This Week’s Personal Action Step
What are the gifted areas of my life? Take an online spiritual gift inventory to begin to see how you are gifted by the Spirit with spiritual gifts.
If you know how you are gifted, are you using your gifts for the sake of our Lord and others? If not, why not?
This Week’s Group Action Step
The leaders in each group should share what their gifts are and how they are using them.
FEBRUARY 1 - THE SPIRIT EMPOWERS YOU
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Sometimes we think the Spirit gives us power. He does not. He ‘is’ the power. We do not get His power apart from Him. He is the One who gifts us and shows us the spiritual fruit we should exhibit. He empowers us to use our gifts and show the fruit of the Spirit. In those moments when we are using our Spiritual gifts or the fruit of the Spirit for the sake of others, it is evident in our lives that we are imitating Christ, who had all gifts and exhibited all spiritual fruit. ‘Whoever has seen Me, has seen the Father’. John 14:9.
Being empowered by God is not for us, but for us to use for the sake of others in our lives. We do have joy when we are using our gifts and are being the person God has made us to be. Our actions and attitudes which are Christ-like toward others are obvious when we are using our spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit is evident. We are the ‘witnesses’, the ‘forth-tellers’. Those, who by their actions and attitudes and words express who He is and how He loves. We hope you see this week that God through His Holy Spirit has empowered you. You can make a difference in the lives of others.
FEBRUARY 2 - EMPOWERED BY GOD TO GIVE
I Corinthians 12:4-8 “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.”
Spiritual gifts from the Spirit are for the body. They are not for us. But for us to use for the sake of others…the common good. Gifts are not for us to bring attention to ourselves, but for the sake of others and how we all work as a body, together to bring glory to Him. This whole chapter 12 shows how Jesus has enabled us to work together, but in different ways. There are a variety of gifts, a variety of services, and a variety of activities… but all from the same God who empowers them all in everyone, and all for the common good.
How has God, through His Holy Spirit gifted you? Are you using the gifts He has given you? If you do not know what your gifts are, or it has been a while since you asked that question of yourself, why not take a survey which will help reveal how God has gifted you?
FEBRUARY 3 - GIVE YOUR GIFTS IN LOVE
I Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
Gifts are to be used in love. Each of our gifts are to be exercised in a loving manner. It will not matter much to someone if you can explain something well, but are not kind and loving. Also, we do not use gifts to lord over one another. How many times though, have you been more like a clanging cymbal? Without love, your gifts are just noise to those who see or hear you. Your lack of love gets in the way of them seeing just who Christ is by looking at one of His followers. Do you exhibit His gifts in such a way that He is portrayed well or is obnoxious? (Might it even be considered “clangy”!)
One of the best ways to know this is to ask Him to show you. Mean it when you ask Him. Say this, “Jesus, show me where I am getting in the way of people seeing You in me because of my poor attitude or actions. Show me where I am a noisy, clanging cymbal. Help me to be more loving as I use my gifts.
FEBRUARY 4 - EXIBITING THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRT
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,”
The spiritual gifts, which we discussed the last two days, are given based on how God desires for you to use them in your life for the sake of others. Each of us get a different ‘gift blending’. However, the ‘fruit’ of the spirit is for all followers to have, grow in, and show. Each of us should increase in how this ‘fruit’ grows in our lives. None of us as followers are exempt from these fruits of the Spirit, because the same Spirit lives in each of us. We are empowered by Him to show them. The old joke, “I must have been absent the day God gave out ‘patience’”, is not true in any disciple’s life. You may lack patience, or kindness, or self-control…but that is not God’s fault. All fruit is available to you if you are His. The reason you may exhibit a lack of fruit is that you are immature in that area, and need to grow. That may be hard to hear, but it is true. None of us are 100% perfect in showing these to others. We all need to grow to look more like Christ each day. He exhibited them all perfectly.
Ask Him which ones you need to grow in. You probably already know. If you don’t know, ask your spouse or a close friend. Don’t push back when you hear the answer, but, be ready to pray that you will change.
FEBRUARY 5 - HUMBLY USE YOUR GIFTS
Romans 12:3-8 “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
1 Corinthians 12:14-20 “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”
These two portions of scripture are similar. No part of the body of Christ is more or less important than the other parts. One section talks about not thinking too highly of yourself and the other not thinking too lowly of yourself…based on the gifts God has given you.
So much of life is about being ‘more’ or ‘less’ than someone else. Having more or less. Being taller or shorter. Faster or slower. An ‘A’ student or a ‘C’ student. In all these things God is looking at how He has gifted us for the sake of others, and for them to see Him. His giftings are not to be looked at the way the world looks at things. Don’t compare. Comparison kills the joy of doing ministry and the joy that we receive with it.