Gifted-Not Spiritual!

When we hear of the failure of a well known Christian, we are perplexed and wonder why and how it happened.

When someone well known is mentioned on the six o’clock news and their failure is spread across the T.V screens and newspapers, we are shocked and mourn for them, which is as it should be. We should also go to prayer for them, whether or not the story being told is true.

If what we’re hearing has actually happened, we’re shocked because the newness of the revelation has caught us unprepared. However, in truth we are usually hearing about it, not unlike cancer, in its late stages. Rarely does a story emerge about an individual in the germinating phase of their failure. That person doubtless had been pursuing the course of action and going down that road for years. We are just finding it out.

Though we often hear the term, “Falling into sin” it’s a misnomer in many ways, for these falls almost always take time. It is unfortunate that these things happen in the Kingdom of God because when one Christian stumbles all of us are wounded by it. But Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians helps us to better understand that God has put his rich treasure of Grace and power into earthen vessels.

Paul writes; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” 2 Cor.4:7

What a sobering and humbling thought.

Again, Paul is reminding us in this verse that there is a human element that we all constantly contend with. One Bible translation of the above verse says;

“We have this treasure in Jars of Clay.”

While there is no question about the reality of the powerful treasure we are given, scripture reminds us that the containers of this marvelous power are only clay.

Let me share with you a concept that might sound strange: gifted not spiritual. Does it sound like an oxymoron to hear the words in the same sentence? Does the idea of an individual exercising a Gift such as the Gifts of Healing, or the Gift of Faith or Prophesy, and not be what God calls a” Spiritual person” seem crazy? How could such a thing be true?

In 1 Corinthians 3:1 the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church,

“I could not write unto you as Spiritual but as unto carnal”.

You certainly couldn’t accuse this Corinthian church of not exercising the gifts for they possessed them and they were certainly in use. However, according to Paul they were “not spiritual.” Having made that statement, let’s chase it for a bit and see just what Paul meant.

IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE GIFTS GOD GAVE THE EARLY CHURCH ARE AVAILABLE TODAY.

Romans 11:29 makes it clear that:

The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

Meaning when God in His sovereignty gives the gifts, He does not revoke them. Since the gifts were given to the early church, his promise was that they wouldn’t be withdrawn. Moreover, these gifts can’t, as some have supposed, have ended with the Apostles for they were never called the Gifts of the Apostles, but rather were the “Gifts of the Spirit.”

Certainly we know the Holy Spirit hasn’t died, so we can rightly say that Gods gifts are still resident within the Church. Many theologians, through a process of dispensations, like a mailman sorting mail, arbitrarily place the gifts in the dispensation where they feel they belong; unfortunately not the one you and I live in. This seems convenient but is dead wrong.

However it’s important to remember, and this confuses folk; just because a person uses one of the spiritual gifts doesn’t mean that individual is spiritually mature or for that matter their lives are pleasing to God. What it does mean, clear and simple, is that God by divine fiat has chosen to use that person. No gift or the exercise of that gift marks a person as “someone special.”

THE GIFT TELLS LITTLE ABOUT THE ONE WHO HAS IT, BUT RATHER TELLS US ABOUT THE ONE WHO GAVE IT.

If someone gave me a $500,000 Bentley and I drove it around arrogantly, it would make me look foolish because the car would say nothing about me; rather it would speak of the person who gifted me.

The following story is rather lengthy but I believe it sheds much light on the subject before us.

In the mid-seventies, I went to conduct a revival in a church in Florida. When I arrived the people were still buzzing with excitement about the evangelist who had ministered for them a few months earlier. This man, whom I had met briefly earlier that year, was used in The Gift of the Word of Knowledge. He had the ability to give folk knowledge about themselves that only they and their doctor or those close to them could possibly know. He didn’t preach much, once in awhile he’d have a message but he was very clear with the people; “I don’t preach sermons like other preachers.” This was always fine with the folk who came and the revival he conducted in this particular church went on for seven weeks. The Pastor showed me the check book where this man’s checks had been written to him nightly (he couldn’t wait until the end of the week to be paid as most other preachers do.)

I was stunned to see that the checks he received were hundreds, sometimes thousands each and every night. I certainly didn’t begrudge this minister the money he received but it was far more than most churches that size could normally pay an Evangelist. This man would come to the service each night and when introduced, he would begin bringing people up to the platform and giving them information about themselves he obviously couldn’t have known.

During the mid-seventies, he was a sensation everywhere he went. He wasn’t always correct about people. There were nights he didn’t seem to “have it” and everyone understood but the fact of the matter was that he was right on target much of the time. Remember Paul said;—We prophesy in part—and even Paul himself acknowledged- we see through a glass darkly.

After the first service of my meeting in this church, one of the church leaders came up to me and asked, “Brother, Is that all you do?” I was a little confused and asked what he meant. He asked again if that was “all I did.” I answered that what I do each night, unless God led me otherwise, was to sing my songs, preach the Word of God and expect signs to follow and have people Saved, Healed and Blessed. I continued to tell the brother that I always preached the Word and when the Word was preached we could expect exciting signs to follow. Just as in Bible days, “signs and wonders follow the believers." While some do, I never felt led of God to advertise myself as a specialist. If the manifestation of a “gift” was what the people expected of me, they would be disappointed if the gift wasn’t evident in each & every service, therefore presenting a temptation to “try to force the gift to operate & therefore try to achieve what God isn’t doing.” This seemed to be what their last evangelist was doing.

Also, some of the things God showed me about particular folk in the church had a negative side & were better presented within the context of a sermon, therefore taking the “personal sting” out of the revelation. If God prompted me to do it more openly, I would as always have a keen listening ear.

MULTIPLE GIFTS RESIDENT IN ONE PERSON NOT UNUSUAL

In 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Paul mentions several gifts that Timothy should be exercising. He says,

“Preach the word”—Be instant in season & out of season”---
“reprove, rebuke, exhort,”---
“With all longsuffering--- & doctrine.”

Several gifts of the spirit or a “gift-mix” are contained in that short passage. Many times within one sermon there can be a stretch of five minutes or more of pure prophesy embedded in the message for those with ears to hear. But the good brother didn’t try to hide his disappointment over the fact that preaching & singing was for the most part “all I did.”

During that week I met several other nice folk who had been so enraptured by their former Evangelist’s ministry that they could hardly speak of anything else. Since the Pastor had been an old friend of mine I tactfully questioned him about the effects this Evangelist had on his church. I quickly discerned that almost anything I said was construed to be jealousy on my part of that Evangelist’s ministry. I was there for two weeks and immensely enjoyed it. At the close of the meetings, my offering wasn’t as much as the former evangelist was given however the folk did give generously and my needs were more than met. We had, I felt a very well attended, successful series of meetings and a lot happened during those days. The Pastor and the people were happy and invited me back soon. After I left, I said very little about the experience to anyone figuring anything I said might be construed as “sour grapes.”

I left that town troubled in my spirit, for there was something I knew about this Evangelist that I hadn’t mentioned. That information was not exactly unknown among the ministers I knew either, but really was old news, not of much significance. I knew from unimpeachable sources that this man, a few years back had been discovered in a motel with another man and two women who weren’t their wives, having a drunken party. The reason this knowledge wasn’t all that important was that he had confessed it all and was, as far as I knew, in right standing now with God, his wife, and fellow ministers.

From time to time after that meeting in Florida, I would hear stories about the evangelist most of them centering on his lengthy, successful, lucrative revivals. I knew that in some places he had to rent u-haul trucks to take away from the cities all the things people lavished on him. Because he had this gift operating in his ministry, nothing else seemed to be important and pockets turned inside out for him everywhere he went. Some folk would be so enamored with this man they gave him just about everything they had. I also knew that some emptied their bank account and their church stepped in and paid their household bills after the meetings. All I could do was just ponder these things in my heart, and though they troubled me, put them aside & move on.

Thirteen years went by. One day I turned on my T.V and to my horror, saw this evangelist on one of the major Christian talk shows laughing & talking with the host. I was floored and said to my wife “This is the beginning of the end for him,” calling the name of the T.V host, who also was an old friend of mine. I knew there was nothing I could have told him that the host of that show didn’t already know so I had no alternative but to stare dumbfounded into the T.V.

In a few weeks the T.V host was exposed for an affair and his  life and ministry were turned upside down,  all conveniently arranged by this evangelist. Not long afterward, the evangelist was driving a cab in a southern city and hit the news because he was arrested on two DUIs within a short time.Some time back he died of complications of AIDS.

Now, can I say that this man wasn’t using a true gift of God? No! I could not, nor would not! In all probability he was exercising a spiritual gift that God had at one time bestowed on him, for remember, those gifts aren’t taken back by God. Obviously he had no spiritual fruit but many times we suspend our search for spiritual fruit feeling we’ll be called “critical.”

THIS DOESN’T REFLECT ON THE REALITY OF THE GIFTS

What I’m saying here might make some feel uncomfortable feeling it reflects on the magnificent gifts of God. But think about it this way; while it’s extremely hurtful to God and the body of Christ to have a preacher or any Christian to fall and turn away from what they know is real, if a preacher who preaches a strong the Salvation message backslides, it isn’t a reflection on the Salvation message. What has gone wrong is the failure of that individual and nothing more. What we must teach is that we need to see the fruit of any person’s life before we can know whether or not that person is in sync with spiritual reality.

In Matthew 7; 21; Jesus said “NOT EVERY ONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME LORD LORD SHALL INTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS HEAVEN. MANY WILL SAY UNTO ME IN THAT DAY, LORD LORD HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED IN THY NAME? AND HAVE WE NOT CAST OUT DEVILS? AND IN THY NAME DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? AND THEN I WILL PROFESS ONTO THEM I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME YE THAT WORK INIQUITY.”

Think about that. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘No, you never did any of those things." He just says -"depart from me, I never knew you.” What I am saying here isn’t meant as a negative regarding the Gifts of the Spirit but rather it’s a call for understanding and balance. We get so carried away with a gift and the person who uses it that we can forget that it tells little about the user of the gift but the giver of it, and doesn’t assure that the user of the gift is in right standing with the giver.

If a preacher who was known to not believe gifts are operative in our day were to say these things, folk would automatically reject it feeling that what he said was biased. However I was raised in churches that believe in these gifts as do I. The Bible never says “by their gifts shall ye know them” but rather;

“by their fruits shall ye know them.”

CHARISMA WITHOUT CHARACTER IS DANGEROUS

Unfortunately we often turn that around backwards and say “by their gifts shall ye know them,” which is obviously in error. Charisma without Character is very dangerous and folk fitting that description consistently do damage to the body of Christ.

I personally have known men who were either in jail or preaching. As soon as they are let out of jail they will go somewhere and start a church and believe me it will grow, right up until the time they go to jail again. I have no ax to grind with the preachers; the real problem isn’t with them as much as the people who will blindly follow them without checking the fruit of their life.

Yes the miraculous signs are real and should follow all believers. Think about this; in the early church the miraculous signs were for the unbeliever; sadly today all kinds of supernatural signs are needed to get many Christians interested.

The answer is to stop elevating people because of a spiritual gift for certainly we know if they are using it rightly they will not try to elevate themselves.

New Christians especially should be taught not to be hyper- critical, but to be on guard against being led by someone whose life doesn’t please God. It is always helpful to remember also that when any individual speaks a Word into our lives that has anything to do with direction for our life, it should always be a confirmation of God is already saying to us. When God wants to give us direction, he will speak to our own hearts through his word or through promptings in our spirit. Anything said to us through another person, if it’s God, will square with what we’ve already been shown by God’s spirit.


If God wants you to go to Africa as a missionary, He’s not going to go to sister Snikelfritz and tell her to tell you-He’ll tell you himself

There’s a wonderful discourse on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. , and, in the last verse Paul tells of a more excellent way. The next chapter, 1 Cor. 13 is of course the love chapter. It’s interesting that chapter twelve is the POWER chapter, thirteen is the LOVE chapter and if you read chapter fourteen you’ll find it’s the SOUND MIND chapter. Remember Paul told young Timothy,

“God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

I think it no accident that God has sandwiched the love chapter between twelve, the power chapter enumerating the available gifts, and fourteen, the sound mind chapter exhorting how the gifts are to be used. After all, what good are we if we can raise the dead and have no love? If I have enough faith to move mountains and no love, then I might just throw the mountain in someone else’s path. Paul tells these Corinthians that he can’t call them spiritual even though they are gifted because they are seeking after men instead of realizing God gets all the glory for what any of us accomplishes.

JOHN DID NO MIRACLES

There’s a fantastic fact in the John 10:41 that really amazes me. John the Baptist did no miracle, however Jesus said of John in Matthew 11:11…

“no greater man was born of women than John.”

Isn’t that amazing; here is Christ, the miracle worker, calling John, a man who didn’t perform a single miracle not only great but he says -- "no greater man was ever born of woman." This statement is emblematic of the fact that Jesus doesn’t equate greatness with the miraculous. We should never be followers of men just because of their gifts, but on the other hand always be appreciative of the magnificent supernatural gifts God has placed within his church.

There are two ways God can work where man is concerned; He can work IN us or He can work THROUGH us. He has worked through donkeys, birds, fish, wooden rods, and rocks among other things. God however can’t work IN anything but yielded, submitted Christians. Much of Samson’s life God was only working THROUGH him not IN HIM. Our prayer should be;

"WORK IN ME, IN MY HEART & SOUL SO THAT I MIGHT EACH DAY GROW MORE & MORE-UNTO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST.

BUT DON’T WORK THROUGH ME TO ACCOMPLISH THINGS MEN WOULD CALL GREAT, IF MY OWN HEART IS TO BE LEFT ADRIFT IN A SPIRITUAL DESERT, BEREFT OF SPIRITUAL JOY AND POWER, NEVER FEASTING ON THE MANNA I’M DISPENSING TO OTHERS.”


Blessings


John