Irrevocable…

Romans 11:29 (ESV) “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

“gifts” – charisma - 1 a favour with which one receives without any merit of his own. 2 the gift of divine grace. 3 the gift of faith, knowledge, holiness, virtue. 4 the economy of divine grace, by which the pardon of sin and eternal salvation is appointed to sinners in consideration of the merits of Christ laid hold of by faith. (Rom 1:11; 5:15; 6:23; 11:29; 12:6; 1Cor 1:7; 7:7; 12:4; 2Cor 1:11; 1Tim 4:14; 2Tim 1:6; 1Pet 4:10)

“call” – klesis - basically means vocation and a divine invitation, but comes from the word kaleo, which implies to receive a name or to bear a title.

“irrevocable” – ametameletos - Strong’s Lexicon says “Two occurrences; AV translates as “without repentance” once, and “not to be repented of” once. 1 not repentant of, unregretted.

This is interesting because “to repent” means “to change one’s mind.” It basically means to do a 180 and go the other direction.

Substituting those meanings into this verse makes it read much different.

God’s divine gift of grace – my eternal salvation – and my calling – my vocational call, my title, my position in life, my destiny – if you will – is something that God has given me, granted me and will not change His mind on… ever.

The cool – and freeing – thing to me is that I can’t do anything to “undo” His gift.  I can’t remove myself from his list.  I can’t do anything that will make Him rescind his gift or my calling.  Those things that affect my relationship with Him (sin, unforgiveness, disobedience, etc) can greatly affect my effectiveness in my calling, but it can’t change my calling.

So, how do I become as effective as possible?  How do I walk in and know what my calling is?  That is the question.

Gifts -2

This past saturday at the warrior breakfast Paul (panquerne) spoke about the gifts of the spirit, about why we are given those gifts.  I thought it was pretty cool since thats the same thing Papa has been speaking to me about these past several days.  At the end he told us to ask which gift we have, and I knew exactly which one Papa was saying but I just didn’t want to or could recieve it.  I immediately thought, “I’m too young to have that, that gift is really for a more seasoned saint, not me”  and so I said well I know that I have the gift of faith and discerning of spirits, so that good.  But HE wouldn’t let me go, the word “healing” just keep staring at me, like it was a neon sign, and I have known for a well that it was something HE has wanted to give me but I have been too afraid of it.  I have felt like I’m not good enough to have that or people will think that I am too young, etc.  All the lies of the enemy and I knew then that I had to write this down and confess it or possibly never walk into all that HE has for me.  I know that I have not been given spirit of fear, (going back to timothy again), and even though I have no idea what it looks like on the other side of this, I choose to receive all the gifts that Papa has for me, so that I can be a useful tool for HIM at any given, in season and out of season.
My new rhema strike for this week is
Phil. 4:11-13.
Not that I speak in  regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:  I  know how to be abased, and I know how to abound,.  Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

This verse seems so fitting, given that He has been dealing with me about contentment and about doing things that I can’t do on my own but only though Christs’ strength.
I am excited about this verse.

Healing

This weekend at the warrior breakfast Pops talked about giftings.  It was good.  It began to make me think about healing though.  Pops said everyone has a spiritual gift and ask God what yours is.  Well I know mine, but I want others.  Then I started looking specifically at healing.  I thought well James tells me that all I have to do is pray and people will be healed, and Jesus tells the disciples in the “Great Commission” to preach and heal, so it sounds like anyone can do that.  Then why is there a gift of healing and what does that mean?  So I began to look that up.

The spiritual gift of healing is “charismata iamaton” which means overflowed healing.  The James 5 passage and Acts passages of healing is “therapeuo” or a cure.  The difference in this is that some people walk around with a gift of healing or an overflowing, like a Paul with the shadow deal or a Benny Hinn who when you get around the healing automatically overtakes you.  Then there is a type of healing that is used for a specific time.  When someone is sick and we lay hands God heals, but it takes us laying hands and asking God and them confessing.  The spiritual gift is just an overtaking of healing whether asked for or not, or at least it sounds like that.  It is the same as prophecy.  There are people who are prophets and then there are people who prophecy.  There is a bit of difference in those two things.  That is what I was reading today and that is what I found out.  So now I would like to know how to ask or receive that gift of healing, because I would love to just walk around and people are just getting healed.

Gifts of God

My rhema shrike verse says to not neglect the gift that is in me…..  I know of one gift but, my friend shoe encouraged me to dig in a little deeper to the whole “gift” thing.  So what I found was that even faith itself is a gift from God.  I mean everything that I have is a gift but as far as spiritual things, I never really thought of faith being a gift.  I just that that I had it….little did I know that it’s not something that I muster up or make grow.  All that I have or ever will have is from HIM.  In fact the times that are hard and I say “my faith got me through” or I think that my faith has grown….none of that is even me.  I haven’t done anything,  it has all been HIM.  It’s always HIM, and there I was trying to steal HIS Glory by saying that it was my faith that did it.
Just learnin new things.
I’ve never really been a big gift kinda guy.  My dad always give gifts to show love but it was never sincere, it was just to ease his mind and make him feel good.  I think maybe I have viewed Pappa that way.   I mean I have not wanted to accept the “gifts” in me that HE has given because I feel like maybe they are not real.  HE’s just saying it but doesn’t really mean it.  I know, I know not right but, for so many years that was my reality.  It’s all I know growing up.  I have made the decision to walk in all that FATHER has given me and made me and I will glady and joyfully receive all that HE wants to give me.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Of course here’s the kicker,  the word “good” is based on HIS definition of “good” not mine.  So it may be good to HIM and bad for me, or at least I may think it’s bad, but if it is from HIM it has to be good.  For me or people good gifts are things that we want or expensive things or big things, but to HIM it could be a trial that brings humility or repentance.  For humility and repentance are both good things.  I guess it just comes down to who point of view you look at it with.

Gifts

Papa took me to 2 Tim 1  and as I read, verse 6 seemed to jump out at me.  It says, “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”  That caught my attention because in my rhema strike for this week it also mentions, to not neglect the gift that is in you.  There in verse 6 he said, “I remind you” so it is obvious he has said it on more that one occasion.  It seems that Paul is really trying to drive home the point to Timothy that he has a gift in him from God and do not forget that, in fact use that gift often.  So my question is, 1 how does Timothy (or me for that matter) know what that gift is, and does he/can he have more that one of them.  I read in 1 Cor. about gifts like, wisdom, knowledge, healing, etc.  but is that an exhaustive list?  I know that I have the gift of distinguishing of spirits however is that all.  And will I have more later, and if so, I will I know when HE gives them to me.  I have never really put much emphasis on knowing this, but it is starting to seem kinda important.  I mean, it is obvious that I can’t do this on my own, and my weapons or gifting will be what I have been given by HIM to use to comfort, encourage, heal, teach, rebuke.   So how do I get them all.  I mean I don’t want to be greedy but if these gifts are from Papa (which they are) and it is important that I have them and use them, then I want all that HE has to give me.
However, as I write that, I wonder, do I first have to master this gift I have before HE gives more?  I don’t know, this is all pretty new to me, but I do know that I want to know the truth about it.

Papa,  I want ALL that YOU have for me.  I want every gift that YOU have to give to me.  Not for my own pleasure or recognition but for YOUR Glory, and to be used for YOUR Kingdom.  Teach me to walk in worthy of the calling, to walk worthy of YOUR gifts.