We’re looking at destiny, looking at the different parts of our destiny. we have looked at our identity as sons. every one of us has an individual inheritance that God intends us to inherit. Jesus died so that we could do that, he has left it to us if you like in his will and we have identity, redemptive gift, and destiny.
We need to know who we are as sons of God. know who we are. knowing the father God and knowing who I am. But we also need to know how we am made. This is where we look at redemptive gifts.
What I am made for. My destiny, my birthright, because knowing who I am and knowing how I am made. I am made for a purpose. It is not just that I made, just to hang out and do my own thing, there is a purpose involved with God and his purposes.
Romans 8:29 for those who God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. so, God desires a family. And it is deep in our hearts, a need that we have to belong.
God wants us to belong to his family. It is my destiny to be a son but were all on a journey from slavery when we began when we were born again and then through the process of growth, we go from infancy onto maturity of sonship. We need to know where we are on that journey because if we know where we are we can know where were going.
The question is do I feel, think, and act like a son. God wants us to know this in an intimate way.
Romans 828 we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose.
So, if we want things to work together for good and not just our good but for the good of everything and everybody then we really need to know that were called and we have a purpose.
Otherwise, it’s very chaotic and a hit and miss situation whether we fulfill anything in our lives concerning our destiny. So, the question is do you know his purpose for your life. Have you accepted his call in your life because those two things will work together to enable us to be able to see our lives outworked in bringing glory to God and seeing transformation.
Romans 12:2 says do not be conformed to this world so the world wants to conform us to a particular pattern which generally robs us of what God intends us to have but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is.
So, to know his purpose for our lives, to know what he’s called us to, both in this realm and in heaven, so that we can engage and bring the kingdom from heaven to earth through our lives. we want to be a gateway of heaven on earth.
We want to have an open heaven over us in order to engage with the Holy Spirit, to engage with the father and the son in intimacy. To have an open heaven over us, we need to be transformed.
We may start out being masked, damaged or perverted in our identity, in our gifts and callings and destiny because of the things we have done. the things we have faced, those things that have happened to us, the circumstances and situations, the generational things in our family lines. we may have had to put on a mask so that we really don’t know who we really are, therefore, we feel where do I fit in, where do I belong. I don’t really feel I know what I am supposed to be doing here. and it becomes the cry of the whole world. why am I here, what is this it all about.
God desires to transform us to, to reveal who we are, and our ministry of service, so that we can be part of the process of restoring the whole of creation.
Now there are different types of gifts the Lord imparts to us, the gifts we have are different from each other and different in how they work.
1 Corinthians 12 :4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
We are told in 1 Corinthians 14 to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, especially that we prophesy, we should be all operating in this gift of prophecy.
1 Corinthians 14: 3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.
We should all be baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
In Ephesians 4 we have the ministry gifts, the fivefold ministry.
Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.
In Romans 12 we have the redemptive gifts.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
In Romans 12:6 it says we have different gifts and that we should use them. God has given to us his divine ability in the form of a gift. He has left nobody.
So, if it’s prophecy in a church setting then let us prophesy but let us do it according to the proportion of our faith. if service, in our serving. He who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts, in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who rules with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.
There are seven different gifts. Prophet, servant, teacher, exhorter, giver, ruler, and mercy. It is important to understand what those things are. I’m not an expert in this. the question is what gift do I have? who I am, how do I think, how do I act? so that I know myself. So, I don’t have to compare myself with anyone else. so, I understand how God has made me, how he has wired me to think, to feel, to act.
Therefore, I can be comfortable in my skin not having to try and be like anybody else but also recognizing other people are different and therefore I can respect the differences rather than get frustrated with them.
Although it’s very easy to get frustrated as we do when people don’t seem to see things the same way as we do. but actually, everyone is not supposed to see things the same way.
So, when you put it all together, we see things like Jesus does, which is good. it says that when someone is a prophet, they have to be that prophet in proportion to faith. There is something about faith which is very much linked to being a prophet. a servant in serving. You cannot be a servant in theory you have to do it in serving. Same with teaching, it is in teaching that the teacher expresses himself. same with exultation. but then the next three are interesting. giver with liberality, so it describes how a giver gives. it describes how a ruler rules, with diligence. so, when you find out which gifts you are. Then it’s important to look at some of the specifics.
Mercy with cheerfulness. so, it indicates that actually the mercy gift may struggle with being cheerful perhaps. have a look at those things as we go on.
Why is it a redemptive gift? Romans 8:19 says the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. So, everything that God has created in the spiritual realm, the physical realm, everything is waiting for God’s children to be revealed and to bring back to creation what is missing.
For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of him who subjected it. But there is hope. just because the world is a mess, doesn’t mean it has to always be a mess. just because creation is not fully in order doesn’t mean that it will always not be in order.
God is wanting to bring things back, restore things back to the created order. so, creation itself will also be redeemed from its slavery to corruption.
If you look in the laws of thermodynamics your see that everything is coming down to entropy, it is getting worse. but actually, that’s not God’s intention and things will change as they come into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
So, we are called to be part of God’s process of restoring, redeeming the whole of creation. therefore, the gift that God has given us to be, is part of that.
So, when we discover who we are, we can discover how we fit in with God’s overall purpose. so redemptive gifts are dealt to each person in different measures of faith. so we have different proportions and different things that we operate in.
God gives people as the different gifts. God gives these gifts because they are necessary to fulfil his redemptive will on the earth. Each of us is a gift, differing according to the grace given to us by God. and so it is knowing that grace and knowing what God is empowered us to be, and how he has empowered us to think and feel and to act, that will will set us free to outwork that to the benefit of those around us and the world in general.
So each person is and has a primary gift. That gift influences the course of our lives regardless of whether we become Christians or choose to reject Christ.
These are called redemptive gifts, and we receive them when we are born a human being, not when we are born from above.
It is in us, so it is out worked much better when your connected to the one who designed you. but actually, it is in you, and you will think and feel that way.
Psychologists termed these differences in people, basic temperaments or personality types. now those things can be changed obviously with the people were associated with when we are growing up, things can change it.
Will look at those things in the future. So, it is how I’m wired up or designed that enables me to fulfill my destiny, to engage in the process of restoring creation.
John 3:16 probably the most famous verse in the Bible. for God so loved the world and that world does not just mean people, it means the Kosmos, it means everything. that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. that eternal life is not talking about the length of life, it is talking about the quality of life and it starts immediately when we are born from above, we reengage with our creator and our designer so that we can start to be, and to know who we are.
So redemptive gifts are received at conception rather than salvation. when we get saved God can give spiritual gifts and the other gifts, but redemptive gifts are things that we are with born with. God’s given them and we are them.
Jeremiah 1:5 says before I formed you in the womb I knew you. before you were born I consecrated you, set you apart, I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.
So, God had a purpose and a design, in this instance to the prophet Jeremiah, but gifts are for everyone, each of us and it’s for us to find out and discover that so that we really know who we are.
And then we really know what was supposed to do and how were supposed to do it. so, we are designed with a purpose, and we are designed on purpose. God has designed us specifically, uniquely. So the gifts tend to shape our personality and the way in which we receive some of the other gifts.
So, the other gifts, offices, ministries, will outwork from who we are and how we designed to operate.
This is a definition I found of a redemptive gift. a redemptive gift is the grace of God woven into who we are, that when we are made right with God, we become able to honor him with how he’s made us to be. I encourage you to think about that, think about what God is woven into you and who you are.
But also think about what else has been woven into you, which is influenced negatively. How we think about ourselves and how we operate.
So redemptive gifts is how I intrinsically am made to function. Ideally with spirit and soul in harmony. But we don’t start out that way. our soul or our heart, our personality traits are developed independently of our spirit. Because our spirit was asleep, we were separate, we were fractured. when we come into being, were fractured, separated from God in our mind. our spirit is separated from our soul in the sense that it is asleep and not functioning the way God created it to and that creates a big problem.
So, we end up damaged. and that can mask and pervert our lives. so we need to discover our gift and then purify and refine the heart, to define and polish it. so it begins to shine.
There are certain common behavioral characteristics that are used to help us determine what the gifts are. most of us got a primary gift, a secondary gift.
When I looked at my own redemptive gifts, I found three main gift types. But I needed to find out what was the primary one. and sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it is not easy. You have to look at it and see. but those certain traits, that are the fruit of the spirit need to be outworked anyway.
So, some of the gifts, compassion may come easily, for someone who is a servant or a mercy gift. It may not come for someone who is a prophet or ruler as easily. But that is not an excuse. we mustn’t use the gift we are as an excuse for not growing in love. Love actually is the foundation for everything. The reason we do it is to bless other people. So that were here for the blessing of others not for just selfishly our own needs. and so, it’s important to recognize that we may be a particular gift type, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t develop in character, that goes along with it.
So were called to walk out the FRUIT the Spirit whether it comes naturally or not. And for some of us different gifts come naturally. different characteristics come more naturally but it is our responsibility to grow spiritually in our lives.
There are seven redemptive gifts that are connected with many of the list of seven in the Bible. This is a very interesting thing. I am not going to go into this in any depth at all, but I will in the different messages gives the list of the different things. So, when you find out which gift you are, then you can look and see some of the sevens. if you’re interested enough to find out and see how they may relate to how you are.
There is an excellent teaching material online you can find on YouTube by Arthur Burke who goes into this in great depth and is a really excellent teacher in this whole area. I encourage if you’re interested to listen to some of the messages he’s done.
So, we got these seven gifts. the seven colors of the rainbow are related to these gifts. So, the Prophet red, the servant orange, teacher yellow, exhorter green, giver blue, ruler Indigo, mercy Violet.
We have all these colors here, to do with the seven spirits of God. there is something to do with color and frequency and sound and light that all starts to work together to bring something more to us and were just starting to explore this in our worship and some of the groups that we have .what does this mean and I would encourage you just to be open for deeper revelation of some of the things that at the moment we are just touching on the edge of. But I know there is going to be greater revelation coming to do with frequency and smell, fragrancy which brings healing. Frequencies bring healing there are different things that God is revealing today that we in the past have just rejected, because we thought it was a bit weird but actually God is opening the door to revelation to the truth not the counterfeits. There is truth but also with each gift, there is also a principle of design.
So, the Prophet is about design. Everything a prophet thinks about is how things work together and are designed. servant is authority, teacher responsibility, exhorter sowing and reaping giver stewardship, ruler freedom and mercy fulfilment.
So, the prophet, first day of creation, about light, day and night about time and space it is about design. So, the first one is linked to design. so, there are some characteristics of how a prophet thinks. You won’t necessarily relate to all of them because their general characteristics and depending on how we been brought up and on how our life is gone will determine how some of these things get outworked.
But over the next few weeks I’ll give some more characteristics so that we can start to get into it. A prophet is moody articulate passionate generous intense, keen sense of justice loves the underdog, creative, judgmental and extreme.
The redemptive gift of prophet is different from the gift of prophesy. while prophets understand the future through revelation that comes directly from God. Those with a redemptive gift of prophet understand the future through the use of biblical principles. it is the design that God wants us to see in that.
So, we are going to look at the seven gifts and give an example of how this might be outworked in life. It’s all about when someone visits someone in the hospital. So, each gift we will look at how they might react. So, the prophet visits someone in hospital and it may look like this, they will come to the person’s bed with compassion and yet with a sense of firmness, proceed to quote scriptures of truth regarding healing. you should not be here, this isn’t right. they ask a person about their blind spot and really challenge them about faith. Not too much compassion in there but actually sometimes people need a kick on the backside and to face, hey you need to do something about this, and prophets tend to focus on that. A servant is diligent, no enemies, high spiritual authority, low self-image, impeccably honest, team player prone to victim’s spirit. now we will look at those in a bit more detail as we go on. God gives the redemptive gift of servant the highest level of spiritual authority.
That might seem strange but it’s because they can be trusted to use it for the kingdom rather than themselves. However, until the servant sees himself as God sees him, that gift of spiritual authority often remains under-utilized, you have to know how God sees you and accept it. When a servant gifted person enters the hospital room, they immediately start to fluff up the pillows, tidy things up a bit ask is there anything I can do for you. Their intent is to assist in this critical time of need, they might even take a piece of paper and ask for things they can do, for the person at home they thrive on the fact there is a clear need, and they can also tend to be very competitive. unless they learn to serve in a healthy way they can become enablers. They must learn to empower others rather than just doing it to meet their own need. A teacher is loyal, humorous, late, wordy accurate, thorough patient, safe, detailed, a saver not a thrower. They keep stuff just in case. Slow tempered. Teacher carries a double portion of the priestly mantle, he or she is skilled in healing the emotionally and spiritually wounded who have been alienated from God. When the teacher nature person visits an ill person in the hospital they walk up to the bed and begin to ask questions like what did the doctors say was wrong. Did you get a second opinion or diagnosis. what they desire is information. So that they can add to their assessment. They love good conversation and find it all fascinating. That might not seem very good with when you visit somebody. but a teacher will go away and find out stuff and come back and give them some information and revelation may help the circumstances because that is how they are wired. That is how they think.
Exhorter is a people person, obsessive-compulsive, verbal, expressive. They find it difficult to shut up, high-energy, in motion must change dramatic melodramatic, superb teacher, natural leader , fun, funny, late, real late. Why are they real late? because they get caught up with people and people’s stuff to help people, it divertsthem to where they may been going what they might have been doing because they caught up in the now with people.
a good thing if your in need find an exhorter. While the exhorter is the most spontaneously relational of all the gifts their real strength is revealing the nature of God. the exhort has an unparalleled ability to see God in Scripture and to cause us to see our world differently because we’ve engaged a bigger perspective of God .when the exhorter visits the hospital patient they begin telling stories that might cheer the person up. everything that the patient says reminds the exhorter of another story and both laugh the time away. the exhorter will come equipped with Scripture and often messages from other people. they have a tendency to insist the person feels better right away. does not want this problem to persist, let’s move on because there is something more to do.
giver private intuitive insightful cautious chameleon good listener very independent impulsive contradictory frugal unpredicted predictable multifaceted to the same family focused on the run through these were gonna go over them again in the future gift giving has the amazing ability to adapt almost any situation without being changed at all when they seem to fit in wise in defeating wealthy typically retain all their core values rather than embrace the values of community around them because it’s about giving about receiving giving when the giver visits the infirmary Hospital they always come bearing a gift to encourage usually something thoughtful so in times gone into the planning presentation and timing of the delivery they desire for the patient to be reminded in a tangible way they are loved says that giftgiving type ruler busy real busy thinks big on time reliable leader fearless not easily swayed visionary team builder multitask easily reads people were ruler has the highest ability to get the maximum effectiveness at the poor labour pool dollars grace them with a combination of love with enables the mature only ruler to accomplish extraordinary things with the team of that appears to be highly inadequate we need the rulers when a leader that straight visits the hospital they take apart papacy to enquire what they need to be done at the patient’s home of family life they will say I will get some people to take over your responsibilities by hospital they will check out insurance of the patient the doctors advised how all the pieces must fit together next week to the person’s life by the time legalese is a clear plan for the next season and the patient’s life is all that was to come and we get this back in order we get it sorted out mercy intuitive intuitive intuitive safe sensitive loves beauty finds the ambulance no enemies works hard hugely compliant stubborn in the nicer soaraway gift of mercy is dramatically different than the other previous six gifts mercy he is God with their heart while others tend to hear with their mind God uses a gift of mercy to bring the spiritual climate into right alignment through the blessing of presence because they bring the presence of God when the person that this dominant trait walks into the hospital they begin to softly weeks of compassion seeing their loved one in such a state they will come closer comfort them wiping their forehead speaking softly words of sympathy they will stay endless hours to keep the patient company supporting in any way possible that’s all about having mercy works now examples of some of the profits in Scripture when you find out your profit might like to look at these people’s lives and draw something from them Miriam Naomi’s eco-Peter Jonathan came up servants in Scripture Esther Joseph Barnabas Simeon Timothy nice teachers in Scripture Luke Isaiah Samuel Mary exhort is in Scripture Moses Jeremiah Paul give earth in Scripture Abraham Jakob Joe Matthew rulers in Scripture know Solomon Jeremiah name I though as Joseph: those nurses in Scripture Ruth David John Allen and so when you find out have a look see how that your life may come out of that pattern what you can learn from the reality is you are you you are designed but everyone is designed your unique also everyone is unique your messed up in some way everyone is messed up in some way so aggressively patients with each other in this and we need to understand that we need to grow in understanding you are a mixture everyone is a mixture were all in the process of refining purifying to remove that mixture so that the pure who God created us to be can be seen and displayed for everyone so we can all be as God designed us to be so we need to respect and honour the differences and uniqueness in each other and that is a big issue because we tend to get irritated with people aren’t like us and we tend to draw together people like us and the reality is bridesmaid is made all the difference seven gifts so that we can get a full picture in understanding and being able to outwork so in the picture the church church is like a body we need all the different parts of the body functioning for it to be a fully functioning church and therefore we all the gifts functioning here amongst us so that we can all outwork the things God given us but we need to honour each other and the culture of honour is a key understanding when we come to look at these things because when we rest up to look at the gifts look at your own to start with that then be aware how other people think as well so that helps them not to be frustrated when people see things differently than us so in thinking about the characteristics of these redemptive gifts is important to look at what is learned or acquired behaviour the things we’ve learnt in our lives because of our situation and circumstances versus the essence of who we are and how we design because sometimes it can be frustrating within ourselves we just don’t feel the light is been fair life is outworked away it should have done and therefore because deep down who we really are hasn’t been able to be expressed through various things that might have suppressed it or inhibited it. It so we can really feel on the inside really frustrated and disappointed and hurt and that can affect us in in a deep way so it’s important to see we may have learned lots of behaviours was aren’t necessarily what was supposed to have the whole process of purification refining separates the gift from the negative programming negative patterns of thinking and things that we’ve received and we also got a whole series on how to to do that is an interesting couple of verses justice of come to a close Proverbs 22 six train up a child in the way he should go and in the amplified version it says in keeping with his individual gift or bent or that redemptive purpose and when his old you will not depart from it that is really every parents responsibility now unfortunately most of us didn’t really get that some of our parents trained us up in the way they want us to go for you carry on the family business and a things you see the doctors pair children become doctors at their jungle doctors lawyers different things because if pressure put on to actually carry on the parents that God may have never intended that person to be that they’re pressured and forced into a particular mould that actually suppresses their whole life may never feel they fit the sometimes it follows that one follows another that’s great but it’s not always in the Testament Ephesians 6 forces fathers do not provoke your children to anger bring them up in the discipline instruction of the lawn otherwise the way God wants them to be and who they are and so rather than thinking about what we want to our children what is best from our perspective need to understand how God has made our children to be we can encourage and release them into their supposed to be and then they won’t depart from they will be comfortable in their own skin they will know they are and they will be able to outwork that in life for most people the dominant redemptive gift jumps off the page to you recognise yourself in some of the characteristics but for others it can be narrowly down narrow down to a few then you have to find out which one it is that sometimes The always obvious sometimes determine a person’s redemptive gift is like looking an uncut jet to the untrained eye that rock and some of us love each other that way rocks but actually if you take the time to remove the excess layers of been placed on it over time the true dual belongs begins to emerge inside and so we need to look at each other with the potential of how God sees each other God sees us with the potential is placed in us we often look and see all the external behaviours all the stuff on the surface and get put off actually the reality is we need to look beyond that into the destiny and the purpose that God is created us and there’s always something there which is a gem we just need to actually see that gem and begin to shine so as yourself some questions why do I think like I do while I feel like I did while I act like I do what is how I’m supposed to think feel at and what is because I’ve just been inadequately nurtured or have experiences in my life that have affected me less know our true identity and be free to be us because that’s what God wants he wants us to be free to be us God is your father and your designer you may never have connected up with God in a real personal way God there any send Jesus so that we can access that relationship again so our spirit and soul can come back into harmony that who we are can come back into harmony with creation with God himself as our designer God desires to call forth your identity as his child God desires to reveal your identity to you God wants you know who you are and how you are designed so only to just and just sit quietly and it sells gonna put on a song and in this song is about coming closer coming deeper to God so God can reveal to you who you are we discover the spray just father was pray right now you will just come with an open heaven here draw us into that intimacy and relationship with you continue the process of drawing us into who we are as your children reveal those redemptive gift and who you have called us to be to us as we come closer to you we Wanna draw closer right now we thank you for the open heaven we thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit we thank you for the presence of the angels you are here we just pray as we come closer that we will just begin to discover who we truly are maybe today will find you for the first time maybe today will find something real and new about ourselves from your perspective as we learn to draw near to you so to encourage you to stay in that place of quietness disclosure eyes and just as the music plays and as the words just let that sense of God’s presence just rest on the closer we draw to God the more we find out about ourselves the deeper we get into God deeper we get into ourselves as encouraging this process just open up your heart so I got to to draw you closer and deeper and so we find we really are so we can outwork that his glory you’ve been blessed by this teaching from my house come and visit our website freedom trust.all with/place place where you’ll find a whole range of resources God has given us a man to raise up Joshua generation will enter into the promises of God others say you can’t that Joshua generation is God calling you partner with like to invite you to connect with social media to find us on Facebook Twitter and Google plus and on us sons of this, freedom apostolic resource centre here to help you and others find and fulfil your debt