Part 4. The Holy Spirit is the giver of God’s Gifts to us. They are meant to be part of our lives, but do we forget why? What are the Gifts of the Spirit really for? The Spirit gives by His design and with specific intent. We need a change of heart to see the Gifts return.
http://www.audiomack.com/embed4/chrismackinnon/the-spirit-of-gifts
This should be my last post on the topic of searching for one’s self. Of course, in relation to all of the self-help books, recordings, and seminars, and what seems to me as the obvious struggle to discover who we are and what we’re supposed to be doing, these posts are really just a drop in the bucket. (And you never know when it’ll resurface here.)
Think back to the post 2, where we talked about three traps that we fall into when it comes discovering and becoming who we are meant to be. We talked about how we get stuck by, (1) what we think we should be on account of the input we are constantly receiving, (3) what others think we should be, and (3) what we want others to think about us, true or not.
There’s one other perspective that we haven’t talked about yet that may have come to mind when you read this list. It’s the topic of this post, and you might be surprised by what gets unpacked here.
For those of you who don’t know me personally, reading is one of my favorite activities. I know, it seems weird to call sitting around holding onto a pile of pages as an activity. Still, there are few things I get more personal joy from.I’ve been meaning to beginning picking up books by Malcolm Gladwell, and a friend recently lent a couple to me. Tonight I started his first book, Blink (Back Bay Books, 2007). The subtitle reads: The power of thinking without thinking. As a pastor, or as a Christian in general, I couldn’t help but find myself intrigued by the title and its implications. I’ve only just finished the introduction, but I think that I’ll be pleased with the rest of the material.
There is one quick thought I`ve had while putting the book down for the night, one that I think might be a new concept to some, and confirmation to others.
We’ve started a discussion about how our we get confused when it comes to our spiritual gifts. The people around us often identify the skills we’ve acquired in life, whether for work or personal use, to be our spiritual gifts.
We mentioned that one reason this happens is because those evaluating or examining us, trying to figure out our gifts, often do so by first comparing our abilities to their own and those around us. If we stand out in an area, we must be gifted there. There is another filter that those close to us make use of, and that’s my topic for this post.
Do you remember the excitement of the discover of what you were meant to do? In ministry we call it the divine call. All of us, though, through our talents, passions and other factors, are designed by God to fulfill a particular purpose. Most of us won’t get the opportunity to fulfill that purpose as our livelihood, but we can all come to the place where we get to aplly our gifts towards a holy passion in our hearts.
Over the past six weeks I’ve found myself on a journey of rediscovery. While I tend to read an awful lot and have a tendency toward learning that way, I’ve been exposed to some video teachings that have caused me to pause and reflect, leaving the books I’ve been reading lying around the house, unopened for days at a time.
One of the topics I’ve been chewing on is one that I had wanted to write about in the past. I had several thoughts going through my mind then and couldn’t really figure out how to go about it. Now I think I’m ready to tackle it. That topic is Spiritual Gifts.
Chris MacKinnon 