Destination Church Spokane Podcast

In 1 Corinthians 12:9-10 we discover the next three gifts of the Spirit: faith, healing, and miracles. While every Christian is given a measure of faith, the spiritual gift of faith is an abundant measure of faith, often for a specific situation. It enables the believer to trust God for much greater things than he or she otherwise could. Gifts of healing are divine remedies given freely by the Spirit of God to restore physical, emotional, and/or mental health. Miracles are works of God's power that alter the ordinary course of nature. All three of these gifts are given by God for the common good of the church, because we need them, and for the purpose of building up the community of God's gathered people.

Words of wisdom and words of knowledge are two distinct gifts God gives by His Spirit, so how do they work within a church? Today we look at how these two gifts function well in a local church and why we need them. God gives these for various reasons, and we'll look at three of them: to protect, to partner in healing and encouragement, and to prepare His people to advance God's purpose in the earth.

If anyone in the church should be disqualified, it's the Corinthian church! But that is not how Paul approaches their immaturity and misuse of spiritual gifts. By the grace given to them by God they do not lack in spiritual gifts. After all, a gift wouldn't be a gift if it could be earned. These gifts include wisdom, healing, prophecy, teaching, and many more. Paul affirms that each and every follower of Jesus is gifted by God to be a blessing for the common good of the church.

This Sunday we celebrate four years together as the Destination Church family! We believe God spoke very clearly to us about Hillyard, and placed us here on purpose with purpose. Our mission statement is, "Helping people become joyfully devoted ambassadors of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory and delight of God our Father.' Just what does it mean for us to be ambassadors of Jesus in the city where we live?

Learning how to rest well is vital to healthy life! Thought the culture all around us may not instill this, Jesus claims that we really can know true rest, and that we can find it in Him. This God-ordained rest will lead to God-ordained blessing that supersedes anything we could have produced on our own. "Come to me," Jesus says. "Learn from me. I will give you rest."

The church was never intended to be domesticated. We are called to be a healthy people together on mission in the world around us. A healthy church family is learning to live: upward in powerful prayer for one another and for the world around us; outward as we partner in Christ's mission to "seek and save the lost"; and inward to one another, extending Christ to each other. In the final few verses of James' letter to the early church, we are challenged toward these traits as we discover their great benefits!

How would you describe a healthy church family? One that gets along? Meets every Sunday? Has small groups? In James 5:13-18 we discover several underlying traits that a heathy church family will value: to be gatherable, God-focused, Guided, God-powered, gracious, vulnerable, and exercising the power of prayer. A healthy church like this becomes an atmosphere of faith where expectancy for God to move is the norm. Has this been your experience? It can be!

When others know that our "yes" means "yes," and our "no" means "no," we are actually representing the trustworthiness of Christ to them. When our words and actions match up because of our integrity, there is no need for no additional oaths to make them so. When our word is trustworthy, our testimony about Jesus will also become more trustworthy to others as a result. God is a God of follow-through, a God of covenant promise, not of empty promises. He is true to His word, and will help us be men and women of integrity too.

Jesus is coming back! But we don't know when, so as we wait for Jesus we need to have patience. See how a farmer waits, after he has tilled, sowed, and watered. Even while nothing is happening he knows that the seed is growing and the harvest is coming. The harvest will come at the right time, and so will Jesus. In the mean time, we are learning to be patient - with one another! It's in the waiting and in the difficult seasons of life that we could easily fall into bickering with, or complaining about, each other. This is true for everyone, and that's why patience under pressure is such a powerful and visible expression of God's kingdom. Living for God in the here-and-now while waiting for Jesus will often spark faith in others to want to do the same. 

Being wealthy is not a sin!  However, we as people often tend to store up our treasures, and let them corrode or tarnish through selfish and unwise use. Wrongly withholding our resources from God and from one another, opposing God's will for our finances, our time, and our skills is destructively sinful. The good news is this: there are right ways, not just wrong ways, to harness wealth! So what does God want? He wants us to be generous, honest, trustworthy, and kingdom-focused with whatever wealth, influence, and resource we have. 

We all face big life decisions:  financial, business, relational, etc.  "Do I take the job, the promotion? Do I make the big move? Do I marry this person? Do I have this baby?" These decisions have enormous impact on the trajectory of our lives, shaping our future and the future of others. God wants us to make our plans wisely, submitting them to Him in the context of a prayerful and trusting relationship with Jesus. In James 4:13-17 we are challenged to lead ourselves not just into big plans, but into following His calling, His word to us. Our sovereign God really does know everything, including what is really best for us. It's a good thing to dare to have big dreams inspired by God, to make wise plans in faith, and to tackle life's decisions boldly; it's an even better thing to humbly seek His counsel and to submit those plans to Him.

What we really want is not always good. If we're really honest, what often dominates our minds, motivates our actions, and causes division among us is our own selfish desire.  Sometimes we may want God's blessing more than we want God! Desire for power, control, comfort, or approval can destroy our unity and sideline our prayers, but God's purposeful desire is for a faithful people who learn to seek after Him and His plan rather than our own. God has given - and continues to give - grace that is greater than our selfishness and lack of faith. His unmerited favor and divine enablement help us to love Him in return, and as we draw near to God his promise is that He will draw near to us. He is faithful to us even when we have been unfaithful to Him.

Jesus deserves our worship. We praise Him, not just because we feel good or life is going well; we praise Him because he is deeply and truly worthy. Biblical worship and praise is not driven by our emotional ups and downs, yet as we give ourselves to praising our worthy God our emotions follow our praise. God promises that those who seek Him will find Him; God reveals Himself to us when we praise Him.  In His word God invites us - and teaches us how - to praise Him physically with our bodies, leading our souls and spirits into worship as we do. Lift your hands! Shout your praise! Sing your song! It was God's idea, and He loves it.

Biblical wisdom is revealed by example, so the best teaching should be observable. Our submission to Jesus and the gentleness that comes with wisdom from him speaks powerfully to those around us, influencing their lives in a positive way. This Godly wisdom is not bitter, jealous, or selfish, and is not seeking its own gain. God's wisdom is pure and leads to peace, gentleness, mercy, and selflessness, like Jesus! Today we explore how to walk in this wisdom that represents the culture of Heaven.

Our words matter, and we are responsible to God for them. James reminds us that teachers, such as himself, will be held accountable and to a stricter judgment for the things they say. James also recognizes that sinning through the words we say is all too common. The tongue may be a small part of the body, but it is powerful, igniting fires of life or death with far-reaching consequences. If our words are a window to our hearts (and they are!), then inconsistent words - blessing and cursing out of the same mouth - reveal the brokenness in our hearts, while also distorting the very image of God we are trying to portray to one another and to the world around us. God wants to perform heart surgery, filling our hearts with His fire and His life-giving water, so that we can speak consistently from the overflow of His spirit. 

Faith without Christ-like action is impotent! While our works cannot save us, they definitely are a testament of our faith. Faith is revealed by action; it is impossible to demonstrate faith without it. Saying "I have faith", provides no proof by itself. However, living like Jesus becomes proof of our faith to others. Faith without works is as dead as works without faith; they belong together. Faith is made complete in action. As believers our faith will be overflowing into our actions.

Rich and poor alike are: equals in Christ, carrying the same family name, and heirs of the kingdom of God together. Treating others differently because of their status or monetary situation is contradictory to the royal law of Jesus and is sin. In James 2:1-13, James challenges the church to treat each other without bias, prejudice, or special favor. Instead, we are called to love one another and to show each other mercy, as God has shown mercy to us through Christ. 

It can be easy to have a short temper,  speak too quickly,  and to ignore what God has been speaking into our lives. The book of James says that as believers we are called to live differently. We are challenged to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. The true listening to which James is referring is not just a high volume of information passing in one ear and out the other, but an intentional receiving with practical application through faith-filled action! "What is God saying?" "What has He already said?" God will guide us to live these things out well in the real world while serving others humbly. This is part of our outward expression of our inward relationship with Jesus.

Every good and perfect gift is from God, and God has given us all gifts. Being the good Father He is, He has blessed us all in many ways and has also given us gifts of faith though hardship. Sometimes we may question if these gifts are actually good. We may even ask, "Do I really want this gift?" or "Do I really want to need faith?" James reminds us that God is the source of all good, is unchanging in His goodness, and God's gifts are for the ultimate long-term good of His chosen people.

Believers in humble circumstances can boast in their exaltation, James writes. They are a part of God's royal family and this is cause to celebrate. Greatness in this family is found in service, to God and one another. And the wealthy believers?  They can boast in their humiliation. Their earthly status and wealth is temporary in the eyes of the Kingdom. They can still celebrate when they are being humbled because God, who has blessed them, is now giving opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Rich and poor alike experience trials, but the crown of life is promised to everyone who endures. The believers' inner quality is being revealed through their persevering trust in Jesus.