Each believer in Jesus Christ receives a spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit uses to manifest himself. Through each believer the Holy Spirit desires to provide a supernatural level of empowerment by
which God can serve and edify the church. The purpose of the unique manifestations of the
Holy Spirit in each believer is to edify the other believers so that the body of Christ on earth can achieve its goals and fulfill its purpose in time.
These spiritual gifts, or manifestations of the Spirit of God, are to be used for the edification of
others, which means these gifts will be publicly visible. But, because we live in a fallen world and each believer still has a sin nature, the manifestation of Spiritual gifts can lead to competition
between believers and self-promotion by the individual. Yet, the truth remains that the purpose
of the Spirit’s manifestation in each believer is for group edification.
It is not right to refrain from using your gift because others may be jealous or misunderstand your intentions. In fact, it is your responsibility to develop your gift and package it in such a way that others in the church can receive its benefits without feeling threatened, embarrassed, or envious.
We cannot control how other people react, but we can teach them the importance of every believer being given room for the Holy Spirit to manifest through their life and service.
We can also develop our gift so that it is noticeably useful for the common good and we can wrap
it in a publicly presentable package so its manifestation remains culturally acceptable. For example, neither Daniel nor Nehemiah would have been successful in the royal courts of Babylon and Persia if they had refused to develop the presentation of their gift and, had instead, manifested their gifts like Elijah and John the Baptist did in the courts of Israel and Judea. |
