As I was praying this morning – a thought came. Plunk! A thought the Holy Spirit drops into the conversation I’m having with my Father. (Father/Son/Spirit are one) The thought was: “None of My gifts work right without the Word of God hidden in the heart.”
So I began to meditate on that truth. I remembered back when my Father taught this to me “the hard way.” The Father’s timely painful discipline will work righteousness in the one being trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)
When we put what other people have to say about what THEY have learned from the Word of God, and what we hear on Sunday mornings from the pulpit, or from Christian broadcasts, YouTube messages, or out of books of devotionals, etc. we are not “hiding God’s Word in our heart.” Those are all fine for a confirmation of what we’ve heard direct from the Spirit when reading God’s Word on our own. Those are all fine throughout the day or week as a quick reminder of what God says directly to us when we are in His Holy Bible each morning.
It’s critical to our walk of faith with Jesus Christ to have a personal relationship with “the LIVING WORD.” His Word (Genesis to Revelation) is the ANCHOR for our faith to act upon; the ROCK of ages throughout time for every believer to have their thirst satisfied; the BREAD of Heaven for our hunger pains; the LIGHT for His ‘narrow’ path to be walked so that we don’t veer off it; the HOPE of what and Who is to come; the TRUTH by which we judge the way God says to judge – beginning with our self and our our circumstances.
God gives us our gifts for our calling from Him. And He says in His Word that both the gifts and callings are “irrevocable.” That means that after we fall, and we ALL stumble and even fall flat on our face, and after our Lord has raised us back up to keep walking with Him – the gift and calling are still there to go forward with. My husband’s quote: “The ways and means will change, but the goal never changes.” Jesus will finish what HE started in each of us! OH WHAT A SAVIOR!!!
Our God-given gifts won’t have the right effect on others for His Kingdom if we are not hiding the words of God in our heart morning by morning. Only then can the Spirit’s gift in us work for the good of the Kingdom of God as it should.
We can use our gifts for the wrong reasons, naturally: “At one time we were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” Titus 3:3
We “naturally” want to please our loved ones, and our church leaders, and our employers, and our friends, etc. We naturally want to be accepted by those we love and work with. We naturally want to impress people. But the LORD is to be our first love in whom we long to know inwardly, serve and please; and the only God in whom we obey, no matter the cost.
Our God-given gifts are not rooted in the natural, but in His Holy Spirit for God’s glory. For God has said “in His Word” that HE WILL NOT SHARE His glory with anyone.
2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” It’s be personal!
Our “natural selves” will always try to lead and control our spiritual gifts and unless we are daily in God’s Word listening to the Holy Spirit inwardly, and offering ourselves to Him – we won’t recognize that. Oh how the devil loves this!
2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God (each morning) as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed (naturally) and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
His/her gifts working properly because he/she has hidden God’s words in the heart with due diligence. Then his/her gift/gifts from the Holy Spirit will work right – to the glory of God.