The Spiritual Gifts

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1519. Today's Devo is called the Spiritual Gifts. Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Well, happy Thursday, everybody. I don't know about you, but I love Thursdays. I think it's because we don't work on Fridays, so it's like the weekend. Woohoo. Thank God at tgif. No TGI T. Thank God it's Thursday. Okay, Gabby, stop talking. Let's move into God's word. We have been looking at the gift that is the Holy Spirit. We talked about the power of the Holy Spirit. We talked about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We examined, you know, our fruit of our life. How are we doing there? Now I want to talk about the gifts of the Spirit, which is the spiritual gifts. First Corinthians 12:4 says this. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all. In everyone, notice the Word and power is still there. Again, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. I'm reading out of the ESV today, and there's a couple of things that I'm noticing here, and I do want to say when we're talking about the gifts of the Spirit and the spiritual gifts that God chooses to give out to everyone, a lot of times in Christ, Christianity and in churches, this can get a little muddy. This can get a little controversial. What does it mean to have a spiritual gift? And what are my spiritual gifts? And you could take the test and you can almost actually get stuck at the spiritual gifts. Right? But I think there are a couple things that all of us need to know as a basic understanding of what spiritual gifts are. I don't want to get into complexities. I don't want to get into the theology. I don't really know a lot about that. I'm still figuring it out. But there are some key principles that this verse teaches us when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit. Number one, all of the gifts come from God. You see here it says there's a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit varieties of service, but the same Lord varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers. All of the gifts of the spirit come from God. It's not from us. It's not from our own ability. It's not from your personality. It's not because, oh, you lean more type A, so you're this. No, it is from the Lord. That is the first Principle number two. All of the gifts are equal. There is no greater than gift and lesser than gift. Oh, well, singing is greater than dancing, which. Dancing should be a spiritual gift. I would have it, but there is no, oh, I have this gift and I'm going to Lord my gift over you because it's greater than you. No, they're all equal in the sight of God. And then lastly, and also let me say this, they're all equal and God gives them out equally. So he does not give important people gifts. And then non important people gifts. God does not see it that way. He gives them out equally and they are all equal. And lastly, the gifts are for the building up of God's people. The gifts of God are not for manipulation. They're not to hurt somebody. They're not to expose somebody. This is where I think they get really complicated. The Word teaches you that even prophecy and, and these gifts like prophecy, right? Even speaking in tongues, all of that, they are meant to edify and build up. They are not meant to cut and bring down. They are not meant to manipulate so you can get your way. We've seen a lot of people do this in the past. And you know what? God will handle them. But for you and I, we've been given gifts that we have to remember. They are meant to build up the people around us. Prophecy, the gift of knowledge, the gift of wisdom, the gift of discernment. All of that discernment's not given to you. So you can find out what the dirt on people and God's going to give you the dirt and not get. No, no, no. It's to have discernment of. If you're picking something up, you take it to the Lord and say, God, I'm picking this up. How do I handle this? What should I do? That's true discernment. When you sense something in a brother of Christ or in a sister of Christ, and your spirit reveals that to you, you take it to the Lord and then you take it to the appropriate people. You don't just take it to the person and go and blow it up in the church. And now the church has a Massive scandal. You can't do it that way. You've got to make sure you do it with wisdom. Why? Because you want to make sure how you use that gift is used to build up that person. I think because we have the misunderstanding of the gifts are not equal, we will use our gift to hurt somebody. Because, well, I have this great gift and because God has given me this great gift, I need to use it in a way that that sets the record straight. When gifts are meant to help people, not to set the record straight. So let's use these gifts in the right way. The Holy Spirit helps people recognize that Jesus is Lord and King. Once someone believes in Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives inside of them. Right? The Spirit knows them and he helps them live for Jesus and serve him. One of the main things is the gifts of the Spirit is given to you by to serve Christ in his church. Again, it's not so we can dig up dirt. No, it's meant for his people and in his church. That's why it's so useful for us to belong to a church. Guys, we need to go to a church. We cannot be an island of our own. We need to be a part of a community. Why? Because God's given you gifts for that community. The gifts of the Spirit help believers serve one another. The Spirit decides which gift to give each person. One gift isn't better than the other. Each gift is special and important and they all come from the Holy Spirit and they will all this is what I want us to walk away from. They are all to be used to strengthen the faith of Jesus followers. If your gift is not strengthening the faith of another person, what is the faith to? The faith to believe in Jesus, the faith to hold on, and the faith to fight. If it's not adding to that, we're not using it properly. We're using it for our own advantage and not for the advantage of building up believers towards Christ. So that's what I want us to remember today. I didn't want to start reading all the gifts that. That if you want to know what the gifts are, if you want to look at each of them and even ask, you know God, which one am I? Go ahead and read. It's in First Corinthians 12. But the main principles, the main understanding is we need to know is that the gifts are from God. They're all equal and given out equally. And they are meant to build up God's people. So whatever gift you have, use it for the building up of others. Use it to edify people, use it to bless people. And you're going to see that once we do that the church will be stronger, you will be stronger, and, and the, the big C church, meaning the whole worldwide church, will be better because we're using these gifts, these equal gifts that God has given us to help one another and build each other up. Father, I just thank you for the gifts that you've given us. I thank you that you would entrust us with these spiritual gifts, Lord, that when we are are filled with your spirit. We all get these equal gifts, Lord, that you bless us with gifts to prophesy, gifts to discern, gifts of wisdom. Lord, this is such a blessing that we all get to receive. And I just pray, Lord, that you would help us use these gifts to build others up, to edify others and bless others so that we can advance your kingdom and be a stronger church here on earth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.