Here's another essay that I wrote for a class, its not all that great, but hey....
Gifts
In the book The Ingathering, the People each possessed a special ability, one of the gifts or persuasions. The gifts ranged from the ability to lift and move objects, see into the future or sort through peoples minds. We, as Christians, possess gifts as well. Our gifts bear resemblance in some ways to those of the People. We also have people that God reveals His secrets about the future to - prophets; people that can see to a small degree into others minds - those gifted in discernment; those gifted in mentoring, exhortation, mercy, or interpretation often help others sort through their thoughts. The Bible tell us, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move."[1] But there seems to be one prevailing difference between our gifts and the Peoples. They can use their gifts whenever they want, while we can only use ours when God allows. As we look further, at this I hope to bring understanding to why this shouldn't be so.
As the People get older they discover which gift they have, and then try to develop that gift as far as possible. They aren't limited to just that gift, but can attempt to master other ones, though any secondary gifts are much harder to develop. We also have a gift that we have natural talent for, which through prayer and a developing relationship with God becomes stronger with time, but we should earnestly desire the spiritual gifts[2] not just the one(s) we started with.
Now as to the differences, I dont believe there are any. We have the same potential as the People do to use our gifts. Why, you may ask, cant people use their gifts whenever they want? Two reasons one, most people havent taken the time necessary in prayer and fellowship with God to develop their gift to its full potential. Second, we dont know what we want. Everyone desires to do what they believe is good, but our belief is limited by our finite knowledge and our willingness to believe it. If we had full knowledge of what is right and wrong, and had the ability to believe it, we wouldnt act in any way contrary to Gods will. If we set our minds on things above[3] and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator[4] then our desires would be His desires. The things we do would actually be things He wanted us to do and His power would be fully realized in us. Only when we have truly given up all of ourselves to God, will our wants be what we truly want and our gifts will help us accomplish them all.
Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.[5] Stephen was full of Gods grace and power, and therefore mustve been empty of himself. That is what everyone really wants, to be filled with the love of God and to be transformed into the image of our creator. When we achieve this, we can use our gifts the way we want, because our wants are His.
We all have these gifts, we may not like them at times, as Simon didnt,
I don't want to! Simon's eyes brimmed again. I don't think it's a bit of fun. Do I have to?
Do you have to breathe? I asked him. You could stop if you wanted to, but your body would die. You can refuse your Gift, but part of you would die - the part of you the Power honors - your place in the Presence - your syllable of the Name.[6]
As this quote says, rejecting our gifts is a rejection of the God that placed them there. We may not understand why God gave us the gifts He did, but they are there for a purpose, and only when we become reconciled to Him can we be began to grasp our purpose.
[2] 1 Corinthians 14:1
[3] Colossians 3:2
[4] Colossians 3:10
[5] Acts 6:8
[6] Ingathering: the complete People stories of Zenna Henderson. Deluge (p.258)
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