I found out yesterday that a local church wants me to go and share God’s Word with them for the next two Sundays. I am so pumped! I love to share God’s Word with His people – it is my gifting. But it got me to thinking that each one of us is different and yet, although we go about it in vastly different ways, our callings and gifts are so similar… because they all involve people.

In 1 Corinthians 12: 28 is says, “In the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.”

Maybe you would dread the idea of standing before a group of people and sharing. Maybe God has gifted you with an ability to talk with people one on one. Maybe your gift is understanding and speaking in foreign languages allowing you to become a missionary. Or maybe God has gifted you in some other way. However, if the truth be told, and whether we know it or not, all believers have a gifting from God. And our gifts are so similar, because again they all involve people; they are simply worked out differently in and through each of us.

Most people I know are not the preaching/teaching types. They are more reserved and therefore wouldn’t dream of becoming the next Billy Graham. But each one of us has a sphere of influence we can speak into. It may be a badminton club or a high school class or even our places of work. Outreach and sharing Christ doesn’t always have to be done on a BIG scale; in fact the most powerful outreach is typically done over coffee or time spent with family, friends, neighbors, and work colleagues.

However, even if you are a great people person it still takes a gifting from God to be able to speak to all people. Let’s face it, we’re not going to want to speak to everyone, especially those who annoy us or rub us up the wrong way. Yet, when we look at Jesus we see someone who had taken His outreach to the next level, there wasn’t anyone he couldn’t speak to in one way or another. And He knew just what to say at all times.

So let us begin to think how we can best use the gift of sharing that God has given each and every one of us. For me it’s easy, as I love to preach and teach. However, even I have a problem with speaking to everyone I meet. We would all do well to look at Jesus’ example and ask ourselves what if He hadn’t spoken to this or that person? Would it have made that much of difference? Ask yourself, what if The Spirit had been hindered in some way from speaking to you through that person, book, movie, TV preacher, and so on?

The Facts:
The calling is the same for all of us – to Go and Make disciples.
The gifting is similar – we are to share Christ in various ways (preaching, teaching, music, friendship, visitation, study and cell groups, etc.).
So what are we waiting for… let’s use our gift of sharing!

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
January, 2010

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