Focus: Charismatic Gifts (Pt.3)

Text: 1Cor.12:7

"Each person is given something to do that shows who God is."

No one is exempt from manifesting a gift of the Spirit, provided that the person has a connection to the Spirit by way of spiritual rebirth and baptism in the Holy Spirit. Everyone born of the Spirit and indwelt by the Spirit has a gift to manifest for the benefit of the church.

Where is your spiritual gift? Do you even know your gift? Who is benefiting from your spiritual gifts? Are you an asset or a liability in the church? Are you letting God pass through you to others? Paul says to Timothy, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou STIR UP the gift of God, which is IN thee by the putting on of my hands" (2Tim.1:6). The word for 'gift' is charisma in the Greek. This charismatic gift can be imparted from one person to another by laying on of hands. Paul by the prompting of the Spirit laid hands on Timothy, and he received a gift. Now Paul is telling him to stir up that gift - to rekindle or reignite it.

God has given each person something to do that shows who God is.

Peter says, "If any man SPEAK, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man MINISTER, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (1Pet.4:10). Paul says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether PROPHECY, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or MINISTRY, let us wait on our ministering: or he that TEACHETH, on teaching; Or he that EXHORTETH, on exhortation: he that GIVETH, let him do it with simplicity; he that RULETH, with diligence; he that SHEWETH MERCY, with cheerfulness" (Rom.12:6-8).

If indeed you have the Spirit living in you, find your gift and use it. Be that channel through which the supernatural presence of the Spirit can be felt, seen and touched by other believers! Another has said that "the purpose of spiritual gifts is to make the presence of the Holy Spirit appear in meetings of the churches." The world around us needs to encounter through the church the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. God is counting on you for this divinely orchestrated encounter.

You are God's medium of manifestation, His vehicle of vision, and His instrument of illumination.

The gifts are diverse, and the diversity is divinely engineered, and by these supernatural gifts in manifestation the church rises above mere technical or mechanical worship, and by them the church will experience dynamic worship. Paul declares that "the church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence" (Eph.1:23). 

I really pray that God opens our eyes to see the glorious destiny of the church in the world. The church has a monopoly on the supernatural of God in this world. Through us God's glory is unveiled to the world. Through us God will fill the earth with His glory. Get your unction and function with it! Use your gift!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter