Spiritual Gifts are Divine Investments in You: Be Accountable

     There are many things wrong with the church today just as there have been many things wrong with it throughout the centuries since Jesus came to establish it.  In some places the churches are not true to the teaching of the Scriptures. They have imposed their own views of God’s program, will, and nature on the Bible. They pick and choose the part they want to believe and cast aside the others.

In other places, the churches have lost their vision for mission and evangelism.  All their energies are expended in caring for their own members.  Their horizon reaches only to the back pews of their own buildings. They behave as though Jesus had died only for them, or as though men and women are going to heaven regard less of what they believe.

The others things visibly hurting the church are divisions that stem from racial bigotry, heresies that grow out of Biblical ignorance, personality cults that celebrate human achievement, compromise with pagan valves in sexual and marital matters. All these give the church a clinical rating that ranks with some of the sickest persons in an intensive care ward.  These problems weaken the church’s mission, but what debilitates the church more is the neglect of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. The situation in thousands of assemblies and gatherings is literally tragic. It is sad, despite Christ’s strong warning.  Matthew 25:14-30 speak specifically to the tragedy that God’s people suffer when they do not make the most of the gifts that God has given them. The story is in the parable of the talents whose familiar theme is found in the text;

1)      the tragedy of abused accountability;

2)      the tragedy of missed opportunity;  and

3)      the tragedy of lost joy.

No account of the discovery and cultivation of our spiritual gifts can be complete if we fail to note the damage done when those gifts are neglected.  The people in the parable are one key to its message: a master and three servants. That relationship speaks of accountability. Servants must answer to their master in all details of their life and work. We make a great mistake when we mix our role with God’s; He sets the term of our work. He is in all things the Master, our task is not to make the rules, but to obey by saying “yes” to the rules He has already made.

Jesus began His parable thus: “For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one he gave five talents, to another two to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. “(Matt. 25:14-15).  Who decides who would get the five, the two and the one? The master, of course, only he knew that servants well enough to determine how much property each of them had ability to handle. There was no squabble among them, no elbowing each other for the largest share, no badgering the master for an extra talent. They recognized his right to decide. They had no property of their own, nor any power to acquire it. Their share was determined by His grace and by that grace alone. We are accountable to the Master’s grace.

The master’s grace placed them under obligation to make the best possible response. What they had not earned or deserved had been put in their trust, their only acceptable answer was to use it well. The Master of the Church gives these gifts of the Spirit to the Body as expressions of His grace. We do not chose which gifts we receive or how many. These matters are up to Him. Most importantly, we cannot chose not to use what He has given us.

There is a purpose why He lavished His grace upon us. This fact is made clear in the master’s rebuke of the servants who had hid his own talent (matt 25:276-27). It tells us that God’s grace in our lives is counted as an investment. It is not just to be conserved. That was the wretched servant’s mistake. He did not realize that grace is a seed to be planted for further growth. He did not understand that God’s blessings are not for hoarding, but for multiplying as we put them to work in the lives of others.

That servant could not plead ignorance. He knew precisely how demanding the master was. But he misapplied the knowledge that he had. He was defensive, not aggressive. He took no risks in using the master’s grace and, in so doing, took the greatest risk of all; he neglected his accountability to the master’s purpose.

The gifts of God’s, Holy Spirit are precious and true. And the Lord of the Church demandingly wants them treated as such. They are not like gold to be stored in Fort Knox, nor like Rembrandts’ paintings to be hung in a well-guarded museum. They are fuel to be converted into spiritual power, they are ore to be refined into useful tools, and they are seedlings which will grow into fruitful trees.

The grace of God granted this servant was an opportunity to expand and grow as a person; he missed all that because he was fearful and unduly cautious. God gives more, when we use well what we have.  Part of the servant’s tragedy was that he missed his opportunity for greater blessings. The Master’s command was harsh; “Take the talent” he said “from him, and give it him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matt 25:28-29).

The greatest responsibilities, the larger privilege, the expanded service, the enhanced growth, all of these chances were missed because the servant misread his master’s instructions. Sadly he lost the chance he had; so his single talent had to be forfeited.  Unused gifts may lead to disqualification from God’s service. Who dare take lightly any spiritual gift bestowed upon us by the risen Lord Jesus.  He is Lord of all. Wisdom demands that we discover what gifts God has given us and to diligently use them in full submission to Him. It is not about doing things for God or being active, busy and involved.  Rather it is about letting God do things through us. Let us not cripple the Church and turn the body of Christ into losers because the Holy Spirit gifts have not been put to work for God’s purpose. Joy follows when we purposefully use our spiritual gifts in service for Him. Let us therefore, walk humbly before our God and be accountable to Him for the spiritual gifts we have received so far.

The Christian Life is a Spiritual Walk

     The Christian life is a spiritual walk; it is not about a new religion or religious experience.  The new creation we have become is unlike the person whose end is to live in the world.  A person who is living in the world, would embrace Christ as Saviour, but lives in pleasure and puts earthly pursuits above that of the Lord, and sinks his life into acquiring name, fame and money (1 John 2:15-17; 2 Peter 2, 18, 20).  This is walking in the flesh.
     Human wisdom and strength are useless in spiritual endeavors (John 3:6; John 15:5).  The desire to make a name for oneself is carnal and antagonistic to the Spirit of God.  All these are a contradiction to the Spirit of Christ.  Therefore, these are a preference, an attempt to make a good appearance on the outside while the inside is corrupt.  The Christian life is beauty from within and radiant reflection of Christ outside.
     This person possesses a divine life and is capable of making God visible on the earth and ruling the planet with divine authority.  As a Christian, one has been given God's uncreated life.  As such, one is not called to live by "a Christian code of ethics".  Instead one is called to live God's life.  When a person lives by God's life, that person would possess divine impulses, instincts, promptings, senses and tendencies.  This would yield to the person the secret of growing up with the Head, who is Christ (Ephesians 4:15).  When collectively as a Body we live by the Lord's life, the character of Jesus begins to take shape within (Galatians 4:19).  In the words of Detrick Bonhoeffer, "Jesus calls men not to a new religion, but to a new life." (John 10:10; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 5:11-12).
     God's mind is that humanity would share His life.  He wanted us to live in union with Himself and express His goodness in the earth.  That is what the Tree of the Lord offered.  Hence, Frank Viola, warned that when we strive to be "good Christians we are eating from the wrong tree. " Living by 'right and wrong' is not Christianity.  It is old covenant living and its very human, certainly not spiritual.
     By contrast the Christian life is to live by the energy and direction of divine life which dwells in us.  It is to depend upon the living Christ rather than upon one's knowledge of good and evil; right and wrong.  Thus, the man who partakes of the divine nature lives by the indwelling Christ rather than by ourselves (2 Peter 1:9).
    Having been transformed into a new creation in Christ, one who walks in the Spirit is largely delivered from idolatrous abominations and Protestant misconceptions of Scriptures, and brought again to own in simplicity to the headship of Christ, the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the assembly of God's people and the authority of the written Word over the conscience of all who call upon the name of the Lord.
     These believers consciously seek to avoid losing sight of the tremendous importance of walking in the Spirit in living, fully realized fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, to whose peerless name God would gather all His own.  Their Christian walk or life points always to Christ in them, the hope of their glory.  They are creations in Him, walking in the Spirit.

T. Cyprian Kia

Leading in Christ

In the real world where God is acknowledged and obeyed, every Christian is a leader. The difference is in the sphere of influence. In our mixed and twisted world the ongoing thing is to emphasize and promote one individual to the exclusion of others in the collective.

When the focus on one individual is considered to be the best, the leadership potentials of the other individuals in the collective are neglected and undermined in the process. This means that their interest, possible growth, and development are not given the necessary attention and encouragement to enable them to be all they could be as leaders.

The emphasis would be to recognize the leadership potential in every individual and encourage them to take advantage of the opportunities before them to develop to their fullest potential and attain to their full sphere of influence. Simply put, it means that every individual is to be encouraged to grow to the full limit of their potential and not to be forced to exceed it. This is because, when an individual exceeds the limit of their ability, they would become a liability to themselves and to those around them. This effect is appropriately described in the management circles as Peter’s principle.

The Biblical example of this truth that you should work within the limit of your ability is found in the parable of the talents and minas, as told in the Gospel of (Matthew 28:14-25); Luke 19:11-17). Every person was given the opportunity to grow and develop to the very limit of their ability. They were all encouraged to act and given the resources to attain to their full potential. Failure was only due to their neglect to take advantage of the opportunities given to them.

Everyone was assigned to what they were able to handle. The failure was due to personal neglect when they had the opportunity but failed to take it. Everyone was given what they could handle, nothing more or less. Romans describes this principle as the measure of grace (Romans 12:3-8).

The chance to grow and be fully developed to the limit of your personal ability is what is inherent in the divine distribution of the gifts of the Spirit (Eph. 4:1-14; I. Cor. 12:1-11), in the Body of Christ. When every believer is encouraged to be focused on using their gift or gifts to the best of their abilities in influencing others for the good of the Kingdom of God , the world would be better off in the end.

Although we are leaders with various levels of influence, we submit to one another as good team players and contribute our part in obedience to the leadership of Christ our sovereign Master. No Christian leader should consider himself or herself better than those who follow him or her (Deut. 17:18-20).

Moses: Prisoner to the Will of the Spirit

The New Testament shows us clearly that the Lord Jesus wants us to take the low place of slaves. We have no choice in the matter. We cannot decide not to be slaves if we really want to be disciples of Jesus. Slavery is a self-emptying and humbling position. This is what it takes to be a prisoner of Jesus and of being imprisoned to the will of the Spirit.
“Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22). This man Moses, ordained and predestined by God to deliver His people from Egypt’s bondage, was laid in an ark or basket of bulrushes and carried by the current of the river right close to Pharoah’s palace. There he was taken in and raised as Pharoah’s own grandson, taught in their finest school, trained to lead the armies of Egypt, and his name went abroad throughout the land as a great orator and a great warrior. None of the children of Israel in Goshen had the ability, nor the background, nor the knowledge to do the job as well as Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage.
Moses tried but failed miserably, the same way we all have failed to bear fruit and conquer sin. He found, just as we all do to our utter dismay, that his own strength was pitifully weak in comparison with the task that must be done. This was all in the plan of God, for after He had proved that the greatest of the great was insufficient for the job, then He sent His chosen servant into the wilderness to be stripped of his strength and ability, to die to his own will and knowledge and desires.
In his own efforts Moses had slain one of the enemy and had hidden his body in the sand. That decaying, stinking thing hidden in the earth was a testimony that it was not the deliverance God’ people were after and needed. Many ministries have cracked under the strain, and many of God’s people have become disillusioned at this high pressure type of thing, as men have tried to rise up and stay the enemy before they themselves had come under the wilderness stripping and discipline of the Spirit. With what rest and what ease Moses lifted up his rod and delivered God’s people and destroyed the might of Egypt, once God had brought Moses into submission. This is the work God is doing today with His true ministry.
The answer is not in the few sheep Moses fed in the wilderness or how fat and productive he could make them. The purpose of God during that forty years was in that man, that ordained and chosen one in the process of God’s dealings. He realized now that the answer is not in him, in his strength or ability. He must hear the voice of God, and he will not move until this comes. Forty years of discipline—all this time the weight of Israel’s burdens pressed down upon his heart, and their cries for deliverance were continually in his ears. There is travail in his soul that finally brought him to a face- to-face meeting with God at the burning bush.
When God finally spoke to this man to go forth and bring deliverance to His people, this Moses confessed his weakness and inability to God and declared that he could not even speak properly and needed someone to do his talking. What a stripping of his own strength! What a binding of his own freedom! At last God had a prisoner who could only move at His word. Then he was ready to bring deliverance to the nation. Now God was ready to entrust him with the greatest power and authority that had ever been possessed or used by man.: “that the excellency of the power may be of God not of him” (2 Corinthians 4:7-12).

Peter: Prisoner to the Will of the Spirit

In the last chapter of John, just before His ascension, Jesus spoke these words to Peter: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest, but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee wither thou wouldest not” (John 21:18).

In our youth and immaturity (spiritually) the Lord permits many things in us that He later strips from us as we become more mature in the Spirit. One of these is the freedom of our own choices. When we were young, like Peter, we girded ourselves with our armor and went forth to battle, walking wherever we desired. Wherever we saw an opportunity to do a good work for God, we got involved and engaged. There was a freedom granted to us, and God graciously blessed and anointed our efforts as we prayed and sought His help.

If we pastored, He blessed and gave increase. If we decided to go on the evangelistic field, He blessed and anointed and gave us souls. If we decided to teach, He blessed and gave us revelation of His Word. Though we sought for His guidance and tried to be led of the Spirit, there was not that absolute binding to the perfect will of God and the voice of the Spirit. This was in our strength, our youth and immaturity.

With growth and maturity there came a discipline of the Spirit bringing us into submission to His perfect will. Sometimes, because of the strength of our wills or stubbornness and hardness of our own spirits, there comes affliction and tribulation to weaken our own flesh in order to make us submit to His purpose in us. Paul prayed three times for deliverance from a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, but God would not deliver him. In effect He told Paul that He was doing this to keep him weak. For the Lord said, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Peter found that, as he grew older in the Lord, there was to be no more of the walking “where thou wouldst.” Rather, there was to be a binding of his own strength, and his girding would come from another, and he would be carried to destinations determined by someone else. This is a mark of maturity. There is a work of the Spirit now going on to bring us to a place of absolute imprisonment to the direct guidance and will of the Spirit. What a glorious confinement!

Just to know that I am bound up in His divine purposes, regardless of what He chooses to do with me and to me, is a privilege worth accepting. It is a difficult and tortuous path at times, until we recognize who our Jailer really is. We fret and worry when we think we are bound by our circumstances, or by our associates, or by the devil. Those who are called into the high calling of God need to come to the realization Who controls their destiny, so that they can come into a REST, and submit to His workings and dealings in their lives. Like Paul and Peter and those other heroes of faith, we are prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ.