Great Grace and Little Gifts

From a reading of the chapter on John Bunyan, "Exercising the Gift," in Devotional Classics, I thought I might put a couple of quotations and thoughts. First, I just wanted to put a Dallas definitions:

• Manifestations of Divine Power: you will see accomplished by your words and actions what cannot possibly be explained by your efforts and talents.

Also here are some ways which Bunyan discovered and learned his spiritual gift:

• He found out how he had been helpful to others. "Some of the saints had good judgment and holiness of life seemed to feel that God had counted me worthy to understand the blessed Word and that he had given me some measure of ability to express helpfully to others what I saw in it. So they asked me to speak a word of exhortation to them in one of the meetings."
• He tested his gift, exercising it to see if others received spiritual benefit. "I began to see that the Holy Spirit never intended that people who had gifts and abilities should bury them in the earth, he commanded and stirred up such people to exercise of their gift and sent out to work those who were able and ready."
• He was aware of how the Tempter would discourage him.  "In this work, I had different temptations. Sometimes I would suffer from discouragement, fearing that I would not be of anv help to anyone and that I would not even be able to speak to the people. At such times I have had a strange faintness seize me. At other times I have been assaulted by thoughts of blasphemy before the congregation."
• He noticed and rejoiced in his gift. "When I saw that they were beginning to live differently, and that their hearts were eagerly pressing after the knowledge of Christ and rejoicing that God sent me to them, then I began to conclude that God had blessed his work through me. And so I rejoiced. Yes, the tears of those whom God had awakened by my preaching were my solace and my encouragement."

Remember to pray for other peoples's gifts and try to encourage each other by noticing their gifts at work. "Gifts are desirable, but great grace and small gifts are better than great gifts and no grace. . . . Blessed is everyone to whom the Lord gives true grace, for that is a certain forerunner of glory."