Most people enjoy receiving gifts. For believers, this is also true of spiritual gifts. Now the term “spiritual gifts” has been somewhat misunderstood over the years to mean spiritual realm only with no earthly effects; when in-reality, spiritual gifts are actually gifts from the Spirit of God, which have very great earthly effects. In-fact, the gifts which the Spirit of God gives can completely transform your life, and the lives of those around you as well.
The trouble comes in when people start chasing after these gifts, as if they do not have them; and some have even been taught that the gifts are no longer active and that they are no longer being given.
What I want to share with you today in this study, is how because of the finished work of Christ, in Him you already have been given every single gift. You do not need to strive for, beg for, or plead for God to give you any gift. You do not need to sacrifice in an attempt to merit the gifts, because the sacrifice has already been given – Jesus Christ Himself.
Some time ago, I read a book detailing the difficulties in ministry. It highlighted the many challenges people are faced with in sharing their faith, as well as the pitfalls that ordained ministers face in dealing with members of their congregation. These challenges of-course are nothing new… people have always had difficulty sharing their faith with others – whether it is fear of being ridiculed, or just general shyness, or even concern about not being educated well enough to present a good discussion.
These are the concerns that people share with me repeatedly. They genuinely want to be good witnesses for Christ, but they are hindered by their perceived shortcomings – and notice that I said perceived shortcomings. Because the truth, my dear friend, is that the Bible depicts a much better scenario. Like much everything else in the Gospel, man has complicated what God has made simple. We try to inject our own reasoning and self-effort into something which Jesus effortlessly supplies to us. Today in this study, we will be examining how to have an effortlessly ministry supplied by Jesus.