What's In Your Tool Box?

What’s in Your Tool Box?  What’s your favorite tool? 

I believe God gives us tools that we can use in our daily lives to touch the life of another person. and thereby fulfill the Great Commission we find in Matthew 28: 18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Let's look at some scriptures about Spiritual Gifts.

1. 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 Spiritual Gifts 
1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often mis-understood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit. 

4-11 God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: 

 wise counsel 
 clear understanding 
 simple trust 
 healing the sick 
 miraculous acts 
 proclamation 
 distinguishing between spirits 
 tongues 
 interpretation of tongues. 

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

2. Romans 12: 3-10 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. 

 4-6 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. 

 6-8 If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. 

 9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. 

3. Ephesians 4: 11-12 But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is, 

  He climbed the high mountain, 
  He captured the enemy and seized the booty, 
  He handed it all out in gifts to the people.

Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ's followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

So what are these scriptures telling us?  

If we look at the priesthood of the Old Testament it is different than what we see in most churches today or is it? Starting with Moses and Aaron the priesthood did the work in the temple. They did the teaching and leading. They communicated with God. The people sat, watched and listened.

If we take a serious look at the Spiritual Gifts and the instructions God gave the church in the New Testament leadership should be very different than what it was in the Old Testament.  We will find that God has chosen to take the gifts He gave to the leadership and priests and spread it among the body of Christ. Today some churches try to retain the old leadership style where the pastor is expected to do everything. But is that the model Jesus set for the church?

Let’s look at 1 Peter 4: 7-11 Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

Here are four key things for us to consider from these scriptures:

1. God has established positions of leadership in the church. Eph 4
2. God has given every member of the body Spiritual Gifts for service. 1 Cor 12
3. It is the duty of the pastor to equip and empower the body to use their Spiritual Gifts in acts of service.
4. It is your responsibility to exercise your Gift in ministry to others.

So when is a toolbox useful? What keeps us from using our Spiritual Gifts?
1. Some of us have never discovered our spiritual gift.
2. Sometimes we are afraid we will fail. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
3. Some of us have never been inspired & empowered to use them.

Keep in mind that Spiritual Gifts are not your ministry, they are the tools you use in doing ministry.  

Your pastor is called to perform the duties of leading, preaching and teaching. You have been called to do the functions of ministry. A pastor is given Spiritual Gifts just as you but his or hers are to be used in the equipping of the body to minister. Let’s face a fact, your pastor does not have every Spiritual Gift and could never minister to more than 50-80 people. In order for the body of Christ to grow both physically and spiritually ministry will need to be done by more people.

I encourage you to take the time to get with your pastor and explore what your Spiritual Gift(s) are and how you could use them in serving.

What does it take for you to open your tool box? I believe it takes FAITH or a willingness to take a RISK.

The tools in your tool box are useful only when the box is opened and the tool taken out and used.  The same is true about your Spiritual Gift(s).  I encourage you to open your tool box and use the tool or tools that the Holy Spirit has given you and help the hurting, the lost, and grow the body of Jesus Christ.  

How did God speak to you through this post?