As Christians we cannot activate a spiritual gift by flipping some inner switch of awareness. We seek God's glory, not our own, trusting the Spirit to enable us in speech and action. Since all is of Him, there is nothing the Spirit cannot use. Desire to please the Lord clarifies our purpose.
The fellowship of the Spirit is more than a sense of camaraderie. It is a sharing together in the presence of the Spirit, and of His gifts... Christians often most need those who differ from them the most with regard to spiritual gifts. Seeking the unity of the Spirit means appreciating the diversity of the Spirit's gifts and learning from one another -- growing together to the full maturity of Christ.
The Christian is not a natural man who has become religious. Already before conversion, Paul said, many early Christians were highly religious, devoting themselves earnestly to the worship of idols. Conversion, moreover, did not just involve a change of liturgical habit... To be a Christian means to be refashioned in all of one's desires, aims, attitudes, actions, from the shallowest to the deepest. This is not a matter of giving shape to unshaped human nature. There is no formless, underlying "human stuff" waiting to be modeled into a Christian shape... For the unbeliever, the problem is not that the stuff is unformed but that it is badly and wrongly formed and has to be reformed and transformed into the form of Christ.
Sermon Notes -- The Body of Christ, a People of the New Creation (I Corinthians 12:1-31)
Reverend Jason Little
We vacillate between self-loathing (my part is not needed) and self-worship (my part is most important). But Jesus gives us at third way. It is by the same Spirit that we are all called here, and that means what He gives to each to bring is essential. No spiritually insignificant or nonessential person, gift, or ministry among us, the Body. If you don't trust yourself to see that, trust that God sees it.
Order of Worship, May 12 2013
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