Every Christian has been given a gift. Did you know that when you received Christ as your Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit gave you a gift?
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 NLT
We find even more gifts listed in Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4 and these are not exhaustive. As Christians we need to be familiar with these gifts so we can discover, through the Holy Spirit, which gift or gifts He has given us. It is important to note here that we are to eagerly desire the gifts, (1 Cor 14:1) but it is the Holy Spirit who decides which gifts you have. As we see in the scripture above, the Holy Spirit alone decides. But the great news is He knows exactly which ones you were created to have. Each one of us has a special calling and purpose designed by God before creation. (wrap your mind around that!) Our gift is meant to be used in line with our calling. Our calling and gifts are always meant for building up the body of Christ. It is also the Holy Spirit who activates or empowers us to employ them. One must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not just receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation; this is a subsequent and ongoing filling. We see this in Acts 1 where it says the disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. And, in Ephesians 5:18 we see we are to be filled. The Greek word here for filled means crammed, so we are to be crammed full of the Spirit. This is so important, because for so many years I walked without being filled and continually being filled with the Spirit. It was not until I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit that I was empowered to operate in my calling and giftings. In Acts 19 Paul meets a group of disciples who had been water baptized but had not even heard of being Spirit baptized. Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied! Time and time again we see in scripture when the Holy Spirit comes upon people, they become empowered to do Gods work. It is still the same today, we must be filled and being filled continually in order to walk out our calling and operate in our giftings. These gifts are not meant to be hidden away and protected from harm, they are meant to be brought out and used, thus investing and expanding them.
Which brings us to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Here Jesus tells a story about a man who was going on a journey. Before he leaves, he calls his servants and entrusts them with his possessions. To one he gives five talents, to another he gives two, and to a third he gives one, each according to his own ability. Then he leaves on his journey leaving the three servants to decide what they will do with what they were given. Now a talent was about fifteen years wage. So, you can see here the enormous amounts Jesus chose to use here as an example. Right away He was grabbing the attention of His listeners. This can shed some light on the value God places on the gifts He has given to us.
As the story unfolds, we see the first servant, realizing the incredible opportunity he has been given, immediately invests and doubles his talents. The second, also in the same way, doubles his talents. The third however decides it would be safer to bury the talent he was given instead of risking that it could be lost, damaged or stolen. After a long time, the master returns to take an account of his servants. The first two servants proudly show the master they invested and doubled their talents. To which the master tells them, “Well done! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” The third servant unfortunately has nothing to show for his entrusted talent and even tries to blame the master saying he knew he was a harsh man demanding of his servants. But the master’s response is that if the servant knew that, he should have been wiser and at least put it in the bank to acquire interest. A less risky venture from investing. Perhaps the most disturbing, is that this servant is called wicked, lazy, and worthless, what little the servant has was taken from him and he was thrown into outer darkness.
What we allow God to do with the gifts He has given us matters. We must be willing to risk our gifts not being appreciated, unwanted and even broken. Trusting that even in those times God is working for our good. We must be willing to invest in the body of Christ, regardless the risk. Because the reward is eternal and far outweighs the temporary risk. God has a plan and a purpose for the gifts He has given you, will you invest them back into the Kingdom for Gods glory?
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