Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. … All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
1 Corinthians 12:1 and 11
To efficiently work within God’s call and imparted gifts upon our life, it serves us well to remember that it is the Lord who summons and anoints. Our place is to receive, surrender, and thereby serve and minister as He has set forth. Servanthood is carried out for the purpose of God, not by our eagerness nor plans to engage in something to help God work things out.
We serve the Holy One in a personal relationship, and therein His plans are specific for each of us, and that is our personal hallmark, our unique and powerful individualism; and such is what the Lord has given to each of us. We will prosper when in His will (Jer 29:11, Ps 33:11, 40:5) and doing those things that are beyond our comprehension (Isa 55:8) and capability—yet we become fully capable when we remain humble, prayerful, and obedient to His will. Indeed, God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.
The Lord is sovereign, He administers His Spirit to anoint with gifts to work in spiritual realms (e.g., 1 Cor 12:8-10), with gifts of service and ministry (e.g., 1 Cor 12:28, Eph 4:11), and we have natural gifts (athleticism, musical and artistic talent, mathematical minds, etc.). All working together for the benefit of not only mankind, but the purposeful and good will of the Lord God Almighty. Indeed, “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” (I Cor 12:4-6).
God’s gifts are not manifest, neither is His call invoked by your own efforts, accomplishments, nor zealous practice of disciplines. His gifting and His call is breathed upon us from within His sovereign grace—it is not a matter of our effort, but from the intentional unction that wells up from the everlasting spring of His Spirit (Zech 4:6).
Blessings,
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