Where Are Your Gifts?

December cover outspoken magazine

Calling for the use of your own gifts and talents

Gifts of The Original You

A vision of the importance of our gifts and talents as I reported in OUTSPOKEN magazine last December.

This being the season of gifts and giving, what better time to open the gift of you to The Lord?

Kneeling in prayer this afternoon 11/18/08, I sensed The Lord had something on His heart to share with me. I asked Him to go ahead and speak for I would be quiet for as long as He wanted me to wait until I heard what He wanted to communicate. As waited I saw a large half body vision of Jesus that stretched from earth and filled all the sky off to the right. He seemed to be waiting for people to gather to Him. On the left of him was what first appeared to be open foggy space. I saw one head standing in front of Jesus and wondered why was there only one head near him? It felt like the head was me but not wanting to be presumptuous, reserved my comment. Then, I looked closer and saw three heads. While wondering why there were so few people attending the gathering, as if reading my thoughts, The Lord said, “I am looking for the people. Where are the people?” Now puzzled as to why The Lord was asking for the people when He was God who knew everything and could see all, I started feeling daring and asked God many questions as they popped into my mind. He said, "The people are wrapped up in the covers of the enemy. They can’t see me. They don’t even know they are wrapped up." I thought, Oh, so that’s why you want me to write OUTSPOKEN... to expose the enemy’s shroud and to get the people to go back for their gifts. OK, I get it. “Now tell the people I am looking for them!"

Use your own gifts and talents
As I was beginning to understand Him clearer, a tingling crept upwards from my lower legs and His spirit was moving over me, I saw brightly wrapped gift boxes suddenly begin to open up by themselves. There were no hands opening them and nothing came up out of the boxes. They were empty and the other side of the gift wrappings were black. As far as I could see, the inside of the boxes were also black. Then, He answered the question that was forming in my mind before I asked it. He said, “The peoples’ gifts have been hidden. They are walking around with gifts I did not give them. They have taken the enemy’s gifts and they are not happy. There are musicians masquerading as doctors and they are miserably hidden because those are not the gifts I gave them. There are many empty because they are not using their own gifts. They make themselves miserable and make each other miserable because the gifts are not just for them but for each other. Tell them to open the gifts. I am looking for the gifts I gave my people. Tell them to open the gifts.” Over to the other side of Jesus that had appeared empty before, I realized that the people He was looking for were all gathered together, locked in a long, white, foggy looking box that didn’t appear like a box at first but more like a sheet of plain white transparent sky, also reminding me of a clear plastic craft box with a clear lid. (Visions like dreams can be challenging to describe)

I could see heads inside this box but they were all milling around as if all lost with no direction and no purpose; everyone doing the same thing not knowing that they were locked in. Deep sadness rose up inside me. I felt The Lord’s sadness and asked Him why was he so sad; thinking inwardly, It doesn’t make sense for God to be sad. He answered that He was not sad but He was feeling the pain of the lost ones he was waiting for. They were unfulfilled, unhappy, discouraged and in bondage. “Tell them I am looking for them. Tell them I am looking for the gifts I put in them. Tell them to open the gifts and they will find me and I will recognize them.”

This all made sense to me as I was listening to The Lord because of the message He has put on my heart for those of us who need to go back to our original selves and our first love. We are walking outside of the will of God for our lives because we have lusted after the gifts of the world and forsaken the natural gifts He put in us. We are led astray and enticed by the lure of money and status. We are boasting and bragging in each others’ gifts, therefore we are unhappy and unable to commune with Him effectively. He is hampered in the way He wants to communicate with us: through the use of our gifts. The gifts He gave us to use for His Kingdom and to Glorify him. Where are your gifts?

Use what’s in your hand. Use what's in YOU! It's Your gift.

Using my gift is like doing my chores in the Kingdom; like helping God towards His goals for us. That's an amazing honor for me and you!

My excitement for us to begin opening our gifts was so great, it led me to the dictionary to make sure I understood the connotations of the words, gifts and open. Here is what I found:

GIFT: something given; A natural ability... But this one gave me goose bumps; A gift certificate entitles the recipient to select merchandise in the establishment of the issuer. Does this mean God has certified our gifts and with that we can select merchandise from God’s abundance? As in, The Earth Is The Lord’s And The Fullness Thereof? So then, if I am correctly using the gifts God gave me, shouldn't I be confident of never walking in lack because only the sky could limit my possibilities? More over, should I not experience much more joy daily, unspeakable joy, full of glory and blessings above all I could ask or think? Hmm.

OK, so I got the gift part. Then I really wanted to fuse with the open part so back to the dictionary I went. OPEN: uncovered, undisguised, easily understood, unrestricted, and my favorites, begin to appear and to expose to view. Is God calling us to begin to appear before Him and to expose our gifts to His view? How awesome is that?
When I got up off of my knees yesterday, I sensed that there was more to this open the gifts deal. I am sensing it again because more questions are arising about why is it so important to God in this hour that we open our gifts and ourselves to Him? What is He up to? He will reveal this soon.

A few days later while editing the December issue, I wondered why God chose to use the word recognize when calling for His people and received a powerful revelation and wrote this:

....I am about to fall out from learning the meaning of the word recognize as God used it to me back on page 3. RECOGNIZE means: to know again; as known or experienced as before; to admit; to acknowledge status or legality; to show appreciation; to recognize as necessary. Are you catching this revelation? God wants us back in the way He originally made us. He has plans for us. He is providing the wa for us to come back to him as if untainted by worldly ambitions. We can't be seaprated from Him but we are not experienceing His full glory because we are out of our place. He wants us to be operating like He originally meant for us to operate. Our original mode is what He is after. He sees our dysfunction which He did not create and wants to elevate us back to a state of glory in Him. WOW! 11/24/08...

Now ask yourself, how can my gift help someone and glorify God?

God wants you to use your gift because He put it inside of you. If you begin to use your gifts, you will Glorify God on a whole different level. The gifts God put in you are protected by Himself. When the enemy comes to attack your God given gifts that you are using to glorify Him do you think He won’t defend you? Do you think He will give the enemy His Glory? Think again. You have no choice but to be successful when you are walking in your calling and using your natural gifts. The Word says, your gifts will make room for you. Proverbs 18:16. Since God cannot lie you know you are safe. The world says, do what you love and the money will come. I believe that; I also believe joy, peace, confidence, victory and all God’s goodness will come as well. God is so perfect! He makes no mistakes. He made us with purpose on purpose. He made us in His image, and a little lower than angels. He loves us more than we could ever know. He provides for us daily. He gives us instructions for how to live. Then He turns around and Blesses us with amazing gifts. James 1:17. Is it too much for us to turn and glorify Him with our gifts?

Give Him your gift as an offering and watch what He does with it. If you were gifted to paint, or sing, or counsel, or support, or give, do it! If you are called to be like Dr. G. Medical Examiner, or a mortician or police officer, can you not see how many lives you Bless if you are doing those things you were called to do? An additional benefit to you is that, when you are using your gift work doesn't even feel like work. It feels more like joy!

Also included in that issue of OUTSPOKEN