Week 53 - Free Weekend Program for Street & Vulnerable Children

Text : Romans 12: 6-11

Theme : Love expressed through Deeds.

Last week, Evang. Heshimu taught us about the difference between spiritual gifts and natural talents. Believers have spiritual gifts given to them by God. We didn’t earn them through hard work or diligence; God gave them freely to us, and He wants us to serve others with them. Freely we have received, freely we give! This is the Lord’s command.

Think about your body: your eyes, ears, hands, legs, etc. They all have different functions and are gifts from God. God formed our body (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-15). It is the same with our spiritual body, the body of Christ—the church. Every believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the Spirit has given each one of us a spiritual gift so we can serve others.

Some have the gift of prophecy. To prophesy is to give a clear witness for Christ (Revelation 19:10). It means to proclaim the gospel—Christ's death and resurrection. A true gospel preacher prophesies through his sermon, declaring the message of the cross, which is Christ and Him crucified. Every Christian is called to be a witness, but preachers have special gifts in this regard. They preach exceedingly well by faith because God’s grace has placed this gift on them.

Please know this: prophecy is not hallucination, a false perception of objects or events involving your senses, which may seem real but are not. Biblical prophecy is not prediction, premonition, intuition, fortune-telling, soothsaying, etc., which are riddled with assumptions and are mostly speculative. Accurate weather forecasts through science are not biblical prophecy. More importantly, biblical prophecy has nothing to do with all the false carnal promises of false preachers and fake pastors/prophets. God is not in it. Rather, the Lord frustrates the tokens of liars: “I expose the false prophets as liars and make fools of fortune-tellers. I cause the wise to give bad advice, thus proving them to be fools” (Isaiah 44:25).

For example, some of the so called prophets said “obedient” will be sworn in as President of Nigeria, God has “spoken, assured him,” he proclaimed, but it never happened. God made a fool of many of them. Enenche-Dunamis “prophesied the end of Boko Haram killing”; they killed more people in his state that year and continued. God cannot lie. These so-called prophets are self-deceived and are deceiving many.

Don’t go to places where they claim to read your “star” and tell you what will happen tomorrow. They are liars! God said no one knows what will happen tomorrow; no one knows (James 4:14). I love this favorite quote by John Owen: “If their ‘private revelations’ agree with Scripture, they are needless, and if they disagree, they are false."

The Scripture is sufficient for our guide. Read the Bible; give your attention to God’s word. That’s all you need. God will lead you by His word, by the gospel, not by fortune-telling through divinations (Acts 26:16-17), erroneously veiled as prophecy.

We know that Christ died and rose according to Scripture, and He will return again in glory. We know the pending judgment and destruction of all sinners—those who reject the gospel. This is prophecy; it is a witness for Christ. Preachers proclaim this truth with great conviction by faith, and many are saved by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a gift from God, given to some in the body of Christ, and they are happy to serve others with their gift. Evang. Heshimu has this gift. You hear him preaching with passion, with great conviction of heart, pointing us to Christ and warning against false religion and against sin. God gave him this gift freely, and he is serving others gladly with it, with the same experience we see in 1 Corinthians 9:16.

There are many with this gift of prophecy in churches all over the world, even here in Abuja. You will know them by the gospel they preach fervently, bearing fruit because God causes it to succeed; He causes it to bear fruit. Some may labor for years, like Noah. He was a prophet, preaching the gospel, prophesying for a long time, and people were mocking him till judgment (rain) came and swept everyone away except those in the ark (those in Christ), as he rightly said would happen.

Secondly, God gives us The gift of Serving others diligently and faithfully, like the church deacons. They help with administration and more, taking care of orphans, widows, etc. Has God given you The gift of teaching? Are you able to patiently explain the gospel with clarity and simplicity of heart? Are you filled with joy doing it and happily preparing way ahead of time? Are your words plain and easy to understand? If yes, then it is a gift from God. Serve others diligently with it.

The gift of exhortation—encouragement is typically through motivation or inspiring words of advice, this is exceedingly helpful to the whole church so together we can grow to become, in every respect, the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. Exhortation and encouragement edifies the church; they are not false hopes, manipulations, pandering, or intimidation. They are truths of the gospel declared in love for our eternal good and the good of others.

for example, you are not the Esther of your generation, that’s pandering with false religion. no one is “Esther’, doesn’t matter if you change your name to Hadassah, you’re not!. every believer is an Esther, we are the bride of Christ, chosen by grace, we were slaves of sin, now, we are slaves of righteousness, dedicated to serving CHRIST THE KING as His bride, “some of the branches (Vashti ) a type of Israel was cut off, and we were drafted in. Now, we have access and acceptance to the throne of Grace through the shed Blood of Christ, our righteousness is a gift given (extendedi ) to us by God, we are accepted in the beloved and we come boldy; can intercede for others, pleading to God for their salvation -our loved ones, family, nations etc.

Another popular line of false pandering is ‘Joseph “ being in hard times, poverty etc doesn’t mean you are the “Joseph of your time and God is preparing you”, you are not! CHRIST ALONE IS THE REDEEMER. You must put pride aside, find a job and work hard at it. Let me add this, don’t claim to be the “Abigail’ because you married an unbeliever; you don’t know that, no one does. James 4:14. falsehood and false hope will destroy your soul, flee from it.

1 Thessalonians 4:13, habakkuk 3:17, 1 corinthians 15:19 , are examples of true exhortation, we are encouraged by scripture, by our spiritual reality not by wicked pandering and lies. Job 14:7 is also an encouraging verse, inspiring us towards repentance and hope in Christ.

The Gift of giving - Though we are all called to give, God has given a special gift to some in this regard. They excel in giving, and God is encouraging them to do it generously without holding back. Some are called to lead -The gift of leadership. It’s not a joke; the responsibility is huge, but grace has been given so we can serve others with ease and by example “do as i do” not just as i say.

Serve others wholeheartedly with the gifts God has given you. Pretence does you no good; God sees, and He is not pleased with that. Live to glorify and honour God with your gift. How do I glorify and honour God with my gift? By serving others diligently and faithfully, your gift causes them to praise God and to honour Him with their lives. Take pleasure in doing this. Let it make you happy. Don’t become lazy with endless complaints and excuses. Serve! What gift has God put in your hands? Serve others with it.