Your Place in the Spiritual Battleنموونە

Your Place in the Spiritual Battle Day 3 – Discover Your Branch/Learn Your Mission (Part 1)

1 Corinthians 12, the start of Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts, reminds us as believers that we are all part of one body in Christ. Paul reminds us of this right after telling the church of Corinth different believers are given different gifts “…for the common good (vs 7).” If we look at this passage through our lens of spiritual warfare, it becomes easy to see the different spiritual gifts as different military branches. The end of the chapter breaks down the gifts into general categories. Verse 28 speaks of apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, helping, administrating, and tongues. The next verse clarifies an already simple point which many of us miss. Paul emphasized to the Corinthian church the fact they are not the same, they do not have the same gifts, nor should they. Paul did not want the church to compare themselves to each other in their use of different gifts.

An imperfect analogy to help us get past the comparisons are the branches of the military. I say imperfect because if you have ever been around a couple of people who have served in different branches of the military, you will quickly observe a competition and comparison of their experiences and the branches in which they served. But still, different branches have different missions under the same basic goals. The modern military may have blurred some of the edges with more joint operations, but there are still differences in the structure, tactics, training, and purpose of each branch. Similarly, the list of gift categories given by Paul at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 can be viewed as a listing of different military branches in this spiritual warfare. All the branches work together, aiding each other on different missions, all under one goal. But each does their job differently. Each have different structures, tactics, training, and specific purposes.

Which branch are you a part of? First you need to find your spiritual gift or gifts. Just as different servicemen have specific areas they are primarily trained in, the Holy Spirit gives believers at least one primary gift. However, there is one Spirit who gives all gifts, and He lives within every believer. While a serviceman may be trained in one primary area, they are also cross-trained to be able to accomplish other tasks should the need arise. In this same way we, as believers, bearers of the Holy Spirit, have access to all gifts when He feels we need them. But there are areas in which He blesses us over and above the others. There is a gift or maybe two that He has made your primary. If you don’t know what that is, you can’t know your branch. Once you know your primary gift, it will be much easier to discover if you are a prophet, teacher, healer, etc.

What do you do if you do not know your spiritual gift? You can ask your pastor or other leader at your church to help you with this. There are also online inventories you can take. I have not had experience with enough of these to recommend any. I would suggest that if you look online for an inventory, without having a specific one recommended to you, take at least a couple of tests and see if they say the same thing. Be aware that just because an inventory says something is a gift for you, it doesn’t mean it is accurate. The best source of knowledge on this topic is the Spirit Himself. If He isn’t affirming what you are seeing, you may need to look elsewhere. On the other hand, if something seems too big or impressive to be your gift, that doesn’t mean it is not your gift. Come up with a high score for healing but don’t think you could possibly do that? Consider it, ask others, pray. Maybe you just aren’t operating in that gift because you didn’t think you could. But if it is your gift, the Spirit will give you opportunities to practice it if you ask.

A few things will happen once you discover your branch. One, you no longer need to compare yourself to other branches. You can look upon the other branches with pride that they are part of your military, but realize they are serving a different purpose. You might not be able to do what they do on a regular basis, but they can’t do what you do either. Two, you will know better how to train. The Spirit is the giver of our gifts. We are still required to train in the use of them. Join the Army and they will give you a weapon. But you must practice with it in order to use it most effectively. The same is true with your gift. Find a book with solid biblical teaching on that gift, conferences, or classes. Seek out others operating in that gift who are farther along than you. I would love to see the church get back to a mentoring style of teaching similar to Elijah mentoring Elisha. The third thing that will happen once you find your branch is it will become easier to learn your mission. We will explore this concept more tomorrow.