Spiritual Regifting

Brothers and sisters; Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

Four years ago I wrote my first Advent book, In the Spirit of Christmas (self published, don’t look on Amazon :)). That book followed the inspiration that there are no accidents or incidental details with God, but that every word and detail in God’s Word was intentional. Following that inspiration, I walked through Advent by walking through each detail in the nativity narrative and what it means for us today. When I came upon the Wise Men, I reflected on our call to bring our gifts before Jesus. My inspiration with this element was that God has already given us the gifts that we can give in our “charisms”, our spiritual super powers so to speak. We are called to a “regifting” of sorts. This advent it feels as if my litany of prayer intentions is filled with some heavy hitters. The enemy has been busy to say the least. Yesterday morning I entered prayer with a heavy heart, a feeling not of hopelessness in God, but in the hopelessness of man. I know that God can work all things for good, but He requires our cooperation. As I prayed into each person’s struggle something different happened, I began to see what spiritual superpower that person needed to better cooperate with God’s will and fight the enemy. Holy Spirit then brought to mind a lesson from my days at the Encounter School of Ministry. At our baptism and strengthened at our confirmation, God has given us each a unique gift set of divine superpowers to help us navigate our circumstances. That is not the lesson, that is the premise for the lesson. The lesson is that we can ask God to take what He has given to us and to give it to another in need. The first time I heard that, I recoiled. I thought of myself, “I need and want my gifts.” Thankfully that is not the end of the lesson. When we offer God our gifts for another in prayer, He replenishes our supply as well. God is so good and generous. This is modeled in Jesus. Jesus gave authority to His disciples to go out and heal the sick, in doing so Jesus did not become less powerful. It was a spiritual multiplication of loaves and fish. With pen and paper in hand I began to write down each person I am praying for and then which spiritual gift of mine that I would like to gift them this Advent. I went from feeling a bit hopeless to feeling empowered and hopeful! Jesus rescued my Advent yesterday! Imagine the change we could bring about this Christmas if we began some spiritual regifting in these last 9 days! What are your spiritual superpowers? Scripture outlines quite a few: faith, hope, love, courage, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, awe, forgiveness, generosity, trust, peace. If you are a person of peace, who in your life is riddled with anxiety? Ask God to give them a share of your peace. If you are a person who can forgive easily, who in your life is struggling with unforgiveness? Ask God to give them a share of your forgiving superpower. We can share faith where faith falls short, fortitude where someone has an achilles heel. If it is easy to see God in the circumstances, I can pray wisdom into the person who just can’t see God. If I trust God in all circumstances, I can pray that my faith may answer the cry of “why” in another. I believe that God surrounds us with people that we can help, not just physically, but spiritually by asking God to share what He has graciously provided us with. John the Baptist told us as much in this past Sunday’s gospel.

The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?” He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none.”

It’s time to put together another Christmas gift list. Spend time with the Lord asking Him who He is asking you to share your abundance with. In prayer ask Him to grace that person with your share of faith, hope, love, forgiveness… Let’s put Christ back in Christmas by spreading more of what He really came to bring. Amen.