One of my favorite times of the year is Christmas; I love giving (and receiving) gifts. I also get a great deal of satisfaction in custom wrapping gifts; wrapping them in such a way that it’s really hard to figure out what’s in the package.

1 Corinthians 12 tells us that God likes to give custom gifts too; but these gifts are spiritual in nature and only given to us by His Spirit. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit of God determines the specific gift(s) that you receive. Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift – sometimes many – but they’re all CUSTOM WRAPPED by God for that particular follower of Christ.

Check out the following verses from 1 Cor. 12:

V7. “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

V11. “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

V18. “But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.”

V25. “…so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.”

A couple of notes to consider about these Custom Wrapped Gifts given to those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ……

a. Your gifts are given to you FOR THE COMMON GOOD – so you need to use them to serve others. You serve God by serving people; in the Church and outside the Church.

b. God chooses what gifts you receive – so rejoice in the gifts He’s given you and be thankful (not envious) for the gifts that others have been given.

c. Don’t PROJECT YOUR GIFTS on others – expecting them to respond spiritually in the same way you do in every situation. God gave them their gifts – so they’ll respond according to their giftedness. (Not wrong – just different)

d. Gifts should always be used to bring greater unity to the Body of Christ – not division. When a person makes a claim about any gift and that claim is divisive in nature – that person is not under the control of the Holy Spirit.