Dear Friend, How are you? Hope you had or are having a good day, today? Do you know what gift you have from the Lord? Ephesians 4:7 says “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” And it went on to say in verses 11 and 12, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;” My hairdresser is certainly gifted in evangelism. She takes some time during the week, in order to share gospels with children in the playground near her salon and leads a few to the Lord each time. And she also shares the gospels with unbelieving customers. One day, one of her Christian customers in her 60’s said to her, “Can you please help share the gospel with a friend of mine? She is in her 80’s. I tried to lead her to the Lord, by helping her and sharing His love. I visited her to her home often and gave her foods. Sometimes, I gave her massages. But, it’s so hard for me to open my mouth to share the gospel.” And the hairdresser willingly accepted her offer and visited the elderly lady together with her. She shared the gospel with the elderly lady, saying to her, “I’m not asking you to come to my church. It’s not about coming to church.” And she also encouraged her to live joyfully and brightly in the Lord, talking about her literally dark rooms in her house with all the curtains closed. Much later, when the Christian customer came to the beauty salon, my hairdresser heard a wonderful report from her. The elderly lady accepted the Lord and began to go to church. And she was changed. She lives in a rich neighborhood, but she has been so stingy, never sharing any small stuffs like snacks or drinks with her friends. Now, she became a giver, starting to share foods with her friends. And this time, my hairdresser got to know more about the elderly lady from the Christian customer. She had a tragedy long ago that her youngest son committed a suicide in her house, hanging himself. It left her a trauma and she has lived literally in darkness, with all the curtains in her house closed, since then. But, the resurrection power of our Lord changed her and her house, and she was indeed born again. I was in awe, listening to the amazing testimony. In my monthly zoom meeting with 6 members including my pastor in Singapore, there is an American brother who used to be a missionary in Mexico and now lives back home. In sharing updates, many times, he shared a wonderful testimony to lead people to the Lord, including his co-workers, neighbors and so forth. I thought he is gifted in evangelism and that’s why he was a missionary. Then, in one meeting, my pastor in Singapore talked about the five fold ministries in the book of Ephesians. Interestingly, he said 6 members in our meeting have different gifts and our group has the five fold ministry: the American brother as an evangelist, a pastor as an apostle, another pastor as a prophet and he himself and his wife as teachers. Then, he said to me, “Yunee, you have a compassionate heart and you’re gifted as a pastor (shepherd). You know that, right?” I smiled at him and in my heart, I was in awe, as our Father many times used my pastor to give me confirmation. I shared in some of my blogs that the Lord said to me, “Feed My Sheep!” After that, when I asked Him to give me confirmation, He unexpectedly said to me, “Do you love Me?” And immediately, I knew it was the question that Jesus asked Peter, later saying, “Feed My Sheep!” Now again unexpectedly, He said to me through my pastor that I’m called to be a shepherd to feed His sheep. And it gave me comfort, too. Whenever I heard wonderful testimonies from my hairdresser and others on leading people to the Lord, I thought to myself that my calling is more for edifying His children rather than evangelizing unbelievers. Just like we are different parts of the Body, our function is different. And many times when I simply shared my testimonies including what the Lord said to me in my heart and so on with the hairdresser and other believers, they would say to me, “I’m so encouraged.” “I’m so stirred up.” “Your story made me repent, too.” And I was grateful for that. Recently, I took The Old Testament Survey I, the online classes on the Church Without Walls International website and in one of the classes, Pastor John Fenn shared his own testimony. Long ago in a campus, he was supposed to lead a meeting for evangelism. But, he didn’t feel any anointing and he was so discouraged. Then, the Lord said to him (I paraphrase), “You’re called for My Body, not for evangelism.” And he shared the comfort in knowing His calling. In another teaching (I think it was on the book of Exodus), he said that people tend to think the Spiritual gifts as speaking in tongues, prophesying, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, healing, miracles and so on. But, the gifts like sewing, handyworks and so on are the same gifts from the Lord. Some are good at numbers and others are good at fixing things. I totally agree with that. Joseph has an administrative gift. And you might have the same gift as his. Or you might glorify Him and comfort others by playing the musical instruments. Since I wrote the draft of this blog earlier this week, interestingly enough, I got to read some other Scriptures about the gift: For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:3~8) And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:7 about principle of marriage: For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. I found it very interesting that he says being married or single is one's own gift from God. So, I searched more on this in EnduringWord, the commentary by Pastor David Guzik: i. Significantly, Paul regards both marriage and singleness as gifts from God. Many find themselves in the “grass is greener” trap, with single people wishing they were married and married people wishing they were single. Each state is a gift from God. ii. To be single or married is a special gifting from God. When Paul writes his own gift, he uses the same word for spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Each state, married or single, needs special gifting from God to work. Friend, you and I have at least one gift, charisma, being married or single. :) Our Father gave each one of us the Spiritual gifts for His purpose. We don’t have to get discouraged by not having the gifts that someone else has. Each one of us has a different calling. With your administrative gifts, or gifts on numbers, music or handcrafts, you might have been called to your current job. And if He also called you as evangelists, you’ve been leading or will lead your co-workers, customers, neighbors and so forth to the Lord, just like my hairdresser. You might feel you’re in your element, whenever you teach, or whenever you write or talk in small groups. It’s my prayer that we glorify our Father and edify His Body, no matter what gifts are given to us. Have a bliss! Yunee And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship. Comments are closed.
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