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The Daily Word of Righteousness
My Reward Is With Me, #19
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalms 16:11—NIV) Our goal is eternal joy. This we shall have if we are willing to serve Christ in the present world—not just believe in Him but serve Him faithfully until the day we die.
Abilities
The last treasure we will mention is abilities, although there undoubtedly are many more treasures and rewards if we gave the matter more thought.
We cannot do the work of Christ except as He provides the ability. Our own talents and abilities may be pressed into service by the Lord, but the Body of Christ is built by the endowments from the ascended Christ.
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, To prepare God's people for works of service, so the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:11,12—NIV)
Christ gives gifts and ministries to people that they may be prepared to build the Body of Christ.
God gave Paul the gift of the apostleship so he would be prepared to build the Body of Christ.
God has given other men and women various ministries and gifts so they may be prepared to build the Body of Christ.
The eternal Scripture states that the ministries and gifts of the Body of Christ must operate until we all come to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13—NIV)
Since not many people reach this standard during their lifetime on the earth we may assume various abilities and gifts will be given to us when the Lord returns so we can continue with the work of the ministry.
But we know from the parable of the talents that if we do not profitably use what God has given to us now (and the Bible teaches that the Spirit of God has given gifts to every believer), then our abilities will be taken from us, given to another, and we will find ourselves in the outer darkness.
The punishment of those who have done nothing worse than neglect to use what the Lord has given them in the building of His Kingdom is very harsh—much harsher than we would suppose. Sometimes the Bible makes statements that are contrary to what we assume to be true. This is why we need to meditate in the Bible at all times.
If we are to rebuild a destroyed earth, and serve as a governing priesthood, then we are going to need wisdom and abilities from the Lord. Isn't this a fact?
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:4—NIV)
So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded. (Exodus 36:1—NIV)
If the Lord gave skill and ability to prepare those responsible for building the Tabernacle of the Congregation, how much more will we need special abilities from the Lord if we are to serve Him in the installation of His Kingdom on the earth!
To be continued.