How to Hijack Spiritual Gifts
Or how to ensure you don't
"Lord, would you give me a gift to carry to the church today?"
I know. That's an odd thing to pray. But you may be surprised by the things that pastors pray before gathering with the church.
They range from the strange, "Please let the hose work for today's baptism." to the startling, "Please let me know if this is still my calling."
But I pray for a gift to carry to the church for a few reasons.
When I lack confidence that I can be helpful to someone that day, I find confidence in his love. Love that delights to give me the privilege of blessing others. And love for his church, that no matter what constrains me, his desire to bless the church isn't constrained at all. So I ask to carry a gift that expresses this love. Because even the gifts we have practiced for decades are not meant for us.
God gives every believer a spiritual gift for the edification of the church. That means the gifts that he placed in ours hands are carried but not owned by us.
Suppose I arrive at home with flowers for my wife and my children greet me at the door. Within seconds, they ask if they may have the joy of handing her the flowers. (Full disclosure, and in case my wife is reading this, I confess they haven’t had the opportunity to ask for some time). When I give them the gift, my children are thrilled yet are fully aware that, while they carry the flowers, it was given to them for the benefit of another. They would have misunderstood the purpose if they treated the gift as if it were something they possessed, or testified of their value to me.1
God gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers as gifts to the church. He gives us wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and faith to be exercised in the church. And we are even told that when we use these gifts out of love, whether that's the gift of prophecy and hospitality, or mercy and administration, the Spirit's presence is manifested among us (1 Cor. 12:7). What a joy to carry these gifts!
But our joy is stunted when we treat the gifts that we hold as something we possess for ourselves. When tools to identify spiritual gifts become a way to round out our identity, or is a part of our self-actualization project, where discovering our spiritual gifts is really a quest to discover more about ourselves. In other words, we make the gifts of God about us, and in doing so, hinder joy.
Of course, we may be personally edified when using our gifts, even when no one else seems to benefit from them at the time (1 Cor. 14:4). And we may even thank God for our vocation and be sanctified by it. But if we stop there, and never acknowledge the stated intended purpose of his gifts, we face two dangers.
The first is passivity. We would feel no real obligation to steward the gifts, to carry them in submission to God and the people he has given us to love. After all, why would we if the gifts are given primarily for our sake?
The second danger is pride. We assume that our gifts say more about us than the one who gave them and his love for the church who receives them. But isn’t this inevitable if our gifts exist to tell us who we are?
We hijack the spiritual gifts when we retreat with passivity or respond with pride.
But seeing ourselves as those who carry (but not own) spiritual gifts can lead to humility, hope, and wonder. Humility when we remember that we hold these gifts, not because of our merit, but because of his desire for the church. Hope when we struggle to find reasons for confidence in ourselves, but remember that all of God's reasons to bless the church are in himself. And wonder when, despite our weaknesses, we experience God's power in our craft, our sweat, our toil, and our tears.
In all these things, his gifts are a blessing, but never our boast. And praying a strange little prayer may help us remember that.
I am indebted to Tim Chester for his teaching on this and framing spiritual gifts this way.
Absolutely spot on! Very thoughtful and helpful post. Thanks for sharing Jason.