Wigglesworth Devotional for December 20
December 20
A Perfect Fit
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
—1 Corinthians 12:4
Scripture reading: Romans 12:3-13
The variation among humanity is tremendous. Faces are different, so are physiques. Your whole body may be put together in such a way that one particular gift would not suit you at all, while it would suit another person.
So the Word of God deals here with varieties of gifts, meaning that these gifts perfectly meet the condition of each believer. That is God’s plan. It may be that not one person would be led to claim all the gifts. Nevertheless, do not be afraid; the Scriptures are definite. Paul said that you do not need to come short in any gift (1 Cor. 1:7). God has wonderful things for you beyond what you have ever known. The Holy Spirit is so full of prophetic operations of divine power that it is marvelous what may happen after the Holy Spirit comes. How He loosed me! I am no good without the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit loosed my language. I was like my mother. She had no ability to speak. If she began to tell a story, she couldn’t finish it. My father would say, “Mother, you will have to begin again.” I was like that. I couldn’t tell a story. I was bound. I had plenty of thoughts, but no language. But oh, after the Holy Spirit came!
When He came, I had a great desire for gifts. So the Lord caused me to see that it is possible for every believer to live in such holy anointing, such divine communion, such pressed-down measure (Luke 6:38) by the power of the Spirit, that every gift can be his.
But is there not a vast and appalling unconcern about possessing the gifts? You may ask a score of believers, chosen at random from almost any church, “Do you have any of the gifts of the Spirit?” The answer from all will be, “No,” and it will be given in a tone and with a manner that conveys the thought that the believer is not surprised that he does not have the gifts, that he doesn’t expect to have any of them, and that he does not expect to seek them. Isn’t this terrible, when the living Word specifically exhorts us to “earnestly desire the best gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31)?
So in order that the gifts might be everything and in evidence, we have to see that we cease to live without His glory. He works with us, and we work with Him — cooperating, working together. This is divine. Surely this is God’s plan.
God has brought you to the banquet, and He wants to send you away full. We are in a place where God wants to give us visions. We are in a place where, in His great love, He is bending over us with kisses. Oh, how lovely is the kiss of Jesus, the expression of His love!
Oh, come, let us seek Him for the best gifts, and let us strive to be wise and to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15), giving it forth in power so that the church may be edified and sinners may be saved.
Thought for today: Look to the Holy Spirit to show you how to use the gifts so that you never use them without the power of the Spirit.
Excerpted from Smith Wigglesworth Devotional by Smith Wigglesworth, © 1999 by Whitaker House. Published by Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA. Used with permission. All rights reserved. www.whitakerhouse.com.
Smith Wigglesworth Devotional: 365 Day Devotional
By Whitaker House
Smith Wigglesworth was a man who took God at his word, and God used his faith as a model for others. Explore these daily truths from Scripture and the writings of the Apostle of Faith, and you’ll quench your spiritual thirst, conquer defeating fears, be an effective soul winner, and see impossibilities turn into realities. 558 pages.
Holy Spirit fill me with the fullness of gifts and guard me how to use them in Jesus Christ name