Becoming the Gift

I wanted to share an experience that I had with the Father last year over the Christmas season.

This Christmas season was different to every other that I had before. About three weeks before Christmas Eve, God started giving me gifts when I went into the secret place. In a way, it was like a spiritual advent calender. I know how excited my son always is to come home from shool and open up a small gift that I’ve prepared for him in the countdown to Christmas. Now I was experiencing the same thing, but with my heavenly Father in the secret place.

I want to focus on Christmas Eve in this blog.

I had been at a friend’s place for Christmas Eve dinner and as soon as I got home I went into prayer. I was really excited to find out what I would receive that night. I had concluded that the last gift would be the most special one.

I found myself flying high above the ground in a sleigh with the Father. This wasn’t the first time and I always enjoyed snuggling up to Him as we whooshed over snow-covered landscapes while I watched the stars shining in the night sky.

We started to descend and landed on the snow. Up ahead I saw a small, wooden cottage. I wondered what was in there. We walked towards the cottage and stepped in. Immediatley I saw a crib, like you would usually see in a Christmas nativity scene, but instead of seeing a little bay asleep on the hay, all I saw was bright, pure, light.

As I looked, I heard the Father’s voice say, “This is My beloved Son.” There was so much tenderness in His voice when He said that.

Then He asked me a question, “What gifts did you bring Him?”.

I fell on my knees at that moment and started crying, realising that I had brought nothing with me. Of course I didn’t know that the Father would bring me here. All I had with me to give was myself. In that moment I started to surrender my life once again to Jesus. I fell asleep in that posture, on my knees beside the Son of Light, giving Him all of me as a gift.

The next day when I was prayer, the Lord started speaking to me to about being a gift.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

Ephesians 4:11 NLT

And [His gifts to the church were varied and] He Himself appointed some as apostles [special messengers, representatives], some as prophets [who speak a new message from God to the people], some as evangelists [who spread the good news of salvation], and some as pastors and teachers [to shepherd and guide and instruct], ¹² [and He did this] to fully equip and perfect the saints (God’s people) for works of service, to build up the body of Christ [the church]; 

Ephesians 4:11 NLT

We see in these verses that the five-fold ministry is a gift that Jesus gave to shepherd, train and perfect His Bride until she is fully mature. I want to extend this invitation to be a gift from God to the Body beyond the five-fold. In verse 12 of the Amplified it talks about being equipped unto something, i.e for works of service and to build up the Body. We all have a part to play in God’s Kingdom, we are all commisioned by Christ to be gifts to the nations. The question is, will you lay down your life like Jesus did?

Jesus was the ultimate gift to mankind. While he was on the earth, he healed the sick, set people free and healed the broken hearted. Even in dying He gave us the gift of Eternal Life and His Holy Spirit. He was surrendered to the Father’s will in living and in dying.

When we lay our lives down for Jesus, we give him permission to mature us and move us into our earthly assignments. Alignment of destiny and union with God’s heart comes through surrender, and through this we can walk out our callings in purity and holiness. First comes surrender and then the commissioning.

I wanted to encourage you at the top of the year, once again to give Jesus your life as a gift. You might already be in salvation, but maybe you have not yet given him your all. There could be certain areas in your life that you have not given over. I invite you to step into the light of His countenance and give Him everything.

Happy New Year!