God Equips the Church with Gifts

Photo by Antony Theobald

Scripture: Ephesians 4:11

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

Insights: There are four passages in the New Testament that discuss spiritual gifts.  Those passages are Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4.  Every one of these passages are preceded or followed by a section on love.  In other words, we are to use our spiritual gift mix in love and not personal pride.  In today’s verse we see the Lord Himself is the One who appoints the gifts people have.  In today’s verse we see it is the Lord who assigns some to be apostles.  He also calls others to be prophets.  Still He sets a part evangelists.  As if these were not enough, He also administers others to be pastors and even more to be teachers.  The point I desire to make in today’s Thoughts by Scott is God Himself is the One who gives the gifts.  To further elaborate on this concept, the gift is the Holy Spirit Himself.  He manifests Himself in these various ways, but He Himself is the gift.  Considering the Holy Spirit is the gift, we know from Ephesians 1:13-14 that all who come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit.  All believers are given the Holy Spirit and He then uses those believers to work and serve the purposes of God the Father.  There are tools out there which can be useful to help you assess what your spiritual gift mix is and I would encourage you to take those assessments.  At the same time, however, do not say something like, “I don’t have to witness because I did not receive the gift of evangelism.”  You did receive the gift of evangelism because the Holy Spirit dwells within you and He is the dispenser of the gifts.  Is it possible evangelism is not your primary gift?  The answer would be a resounding, “yes.”  But to make excuses why you can’t serve based on gift mix is ludicrous and unbiblical.  Let us serve the Lord in the way in which He equipped us and bring Him honor and glory.

Questions:

1. Do you know what your spiritual gift mix is?

2. Do you understand the Holy Spirit is the gift?

Prayer: Father, thank You for giving me the Holy Spirit and thank You for having Him manifest Himself in my life the way He does.  May I be a blessing to the body and a lost world as a result of His work in me.  Amen.