As
I sat and listened to the speaker, my mind wandered and I started to worry what
others might think about what he was sharing. On the World Race we have
experienced dozens and dozens of different ways people worship God, see God,
express God, share about God, and so on.
There
are also many strong opinions and beliefs that are shared. So many times I felt
trapped in the middle. Have you ever felt torn? There are extremes
too. For example, there are those people who live in the prophetic, and then
there are the people who speak directly from the written words of scripture.
Both are so good but rarely are both appreciated or accepted.
People usually agree there has to be a balance. Yes, I agree. But God is also
an extremist. Those prophets in the OT were pretty extreme individuals as they
lived out God’s calling in their lives. He did not create everyone to be
even keel. I can’t tell you how many conversations, arguments, and conflicts
that happened on the World Race about the wrongs and rights, the good and bad.
Honestly I tried to stay out of it; maybe more than I should have.
It
always hurt my heart though when people who were both so passionate about Jesus
would only focus on their differences and try to make the other person agree
with them.
I
think it comes down to maturity and godly wisdom. We can stress the gifts of
the Spirit. But you know, God gives those as a gift; nothing we have done
entitles us to them. That means we can have these awesome gifts from God, but still can be
really immature about using them. We need to mature in the using the gifts God gives us.
That is one of the reasons we have the fruit of the Spirit! Let me explain. If
you have the gift of teaching, it is allowing God to teach through you, exercising the gift hopefully through the fruit of the Spirit
(love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so on). You could be an excellent
teacher but if you do not teach out of fruit of the Spirit then it could be way
more harmful than helpful.
But
of course we are going to start off immature. We have the ability to misuse the
gifts God has given us. So instead of judging that person and putting the label
on all those who have that gift as “nuts”, how about showing them
grace and praying that God would mature them! It helps to remember that
God does not need us. He does not need us to be perfect in what we do, but He
uses us because He loves us, and teaches us by our mess-ups.
So
in my worry, God stopped me. Instead of worrying about what people are
thinking, I will rejoice in how God has made us differently, and ask Him to
mature us all in the gifts that He has freely and graciously given us. I want
the gifts God has given me to be manifested through the fruit of the Spirit He
also gives. I want others to rejoice and appreciate all the wonderful gifts
others have and see the limitless possibilities God can do even through the
extremist. I want to remember we are one body not hundreds of bodies.
God has more ways to glorify Himself than we can imagine, let’s rejoice and not let
different gifts and their expression cause a split.
Images from Google
“What
I mean is this: One of you says, I follow Paul; another, I follow
Apollos; another, I follow Cephas; still another, I follow Christ. Is
Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of
Paul?” 1 Corinthians 1:12-13
“Jesus answered, The work of God is this:
to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29
“If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all
mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-2
