God's gift to you

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.” [NLT, Eph 4:11]

Perhaps the secret to truly loving and respecting one another in a Christian community lies in the verse above.

The straightforward rendition of this spiritual truth in the New Living Translation is loaded with significance to me. The gifts that Christ has given to the church are people functioning in their unique spiritual giftings as the Holy Spirit so anoints them.

I think many of our struggles in relating to one another would not even take root in the first place, if we had sanctified eyes to see one another as God’s gift to us.

As an apostle challenges you to step out of the bondage of your comfort zone and break new ground, he is God’s gift to you.

As a prophet exposes the sin in your life, he is God’s gift to you.

As an evangelist preaches Jesus as the only way to the Father, he is God’s gift to you.

As a teacher expounds the riches of the Word of God and challenges your myopic perspective, he is God’s gift to you.

Why did Christ in His wisdom give the church gifts in the form of people functioning in their giftings? After all, there are many different ways to bless the church. Why through people and their ministries?

First of all, He is teaching us to discern His greatness and power in the lives of others. In order to really receive His gifts for us, we have to look to our brothers and sisters and see Him at work in the lives of others.

Do you have eyes to see God’s gifts flowing in someone?

Secondly – and this I think is truly important – we have to learn to submit to the God-anointed ministry of others, in order to receive His gifts for us. Want the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace won’t be downloaded into our lives. Try submitting to the word of the prophet who expresses God’s conviction of sin in your life first. Want to be on the cutting edge of God’s work and break new ground? Submit to the call of God as expressed through the apostolic leader. Want understanding and revelation? Be humble enough to sit at the feet of an anointed teacher and discipline yourself to study Scripture.

Are you humble enough to submit to the ministry of others wholeheartedly, as a gift to you from heaven?

In other words, the gifts of God are not abstract ideas that will fall from heaven into our lives. They are brought to us via the ministry of other people. But first, we must discern their giftedness and submit to their ministry.

What could possibly hinder us from receiving the fullness of God’s gifts to us, is when we take offence at the ministry style of the very ones whom God has chosen to bless us, or even reject their message altogether. When that happens, we are effectively rejecting the gift that Christ is bringing to us.

An apostolic leader under the anointing of the Holy Spirit is likely to offend many through his challenge to the church to make a radical and costly commitment to take the gospel to the ends of the world, instead of being contented with shepherding and caring for local believers only.

A prophet speaking under the anointing of the Holy Spirit is likely to severely disturb the status quo as he exposes the sin, carnality and compromises that may have contaminated the institutional church and its systems and processes.

A pastor caring for someone as the Holy Spirit anoints him may have to speak a strong word of rebuke and correction to someone who has strayed from the truth, instead of merely feeding your vanity with words that you want to hear.

May we have sanctified eyes to see the giftedness of others, humble hearts to submit to their ministry, and open hands to receive God’s gifts to us.