Gifts for the Work of Ministry

The Sovereignty of God
The Sovereignty of Jesus


The Great High Priest

Ephesians 4:7-13  The Message

^7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,

He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.

Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving

For Reflection

Do you think of yourself as a minister?  No, not the pulpit kind, but rather, the witnessing kind.

We humans were all born to be equal in the eyes of God and yet we are all different.  No two humans are identical.  We look differently. We speak differently.  We act differently, think differently and , yes, pray differently.  But we, all,  have been created by God with individual gifts to be shared with each other.  God's will is that we move "...rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ."  Each of us are asked to shepherd each other in the Way of Christ.  To whom do you minister?

Pray

that you will witness to the love of God in every thought and action.  Pray that you will be willing to minister to all.  Pray that your soul, made holy by God, will shine into the darkness of this world.