Power through gifts

The Bible says that God is in the work of transforming His people to be like Jesus. However, this is not intended to produce clones. We are not the same and sameness is not His intention. In producing Christ-likeness, there is a sense of being united in love yet Christians have distinct personalities, interests, and ways of doing thing. This is because the Lord intends unity in diversity to make His Spirit and His life evident in the entire church. While He does not ignore our differences, our greatest power is in the life He gives us:

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63)

The life of the Holy Spirit is made evident in several ways. Spiritual fruit is one example. No matter how different my personality is from the Christian next door, both of us can demonstrate the love, peace and joy of God.

Another example is spiritual gifts, but instead of being similar (like the fruit) our spiritual gifts bring out different aspects of what God is like and His power. From the list in Romans 12, it can be seen how He motivates some to be leaders, teachers, discerning prophets, servers, etc. Each of us can have all these motivations at times, but one or two are dominant and that makes us different from each other yet still like Him.

Another way the Spirit gifts His people is for service with whatever is needed at the moment. These vary as does their timing and usefulness, but all are from the Holy Spirit and all are for the common good:

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–12)

In this way, the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to a needy world. He does it collectively through the church for a full picture even though this requires individual cooperation. As Tozer says, “There is no divine incoming until there is the human emptying.” I cannot be filled with the Spirit and demonstrate what Jesus is like unless I am first emptied of myself. Otherwise, when people look at me, they see only me (the old fleshy nature) instead of getting even the smallest glimpse of what God is like.

The process is simple and simply stated:

“Trust in the Lord with all my heart, and do not lean on my own understanding. In all my ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight my paths. Be not wise in my own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to my flesh and refreshment to my bones. (Proverbs 3:5–8 personalized)  

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Jesus, each day is filled with choices. Will I trust You or go my own way? Will I turn to You and follow You as You direct my paths? Will I allow Your Spirit to fill me and gift me and use me? Or will I do my own thing? To me, being part of what You are doing in this world is greater than anything else I could put on my to-do list, yet I realize that I cannot make up Your to-do list and need to trust You with all my heart.

Out of darkness into light

Spiritual blindness is a terrible thing. Those with physical blindness at least know that they cannot see, but the spiritually blind person has no sense of being in the dark.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

How can a spiritually blind person receive sight? Chambers says that the lost must call out to God, but how can they do that if they are blind to their need to do that?

As for me, I know what that blindness is like. I also know that God does the work of bringing light into the life of those in the dark. Out of habit and my mother’s example, I read the Bible for seventeen years, but I could not understand it and nothing changed. It was only after a great failure and much guilt that I became hungry for relief, but had no idea what that would look like or where it would come from.

I began to wonder about life after death and started reading a book about reincarnation (a false teaching). When I read a verse of Scripture in that book, Jesus Christ came into my living room and into my life. At once, the darkness was gone and the Light of the world lifted the sorrow and guilt from my heart. Prior to that time, if I heard the gospel, I do not remember it, but that day, I knew what it was.

Chambers says the Gospel creates a sense of need of the Gospel and that we have to hear it to know we need it. He also says we must ask because “God cannot give until a man asks.” If that were true, I would not be here. It is in Him that I live and breathe — He gave me life and spiritual life without any request on my part. He did His work in my heart and mind without me even knowing that I needed it. Redemption did not depend on my asking for it, but on His amazing grace.

Chambers also says people might be interested if we preach our own experiences, but this will not awaken any sense of need. He adds, “It is never personal testimony that saves men” using what Jesus said in John 6:63: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”

However, this needs more thought. For one thing, in those days they did not have the New Testament. Nothing Jesus said was as yet recorded, yet people who personally did not hear Him speak were being saved. The disciples repeated His words and gave their own words to tell truth from God and thousands believed.

As God spoke to His holy men and they recorded the truth He gave them, the New Testament was formed and later ratified as the Word of God. While most agree that the canon of Scripture is closed and not to be added to or subtracted from, the Holy Spirit still speaks. Jesus said the Spirit would come and convince people of their sin, their need for righteousness, and of the judgment to come. This is how those in the dark realize they are sinners.

The Holy Spirit also bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). While we need to test the spirits and not go off on some sort of “God told me” tangent, the Bible assures Christians that God will guide us in all of life through the nudges and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

That said, God can also speak through other people in their testimony, a parable, an illustration, and even events both awesome and tragic. He uses His Word to give life, yet Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63)

In this verse, “words” is rhema in Greek, not logos. Logos is the revelation of God, the Word of God, whereas rhema is that which God utters for the need of the moment. Both are necessary. Some read Scripture and are never saved. Without the Spirit to speak into the minds that He created, I would never have been convinced of my need for Him. He used rhema to make sense of logos, and through that personalized voice in my heart, I became a Christian.

The Bible says that “He chose me in Him before the foundation of the world, that I should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4, personalized). It also says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9).

From start to finish, God did it and God still does all of it.