How May I Serve You Today!?!?!?
I have a dream. I am not Martin Luther King Jr. ... I know.. But I have a dream too. I will get to it in a bit.
So, since I learned about spiritual gifts and discovered my own... I began to look at everything I do differently. For those of us that don’t know, spiritual gifts are blessings given by Holy Spirit when we get saved. They are kinda poppin. They are not talents. These gifts are meant to uplift others, specifically. Only one that I know of uplifts and strengthens your own spirit. They are meant to edify the body of Christ and lift it up and make it strong. For instance, I have come in contact with several people with the spiritual gift of Mercy. That one is the craziest one to see! It literally is them giving themselves to others to help them. For instance, a person with the spiritual gift of Mercy probably won’t be satisfied with sending money to feed the children... They are the ones that have to get up and go and save ALLLLL of the hungry children. They have to go bring their own food and spoon-feed those emaciated babies themselves! Ever met anyone like that?
Anyway, like I said, every single person has spiritual gifts, if they are saved. Sometimes, Satan awakens spiritual gifts and uses them for his purposes. For instance, some psychics were meant to work in the Kingdom of God as prophets and are missing their purpose because they have used their gifts in the wrong way! However, God can turn that around and use that gift for the body of Christ when Holy Spirit begins to inhabit them.
Like I said, these spiritual gifts have the purpose of edifying the church (building up the church) and glorifying God. So if a spiritual gift is not glorifying God... chances are, it wasn’t gifted by the Holy Spirit and is just a talent or something.Some people think that singing and dancing are spiritual gifts... but those are not SPIRITUAL gifts. Those are talents. Most of the time when people can sing and dance, God blessed them with those gifts before they even became saved. The gift we are looking for here is CREATIVE COMMUNICATION. A person can sing and only be glorifying themselves and building themselves up in the eyes of others. Nope. That is a talent. When someone is communicating the word of God to you in the form of a song... or when you feel like Holy Spirit is speaking to you when someone is dancing... that is the difference. This gift of communicating Holy Spirit’s wishes, desires, and love in song and dance is only given by Holy Spirit, make sense. Only people who are filled with the Spirit by accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be able to do this.
So, now that I am done with that... Back to my dream. I have a dream that our church, the young people of our church, would use their spiritual gifts in various ways of serving in the church. I have a dream that the people of our church would rise up and become who they are in Christ! My dream is that when people see our church, they are surprised that there are young people who love the Lord EVERYWHERE!! They are amazed at the vigor with which we serve and with the dedication we show to Christ and the people of God! The reason that we are equipped with these gifts is so that the body will function correctly. We NEED each other. Better yet, the entire church needs us! (You know this, I know this, We all know this).There are people in our group with gifts given by the spirit that they are satisfied with keeping to themselves!! Outrageous, right?
Someone is saying as they are reading this, “I don’t even know my spiritual gifts! How am I supposed to use them as Analise is talking about??” Well, I’m glad you asked! *Pastor Young voice* I know a lot of you think you don’t have time, but I truly suggest all of you take the Spiritual gifts sunday school class! It really changed the way I viewed myself and the way I viewed the way that God created me anew in Christ. I saw that he was intentional in EVERYTHING he did and truly equipped me with gifts that were extraordinary. I promise you, you have the same gifts! Chances are, you are using them and you don’t even realize it. I know I was! After taking the class, I had a better understanding of who I am in Christ, and also what I needed to do to use these gifts to help the body of Christ, feel me?
1 Peter 4:10
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
1 Corinthians 12:7
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
It is so important for us to use our spiritual gifts for others! So important! The bible says that the eye of the body (one spiritual gift) cannot say to the arm, “I don’t need you!” The body cannot function without all of it’s parts and I know that some of its parts are missing because we, the young people, are holding them hostage! I also see the way the bible put it in this way, the eye cannot say to the entire body, I don’t need you... and walk away... because the eye can’t even remove itself without the hand. The foot also cannot remove itself from the body without something else helping it. We all need each other!!
So why is church boring to us now? Why don’t we feel fulfilled when we go to church and get a word anymore? I feel that it might be because Holy Spirit is pulling us to be more than just Church-goers. We were never intended to just “go” to church. Jesus died for the church... Not the building, but the people who came together to do life together because of this common belief! We are supposed to BE THE CHURCH!!
As Christians, we have become satisfied and feel that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing when we simply go to church and even sunday school. Nope, we were also meant to serve where the Spirit has gifted us to serve.
If you are serving in the wrong area, you won’t be fulfilled there either! Make sure that your spiritual gifts are in line with the service you are trying to perform! For instance, if I do not possess the spiritual gift of hospitality... I am not going to be all up in the hospitality ministry. How am I going to use my gift of encouragement if I am just saying hi to people all day and nothing else?? (I mean, you definitely can find a way, and if you do, Praise God! If you are not feeling fulfilled where you are, however, try and re-evaluate where you are serving)
I realize that a lot of the ministries at church have been asking for volunteers lately, and they really want young people to be involved. They are right! We should get involved. These ministries are not just for older people, they need fresh voices as well! They need us (You know it!!) My mom always says that the same, tired people keep doing everything at our church. There are people who are coming to church, Sunday after Sunday, and don’t realize that they are not as fulfilled because they are just going through the motions and are not making themselves a PART of the body of Christ.
I once heard someone say that if we are down in the dumps and confused about where God is taking us in life, if we are really disappointed in God, if we feel like God isn’t listening to us when we pray that it might be because we are so focused on ourselves that it seems like God is doing nothing. The remedy for this is serving others! It gets the focus off self and makes us realize that God has blessed us tremendously for us to be able to help others!
I am not about to sit here and say that God won’t bless you, because I feel like that is foolishness for me to sit here and tell one of God’s beloved children that God won’t bless them because they won’t do something. HOWEVER, the Bible does say...
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. - Genesis 12:3
God blesses those who bless his people..... Hmmmm.
I promise you, God will make it possible for you to continue to bless his people. That is what he wants!
Some of us are saying that we don’t really have time. I encourage you to be honest with yourself. Our ministries don’t need any more people who are spread too thin. They need people who will be excited about using their gifts for the greater good! Prioritize and make sure that everything is in line with how God wants it to be in line. Pray about the things that are important to you and take up your time. If you feel that God is telling you to do something else, it is probably because you will be serving others in that way.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
I love quoting this verse, because I do my best to live my life this way. My ABSOLUTE BEST. And I can tell you from personal experience that God has blessed me tremendously because I have my priorities in line and I put Him and his people before EVERYTHING else. It is the most important thing! What sense does it make that I choose to do other stuff that has nothing to do with the body of Christ and serving others... and I end up in heaven with all these people who don’t know me or know that I chose other things over them when they needed me?? I am not trying to guilt anyone, this is truly my personal testimony here... But I challenge you, I challenge us all, are we putting God’s kingdom first? Are we putting his people and his righteousness first? WE are needed. Lets go out there and show them what we’ve got!
Ephesians 6:7
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,
"My Father's Liam Neeson, His children never get taken. So what I got to fear when I'm here with the Rock of Ages?" - King in Me, WLAK
Love you guys!
Lise, A4C
P.S. We will be having our first Starbucks hangout this week!! Yayyyy!! It will be held Thursday at 6:30 at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble in Renaissance. I am so excited to see everyone and to get this show on the road!! This is the perfect time to bring a friend, and just have a chill session where we get to talk to EACH OTHER about Christ! Bring ALL of your questions and concerns and comments!!! Seriously, bring your friends!!
P.P.S. If you have an idea of where you want to serve, but have no idea of getting in contact with those people... Let me know! I will be happy to help you!! Prayerfully consider all of the places you want to serve and allow the Lord to lead you!
I know of some ministries already that are in need of volunteers:
- Ushers Ministry (contact Karen, our sunday school teacher, if you don’t have her number, email back)
- Children’s Church
- Women’s Missionary Union
P.P.P.S. If you want to know some more about spiritual gifts, I can help you! (Even if I am just going to help you get in the class) Come to hang out on Thursday and we will all talk about it. I am super excited!!
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