Do you know your place in the Kingdom of God? We are all born new in the Spirit through Christ, yes. My question though, is do you know your place? In order to be a thriving part of the Body we have to know what God intended when he was knitting us together. By “us”, for this post, I mean the individual. Thankfully thats not something God wants to hide from you. He wants you to own it and use it for His kingdom.
It’s not too difficult to look to scripture and see gifts God has given us to use to glorify him. The gifts given to us in through grace in Romans 12:6-8. The spiritual gifts that are very specifically for the church in 1 Corinthians 12. There are the gifts of the spirit as well as the gifts in Ephesians. This all so incredible. We know God has given us each our own gifts to steward and use for His goodness. Have you asked God to reveal those to you? There are so many gift tests out there which are wonderful but there is nothing that beats hearing it from your father. I also don’t want us to mistake knowing our gifts with knowing how to steward them. Knowing how to steward them will have to do with Gods call on your life.
I love having people over in my home. I love opening my door and bringing people around our couch or table to just talk. It fuels my spirit to talk with others. However, it doesn’t fuel me to cook and bake for those people walking into my house. You won’t find food fancy when you come for dinner. You’ll find it still in the pan on the stove ready for serving on our fancy paper products we buy for gatherings. I have friends who’s creativity is brought to life in serving. There is calligraphy, cute menus, a beautiful set up, it’s fun. I love walking into a home where they’ve allowed the creativity God has given them to shine. They thrive on the set up and serving others in that capactiy. Walking into a beautiful home shouldn’t cause you to question what you’re doing in yours. It should bring you joy to see a sister or brother allowing their gifts to shine. Thats not the reality is it though? The reality is, is that we often feel attacked or less than because others seem more creative, more prayerful, more prophetic, more encouraging, they just seem more.
Friends, when we see others using their gifts to encourage the Body we have a choice to make. We can choose to let our flesh win out and begin to view ourselves as less than, not as important. OR we can begin to see them as encouraging. Knowing we all have a very specific place in the body. That even if we are called to the same gifts, to steward them the exact same we, we still have our very own place for us designed by God.
Here’s the best part. By owning our own gifts, we begin to be the example to those around us. We glorify God as our creator. The one who gave us each of these to use for him. We begin to encourage the rest of the Body to step into theirs. The body functions as one.
I’m a runner, I love it. Sometimes, my legs get tired, yet I want to keep my pace up. When my dad was teaching me the basics to running form as a kid he shared something very interesting with me. He told me when my legs get tired, to pump my arms a bit faster. It triggers your body to keep up but it uses the momentum of your arms instead of depending on your legs for all of it. It’s like there is a string attached to your arms that want to pull your legs to the same pace. You can try it if you’d like. Stand up and pump your arms really fast like a runner. Can you feel the rest of your body wanting to join in? Thats what owning our gifts does for the Body of Christ. It causes those around you to want to step into theirs because knowing who we are in Christ is contagious.
Don’t be afraid to ask the Lord to reveal those gifts and lean on Holy Spirit to hear the answers. Plug into your local body so they can act as the arms for you. Let them encourage you to let your own gifts shine. Owning the gifts God has given you is not prideful unless your heart begins to find pride in those gifts instead of humility to the one who gave them to you. However, when you own those gifts in humility to our Father, the entire church begins to look a bit more like Jesus than before.
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