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April 15, 2010BETWEEN2WORLDS.ORGLeadingNigerians andNigerianAmericansinto a deeperrelationshipwith JesusChrist.Philippians 1:9-11Spiritual Gifts - part oneit’s ok to be a purple cowBy Segun AiyegbusiI recently came across a booktitled “PURPLE COW” by SethGodin, and it’s basic premise hadto do with businesses going fromgood to remarkable. His thinkinggoes something like this; If you’vegrown up in the city most of yourlife, leisure drives countryside canbe an interesting experience,especially with the farm life andcows one gets to see. Truth is,cows are exciting to watch. Atleast for the first few minutes, butafter a few miles, cows begin toget boring. They all start to lookthe same. Brown, black, white,spotted, eventually the old oneslook like the new ones. They maybe good looking and attractivecows, they may even be cows with1great personalities, but franklythey are still cows. However, ifduring your drive you were tosuddenly spot a PURPLE COW?Now, that would be prettyexciting! It would stop you dead inyour tracks! You would scream atthe driver to put the car in reverseso you could take a look at thepurple cow, maybe even takesome pictures, and put it on facebook until it goes viral.For Godin, a purple cowdescribes something phenomenal,something counterintuitive,exciting, and flat out unbelievable.The essence of a purple cow isthat it must be remarkable andexceptional.After reading his book, the“purple cow” concept quicklystuck with me, especially as I waspreparing this series of messageson spiritual gifts. The conceptbecame even clearer as I readabout the movement of the HolySpirit in the lives of the believersin the early church. I thought,“Man these dudes were a bunchof purple cows!” The more Istudied for the series, the more Ibegan to think of how the cowillustration is sometimes true ofthe church. If you have grown upin church like I have, after adecade or two, our churches andChristians all start to look alike.We all seem bored, sort of likecows waiting around, hanging out
BETWEEN 2 WORLDS . ORG - April 15, 20102till Jesus returns to take us home toheaven. Then it hit me! What if we allbecame purple cows? Wouldn’t that bea sight to see? But specifically, what ifwe became the kind of “purple people”whose lives were so marked by thepower and anointing of the Holy Spiritthat people around us actually have toslam on their brakes, make a u-turn inorder to checkout and experience God’spower in our midst? Now that would bephenomenal and counterintuitive!In 1 Peter 2:9-11, the apostle Petersays as Christians, we are aliens andstrangers passing through this world, hecalls us a royal priesthood, a chosenpeople and a holy nation belonging toGod. I wished he had slipped in thatpassage these words “ you are purplepeople”, the color of royalty!Think of that alien illustration for asecond, as an alien, you don’t naturallyblend in, especially a purple alien. You’llnever quite blend into this world as aresident because of what and whomlives in you, in fact, your life wasintended to stir up some seriousattention. You were intended by God tolive a life that is remarkable,counterintuitive, and exceptional! Andthat is our goal through this series onspiritual gifts. I want to show you thespiritual gifts at the heart of a purplepeople leader whose life is filled with,empowered by, and drenched with theanointing of the Holy Spirit. This seriesis a “calling out” of person God hascreated you to be, a calling out the“purple in you!” And that leads us to 1Corinthians 12.Let’s start off by addressing thequestion; what in the world is a spiritualgift? It is a gift (or gifts) given toChristians by the Holy Spirit. Specifically,it is an ability that enables the believerthrough the power of the Holy Spirit toperform a task with relative ease andsuccess. It’s outworking are sometimessupernatural, and other times natural.In one person’s life, it might play outin their ability to build other people upthrough words and acts ofencouragement. In others, it might playout in their ability to pray healing prayersover people or to speak in an otherwiseunknown language. In both (and all)instances, it’s the same Holy Spiritworking to bring glory to God the father.As a matter of fact, starting in 1Corinthians 12: 4, Paul says “ .Thereare different kinds of gifts, but the sameSpirit. 5 There are different kinds ofservice, but the same Lord. 6 There aredifferent kinds of working, but the sameYou’ll never quite blendinto this world as aresident because of whatand whom lives in you, infact, your life was intendedto stir up some seriousattention. You wereintended by God to live alife that is remarkable,counterintuitive, andexceptional!God works all of them in all men.” Notonly is there a diversity of spiritual gifts,but each gift manifests itself differently inthe life of each individual. Read the restof the passage starting in verse 7 “ Nowto each one the manifestation of theSpirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spiritthe message of wisdom, to another themessage of knowledge by means of thesame Spirit, 9 to another faith by thesame Spirit, to another gifts of healing bythat one Spirit, 10 to another miraculouspowers, to another prophecy, to anotherdistinguishing between spirits, to anotherspeaking in different kinds of tongues,and to still another the interpretation oftongues. 11 All these are the work of oneand the same Spirit, and he gives them toeach one, just as he determines.”This passage makes a number ofinteresting points, first one being thatwhen God determines a certain courseyour life is going to take, he equips youaccordingly with the appropriate gifts. Itcan probably be argued that yourspiritual gifting tells the story of whatGod is up to in your life, which is why it’sso important to know what they are andto begin using them.A crucial question to address at thispoint though is, who has these gifts? Ithink it’s very easy to assume thatspiritual gifting only belong to those inspiritual leadership, the pastors, smallgroup leaders, church planters, andworship leaders. But that would be anincredibly wrong assumption. Verse 7says to “Each one” the manifestation ofthe spirit is given for the common good ofall. The implication is that every bornagain believer in the body of Christ hasbeen blessed with a spiritual gift, in somecases – multiple gifts. These gifts weregiven by God to ensure that each believerwould have a tangible way ofparticipating in the building up and thespiritual growth of the church.The common mentality however hasbeen that “church” is something we doonce or twice a week, in some cases twicea week. We come in, we sit down,worship, pray, listen to a sermon, sayhello and chat with one another, andthen go home. But once again, that’sanother wrong assumption of what thechurch is. For born again Christians,church isn’t something we do – it’s whowe are. In verse 27 of the same chapter,Paul says, “ Now you are the body ofChrist, and each one of you is a part ofit.” That means the same spiritual powerthat works within me and allows me tospeak into your life is the same spiritualpower that lives within you. That meansthat each one of you is capable of havinga great impact and influence on theworld through the power of the HolySpirit working in you than I could everdream or imagine for myself. I say thatbecause I don’t want you to buy into thelie that “Segun is the pastor and is theonly one whom God can speak throughor work through”. That’s one of the new
BETWEEN 2 WORLDS . ORG - April 15, 20103prayer goals I’ve adopted for those whomGod would call me to minister to. Icontinually pray that God would begin towork so powerfully in your lives throughthe Holy Spirit, so much that yourimpact and influence on the world wouldbe greater than anything I could everdesire or dream for myself !Let me clarify some important detailsabout spiritual gifts, these are not thesame as a natural talent, skill or ability.God is the author and giver of themboth, but natural abilities and talentsoperate differently than spiritual gifts. Forone, a natural talent, skill, or ability issomething you are either born with orsomething that with discipline andtraining, you become extremely skilled atover a period of time. On the contrary,you are not born with a spiritual gift andit’s not something you just decide topickup, it is a gift that you are entrustedwith on the day you place your faith inJesus Christ. So that means when theHoly Spirit moved into your life on theday of your salvation, he moved in withsome gifts that would equip you toaccomplish what God intends to do withyour life. What is important to note herethough is that you are now a manager ofthese things entrusted to you, and youwill ultimately have to account for howyou used them.Another important detail aboutspiritual gifts is that it doesn’t come preassembled. In other words it doesn’tcome in a “ready-made” ability toperform. For instance, a Christian whohas the spiritual gift of teaching doesn’tautomatically become an amazing bibleteacher on the day he becomes aChristian. However, because of the waythe Holy Spirit is at work within theindividual, they now posses a newcapacity and desire to learn and teach. Abible passage that might take someonewithout the gift two months to grasp,would take this individual with the giftabout two minutes to understand becauseof the gifting of the Holy Spirit withinthem.Having said all of that, some of youare probably thinking, “great! But whatexactly are these gifts we’ve been given?Is there a list we can consult and how doI discover which one is mine?” Well, as amatter of fact – there is a list in thescriptures we can consult. The apostlePeter says in 1 Peter 4:10 “ Each oneshould use whatever gift he has receivedto serve others, faithfully administeringGod's grace in its various forms. 11 Ifanyone speaks, he should do it as onespeaking the very words of God. Ifanyone serves, he should do it with thestrength God provides, so that in allthings God may be praised through JesusChrist. To him be the glory and thepower for ever and ever. Amen.” Basedon this passage I take it to mean Peter isimplying there are two categories of gifts,the speaking gifts and the serving gifts. Acloser look at other texts in the scriptureswill however reveal a third categorycalled the sign gifts. (miracles, healings,tongues). These passages will give you aquick glimpse at all the gifts given by theHoly Spirit in the church age (1who gave some to be apostles, some to beprophets, some to be evangelists, andsome to be pastors and teachers, TOPREPARE God's people for works ofservice, so that the body of Christ may bebuilt up.”The serving gifts minister within thebody to encourage Christians. Theserving gifts are behind the scenes kind ofgifts (hospitality, leadership, faith, giving)and these have to do with the smoothrunning of the church. Paul actuallymakes the argument that these gifts arethe most important gifts, because withoutthem, we wouldn’t be able to have muchof a church service. So those are thedifferent categories that encompass alarge portion of the spiritual gifts presentin the church age.Here’s the good news, if you have putyour faith in Jesus Christ, one of thosegifts is within you and is waiting to beactivated. My hope throughout thisseries of messages is that God wouldgrant you a vision of which gift he’sdeposited in your life, and how you canbegin using it to build his kingdom. Oneof the ways you’ll know which one isyoursis through the emotions that willCorinthians 12-14, Romans 12:3-8,stirupas you read through each one ofEphesians 4:11-12, 1 Peter 4:8-11). If youwant to see the actual list of gifts outlines, them. When we get to a particular giftreturn to the website and on the“Spiritual Gifts” section, and click on“LIST OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS”Ephesians 4:11-13To help us understand how all these“ It was he who gave some to begifts operate in the church, I haveapostles, some to be prophets, somebroken them down into 3 categories, theto be evangelists, and some to besign gifts, the speaking gifts, and thepastors and teachers, TO PREPAREserving gifts.God's people for works of service, soThe sign gifts were given tothat the body of Christ may be builtauthenticate the message of the gospelwherever it was preached. A believerup.”with these gifts would go to a locationwhere unbelievers were present andpreach the gospel. However, a miracle,the Holy Spirit has entrusted to you, yourhealing, or speaking in tongues wouldheart will begin to swell with excitementsometimes accompany his sermons, andthe display of supernatural power would because the same Spirit will be tug atyour heart saying “BINGO! That’s it!”authenticate that the message was fromSome other practical ways to identifyGod. An example would be the accountwhich gift you’ve been entrusted with isof Paul and the crippled man in Actsto ask, “What service have I seen God14:8-10. So the sign gifts serve thebless in my life?” Let me give you threepurpose of drawing people into theexamples.church (body of Christ).When you pray for someone orThe speaking gifts minister to thesomething, do you tend to believe andbody to equip Christians. For the mosttrust God and his word longer? evenpart, these gifts (teaching,when everyone else has given up hope?encouragement, evangelism) have to doDo you tend to trust God even whenwith explaining the bible with spirit filledeverything and everyone around you tellsinsight. In other words, it has to do withyou otherwise? You might have the gift ofsome sort of public proclamation orfaith.teaching of the word of God so thatDo you feel an overwhelming need toChristians know how to live the Christianlife. Ephesians 4:11-13 says “ It was he ask God to do things beyond the natural?
BETWEEN 2 WORLDS . ORG - April 15, 20104Does it seem like every time you prayfor someone and ask God to heal him orher, God heals them physically on aconsistent basis? You might have the giftof healing or even miracles.Does sharing the gospel with nonChristians come naturally and easily toyou? and do your conversations oftenmeet with relative success in that theyput their faith in Christ? You mighthave the gift of evangelism.On the other hand, if it seems thatyou consistently fail at a particular areaof ministry, then God might be hintingthat your gifting is in another area. Forexample, if you claim to have the gift ofencouragement and people feeldepressed and saddened every time youtalk with them, you probably shouldn’tbe in charge of the encouragementteam at your church. If you claim tohave the gift of teaching, and week afterweek your class systematically dwindlesto one person, who just so happens tobe the pastor’s’ son, then you shouldreconsider teaching that Sunday schoolclass because teaching might not be yourgift. And lastly, if you claim to have thegift of evangelism and people alwaysseem to turn to other religions every timeyou share the gospel with them, thenthere’s something wrong with you! Doyou get the point?By the way, because you don’t have acertain gift doesn’t negate the need foryou to do those acts of service. Nothaving the gift of evangelism, service, orgiving doesn’t imply you never have towork at sharing the gospel with people,serve in the church, or give to those inneed. Sure, it might come more naturallyto others and they might meet with moreconsistent success than you will, but thescriptures are filled with instructions onhow we are to love one another in avariety of ways using those gifts! Soplease press on past what you perceive tobe (or not be) a gift in your life.I believe the key to understanding andusing spiritual gifts in our lives is torealize that the focus is never solely onthe gifts, but on the giver of the gifts. Ourfocus should always be on the Holy Spiritwho empowers us to use those giftsbecause when we do that, we will beamazed at the extent of the impact andinfluence that we’ll have.This truth is powerfully illustrated inthe life of a man named Phillip in theNew Testament. Not only does heexemplify what it looks like to be a purplepeople leader – but his story is a greatexample of what it looks like when yourI believe the key tounderstanding and usingspiritual gifts in our lives isto realize that the focus isnever solely on the gifts,but on the giver of the gifts.Our focus should alwaysbe on the Holy Spirit whoempowers us to use thosegifts because when we dothat, we will be amazed atthe extent of the impactand influence that we’llhave.gifts are entrusted and surrendered to theHoly Spirit.When we first meet him in Acts 6, heis a regular church member who hasbeen singled out along with SIX othermen to head up a hospitality team. Otherthan his name, he is simply described as aman full of the spirit and wisdom (thatshould always be your prayer, God fill mewith the anointing and empowerment ofyour holy spirit). A little later, we are toldhe also had the gift of evangelism (Acts21:8). But he didn’t dwell on those as thebasis for all he could do in ministry. Hewas simply open to wherever the HolySpirit would lead him. In chapter 8 ofActs, when persecution broke out inJerusalem and they started arresting andkilling Christians, the church scatteredand Philip took that as an opportunity totravel to a town called Samaria where heshared the gospel. His preaching wasaccompanied by a powerful display ofmiracles and healings, and many peopletrusted in Jesus Christ.In light of his ministry success inSamaria, he could have easily settleddown and possibly even launched a newmega ministry, but because Philip was soin tune with the spirit he was always onthe move. Verse 26 says after thatencounter, an angel showed up anddirected him to go to a specific desertroad where he would meet a veryimportant man. That divine appointmentwas with the treasurer of Ethiopia, a manof great authority who worked closelywith the queen of that nation and justhappened to be passing through. WhenPhilip arrives at the location the angeldirected him to, the Holy Spirit whispersin his ear to walk alongside the carriagecarrying the Ethiopian treasurer and tosimply listen. As Philip did, he heard theEthiopian reading from the OldTestament one of the prophecies aboutJesus. Phillip interrupts him to ask if heunderstood what he was reading, theman responded by saying he didn’t. Andso, for the next hour Philip explainedhow Jesus Christ fulfilled all the OldTestament prophecies. When he wasdone, the treasurers’ heart was sochanged by the gospel that he asked to bebaptized immediately and Phillip obligedhim. Listen to how verse 39 ends thestory “When they came up out of thewater, the Spirit of the Lord suddenlytook Philip away, and the eunuch did notsee him again, but went on his wayrejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared atAzotus and traveled about, preaching thegospel in all the towns until he reachedCaesarea.”You know what’s amazing about thisstory? It’s the fact that when Philip setout that morning, he had no idea whereand what the Lord was going to do. Hesimply knew that the gospel messageneeded to be shared and he trusted in thepower of the Holy Spirit to lead anddirect him, the gifts were a side benefit.What’s even more amazing is the manwhom he shared the gospel with.
BETWEEN 2 WORLDS . ORG - April 15, 2010Consider this fact. Through this experience with Philip, thisEthiopian treasurer was taking the gospel message back tothe high and mighty palaces of Ethiopia, and through himmany people in Ethiopia and Africa would hear the gospel ofJesus Christ. I wonder if it at some point spread to thenatives in the area of Nigeria at the time?Talk about being an unintentional missionary! Philip wasnot a prophet nor was he one of the great 12 apostles, he wasa regular congregation member just like you and whobelieved God was able to do great things through the HolySpirit living in him. Are you willing to believe that God wantsto and is able to do such a mighty work in your life?Remember, it is never about your gifts or how many peopleyou want to reach for Jesus – it is always about the power ofGod and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your life.That’s what we need to be crying out to God for, we wantmore of you Jesus, more of you Lord in our lives!To get an electronic copy of this document,download it from our website for free(www . between2worlds . org)Segun Aiyegbusi is an ordained reverend and serves as pastor ofyoung adult ministries at Grace the church on the Mount in NewJersey. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance TheologicalSeminary in New York and has a passion for preaching and teachingin-depth Biblical truths. Segun and his wife Modupe reside inNetcong, New Jersey and enjoy mentoring young couples andsingle adults in their twenties. They both currently minister to youngadults in a ministry called THE REMIX.www . remixnj . comwww . grace4families . comwww . facebook . com / people / Segun-Aiyegbusi / 649908331To get an electronic copy of this document, download it from ourwebsite for free (www . between2worlds . org)5
purple cow, maybe even take some pictures, and put it on face book until it goes viral. For Godin, a purple cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive, exciting, and flat out unbelievable. The essence of a purple cow is that it must be remarkable and exceptional. After reading hi
