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| “I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel…” |
| —Philippians 1:4b-5 |
One of the joys of belonging to God through the sacrificial death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, comes from the relationship that God has forged between those He loves. God has constructed His Body, the Church, as an instrument of His mercy, grace, and love in the world.
As believers, we work in partnership with the Holy Spirit to accomplish the work that God has given us to do. This partnership is absolutely essential. Why? Because God has given each of us at least one spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit to enable us to do our part in proclaiming the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ—the Gospel.
The Body of Christ can only work effectively when every person yields to God’s perfect will and allows the gift that He has given to work in concert with the gifts He has given all the other believers in a given setting. Thus, without a spirit of cooperation between believers, the Church cannot work as effectively as God desires it to do so.
Not only is the mutual submission to one another in employing the amalgam of our spiritual gifts to function together important for the good of the Kingdom of God, it is also of inestimable value for us, as well. In fact, working together and allowing God to use our gifts to support, encourage, facilitate, and activate one another actually brings us great joy.
Please take note of what the Apostle Paul wrote to his brothers and sisters in Christ gathered in the church at Philippi, as recorded in Philippians 1:3-6:
I thank my God every time I remember you.
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
“God enables His people to serve the will of His Kingdom by giving them spiritual gifts that He wants them to use in concert with each other.” That’s my key sentence for this blog post.
The next time you gather with your fellow believers, take a moment to look around the room. Can you identify the spiritual gifts God has given at least some of these dear ones? If so, think about how the gifts God has given them might engage with the spiritual gift He has given you in order to advance the Good News of salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have not yet identified your spiritual gift(s), I urge you to make every effort to do so. One very helpful resource that I use in my consulting practice with churches is a little paperback book entitled Discover Your Spiritual Gifts the Network Way written by Bruce L. Bugbee. A graduate of Westmont College and Fuller Theological Seminary, Rev. Bugbee is a former staff member at Willow Creek Community Church. He now works as a consultant to churches in helping to improve leadership.
The Christian life is a partnership. We partner with God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. We partner with each other within the circle of our various church fellowships. We partner with a needy world by being salt and light in sharing the Good News that sets men, women, boys, and girls free from the enslaving sin that traps them and keeps them from realizing all that God wants them to experience—the fullness of life itself.
“God enables His people to serve the will of His Kingdom by giving them spiritual gifts that He wants them to use in concert with each other.”
