Were You Skipped When God Gave Spiritual Gifts?

Recently I've been going through Beth Moore's lecture study on the Spirit called Breath. Something really resounded with me in the latest lecture.

Do you feel like you were skipped when God passed out spiritual gifts? Let me tell you right now that if you are a child of God, meaning you have been saved through Jesus Christ, you have been given at least one spiritual gift.

How do I know this to be true? When you were saved, God put a deposit of Himself in you called the Holy Spirit. And, we are each given a manifestation of this Spirit in us.

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Notice it says that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one. Manifest means to make evident or embodiment. There has been some sort of gift given to you to make the Spirit in you evident.

Often we might deny we have a Spiritual gift because we don't like the one we were given. Or, maybe we haven't actively discovered the gift within us.

Beth Moore says this about spiritual gifts: "Your spiritual gift was given to you but it is not for you."

This is supported in the First Corinthians scripture above. Notice it says that the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Is this your common good? Nope. Our spiritual gifts are to be used in the Body of Christ, the church.

Starting in verse 12 of the same chapter of First Corinthians as is quoted above is the discussion of the Body of Christ. The body analogy is used to show that if one part is lacking then the whole body suffers. Thus, we are not supporting the common good of our fellow Christians.

So, I will conclude by telling you that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you weren't skipped over when God gave spiritual gifts. You and I are responsible for using our gifts for the good of our other brothers and sisters in Christ and they are equally responsible to us.

Do we dare ask the Spirit to fill us with the power we need to use our gifts? What could God do with a Christian who is yielded to the Spirit and using the gifts to glorify God?

I do believe that Acts 2 finds a rag-tag group of people being filled with the Spirit who went on to turn the world upside down.