Who Does God Want Us To Be?

    We have come through our Blessed Christmas Season.  It is a quick jump in the gospel from there to Jesus' adulthood.  He was baptized, first in water, then in the Spirit.  In Our Story, Jesus was baptized for us, which turns out to mean that the Spirit He received is the Spirit we have received.  

    So this week, we turn to Paul.  Why?  Because Paul had to figure out the very same thing we do.  Who does God want us to be?  Paul recognizes the Spirit, has received the Spirit, and moves things forward.  If we were to compare the New Testament to getting a college degree, the Gospels provide for us a degree in "Jesus".  In the epistles, the letters of Paul being the largest group, we are working toward a degree in "Applied Jesus".

    In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul addresses the question of "Okay, Jesus got the Spirit, we got the Spirit, now what?"  (Let's apply this...)  What came before, as Paul tells us, "You were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak."  Whether that be a statue of Zeus in those days or a misguided commitment to the pursuit of wealth today, we are still led astray.

    But the Spirit redirects our entire religious focus.  In the Spirit, we cannot curse Jesus.  Only in the Holy Spirit can we express that Jesus is Lord.  In our present age, I might add the qualifier "and mean it".   

    So, from the Spirit, gift one is the discernment of the goodness of Jesus.  The Spirit keeps our eye on the prize.  We do not curse Jesus, not in the loving power of the Spirit.  We commit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus only in the loving power of the Spirit.

    Such goodness is revealed in varieties of gifts, of services, of activities, but it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God, that fires them up in our souls.  It is not diversity for diversity's sake, but diversity that comes together for the common good.  It is a list too big for single blog post.  

   God wants us to have clarity.  God wants us to be clear on the matter that Jesus is Lord.  Only happens in the Spirit.  We must be clear that we are working for the common good.  Lots of ways to do things, but all toward that purpose.  

    To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

    God wants us to be clear that there is no "one size fits all".  The diversity that God has created into humanity is reflected in the diversity baked into the gifts we receive from the Spirit.  Yet, in the Spirit, we are still knit together into one community.  "All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses."  Each provides for us a degree in "Applied Jesus".

Peace,
Pastor Peter