Sunday's Devo - God Gave Gifts to Man

Eph 4:8 "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."
Tomorrow I leave for Yemen and I am pumped. I had wanted to have the blessing and prayers of the church and got it today. What a blessing. I don't believe in being a lone ranger - forerunner maybe, but not a lone ranger. Lone rangers get picked off and are easy prey for the devil. That is why we are called the body. We need each other.
Our pastor is preaching about our spiritual gifts. We all have them but we move in them more freely when we recognize that we can. I believe that we all start with a gift and the more we use it the more it grows. Then it flows into another gift and we develope that gift which flows into the next one. We can stop wherever we wish or we can have them all - which is called the mature man. Ephesians 4 talks about that. What makes us mature is when we can use the gifts in love and for the glory of God and not ourselves. This is not an easy assignment but it is attainable with God's grace. Jesus is a prime example of a man who walked in all the gifts and he told us that we would do greater works than him because he was going to his father. Epaphras prayed that we would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. The gifts are the will of God.
I pray that we would grow in grace and know the hope of our calling in Christ Jesus.