Devotional - 98-09-05 - Be Somebody, Reach Somebody

Encore from 97-03-29

Which is it the Bible teaches we are? Actually it is both. Every one is somebody in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The day you become saved, certain things happened to you. I like to look at it like this. You become endowed with certain things: fruit! Whether the fruit grows depends on if you are abiding in God and letting him grow what He wants. It is an absolute fact that everyone receives the Holy Spirit the moment they are saved, and along with the Holy Spirit you get a certain amount of fruit. It is one of these fruits that we are known by. It is by one of these fruits (LOVE) that people know that we are truly One of His disciples. In fact, without it (LOVE) ...We really have no right to call ourselves Christians.

I Corinthians 2:14 - The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he can not understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Galatians 5:22 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

So you see, we are somebody. We are people who have the above. But wherein lies our problem? Is it we need now to ask for "certain spiritual gifts" to be an even "Bigger Somebody?" Again I'd like to say that we do not need to chase a methodology or traditional thought that tells us that. Look closely at the "spiritual gift lists". Note it is GOD who gives them to us. We do not pick, choose, employ some technique, or grow camel knees praying -- wanting to get what we want to really be somebody. No. God gives us the ones we are best suited for. And are you not going to accept what He did? Not good enough? (Greedy perhaps) Need to have bragging rights? Want more? Bigger, better, badder? Shall we name it and claim it? (My Pastor coined that as lip it and grip it theology!) And I might add it ain't such a big deal what gift you have or do not have anyway. Too much emphasis is placed on them. Instead of Charisma, could it be Charismania? If you were endowed with a spiritual gift then the comfort and peace and wisdom and grace of God will enable you to use it effectively, to be a blessing to the rest of us parts of the body of believers. What really is a big deal is, are you still striving to be somebody? Because if you are, then you may need to look at who you are. Because God already made you a unique part of his Body, and you should be known to be His disciple, by the Love you have.

A disciple is one who learns, I might add...and sooner or later learns to surrender his or her will to God, and One who grows in grace and abides.

John 14: 4- 6 Remain in me , and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

And though I'm not into fruit inspection...If you ain't doing it Gods way..Its plastic fruit! I don't care how good it looks, tastes, smells, and even if it has Jesus' name tacked on the end with an amen, it's still plastic.

A disciple is also one who knows that faith is simple and that it comes by hearing the Word of God (that's spelled B-I-B-L-E) What really impresses me most is the kind of love that both believers and those who do not believe as we do can see, in word and deed, and really know for sure that there is something different about us, and that we truly are one of His disciples.

In His Service,
Rick