Abilities

“You are the only person on earth who can use your ability” – Zig Ziglar

God has placed within each of us certain abilities, talents, knacks, or skills. Some of us recognize these gifts and some do not. Some of us act upon these skills and some do not (for a number of reasons). These gifts were placed inside each of us for a single purpose, to bring glory and honor to The Author of Creation.

Once we recognize the ability God has placed within us, it is our job to actually use it. There was a long period of my life as a young adult that I really did not believe I had any significant and unique abilities. So, I simply kept most of the things I was pretty good at to myself, for my use only or for no use at all. Maybe, I just didn’t think my gift was important enough to bring it to light or maybe I just didn’t comprehend the fact that God placed that within me for a purpose. It could have been a little of both.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus gave the parable describing what the Kingdom of God is like. In verse 14 and 15 the scripture says, “He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left.” John Bevere stated recently that the point we should take away from this example is that each servant received something. In my mind, this also indicates that each servant obviously had their own abilities. If either one of them had no ability he would have received no money at all. Believe it or not, we each have abilities.

Thankfully, if we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God also places His supernatural abilities within each of us. His abilities will take us past our own natural abilities. A perfect example of God placing his abilities within man is in Ephesians 3. Paul was writing from jail about delivering the message of Jesus Christ to those who had no background in the ways of God. He really found it to be a big surprise that he was able to get his message across to both the Jews and the Gentiles. In verse 8 of the Message Translation, Paul, one of the greatest men of God ever to live, even calls himself the least qualified of any of the available Christians. He says, “God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.” Other references here include Exodus 31:1-6, Exodus 35:30-35, Exodus 36:1-2, and Daniel 1:17-20.

Paul had no problem using the abilities he was given, but we sometimes have a hard time stepping out and offering those abilities. It may sometimes be because of fear or shame, but most of the time it is out of laziness or rebellion. We need to be like Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 35 and 36. When God placed craftsmanship abilities on Bezalel and Oholiab they didn’t just go and sit down or just create things for themselves. No, In Exodus 36:1 Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and everyone else whom God had given the skill and know-how for making everything involved in the worship of the Sanctuary as commanded by God, and told them to start to work. Verse 2 says that the men were eager to get started and engage in the work and they did so.

Let us submit ourselves unto God. Let us use our skills and abilities that God has placed in us. Where we are weak he is strong. Let us get to work.