Write From Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

When God started the Christian Church, He did something different from what He had done since Adam and Eve left Eden: He gave every single believer a job to do in the Church and He spiritually equipped each one with the ability to do that job. This was a monumental break from the way He set up worship in the Old Testament.

Worship Before the Law
The origins of how people began to properly worship God after Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden are not specifically known. Nevertheless, there are pieces of the puzzle that we can fit together by carefully reading and properly translating the Bible. For example, we can piece together that God started blood sacrifice and substitution for sin when He made garments of animal skin for Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21). [1] We can also see from the worship offered by Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, and others before the Law, that God had rules concerning the proper way, and times, to worship Him. [2]

Before the Law, the head of the family acted as the priest for the family and the patriarch of the family clan acted as the priest for the family clan. Thus, Job purified his children, and made sacrifices for them (Job 1:5), and Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 12:7, 8; 13:18), Isaac (Gen. 26:25), and Jacob (Gen. 31:54; 35:1-4), led their families in sacrifice to God. [3] That the patriarch sacrificed animals for himself and his family is often not as clear in English as it is in the Hebrew text. For example, while most English versions say that Abraham “built an altar” to Yahweh (Gen. 13:18), we usually get a mental picture of a simple pile of stones upon which Abraham then worshipped. Why we have this nice looking mental picture is understandable, since many Churches have “altars” and they are usually very nice looking structures. However, the Hebrew word translated “altar” is mizbeach, and it means “place of slaughter.” [4] In his brilliant translation of Genesis through Deuteronomy, Everett Fox never uses “altar,” but instead uses the phrase “slaughter site.” [5] The “altars” of biblical times were smelly, blood-covered, fly-infested places that no one wanted close to his tent, and which graphically reminded any worshipper of the messy and deadly-serious consequences of sin.

While worship in sparsely populated areas was led by the patriarch of the family clan, worship in the cities was taking a different turn, one that more closely resembled what God would later establish under the Mosaic Law—a temple building and priests to lead the worship. The “priest and temple” system of worship resulted in the people having less and less to do in a worship service, and even that they were cut off from direct access to God (or the gods). Thus, for example, by the time Jacob and his family got to Egypt, which was long before God gave Moses the revelation for the Tent of Meeting (called the “Tabernacle” in the KJV), there was a very specialized and exclusive class of priests who ministered to the various Egyptian gods. The “regular Egyptian” was relegated to being little more than a spectator who brought donations, or who participated in a limited way in carefully regulated services.

Worship Under the Mosaic Law
After the Exodus (about 1,450 B.C.), God gave Moses the revelation about the Tent of Meeting, which included regulations about priests leading the worship services. God commanded that only Aaron and his descendents were to be priests and serve Him directly. Presiding over the priests, both in the Mosaic Law and in most pagan religions, was a High Priest, who could act as priest to the other priests and to the nation as a whole. The Law also made provisions for the men from the tribe of Levi (the “Levites”) to help the priests by doing lesser acts of service in the Tent of Meeting. [6]

Thus, under the Law, the heads of families were no longer allowed to act as priests to God. In fact, the Old Testament was crystal clear about what would happen if a “regular” person, a non-priest or Levite, even went close to the Tent of Meeting—he would be put to death.

Numbers 1:50, 51 and 53 (Abridged)
(50a)…appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it…they are to take care of it and encamp around it.
(51b) Anyone else who goes near it shall be put to death.
(53b) The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the Testimony.”

Even the Levites, however, could not do the specific jobs that God gave to the priests, such as offer the sacrifices. Even for Levites, the penalty for trying to do the work of a priest was death.

Numbers 3:10
Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary must be put to death.

God made it very clear in the Law of Moses that there were only certain people who were qualified to serve him as priests and workers. The “regular Israelite” could bring an offering and watch certain parts of the worship service (be a spectator), but they could not directly participate in the work of the Tent of Meeting or Temple. Thus in both pagan religions, and in God’s revelation about how to properly worship Him, the separation between the priests and the worshippers was clearly defined.

Over time the two general categories of “priests” and “people” became so deeply entrenched in people’s minds that it seems very few people even questioned it. Of course the different religions varied somewhat as to who the priests were and what they did, and also in how the priests were chosen from among the people. The Mosaic Law, for example, dictated that a priest had to be a descendant of Aaron, the first High Priest (Exod. 29:44; 30:30; Num. 3:10).

The Christian Church—A Royal Priesthood
On the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, God started a brand new program for His worshippers. On Pentecost He created “the Body of Christ” as a spiritual entity and started the Christian Church, something that had never existed before. God made many significant changes in the way He related to people and in the way they related to Him. For one thing, He did away with the physical Temple, and the collective body of believers became the new Temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (New Living Testament)
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? [7]

Not only was the collective Body of believers the Temple, God also made each believer a priest.

1 Peter 2:9
But you [plural: all of you] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare [the verb is plural] the praises of him who called you [plural: all of you] out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Whereas 1 Peter 2:9 refers to us as a “royal priesthood,” 1 Peter 2:5 calls believers a “holy priesthood.” In the Christian Church, each believer is a priest, and Jesus Christ is our High Priest (Heb. 2:17; 3:1; 4:14, 15). We are all to pray for each other (Col. 4:3, 4; 1 Thess. 5:25; Heb. 13:18). We are to allow others to confess their sins to us (James 5:16). We are all to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, and continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God along with other “spiritual sacrifices” (Rom. 12:1; Heb. 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:5). Furthermore, each believer is to do the work of the ministry, which is clearly stated in a proper translation of Ephesians 4:12 (we will deal with the translation question later in the article).

Ephesians 4:11 and 12
(11) It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
(12) to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

It is clear in verse 12 above that “God’s people” are to do the works of service that God requires. The New Testament Epistles make it clear that Jesus Christ is the High Priest and the only mediator between God and mankind, and that each believer has direct and personal access to God and can serve Him directly. This doctrine is known as “the priesthood of the believer,” and was taught in the 1300’s by the Lollards, who were followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1320s to 1384). Wycliffe disagreed with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and was the first person to translate the Bible into English. The concept of “the priesthood of the believer” became an important part of the Protestant Reformation. It clearly separated the Protestants from the Roman Catholics, whose priests are separate from the people and are supposedly specially empowered by God to perform sacraments such as changing wine to the blood of Christ in the communion service.

The First Century Church and the Priesthood of the Believer
We do not have many records from the first century Church, so it is not clear how smoothly the Church transitioned from the “Priests and People” model of worship that had existed for many centuries, to the new “Every Believer is a Priest” model of worship. We can tell from Acts and the New Testament Epistles that apostles such as Paul and Peter were aggressively promoting that each believer was to serve God directly. The epistle of 1 Corinthians not only points out that each member of the Church has an important function, but that members who seem less important are actually very important (1 Cor. 12:18-26).

Many early Christians quickly adopted the new teaching and started to meet in small groups in houses instead of in the Temple (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 12:12; 18:7; 20:20; 28:30; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15). In fact, meeting in homes was one of the earmarks of the early Church. Although it is true that many of them met in homes because they could not build large churches, the “house church” model of the early Church produced strong, involved Christians, and effectively moved people away from the “spectator” model of worship.

In the small groups that met in houses, everyone could get involved and strengthen themselves by publically praying, manifesting holy spirit, and ministering to others. Sometimes everyone was so anxious to get involved that it produced a sort of confused pandemonium in the meeting, so Paul counseled the Corinthians to keep the meeting orderly.

1 Corinthians 14:26
What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

While confusion in the meeting is not good, it is understandable. These early Christians knew too well what it meant to not be allowed to participate in the worship and be forced by Law to be a spectator. When God opened the door for them to participate in the meeting, they were a little over-excited about it. But it seems certain that God would rather have that than what He has in many fellowships today—believers who seem only too happy to relegate their priesthood back to the few leaders and remain silent even though there is time for everyone to pray, manifest the gift of holy spirit, or share something. Jesus Christ gave ministries, ways of serving, to each Christian. No one was left out. Each holy, royal, Christian “priest” can, and is supposed to, serve God and fellow believers by way of the individual gift he or she has been given.

1 Peter 4:10
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

Each believer is to actively participate in the worship of God, and to help them to grow in the faith are men and women whom Christ gifted with what we of Spirit & Truth Fellowship International refer to as “equipping ministries.” Our term “equipping ministries” comes from Ephesians 4:11 and 12, which says that apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are to “equip” the believers (ESV; NAB; NET; NRSV; RSV. cp. NASB).

Old Habits Die Hard—Old Testament Ideas in the New Testament Church
There is a saying that “Old habits die hard,” and that certainly was the case when it came to how Christianity was practiced by the fourth century. Sadly, the pattern of the strict separation between the priests and the people once again became the norm in the Christian Church. Apparently after the original apostles died, the people who were called by the Lord as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers stopped “equipping” the believers for works of service and took over the works of service themselves, leaving the people to once again be spectators of the service.

Read the rest of the article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).

More from Write From Karen

Politics

Gassing Up with Obama

May 19, 2011May 19, 2011 Karen

hahaha! *wiping tears* My favorite part is the drip at the end.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Gassing Up with Obama, posted with vodpod

(RSS readers – I had to import this from Vimeo, which means you probably won’t see it in your readers. Please click the title of the post to watch the video).

Also in gas-related news:

Senate rejects GOP bill to expand, speed up offshore drilling

The Senate on Wednesday rejected Republican-backed legislation intended to speed up and expand offshore oil and gas drilling.

The statement alleged that the plan would “hastily” open areas in the Gulf, Alaska and Atlantic to leasing without adequate environmental analysis. It also noted that the Interior Department plans to hold the Gulf lease sales referenced in the bill by mid-2012 anyway.

But Republicans said the plan contains effective safeguards and cast the measure as a common-sense way to boost domestic energy development. “If there is one word that should be used to describe this bill, it would be ‘modest,’” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on the floor Wednesday. “Everything within it is straightforward. Nothing is outlandish, nothing goes too far; there’s no poison pills in it.”

Here’s my favorite comment from the article:

Can’t waste resources tapping into our own energy supplies- after all, we promised Brazil we would be their best customer.

Really. That about sums it up, don’t you think?

Life

It’s Official – I Am the Mom of a High School Graduate

May 18, 2011 Karen

Ugh. I have a post-graduation hangover.

It’s a done deal. Dude is officially a graduate. He’s now free to become part of society … in August. lol That’s when he will buckle down and get a job. Why August? Because we are going on a family vacation in late July and there’s really no point in the boy looking for a job when he’s going to have to ask for a week off right off the bat.

I’m sure that wouldn’t exactly endear him to his employer.

And, the kid deserves a break. He’s worked his tail end off for 13 years – he deserves to have some time off and just goof off.

But I reserve my right to nag him beginning in August. 😀

Yesterday was busy. Dude went to his graduation rehearsal at his school at 9:00 yesterday morning. He didn’t want to go, but I made him because I’ve never done this before and I had no clue what was going to happen or where he was supposed to go. I’m glad he went because he was able to connect with his friends and make plans to meet them at a certain time so they could all sit together.

I walked/jogged my three miles before cleaning up and going to the office for a few hours. When I dropped Jazz off back at home after school, I checked on Dude – who was in bed with a stomachache. He said the pizza rolls he had cooked for himself had been bad, and they might have been, but I really think it was a case of the nerves. He’s always done this, even when he was a little boy. Whenever something came up that he would have to participate in, or was nervous about, he would suddenly develop a stomachache or some other ailment. He keeps insisting he wasn’t nervous about the graduation ceremony, but I knew better. Still. I have learned to pick my battles and I left him alone, curled up into a fetal position on his bed.

In the meantime, I got my crap together and called Qdoba to order a Taco Bar from them for Saturday’s graduation reception. I’m expecting about 20 people to show up – give or take a friend or two. I’ll be picking the food up at 11:30 – the reception starts at noon.

I hope I’m not cutting it close. (Incidentally, I have to pick the cake up between 9:00 and noon on Saturday, too. I’m anticipating stressful moments).

But back to yesterday …

Five o’clock rolls around and it’s time for the boys to change into their dress clothes. Luckily, Dude fit into Kevin’s old dress slacks and I didn’t have to buy him any. It’s funny, but Kevin is always commenting on how skinny Dude is and yet, his old slacks fit Dude perfectly, indicating that Kevin was pretty skinny at one point. Both boys are stick figures – they have inherited that extreme skinniness from their father.

Definitely not from me. HA!

We were going to go out to eat at a nice restaurant, but no one was hungry, so we ended up going to Subway. Dude could only stomach chips and Sprite, whereas Jazz and myself had a three-inch sub sandwich. I’ll admit it, I hardly ate anything yesterday. I was too nervous to eat, too.

We headed up to MSU. We wanted to go early in order to ensure a parking space. I was really worried that it would be so chaotic that we would be challenged to find anything within a reasonable walking distance. (Thank God we had nice weather yesterday). However, I was surprised to find that parking was not an issue – at all. As we were driving around to find a decent parking space (Kevin wouldn’t let me park in one parking lot because he was afraid I would get a ticket since I didn’t have a pass. I kept telling him that the university didn’t enforce that rule for events like this, but he wouldn’t believe me. It might have had something to do with the fact that I told him that the university didn’t enforce the permit rule in the summer either, and yet, I got a ticket when I used the university library one day. Oops).

I saw my parents walking toward the building as we were heading toward the parking garage, but since my mom didn’t have her cell phone on (*AHEM* MOM), they disappeared into the crowd.

I knew where Jazz was supposed to go (he was scheduled to play with the band – he had done this last year, so we were good to go on that), but I had no idea where Dude was supposed to go. He said he was meeting his friends in “the alley”, but I didn’t see any sort of alley. We ended up walking around the building (which actually consisted of two buildings squeezed into one which translates into HUGE and I’m walking fast because the clock is ticking and I’m trying hard not to sweat because I tend to sweat in really embarrassing places and I had on khaki slacks and just .. no).

Luckily, Dude spotted his friends and before I could say “good luck!”, the kid was gone and out of sight. I continued walking around the building because Kevin and his family were in the back of the building and I was in the front, when I just happened to spot my parents at another entrance.

I say “happened” because by this time, there were hundreds of people milling around. I shoved my way through line to join them, (okay, I didn’t shove, I just politely “nudged”), called Kevin and we agreed to meet when we were allowed in.

We stood outside for about 45 minutes before they finally opened the doors. Again. Thank God it was a nice evening because that really would have sucked if it had been raining.

We found Kevin and his family and were able to snag seats in the same row. (We weren’t supposed to save seats so I was a little stressed that we would all be able to sit together).

The graduates filed in. I carefully studied the kids as they came in and when I spotted Dude, I poked my mom and mother-in-law in excitement. “There he is!” I said. My heart jumped, my breath caught and …

… it wasn’t Dude. Oops. I laughed. And felt like an idiot. Apparently, I don’t know my own son. HA!

I watched the kids like a hawk come into the room, searching each face and looking for my first-born son. When I finally spotted him, I took a half second to absorb that fact that it was actually him – that this was actually going to happen, before my heart jumped and my breath caught in my throat once again.

We had good seats. We were able to see him clearly. However, Kevin was a few seats down from me and had a better view of him than I did. He told me later that Dude was virtually stone as he sat through the ceremonies and speeches – he barely moved a muscle. I had to smile because I knew what that meant – he was really nervous.

I could understand why. To be shoved into the spotlight in front of thousands of people (the stadium was packed) for an introverted, shy personality was pretty close to hell.

We all patiently sat through introductions, songs, and speeches before the event we were all eagerly waiting for started – they began calling the seniors down to receive their diplomas. (Well actually, they didn’t receive their diplomas until afterward, but we all get the ritual, right?)

I’m surprised I had the presence of mind to even tape this. My heart was pumping so hard I was barely able to hear them call his name.

There were about 400 kids in his graduating class. That was the biggest in the city. And even though there were a lot of kids, it went pretty fast. When it was over, it was time for the kids to throw their hats into the air. I wondered if Dude would throw his hat.

He did.

When it was over, we stumbled out into the cold (BRR) and I fielded calls from both Dude and Jazz until we finally located each other. Then we took the traditional pictures:

And it was over. It was like someone had punctured a balloon and all the air was slowly leaking out. Our excitement ebbed and we headed home. Dude had had the chance to go to Project Graduation (which is a supervised party at a community center that was supposed to last until 4:00 in the morning), but he didn’t want to go, so we went to Taco Bell to buy him some food (because his “stomachache” was mysteriously better) and we went home.

We’re exciting that way.

We didn’t discover, until we were driving home, that Dude had actually gotten his diploma. They gave it to him after he left the arena. I was surprised because I thought they would just mail it to him, but nope, he was able to put it into his diploma holder and we all admired it all the way home.

And that’s it. It’s over. It’s official.

Well, it’s not over quite yet, though. We have the reception on Saturday. We were planning on having it outside on our new patio (more on that in a bit), but it looks like rain. We’ll see. This time of year is so unpredictable because even though they’re calling for rain now, the weather could easily change before Saturday. We’ll see.

So. I have a high school graduate.

I feel old. lol

In My Opinion

In My Opinion: May 18, 2011

May 18, 2011May 18, 2011 Karen

A weekly vlog of me answering questions. I’m doing this primarily to leave a bit of myself behind for my children. Thanks for bearing with me as I make a fool out of myself. 😀

Here are the questions for this week:

1. Describe the best live musical performance you’ve ever attended.

2. What scents bring back vivid memories for you?

3. Is the price of gas making you drive less?

And here is my video response to these questions:

Next week’s questions…

1. If you could be invisible for the day, what would you do?

2. What household project have you been putting off?

3. Did you watch the royal wedding and what were your thoughts?

Abundant Life

Audio Teaching: Healing: God’s Gift of Mercy and Grace

May 18, 2011April 27, 2011 Karen

by Dan Gallagher
In Christianity today there are many questions surrounding the subject of physical healing. Have you ever asked, “Is healing available today, and if so what provisions, if any, has God made for our healing?” Or, “What are the factors that affect healing, what role does faith play, and why don’t we see more healing in the Church today.” How about, “Why are there so many different ways that healings occur in the bible,” or, “What must I do to receive the healing I need?” In this teaching, Dan Gallagher answers these questions, and more, by providing key insights and foundational understandings that affect every Christian’s ability to receive the healing that God desires for them.

Understanding the material presented will provide you with a solid doctrinal understanding of healing, resulting in an increase in your faith and the faith of those to whom you minister. Learn that healing is not “prescriptive,” and that there is an interrelation among physical, emotional, spiritual, and moral healing. If healing is something you desire for your self or others, this is a teaching you will not want to miss.

Click the arrow to listen.

Transcription | Related Topics

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Life-condensed

Our (Almost) Graduate

May 15, 2011May 15, 2011 Karen

The clock is ticking. Dude graduates Tuesday night, but we took pictures early because well … that’s just the way I am.

In the meantime, now that he is done with school and has all of this free time, I’ve been “coaching” him on how he can stay busy during the day. He seems eager to hear my ideas, which is surprising. I think he realizes just HOW boring his days are going to become if he doesn’t have something to occupy his time.

He made a decision – he wants to get a job and work full time for a bit, then take one, or two classes, in the spring. This will give him some time off from school, save some money, get some experience out in the “real” world, and a chance to make some new friends.

It’s amazing how relaxed he already seems since taking his last final Friday. We went to a graduation yesterday for his cousins and it was really good for him to hear the motivational speeches about not being afraid to take the first step toward his future and to always give 100% in anything that he attempts. I really think it gave him food for thought (even though I’ve been telling him the same thing for a while now, it always sounds different when coming from someone OTHER than mom or dad). It also helps him to hear the plans of other kids and to understand that this whole job/future thing is a natural step to the next level.

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll have tons more pictures with family on Wednesday to share with you. The weather, as of now (Missouri weather changes so quickly), shows that it’s supposed to be sunny and mid-60’s on Tuesday so HOPEFULLY it’ll stay that way.

I’m getting really excited – especially after attending the graduation yesterday. I can’t wait to watch him walk across that stage and get his diploma!!

Abundant Life

Teaching: Discovering Your Individual Gifts of God’s Grace

May 15, 2011April 27, 2011 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Regarding a person’s gifts, I have been asked the question, “How do I find out what my ministry is?” In some ways that is like putting the cart before the horse. The gifts will define the ministry. In a similar way a horse will not be very effective in fulfilling its function of moving a cart along if it tries to push the cart from behind. However, if the horse is properly hooked up in front of the cart, it can pull a great load and fulfill its calling, so to speak. This analogy is helpful when it comes to the discussion of gifts, ministries, and the works of God.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6
(4) There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
(5) There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
(6) There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

The individual gift in one’s life is like the horse that is part of God’s creation. The horse supplies the power much like the gifts, also part of God’s creative work, can be an avenue whereby the power of God is released in various ways. This correlation continues by understanding that a cart is man-made, as are ministries (ways of serving). While the gifts in a person’s life remain constant, his way of serving will change over time due to a variety of changes in his life. Likewise, the same horse can pull different carts according to the job to be done. In the case of gifts and ministry, as well as a horse and cart, the purpose is to get work done. The horse/cart carries a load from one place to another, while gifts/ministries are intended to carry out the works of God among His people.

As a person gets clear about the gifts he has received, the type of ministry through which these gifts will be put to work becomes more focused. Discovering the individual gifts of God’s grace in your life is a process, and generally will happen in three ways. The first avenue to consider is your personal assessment of your experiences, passions, and talents. None of these should be discounted as necessarily coincidental. God watches over His children from before birth.

Psalm 139:15 and 16
(15) My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
(16) your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

In the wisdom of God, all we are and will do are redeemable for His purposes. Being self-aware is very important in this discovery process. Personality inventories can be helpful in distinguishing for ourselves how we relate to life. Generally, individuals fall into two major categories, which are relational or conceptual. A good place to start is by taking into account how you relate to the world around you because God has gifted you in a way that is consistent with your way of relating to life.

Experience is also a great teacher, and even what we consider negative experiences can be very instructive. A difficult experience I had some years ago helped to clarify for me the fact that I am more conceptual than relational. I volunteered to lead a discussion group made up of members in our church. Each week I struggled with these meetings, becoming more and more discouraged as time went on. The discussion, as well as the overall experience of the small group, suffered as well. Eventually, I asked my wife, Mary, to lead the discussions. We both realized how gifted she was at leading small group discussions and how much better the group dynamic became.

Twenty-twenty hindsight is a great teacher, and many times our individual gifts of God’s grace become apparent in retrospect. As you look back and consider times you have served others, it is helpful to take into account how the experience affected you emotionally. In 1 Corinthians 14:1, we are told to be zealous for spiritual matters, of which the individual gifts in one’s life are a part. Ask yourself, “Was I energized or drained emotionally by the experience?” Even though physically exhausting, serving in a way that allows your gifts to be used can be very energizing emotionally.

Any honorable service rendered in love to others is commendable and will be rewarded by the Lord (Matt. 10:42). However, ministry (service) produced out of the individual gifts of God’s grace in your life has the potential of the power of God energizing it so as to accomplish the purposes of God in significant ways.

Another avenue a person’s individual gifts can become apparent is through the input of others. Brothers and sisters in Christ can provide confirmation and/or prophecy to help identify these gifts. The local fellowship is an indispensable resource whereby individuals can discover their gifts of God’s grace as well as see others’ various gifts in operation. The local fellowship is a safe environment to try different ways of serving. Personal mentorship and team ministry help us sort out over time how we are equipped to serve most effectually.

It is a good exercise to be aware of what stirs us in a way that might not move others. Many times I like to put it this way: “When you look at the Body of Christ or culture in general, what screams at you that needs to be done?” Those who lack maturity tend to tell others that they should do something to meet this “obvious” need. However, many times it is not so obvious to others because they do not have the gifts with which to minister most effectively in that area of need.

Finally, God can reveal to each of us either directly or by way of Scripture, the gifts He has given us. God has given individual gifts of grace to His children so that the Body of Christ can be served and His purposes advanced.

Philippians 2:13
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.