The Body of Christ-the church is made up of many members, corporately functioning in connection with Christ-the Head of the body, fulfilling the will of God and establishing His Kingdom on the earth.
The members are being discipled and trained to live by Kingdom principles, allowing Christ to be formed in them and learning to yield to the Spirit of God who dwells in them. They are called out to fulfill particular tasks for God on earth. Individually, they reflect Christ in character and power. Whatever Christ was and is they become for God on earth. They are His body, bearing His name, doing His will and carrying out His purposes.

Being born again is the entry point to this unique Body of people. A spiritual re-birth takes place when genuine repentance takes place and Christ's sacrifice on the cross is personally acknowledged along side with the person’s sinfulness and willingness to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The bible says God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses against them. The good news is that God is not mad at you; receive His pardon and forgiveness so you can start a new life in Christ. Jesus is God's forgiveness on the cross. He took our place so we may be free to serve and obey God. When this happens in reality, the human spirit will come alive and become sensitive to God’s Spirit. He will hate sin and long for God. Process takes place as God works through life’s experiences to train and direct our focus, attention and affection towards His will for our lives.

We discover our gifts, begin the development and seek avenues to deploy or engage these gifts to better mankind and give honor to God for His inexplicable gift. It takes a vertical and horizontal flow to have a proper flow of grace and unction. Work is involved in this flow.

Christ is the foundation stone, the pattern-Son, and ultimate focus of the church. The Father is still pleased in His Son, anywhere He sees Him. He wants to see Him in believers. In His days on earth, He developed character through service to Mary and Joseph. He had the power to heal, deliver from bondages and raise the dead, all of these came into operation after He had pleased the Lord and the time came for Him to carry out His assignment. We will go through process and the goal of the process is that Christ be formed in us in power and character.

The problem is sometimes when the power becomes manifest our underdeveloped ego takes over to pervert the purpose of the power-manifestation. Process is necessary to bring us safely to maturity without destroying the purpose of God for our lives. When we are not properly aligned, we tend to languish in the wilderness and refuse the work of Him who called us to do His will.

UNDERSTANDING THE GIFTS OF SERVICE
There are three categories of gifts recorded in the scriptures that are necessary for the growth of the Body of Christ.

The motivational gifts are recorded in Romans 12, while the charismatic gifts are recorded in 1Corinthians 12. The governmental or the 5-fold gifts are offices or persons endowed with gifts to influence the Body for the purposes of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry as recorded in Ephesians 4.

The Body metaphor as shown in 1 Corinthians 12 clearly shows the gifts, administrations and operations but the same Spirit, Lord and God at work in all and through all. The Body functions well when every member discovers, develops and deploys their gifts for the sake of building the Kingdom of God into the lives of the people of God.

The headship gifts, like everything God gives, have potentials that are inexhaustible. The offices carry great dimensions in anointing, grace and ability of God. Our faith, understanding and willingness to learn and receive from God, through these gifts determine how much we actually experience in our lives.

Apostles govern, prophets guide, evangelists gather, pastors guard and teachers ground. Within each of these lie tremendous blessings for us. We need to let these offices affect us for God’s purposes to be worked out in our lives.

To Be Continued. Visit our website www.fowmint.org, www.fowm.org and www.kolaewuosho.com for more studies.

Rev. Kola Ewuosho