Power-filled Positive Thinking—Chapter 15b—Enter the bold, valiant defenders of Truth
In Christ, we as believers are the chosen, beloved, redeemed, blessed children of God-heirs of royalty who have been declared as saints and who are compelled by love to be the servants of the most High God. All of these attributes are shared by all who know Christ as their Savior. The Holy Spirit indwelling the hearts of every believer is the conformational seal of this truth. As we have been studying, the more we understand these truths and write them on our hearts with indelible ink; the more we grow in hope, faith, love and joy. These truths guide us to a life of true positive thinking. All these gifts in Christ are shared commonly; yet, there are the seven primary spiritual motivational gifts of ministry which God chose to divide amongst the saints in such a manner so as to ascertain that we would each other.
original artwork courtesy of Ronald Barba and is protected under copyright laws
No one is to stand alone in this Christian Journey. God has designed it so that we need each other to be able to stand firm in faith.
Those primary motivational gifts are all found in Christ complete as He was the only one who had all seven gifts. For we the body of believers, the seven motivational gifts have been divided. By motivational gifts, I mean what is the deep down core driving force which leads in our how we view life and situations of life. What is the unique driving force within us which first causes us to respond in the manner we do. Learning to understand those seven gifts helps us to understand our own unique responses to life’s challenges and at the same time to understand the responses of others. In the last section of this chapter, I explained in more detail the gift of service. Let us look at Romans 12 to view once more what are the 7 motivational gifts I am referring to.
“5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.”
As we already looked at service, let us know look at another of these gifts in greater depth and look at prophecy. The prophet is “the truth teller.” This is the one who feels they must express themselves immediately when they see an injustice or they sense dishonesty. Peter is the apostle who is most representative of this motivational gift. He was always quick spoken, quick to defend God’s Glory, extremely loyal, very bold, willing to suffer or even die to defend Christ, and very concerned about displaying a holy life themselves. The person with the gift of prophecy is very harsh with themselves when they recognize sin in their own life. Just as Peter after denying Christ, went back to fishing and felt he would never again feel worthy to serve Christ; so does the prophet respond to sin in his own life. (We know that Christ went back down to the shore where they had first met to lovingly let Peter know he was forgiven, he was loved, and he was redeemed for ministry.) Those with the gift of prophecy can be very persuasive, very direct when confronting what they see as sin in another’s life, and want to see immediate change or repentance. They are also willing to be broken or to see someone broken; because they recognize that often it is brokenness which drives us to our knees and closer to Christ. They recognize that trials and tribulations are merely the stepping stones to spiritual growth and maturity. They are sincere, bold, and loyal while seeing life as black and white with few, if any, shades of gray. They are very sensitive to disloyalty by others or dishonesty which will cause them to shut down or immediately walk away. They are often misunderstood as being harsh; yet, are much needed in the ministry. They are the bold and valiant defenders of the truth of Gospel, protecting the honor and Glory of Christ against false teachers. We need to recognize this gift and to embrace those with this gift with love instead of becoming defensive. When they fall down, as we all do in this pilgrimage journey, we need to quickly gather about them to remind them that they are forgiven and loved in Christ because when those with the gift of prophecy realize they have failed God—they are their own harshest critic. For that reason, if we as a body of believers don’t see that and mercifully, lovingly come to the rescue, they will be the first to fall into utter despair over their own imperfections.
Please listen to this song, Wounded Soldier by Dennis Jernigan
©2015 Effie Darlene Barba
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