program includes “ every one of us.” It is true of each believer of every age, every culture, every background and every race. The remainder of this passage speaks of Christ having gone back to Heaven f o l l owi ng His resurrection and “ gave gifts unto men . . . for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4 :12 ,13). Today God is not only looking for, but He is waiting for those who have been saved by His grace to turn their lives over to Him completely in order that they may serve Him by His grace. T IM E Magazine carried an essay with the title “ CHAR ISMA .” The two page story related how the wor l d was l ook i ng for a charismatic man today. Of course, it was writing in the field of economics and politics. It cited some of the political leaders of the wor l d , such as Roosevelt, Churchill and DeGaulle, as men with charisma. But today, it lamented, there are few such leaders around. In like manner, God is seeking the availability of those men, women and youth who have been given charisma in order that He might complete His work in this world.
I do not doubt that many Christians feel they do not have charisma. But God’s Word says that He has given everyone a grace to serve Him. We may think of great and gifted leaders as people who could be described in terms of a thousand gallon capacity. These are very few. There are some who have a hundred gallon capacity; still others who have a ten gallon capacity; many have a one gallon capacity; or even a quart and pint capacity. The world looks upon those who have the great capacity as people with great honors. They are thus rewarded. The thousand gallon capac ity one-half full seems infinitely superior to a mere half-pint jar which is overflowing. That is the world’s unfortunate way of measuring gifts. But when God looks upon the Christian serving under grace, He takes greater delight in the overflowing half-pint than He does in the thousand gallon capacity which is only half full. When a person becomes carried away by his own large capacity, he becomes useless to the Lord. The foundation principle of serving under grace is to recognize our capacity and see that this is completely filled with the Holy Spirit.
For the past 15 years, Dr. Mitchell has been Pastor of Bethany Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a popular Bible Conference Speaker and was a guest Bible teacher for the 1971 Torrey Conference.
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