GREATER SPIRITUAL GIFTS. On Christmas Day a familiar chapter in the Bible surprised me. It begins this way: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1-2). It struck me that if I say anything without love, I am just making noise.
So how much of my words would that eliminate? And how much of what I listen to on podcasts, or read in blogs and books, amounts to noise?” We should pay attention not only how right a message is, but how right is the heart of the message. And we should check our hearts before speaking or praying or sharing any messages.
Then another verse struck me like never before. “For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away” (1 Cor. 13:9-10). How much time do we spend gaining knowledge and prophesying over what quickly passes away? Even long before the perfect comes and Jesus does away with partial knowledge and prophecy? How much time do we spend on short-lived news and predictions? And doesn’t that time take away from the time we need to love God and love others?
Pray for the greater gifts
Finally, a verse from the previous chapter drove those points home. “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues” (1 Cor 12:28). We could also translate “administrations” as “governments.” We pay much attention to different governments as the sources and solutions of our problems.
But we must earnestly desire the greater gifts. Despite all the controversy and disrepute that apostles and prophets have fallen into, we must keep praying that the whole church recognizes the true apostles and prophets of our time. And we must earnestly desire and pray for their greater gifts to lead the whole church to overcome. Then the church can be a greater witness to the world of God’s love and His more lasting knowledge.
Image by Kari Shea from Pixabay
BPN articles related to greater spiritual gifts:
Raising Standards in Belize- an Evangelical Manifesto
Underground Church Networking During Persecution
ETG articles related to greater spiritual gifts:
Wonders, Worship, Word: Revivals Past to Present—from 1st video
Spiritual Gifts & 5-Fold Ministry: Vineyard & Kansas City Prophets—from 2nd video
Revivals & 5-Fold Ministry: MorningStar & IHOP-Kansas City—from 3rd video’
How to Start & Sustain Revival Where You Live—from 4th video
NT Representative Government vs. Statism
Prophetic Standards Statement Replies to Trump Prophecies
