TODAY’S MEDITATION – Your character can kill the gift of God in you (Acts 2:17)

Yesterday’s word was telling us about how important it is for believers to allow the Spirit of God to transform their character. You see, God promised this: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). My brother, my sister, do you realise that God has kept this promise for you too? Do you know the gifts He has entrusted you with, because the Spirit of God does not enter our lives empty-handed! Unfortunately, many followers of Christ are not really interested in developing their relationship with Him through constant prayers, intercessions or Bible study. Let nobody fool you: your pastor will never help you develop your spiritual gifts for you to use them, because they are the gifts of God and they are controlled by God. The pastor can only pray about your gifts or encourage you by guiding you in ways to activate them. In the end, you alone can decide to have them activated by becoming serious with the Lord, by setting your eyes on things above and walking in obedience to God. The same, many believers think that the gifts of the Spirit are only reserved for special people that God has chosen in advance! That is wrong! Just like Judas became the betrayer, it could have been any of the other disciples: it is Judas’ character (love of money) that “qualified” him. You see, God wants to give us spiritual gifts for us to use them for the benefit of the Kingdom. But when He seeks your heart, what does He find? The fact is that everyone who goes to church does not necessarily seek the Kingdom and God’s righteousness first (Matthew 6:33), for a great majority is looking for blessings and miracles first. Therefore whoever does not want to serve the others, which is what Jesus came to teach us (but only wants to receive from God) may not see their gifts activated. Now, let’s look at how our character that can supersede the gift of God in us! You see, there are people God has called in specific ministries but their flesh has not yet died, and so their gift is inactive! From time to time, the Lord can use them for a specific case or mission, just because they are at the right place at the right moment, nevertheless their gift is dead just because of their character. Let’s look at Judas: though he walked with Jesus throughout the Lord’s ministry, his love of money has never died within him and he continued to steal, that is the reason why Satan managed to enter into him. Satan tried to enter Peter many times, but he did not succeed, because Peter was truly committed to Jesus despite his character. So, this should tell us that it is not because someone looks like they are close to Jesus (they can pray daily or loud, attend church every minute, etc…) that the Lord is using them! God can only use you powerfully when you have decided to deny yourself to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). It is quite clear: on the one hand, the Lord expects you to “rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Peter 2:1); on the other hand, He is waiting to see the coat of humility on your shoulders, because pride can easily overtake anybody who senses power or authority over the others. That is the reason why, for many people, despite their calling and their gifts, God has still not used them the way He would like to, just because He knows there are still some traits of character they are not ready to abandon and that could easily lead them to pride themselves like Lucifer to quickly become ‘Satan’. My friend, examine yourself today, and pray that the Lord will help you abandon yourself to Him so that the gift in you won’t be used efficiently for His Kingdom. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name. [facebook] [retweet]