God gives gifts to those he loves!

i have always looked at those Christians who seem to be constantly getting gifts from the Spirit and felt a bit gyped. i want to hear God's voice, audibly like some people do. i want to speak in a private, intimate language with Him that no one else can understand. i want to prophesy, and speak God's words to encourage and challenge others in really specific ways. i want to see people healed and be healed. i want to see the Spirit come with power in my life and in this world! the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me! so i want my life to be marked and covered with his Power. why don't i experience these gifts regularly in my relationship with God? not only do i feel gyped and a bit inadequate, i feel like if all christians had these gifts, people would be flocking to Him like crazy! there would be a revival! so, why not God? why are some churches missing these? why do so many christians not receive these gifts?

i have been thinking about this lately. longing for intimacy with God. longing to see the Spirit work evidently and powerfully in and through me.

so here's what God showed me. he already is. his spirit is in me, and has changed me. i can rest in this truth, because I am his child. he answered me, he met me in a very real way, and he once again, showed me that he doesn't always work in ways that we want him to, or expect him too. last night as i was thinking about this, i wound up in 1 corinthians chapters 12, 13 and 14. here are some verses that totally hit me!

12:4 " there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Lord"

12:7 "now to each one, a manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. to one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to anothe faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophesy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."

and after a bunch of talk in chapter 12 about how we are a body, made up of different parts with different functions, but all having the same Spirit, it goes on to say that we should eagerly desire the greater gifts. and in chapter 13:1 it says "and now i will show you the most excellent way." followed by an awesome description of LOVE.

so that's what God showed me. his gifts are just that. gifts to us. because He loves us sooo deeply. the purpose of these gifts then, is to show us his Love and to make him known. so, then, our motive shouldn't be to have the gifts, but to make him known to everyone, because He's so good and to trust that he will equip and empower us to do this. and the greatest gift of all was himself. the truest expression of love...laying down His life for us though we were and continue to be SO undeserving.

his love is so sweet. it is so deep. it stretches to every corner of our beings. and because it is so good and so pure, it completely changes us when we believe and receive it. So God told me...don't worry about all those gifts. you are mine. and i will give you exactly what you need, when you need it. for now, know that you are mine, and you are deeply loved. my love is in YOU. that is enough. and when it is in you, you can't help but bubble and gush and spill it out wherever you go.