The need for the “spectacular” has ruined believers’ faith in many ways.
There is this hunger and panting for “showmanship” that has made sincere believers doubt themselves and the power of God in their lives. It is one of the extremes that the charismatic and Pentecostal movements have brought.
Simple things have been made and taught in such a spectacular way that the ignorant believer starts looking for “manifestation” and, in the process, kills the “normal” working of the Spirit in him.
I said to someone once:
“You can’t be a Christian and not have any gift of the Spirit working in you.”
It is called a “gift” for a reason. It doesn’t come after. It comes with the Spirit. Some may come later; I don’t think there are stringent rules to how they come.
But no believer is without a gift.
They just don’t know it. Probably because it is not some spectacular thing. I also believe there are more gifts of the Spirit than what we have listed in the Bible.
I have seen some things at work in me that don’t fit into any of the things mentioned as gifts in the Bible. Yet, it is supernatural.
But this article is not about gifts of the Spirit.
It is about drawing the line between what is spectacular and what should be normal.
Believers live “abnormal” lives daily, but because no one is screaming and breaking chairs, we don’t recognise it, and so we don’t give glory to God.
The first time I realised I operated in one of the gifts mentioned in the Bible, I was so surprised that it was just “normal.”
I didn’t even know it was it until some days later.
I was just thinking about the event when suddenly it clicked.
“Wait, wait. What was that? How did that happen? Who told me that? Isn’t that this...?”
You see. I operated in the gift but never knew it was the gift. Do you know why? I’ve been around radical Pentecostalism for too long. So my mind has been conditioned to think “chaos” or “spectacular” whenever I hear the words “gift of the Spirit.”
What is a “word of wisdom?”
The ability to give wise counsel or advice.
What is a “word of knowledge?”
The ability to know something without being told beforehand.
What is the “gift of faith?”
The ability to exercise faith in very impossible situations.
These things don’t necessarily come with noise.
They don’t always come with falling under the power, shouting, shaking, or some dramatic public manifestation. Sometimes, they simply happen. And because they happen so naturally, you don’t recognise that something supernatural is taking place through you.
Many of you have been living by God-knows-how since the beginning of this year. You have spoken to people and their lives have changed. You have given people words that you didn’t pre-think, and they have confirmed them and thanked you. You have faced great challenges, confessed God’s Word, and passed through them.
But because you don’t have a pulpit and no one is screaming “Yes, Papa!”, you look at your life and say:
“God, I am as dry as a desert. I don’t have anything.”
And because we don’t acknowledge these things in our lives, sometimes they stop working because we stop engaging them intentionally.
Again:
No believer is without a gift.
You have prayed for someone, and they got healed. For some of you, you seem like you hold the keys to people’s happiness. When they meet you, you know how to calm their hearts with words. You didn’t learn it in school. It came by the Spirit.
Maybe you have a strange ability to know when someone needs encouragement.
Maybe you consistently find yourself saying the exact thing someone needed to hear.
Maybe you have an unusual capacity to believe when everyone else has given up.
Maybe you have an instinctive ability to discern situations that others cannot see.
Maybe you have prayed for things that seemed impossible and watched them happen.
And because none of these things looked spectacular, you simply called them “me.”
But perhaps that is the point.
The Spirit does not always announce Himself with noise.
Sometimes, He works through the ordinary parts of your life until the ordinary becomes the vehicle for something supernatural.
Stop spectacularising what should be your normal life.
Leave childishness for children. God is calling you to a higher walk of obedience with Him. And if you need something that you don’t think you have, you can desire it.
1 Corinthians 12:7:
“A spiritual gift is given to EACH OF US so we can help each other.”
KJV:
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to EVERY MAN to profit withal.”
Notice the purpose.
It is not for “showmanship.”
It is not to look “spectacular.”
It is to help people.
That changes the entire way we should think about spiritual gifts.
The question should not always be: “What supernatural thing can I do?”
Perhaps the better question is: “Who is being helped by what God has placed in me?”
Because the Spirit is not given to you merely to make you look powerful.
He is given “to profit withal.”
To help.
To build.
To strengthen.
To serve.
And perhaps one of the greatest signs of spiritual maturity is when what once looked spectacular to you becomes so integrated into your walk with God that you simply see it as normal Christian living.
The goal is not to become more spectacular. The goal is to become more useful.
Anything outside of this is the beginning of our immaturity.
“The goal is not to become more spectacular. The goal is to become more useful”
This really resonates with me. Funny enough, I was thinking about this just this morning before coming across it here.
Thank you so much, sir, for the clarification.