believers, we have a fuel tank as well, and the gas we choose to put in it will dramatically affect our performance for the body of Christ. As the passage above from Peter tells us, when we begin our journey we not only need, but should desire “milk” in order to start our growth.  Yet as we progress and gain strength in our spiritual fitness, we need to add solid food as well.

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”   Hebrews 5:13. NKJV

As I have shared before, my new fitness routine is producing very encouraging results so far, and one of the reasons is, I’m sure, the diet I have been following along with the physical effort.  I spend time every day planning the meals I will consume and especially their makeup in relation to the amounts of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates as well as the total number of calories I consume.  One of the results of this is a newfound respect for protein, and the importance it plays in everybody’s diet.  I look at it now just as I did the gasoline I chose to put in my car back in the day, trying to find balance and the perfect mixture that fuels my physical engine.

As believers, I believe it is of utmost importance that we take note of the spiritual food we consume in order to grow our spiritual muscles and begin our work as part of the body of Christ.  Yet as you would expect, not everyone pays the strict attention to their “solid food” that the Word describes in these passages and the result of not doing so will have the same effect as it would in our daily physical diet.  The phrase “senses exercised “  teaches us that as we grow in strength we should be able to discern what spiritual food is good for us and what is bad.  Just as eating the wrong foods in the wrong quantities will have a very negative effect on our physical health, the same rule applies to our spiritual diet as well. Unfortunately, the result of not paying strict attention to the makeup of our spiritual food is a body which does not function as intended and an inability to demonstrate the power it was designed for.

Because of my interest and focus on eschatology, I have spent a lot of time over the past thirty years studying and analyzing what the Bible has to say about the Church just before the end of the age, and the unfortunate conclusion I came to is that it appears to run just about as well as my car did with the wrong gas. As most are aware, Jesus uses the church at Laodicea to describe what the Church will be like as we approach the end of this age.  If we read His description of it, we find that rather than exhibiting the power it was designed for, the performance Jesus was looking for when He built it is sorely lacking. If you find that hard to believe, just look at what Jesus says about it in His letter to the Church.

"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”      Revelation 3:15-16 NKJV

Since the issue here certainly seems to be a lack of performance, my question was what were they doing wrong to put themselves in this position? Or better yet, exactly what was wrong with the gas in their tank? The answer to that may be far more simple than you think. If we look at Jesus' own words to His disciples just before He ascended to Heaven, we might get our first clue.

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."      Acts 1:8 NKJV

The power to which Jesus refers is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which He sent to us on the day of Pentecost just 10 days later. So if Jesus Himself told us that when we become believers we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and along with that gift the "power" we need to serve Him as we should, why isn't the Church "performing" as it should? The answer to that is given to us by Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Church in Rome. Notice if you will that the problem he addresses is the same, as well as his description of the reasons.

“Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”      Romans 13:11-14 RSV

You may notice that I used a different version than I usually use for this particular passage, and I did that for a particular reason. There are two parts of this passage that describes things I see happening more and more lately within the body, and I like how this particular version translates those. I want to draw your attention to the words “becomingly” and “quarreling and jealousy”. Becomingly is translated from the Greek word euschēmonōs, which simply describes the manner in which we act, or in other words what we are being told is to be sure we act as we know Jesus would want us to by exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit. 

By ignoring the importance of examining our spiritual diet in order to stay on track, we see the result is rather than focusing on serving God as an example of a people filled with the Spirit, what reveals itself is a body that begins to reflect more worldly attitudes. Two of the things described in this passage as “works of darkness” are “quarreling and jealousy”.  These two words are actually used together elsewhere in the scriptures, and it seems that it follows you can't have one without the other. The word translated as “quarreling” is eris, which is defined as contention, strife, or wrangling. “Jealousy” is translated from the Greek word zēlos, and means zeal, ardour in embracing, pursuing, defending anything. 

So if we take a step back and examine this passage in its context it appears that Paul is telling us that something we will see in the church as we approach the end is believers acting like the world by choosing to argue strongly about something or even anything rather than  demonstrating the fruits of the spirit such as gentleness, kindness, and meekness. I believe this is a direct result of not exercising our spiritual senses and consuming the “solid food” we are told to partake of. If this sounds a little strong to you, consider another place where Paul uses the same two words to describe a situation in the Corinthian church.

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual [people] but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able [to receive it], and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where [there are] envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like [mere] men?”    1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NKJV

So what Paul seems to be saying as he takes these believers to task is that if they are preoccupied with quarreling and arguing, not only are they “carnal” Christians, they can best be described as immature “babes in Christ”. I'm sure most of us understand that the actions of babies are for the most part entirely selfish in nature because at their age, they only know what they want for themselves. But as babies grow into children and then adults, they hopefully mature to the point where they begin to think of others first and consider their actions and how they might affect those around them. Unfortunately as we all know, there are always those few who refuse to grow up, choosing instead to remain selfish and self-centered.

As we see from what Paul writes, believers in the body can, unfortunately, make that same decision to remain immature in their dealings with others. Why a decision? As believers these people are just puttering along like my car did on bad gas because they choose to run on fuel without the high octane which comes from the Holy Spirit by way of diligent study of the Word of God. We as believers must not only make the decision to accept the salvation offered to us by God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, but we must also make the decision to allow the Holy Spirit to control our actions which is in essence, the process of maturity, and make the choice to carefully examine what spiritual food we consume.

To be filled with the Spirit is to receive the power to say no to self, and to say yes to obedience to Christ. We serve Him by taking in the fuel of the Word of God and letting our light shine, not by acting the same as the world. Have you asked God lately to fill your tank with more of the power for living that you need? Is your desire to study faithfully the wisdom the Bible contains and to act as a mature believer should by exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit?  All we need to do is ask, and God will give us all of the knowledge our tank can hold and we can then finish the race running as strongly as we can.

Have you made the decision to change your life direction and enter into a relationship with God? God made the choice to save us, but it is up to us to make the choice to accept it. My prayer for you today is that if you have never made the decision to believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again for you, you would choose to do it right now. Invite Jesus to come into your life and forgive your sins, and begin to experience the joy that comes from having a relationship with a living God, and the knowledge that He has promised us eternal life with Him in Heaven if we only believe.  Pray this prayer and accept the gift of eternal life God has offered you by the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

Dear Father in heaven, I believe in your son Jesus. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, that He rose up from the grave, and that my sins are forgiven.  Forgive me of my sin, help me to walk with you, and thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Keep watching.

Flexing Your Muscle

“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." Ephesians 4:7,8 NKJV

Once we make the decision as a believer to grow our spiritual muscles, the question we logically ask ourselves is what should I be doing  as a member of the body. As often as we probably hear the message to be "busy" doing Gods' work, the logical question for many might be "what should I be doing?" That question is in fact, a very good one, for it should be obvious that for the body to function effectively, we can’t all be doing the same thing. Fortunately for us, God has personally taken care of the confusion that could arise by giving to each of us a special gift, or gifts, that He intends for us to use while fulfilling the responsibilities of our service to Him.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.”   1 Corinthians 12:27-31  NKJV

Now experience has taught me that the subject of spiritual gifts can be confusing, and occasionally even the source of some controversy. Our God, however, is not a God of confusion so it stands to reason that any confusion or misunderstanding about gifts comes from man and not from God. I want to spend some time discussing what the Bible has to say about the gifts He has chosen to bestow on us, and the purpose behind His instruction on how we go about exercising those gifts.

The best way to look at the subject of spiritual gifts is to look at them the same way that God does, and that is as a picture of a human body and how it works. It may be an oversimplification, but let's imagine our physical body made up of four distinct divisions. One would be the structural system made up of the bones and muscles which support the entire body. Without it, our bodies would simply collapse so obviously it's quite important. Second would be the nervous system, by which the muscles and bones are told what to do and what direction to do it. Third would be the digestive system by which we take in the nourishment we need in order to grow and receive the energy needed to fuel the body. Last would be the circulatory system which takes the fuel we consume to the rest of the body in order to sustain life.

When we look at these verses in Ephesians we see that Paul divides the gifts of the body of Christ into two distinct ministries. The first we could call the support ministries, and the second would be the working ministries. Look closely at the following verses. 

“And He Himself gave some [to be] apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”   Ephesians 4:11,12 NKJV

You can see that Paul states there are four specific gifts given to some individuals solely for the purpose of "equipping" other saints for their specific work of ministry. Let's look at these four gifts in light of the four "systems" of the body we have already mentioned.

These verses describing the gifts seem to correspond directly the picture of the body we have already painted with its four distinct divisions. The first gift listed is that of “apostles”, whose job it was to lay the foundation or the support structure upon which the body of Christ would be built. Second are the “prophets”, who were the individuals who spoke by inspiration of God, revealing His words to men. You could compare this to the nervous system of the body which tells the structural system what to do. The third gift Paul tells us is the gift of “evangelists”, which is how the body of Christ grows larger. You could look at this as the digestive system in our bodies where all that we need in order to grow is stored for distribution resulting in the growth of the body. Last is the gift of “pastors and teachers”. In the Greek, this is actually a phrase, so Paul is using two words to describe one gift. We can see where this gift is like our circulatory system which we have already described as giving life to the body by circulating the nourishment we need in order to remain healthy.

These "supporting" gifts are the foundation of the heath and effectiveness of the body of Christ. Without them, the body would collapse and be unable to perform the work for which it was intended. Paul makes it clear that God chooses which gifts to bestow on certain people; therefore He chooses those to whom He wishes to place the responsibilities of gifts supporting the body. 

Unfortunately, many might look at this picture and ask "what more is needed"? But remember I said there are two divisions in the body. There are the "support" ministries which we have discussed here, and then there are the 'working" ministries. In order for the body to perform effectively, there is a division of responsibilities that many seem to miss when discussing spiritual gifts. You could look at the support ministries and think they would be able to do everything necessary, but this is not what Paul has described. Look closely at verse 12.

“for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” 

The support gifts are for the purpose of preparing the "saints" for their work.

“And He Himself gave some [to be] apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”   Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

After the support ministries, Paul now introduces us to what we call the working ministries. There are several lists of gifts to be found in the New Testament, each not quite complete, so we will put them all together and see what we find. What we find are as follows; wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, helps, administration, exhortation, and tongues. To help us understand each of these better, I thought I would list each separately below with their Greek definitions and usages from the Strongs concordance.

wisdom-"sophia"... wisdom, broad and full of intelligence; used of the knowledge of very diverse matters

knowledge-"gnōsis"...knowledge signifies in general intelligence, understanding

faith-"pistis"...the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ

healing-"iama"...a means of healing, remedy, medicine

miracles-"dynamis"...strength power, ability

prophecy-"prophēteia"...a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; esp. by foretelling future events

discernment-"diakrisis"...a distinguishing, discerning, judging 

helps-"antilēmpsis"...in NT, to aid, help

administration-"kybernēsis"...a governing, government

exhortation-"paraklēsis"...a calling near, summons, (esp. for help) importation, supplication, entreaty exhortation, admonition, encouragement

tongues-"glōssa"...the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations

I think it reasonable to assume that some of these definitions surprise you, for when it comes to teaching about the gifts, there is plenty of disagreement within the body as to their meaning, uses, and even necessity. However, if we examine the context in which Paul writes about the gifts, we can see that controversy and misunderstanding is nothing new. In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul goes out of his way to say a lot about their use, and misuse, even going as far as to list them in order of their importance. All this obviously in response to some in the church believing and teaching that certain gifts were more desirable than others, and which could also then be regarded as an indicator of personal status within the body.

Paul addresses these problems in the course of three whole chapters, which we find in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapters 12-14. In these three chapters I believe Paul makes at least three main points.

The first is that it is God who chooses what our spiritual gift is to be, and not us.

“But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”   1 Corinthians 12:11 NKJV 

All too often we find those in the body trying to tell us what our gift should be, rather than encouraging us to look for and accept whatever gift it is that God has chosen for us. The point Paul makes here is that it is not we who choose our gift, but rather it is God who chooses to give us the gift He feels we need to perform the work He has chosen for us within the body.

The second is that the parts of the body, each with its own gift, must work in harmony with the others.

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also [is] Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.”   1 Corinthians 12:12-14 NKJV

Paul now has to spend the rest of chapter 12 explaining that the body is made up of many individuals, and while all do not have the same gift, each is just as important as the next. Paul makes the point that in order for the body to work effectively, each part must perform the function it was designed for if we are to accomplish the responsibility of reaching an unbelieving world for Christ.

Third Paul tells us we can desire the greater gifts.

“But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.”   1 Corinthians 12:31 NKJV

Now there are two words in this verse that explain exactly what Paul is trying to tell us, and those are "desire" and "best". Desire in the Greek is "zēloō" which means "to desire earnestly, pursue", and best in the Greek is "kreittōn" which means "more useful, more serviceable, more advantageous". Now if we look at all the lists Paul gives us, it is the "equipping" gifts we talked about which are always listed first. What Paul is saying here is that although we should not seek to have a gift which God has not given us, it is perfectly alright to "pursue" the equipping gifts.

How is that you ask? It should be clear that the equipping gifts are given as a result of spiritual maturity and come after a believer has proven himself worthy by study and application of his faith. New believers do not, and should not, try to teach other believers in the body the day after they make a decision for Christ. I believe what Paul is saying here is that if you apply yourself to attain growth and maturity, God may choose to reward anyone with the serving gifts one of the greater gifts in order to equip other believers for their service for God.

The bottom line is this; are you using your gift? If so, are you striving to grow in order to receive one of the equipping gifts? As members of the body, Paul makes it clear that the life of a believer is a life of doing.  As always, though, in order to experience this life we must first choose to become part of the body of Christ. If you are reading this and have never made the decision to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and accept the free gift of eternal life He has offered you, I urge you to do so right now. You can do that by praying this prayer and accepting the gift of eternal life God has offered you by the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

Father, I know I am a sinner in need of salvation. I believe you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin, and I ask you now to forgive me of my sins. I want to receive your gift of salvation so please come into my heart and help me to live and follow you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen. 

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