Tag: Gifts

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Are we missing leadership gifts?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages. ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Apostle Paul, in an object lesson, compared the body of Christ, the Church, to a functioning human body. Each part has its unique abilities and each is necessary. Within this illustration, Paul lists the equivalent “parts” that God has appointed for the leadership structure of the Church. Although we are not given any specifics on how the Church functions in day to day operations. And, we are not given any specific polity on how the Church should run corporately. We are given a leadership model.

I have come to realize that the governing of the body is not nearly as important as the people who God has gifted to lead it. Although this is frustrating at times, I understand that it had to be designed this way to survive and thrive through centuries of global and local changes that culture would inevitably face. Our “modern” Churches are no longer similar to the way it looked in the first century Church.

Paul does however list the kinds of gifts as a reflection of Church officers. He even writes that these are just “some” of them. Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, leaders and those who speak in tongues. Paul highlights that these are important gifts in the body of Christ. Does your church have apostles or prophets? I am still not sure where our modern day apostles are, nor prophets for that matter! There are so many times, I wish there were clearer apostolic leaders in the big “C” Church.

RANT WARNING!

We have such denominational factions that I can’t see us agreeing on who those folks would be. Was Billy Graham one of them? Would men like Tim Keller be considered an apostle? Both men were certainly highly qualified and carried the authority as an apostle. The Greek just defines apostle as a commissioned messenger, one sent on a mission. It seems we have had these among us, yet would not define them as apostles.

Are denominational leaders automatically deemed apostles, even though they don’t all agree on minor details of theology? I find it completely fascinating that Paul lists some of the more powerful, supernatural gifts as necessities in the body of Christ! And yet, there are many denominations that don’t believe these gifts are still in operation today. Miracles, healing and tongues are so divisive that many churches just ignore them – or worse, teach that they are demonic if practiced today. It seems our ignorance of truth and wisdom paired with our legalistic pharisee-ism is still as destructive today as it was in the first century Church!

Paul does not apologetically encourage these gifts, he declares them as acceptable and helpful to the Churches. It is not stated, but I often wonder if the churches in Rome even accepted or agreed with the churches in Corinth? Yes, Paul’s letters to the Corinthian churches are extravagantly different than his other letters. Yet Paul wrote to Timothy, Senior Pastor and later Bishop at Ephesus, “all scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, correction, conviction and training. This includes the letters to Corinth!

As Paul concludes this illustration about the body, he introduces a powerful cliffhanger with these thoughts, “So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.“ And boy oh boy does Paul tells us about the way of Love! The same Apostle who gave us 1 Corinthians 13 also gave us Corinthians 12 & 14. We can’t just choose what scriptures we like and ignore the ones we don’t like! I believe we are missing some gifts in the body of Christ. We probably ran them out of churches because we didn’t know how to humbly submit, nor how to yield control.

Prayer

Dad,
After reading several places where leadership gifts are listed, I aways wondered what happened to some of them. It seems the Church has settled for just pastor/teacher. I think we are missing out and that we need all the help we can get! My prayer is that we continue to lean into your word, obeying it and set our denominational and/or pre-conceived beliefs aside. Your Word is truth! Amen.

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How did Jesus know?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” ‭‭Mark‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Mark’s gospel captures the moment when Jesus heals a man who was paralyzed and was carried to Jesus breaking through the roof of Peter’s mother-in-law’s house. Jesus addressed the most critical need of this man first, saying, “your sins are forgiven.” This was shocking to everyone who was there. It is still shocking today. But some teachers of the law criticized Jesus in their own minds. Mark tells us, Jesus knew what they were thinking. Stop right there.

Jesus not only knew what the paralyzed man needed most, he also knew what the religious leaders were thinking! Was this a guess? Was Jesus just “reading the room”? Jesus answered their thoughts and verbally responded to them! This isn’t the first time this happened. It is often noted that Jesus knew the thoughts of those around him. Yet, in some cases, like the woman with a genetic blood disorder, Jesus had no idea who touched his prayer tassel? What’s going on?

Here’s the question; how did Jesus know the thoughts of those around him? If our answer is, “oh, that’s easy, Jesus is God, therefore of course he knows the thoughts of others.” But the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus laid those abilities down as a human being, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Phil 2:6-7. Did Jesus “know” out of his divinity or his humanity? The reason I ask, “how did Jesus know”, is because I believe Jesus wanted his followers to do the same kinds of miracles he did. Jesus sent them out to heal the sick and kick out demons. Would his disciples need to know the thoughts of others too? Could they? There is very little written about this from Bible Commentaries and I get it – it feels sketchy to even think about it, like it’s extra-Biblical and should not be talked about. I do not want to theologically wander outside of scriptural lines at all. But I have always wondered if Jesus, being fully human and fully God did not humanly, lean on the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit in situations like this.

Clearly, we are told that the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus (Luke 3:22) and he was also full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1). And, Jesus also his disciples to receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). So it makes sense that Jesus was simply modeling something he expected his disciples to follow in, namely, to depend on both the leading and power of the Holy Spirit. Paul does write about discernment as a spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians 12:10 – a form of God’s wisdom and knowledge in distinguishing between good and evil. This is just one of my constant curiosities as we learn to be a disciple and make a disciple. Can we know? Should we know?

Prayer

Dad,
You are fully aware of those moments in my life that you have asked me to step out in faith to speak or do something specific to help someone who is hurting or in need. In those moments, I believe that I “knew” things that would be impossible to know on my own. The problem was that I had to figure out a way to say it without being religious or weird. I generally asked if what I was hearing was something they were dealing with. While my heart was pounding out of my chest, I would proceed with caution. It was terrifying to step out in faith in those moments, but I was obedient. Nowadays, there has been so much nonsense and hurt in these areas of “speaking words” over or with people, that I just have a harder time being obedient. Now, as an “older” Pastor, I want to be more “careful,” and that makes it even more difficult to discern and be obedient. Help us, God! Help us be completely dependent on your Holy Spirit and still be able to serve those who need you!

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Are you using your gift?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭4‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I don’t think the early church was quite as shocked as the modern church that the Apostle Paul would write about these Spirit enabled gifts (grk: charis) to the church in Corinth. Corinth was the wild-child city in those days. Wealthy, cocky, well educated and oh so hip and cool with all the latest cultural advances. The believers had come from deep greek roots that included all kinds of multi-god or pantheistic practices. There is more “Spirit-talk” packed into Corinthians than all the other Pauline epistles! If it wasn’t for 1 Cor 13, I think most would like to ignore the teachings all together! There’s plenty of mentions of speaking in tongues and other mysterious movements of the Spirit. Sad that many of today’s pastors and teachers, dismiss these words from Paul saying, “the gifts” died with the last living apostle. God’s ways have always been above ours and even seem strange to us – He is full of mystery.

Paul lists the nine helpful graces to be distributed to EVERY believer – “each of us.” Do an internet search, you’ll find many that only list seven! Chickens they are!

Here they are: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, extraordinary faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues.

The more “charismatic” gifts are often watered down to almost being useless and the two missing from most lists are of course, speaking and interpreting tongues. Why would people mess with God’s word by diluting it or removing it altogether? They’re not comfortable with things they can’t control! I believe these gifts are helpful to the body of Christ as well as helpful in sharing the gospel with those who are not believers in Jesus!

You may be scared off by abuses and misinformation, but you would be missing the amazing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives TODAY. Plus, the Spirit of God is not about chaos but order. By dismissing the work of the Spirit today, you would be denying miracles and supernatural works of God. And to call the work of the Holy Spirit, as it is written in the New Testament, a work of the Devil… well that’s just blasphemy! We need MORE, not LESS of the Holy Spirit’s power, grace and transforming work today more than ever!

Prayer

Dad,
I could not deny the Holy Spirit and the work that’s been done in my life. I cannot deny the gifts given to help us live the life of faith, to help us love and serve those who do not believe in you. I need to yield more, not less. I need to lean in and towards, not away from the moving of the Spirit. Breath on us, our country, our planet once again. Bring yet another revolution to raise up those who come to you, return to you.