He Gifted You :: 2 {The Ultimate Gift}

This soapbox finds me. Or maybe I go searching for it. Either way, all of this knowledge of God that we read in the Bible and glean from blogs and underline in books, it’s meant to affect things. It’s meant to change us. It’s meant to change me when I’m a frustrated mama or an overwhelmed friend.

 

flickr photo credit: stephanie wallace

 

Jesus said it Himself. He offers abundant living. That’s not just church talk. That’s real talk meant to affect the way we live and respond to life. Abundant living does not depend upon my circumstance. It arises from within — peace in the middle of chaos and grace to the one reviling. Freedom.

But when life happens — loud and messy — I can struggle to get my hands around that abundance He described. I can flounder in the emotion of it all. Yet He came and died and then rose in order for us to go through these short earthly days on purpose — with victory. And by His grace, He didn’t leave us to fend for ourselves.

 

He gifts us to empower us, for our good and His glory.

 

The only way that you and I can move through these days with any sort of victory is by dying to self and being filled with His Spirit. That may sound foolish to some. But I’ve tasted and seen. My God is good. And His Spirit empowers.

 

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in (Jesus), were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee[d] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14

 

I can’t explain Him, but I imperfectly know Him. And I know He gives Himself to His own. He pours His Spirit into those who believe, sealing us with a mark of permanency. And He does it out of grace. Always grace.

Unless we grasp the magnitude of this first Gift given to everyone who believes, we will never walk powerfully in our own individual giftings. We just can’t do it on our own.

We can’t love the unlovely. We can’t forgive the one who betrayed us. We can’t minister to the hearts of those crushed under injustice. But He can through us.

He gifted you and me with Himself. He gifted us that we would walk these short days empowered, regardless.

 
Fill me, Lord…

I know that Spirit-talk makes some a little squeamish. It sounds strange. It’s other-worldly. But how have you seen His Spirit guide or empower you?