ABOUT
JESUS THE GIVER,
THE GIFTS AND THE GIFTED
Have you ever wondered about your spiritual destiny and purpose in this life? In Jesus the Giver, the Gifts and the Gifted: Spiritual Gifts That Prepare You for Eternity, the author Valerie K. Kinsman discusses the answers to these questions found in the Word of God. The Bible urges us to understand spiritual gifts and not be ignorant of them.
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The apostle Paul reveals in his letter to the Ephesian church that these spiritual equipping gifts from Jesus are people anointed to be apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, and teachers . These equipping gifts are called to prepare and equip the Body of Christ to enter eternity with God.
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You can discover that Jesus has given His anointing, power, authority, wisdom, and love to the spiritual equipping gifts so that they would fulfill His commission to prepare you for eternity with Him; to prepare you to imitate God; to prepare you to grow into the fullness of Christ. What are you waiting for?
Book Excerpt-
Jesus the Giver, the Gifts, and the Gifted
Chapter One, Pages 5-6
Jesus Christ is a giver of many gifts to humanity by accomplishing every purpose that God assigned to Him. Yet, there is even more than what was mentioned previously. The apostle Paul states that each person of the Godhead, (God the Father, God the Lord Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit) have each given spiritual dispensations of their anointing (spiritual gifts) to restore humanity to their original place in creation. Paul tells us,
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.”
(1 Cor. 12:4-6)
Paul urges us not to be ignorant of these gifts (1 Cor. 12:1). So, we must search the scriptures for understanding. Let us focus on the gifts that come from the Lord Jesus Christ in this moment. Paul searched the Old Testament for scriptures about Christ and quotes what he found in Psalms 68:18.
"Therefore, He says: 'When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.' (Now this, 'He ascended'—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;" (Eph. 4:8-13)
Paul describes the spiritual gifts that Christ bestows as the act of Christ Jesus giving gifts of people to the Body of Christ who have been given anointings to function as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These anointings are distributions of the full essence of who Christ is which have been deliberately left here on Earth to fulfill Christ’s mission. This mission being that we might be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29).
Paul said we will need these gifts until we all come into unity of faith, and the full knowledge of the Son of God, growing up into the measure of the fullness of Christ. Again, it is self-evident the Church has not yet reached this fullness of Christ. It is self-evident that we still need these gifts today.
The apostles recognized the anointings of Christ and wrote about them to the Church. They have also described Jesus Christ our Lord as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor (shepherd), and teacher. These descriptions help to give us momentary glimpses of what these spiritual gifts from the Lord are meant to accomplish. As we look at Jesus, we see that He gave gifts to men and women to equip the Church to become just like Jesus. Let us briefly explore Jesus the Apostle and the gift of the apostle.