Tuesday December 22nd, 2020
Memorize: 1 Corinthians 12:11 New Living Translations (NLT)
« It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. »
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 Good News Translations (GNT)
12 Christ is like a single body, which has many parts;
it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts.
13 In the same way, all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles,
whether slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit,
and we have all been given the one Spirit to drink.
14 For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts.
15 If the foot were to say,
“Because I am not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,”
that would not keep it from being a part of the body.
16 And if the ear were to say,
“Because I am not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,”
that would not keep it from being a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were just an eye, how could it hear?
And if it were only an ear, how could it smell?
18 As it is, however, God put every different part in the body just as he wanted it to be.
19 There would not be a body if it were all only one part!
20 As it is, there are many parts but one body.
21 So then, the eye cannot say to the hand,
“I don’t need you!”
Nor can the head say to the feet, “Well, I don’t need you!”
22 On the contrary, we cannot do without the parts of the body that seem to be weaker;
23 and those parts that we think aren’t worth very much are the ones which we treat with greater care;
while the parts of the body which don’t look very nice are treated with special modesty,
24 which the more beautiful parts do not need.
God himself has put the body together in such a way as to give greater honor to those parts that need it.
25 And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another.
26 If one part of the body suffers,
all the other parts suffer with it;
if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.
27 All of you are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it.
28 In the church God has put all in place: in the first place apostles, in the second place prophets, and in the third place teachers;
then those who perform miracles, followed by those who are given the power to heal or to help others or to direct them or to speak in strange tongues.
29 They are not all apostles or prophets or teachers.
Not everyone has the power to work miracles
30 or to heal diseases or to speak in strange tongues or to explain what is said.
Message:
There are many people in ministry today who are going off track because they are operating in areas wherein they were not called.
Some, out of personal ambition, are operating in callings that are not theirs while others are innocently operating in the wrong callings out of concern.
Having a burden about something or seeing a need does not automatically translate to a calling.
« Whoever enters an athletic competition wins the prize only when playing by the rules. »
2 Timothy 2:5 GWT
According to the above Bible verse, anyone who does things outside the will of the Master will be disqualified.
Everyone who God has called is scored by Him.
If what you are doing is outside Gods calling for your life, no matter how good you are in that calling or ministry, it is regarded as irrelevant.
Paul was greatly burdened by how the Jews were walking outside the will of God. He kept preaching to them, yet they kept persecuting him. The greatest persecutions he got were from Jews because God was trying to point him in the direction of his main calling – the Gentiles first, then to kings and then to the children of Israel (Acts 9:15).
Had he not been so persecuted by the Jews, he would not have been able to take the gospel to as many gentiles as he did. Thank God that in Acts 18:5-6 , he finally decided to leave the Jews and go to the gentiles to whom he was primarily sent.
God call people for a reason and if everyone were to leave their calling to attend to someone else’s, there would be trouble.
Imagine someone who is called to cause a great evangelical revival being so burdened about leadership in the nation that he distracts himself by contesting elections.
Imagine what would happen if the one who is to find the cure to incurable diseases were to become so burdened about the economy that he gets a job in the Ministry of Finance.
You need to identify your calling through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and stay in it so as to fulfill your destiny and more importantly, for the world to be a better place.
Reflection: Are you true to the calling of God upon your life?
Author: Pst E. A. Adeboye.
Text edited by Naomie
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