The Gift - Part 2 - David Mitts

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:” (1Co 12:1)


To listen to the audio-only version click below 


Giving Opportunity Message
Givelify

 
Last chapter, we began our conversation about the gift of God. We looked at the ancient Hebrew word for gift, Natan, which both begins and ends with a nun, the character for seed. In the middle is the tav, the symbol for the cross. From this picture, we realized that the gift we carry is one that begins with God and is completed through the cross. The cross represents releasing our gifting to death to ourselves and allowing resurrection life to bring the gift to its full manifestation.

This chapter I want to delve deeper into the specifics of the gifts of God given by the Holy Spirit to each Believer and the Body as a whole.

Of primary importance to God are the intentions or the motivations of the heart.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)

This leads us to the “motivational gifts” revealed by Paul to the congregation in Rome. Romans 12 begins with:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom 12:1)

Our imagery for the gifts is described by the term “living sacrifice”. Gifting is seed to seed through the sacrifice of the cross. We are instructed by Paul to present ourselves like a gift, as a living sacrifices, lives surrendered to the cross which makes us holy and acceptable and is our worship.

The next verse takes us deeper into the gifting of our lives:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom 12:2)

As living sacrifices, we are dead to the world which seeks to conform us to its desires and agendas. The “world system” operates through the threats and intimidations aimed at our fears. We saw this most evidently over the past couple of years as the world was gripped in the fear of dying from what they termed a pandemic. This was essentially an attack of the gifting of God which can only be expressed in relationship.

The threat was that we could die and those around us could die if we didn’t conform to the world’s system of isolation, fear, masking and ultimately an attack chemically on the seed. DNA Is the physical expression of the seed and contains the blueprint for our destiny, the good and acceptable and perfect will of God spoken of by Romans 12:2. By contrasts we are told to renew our mind, which is labelled a transformation. A transformation requires a death of the thing transformed. Caterpillars are transformed to butterflies and retain no caterpillar identity. They no longer think like caterpillars, their minds a renewed into butterfly minds which includes flying.

In a parallel fashion, when we present ourselves as living sacrifices, we are transformed from those who live according to the fear of death and its attendant realities. This is the power of the cross, to give us eternal life and release us through transformation into those who are free from the system of death.

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb 2:14-15)

You see the devil has the power of death. Death’s power isn’t in dying. When you die, death has no power over you. Its power is in the thinking that is produced by the fear of dying. That is where the enslavement comes to death. If you are already dead through the cross, you are immune to death. That is the ultimate vaccine, a Holy ghost infusion of eternal life.

The entire abortion industry runs on this. It tells the mother’s to be that this child will destroy their lives, fear of death, and then convinces people that this a woman’s right, more fear of death of “rights”, and then kills the child to harvest its body parts for potions and elixirs for the rich who are living in serious fear of death. Then it convinces many of us that in situations of rape, more death, or danger to the mother, more fear of death, that it is justified even if we are pro-life.

But in order to live as the gift of God, we are encouraged to live dead to death and alive to Yeshua.

“Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."” (Luke 9:23-27)

This segment of Yeshua’s teaching is central to living out our unique gifting. Denying ourselves and taking up the cross daily is pointing us to surrendering ourselves beyond the power of remember that natan, is the seed which is transformed by the cross into the eternal life giving seed. We cannot become a butterfly and desire the mud of the caterpillar. It is not our destiny to earthbound by the system of death. Shame is the emotion that makes us fear death. They dance with each other death and shame. Yeshua tells us that to be ashamed of Him is to embrace the fear of death. But to love Him is to transcend death and not even have a taste for it.

Think of death like any other addiction. When we meditate on that which we are addicted to, we develop a desire for it and a taste for it. People crave what brings them death. Be it drugs, or cigarettes, or tons of sugar, cravings pull us to death and are actually what we use to hide from our fears death but actually serve death. By doing so we are bound by a covenant with death. Look with me at Isaiah 28:15-18

“Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, It will not come to us, For we have made lies our refuge, And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves." Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily. Also I will make justice the measuring line, And righteousness the plummet; The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled, And your agreement with Sheol will not stand; When the overflowing scourge passes through, Then you will be trampled down by it.” (Isa 28:15-18)

Can you see the lies of the past 2 years? The masks, the isolation, the family divisions, the seed altering shots are all a covenant with death, that through fear people were sold the idea that they would survive. It was a pack of lies. Only by embracing the cornerstone, the sure foundation can we be transformed and released form the covenant lies of death. This then liberates us into our destiny, the gift of God. Let’s return to Romans 12:3-6.

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;” (Rom 12:3-6)

After encouraging us to renew our thinking from the earthbound caterpillar mindset to the heavenly mindset of the butterfly, a transformation liberating us from death consciousness and death fear, Paul tells us to not overestimate ourselves but to think soberly. Why does he draw an analogy to inebriation? What is it about drunkenness that affects our thinking towards death?

If you think about it, many drink to avoid their fears. Some even call liquor courage. Yet it produces foolishness and uncovers us exposing a side of us that is loose and can be embarrassing. Noah got drunk and was exposed in his nakedness. Pride and self-exaltation also exposes us and reveals how insecure we truly are.

Paul is warning us to recognize that it is God who gives the gifts to His body. He tells us that we are members of His body and members of one another. In describing our relationships this way, we are being reminded that our gifting is for one another, not to exalt ourselves which is really the fear of death.

Next session we will go into the gifts specifically, but for now, I want us to consider the gift of the cross as the agent of our transformation from earthbound fear of death creatures into spirit led children of God who can fly in the spirit.

Activation: In order to truly get beyond the power of death we must accept a greater power, the power of eternal life. Death comes from sin. Paul tells us the wages of sin are death. Sin at its root is the actions and beliefs that we must do life on our own apart from the love of God. This causes us to have a self-worth dilemma. We know in our heart that we are not good enough to do life on our own. We recognize that we need a source bigger than us who is trustworthy. What does it mean to be trustworthy? It is a value proposition. If I am trustworthy to you, then I am valuable to you in that ability for you to trust me. How can I demonstrate that? By sacrificing myself for you and your situation. God has done that. He has sacrificed Himself for you through the death of Yeshua. That means you are worth it to Him. For your activation, take stock in what it is about you that would be of such value to God that He would give the life of His son for you? As Him, who am I to you that You would send your Son to die for me. When you know what you are valued at and who values you so much, then you will realize that you are free from the fear of death which only values you to the point of your death. You are valued beyond your death unto eternal life.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Glory: Kavod - David Mitts

Dam, the Blood - David Mitts