Identity - Week 23

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (Jesus of Nazareth, Jo. 14:12)

"Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant." (The Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 12:1)

While on the earth, Jesus walked in full obedience to the Father. He spoke truth that liberated the lost and lonely. He did miracles that verified the promises of God for his people. Jesus defied what people came to trust as "the way things worked in the world" and as he prepared to return to the Father, he promised that we would do even greater things than he.

I doubt that any one of us will ever feed five thousand with two loaves and a few fishes but when the Holy Spirit invades a community of people and sets up residence in the church as he did in the literal "body of Jesus," we can indeed do greater things. There are billions of followers of Jesus throughout the world and if all of us embrace the privilege and responsibility of serving others as the according to the way the Spirit has gifted us and is leading us, the miraculous will happen. Count on it!

Today we begin to unravel the issue of Spiritual gifts in the church. It is a complicated and controversial issue but nothing is more important for us to understand if we want to enjoy our identity as followers of Jesus Christ.

- Dan