SATURDAY - 25TH JANUARY, 2025
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
GIFTED FOR CELIBACY - Fitted For A Manner Of Life Series 012
I Corinthians 7:6-7, ESV
"6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another."
If you've followed me till now, you'll understood that we started out discussing, "except those it is given to." "Those it is given to" in the words of Jesus are those who could stay without getting married due to some certain reasons. Don't forget we interpreted what it means "to be given to." It means "to be enabled or conferred upon." If you have not been made after the manner or likeness of he who it is given to and who by makeup can remain single or a celibate, we concluded you cannot live that life, walk that road or embrace such calling, manner or disposition of life.
It ain't Jesus only who affirmed that. In the explanatory reading in I Corinthians Chapter 7, Paul agrees with that also. While he advises that all people could be and remain like him - an unmarried; he however recognizes the impossibility in that when he says, "but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another."
It means while Paul wanted everybody to be single and a celibate like himself, he recognized the fact that they might not be gifted or made for such a life as himself. And indeed, what you're not gifted or equipped for, you can't do. One of the marks that you're not called where you're claiming you have call is not having equipping with gifts or abilities there. You can't say God has called you to teach and the Bible is dead to you. If the Spirit of God that brings illumination and quickening is not attending to you, then you should test your foot somewhere else. You might be called but it may not be to teach in particular.
Paul recognizes the fact that for anyone to be fitted for any manner of life or embrace a particular manner of life, he must first of all be gifted or enabled towards it.
Paul is a gifted celibate. I could have become one basically because I love the indoor and like staying alone. Though I'm married, I just like being alone. That's why I could sit to produce a devotional monthly. I don't have a great network of social life. While I check on my flock, I'm not the type of pastor that wants to develop overly social relations with people. I have stayed home for a week before without touching the corridor of my house let alone stepping outside the compound's gate. I stay at home a lot if there's no ministration or public business. As a matter of fact, I do encourage my wife to travel or go check on her family. I don't mourn when she's away as long as I have my Bibles, kind of books I like to read and would be let alone to continue fellowship with God and ministry. That's why most of the celibates in history are introverts. They are mostly melancholy or phlegmatic. If they ever come from other temperaments, it must have been tempered to be a kind of recluse or instilled with ability for loneness. So, it takes a gift, an adjustment to a manner of life or an enablement for anyone to live a particular manner of life.
Quoting Paul again, he says, "if anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly towards his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry - it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well" (I Corinthians 7:36-37).
We can see two types of people here. First is the man (and likewise woman we should reckon) who cannot have his desires under control. That inability to have his desires under control may mean he's not gifted or called to be a celibate. However, the other brother (and likely a sister we may reckon) who has his heart made up and his desires under control would pass as a potential celibate and may not have a reason to marry because his passions are not driving him too hard. So, I will not advise you to remain a celibate unless you personally have grace or the gift to put your desires under control. Gift is what makes anyone do supernaturally or extraordinarily what others (without same gift) can't do. Gift is our edge over others in what we specifically and individually are called to do. If there's a life without gifts, what he does or claims to do will be with friction and it won't be appealing to anyone because it won't look effortless. Covet the gift for anything you want to do or are called to do! Once it's replicated, you'll know smoothness and ease. Only then will you tarry long in doing that thing and rejoice in doing that. Why many people who are not gifted for celibacy have made shipwreck of their faithfulness and ministry claiming they have such call is because they were not made for that life. We didn't read that Jesus struggled with his emotions or that Paul was immoral. Those two that we know as pure celibates did well managing their emotions though they had their manhood intact and could engage like any healthy and proper male. Don't deceive yourself, don't go to any Bible School or join some denomination in Christendom to take celibacy upon yourself if you're first not called into it. If you do, you'll fail and embarrass yourself secretly even if we don't know about it.
PRAYER. Lay your hand on your head. Minister to yourself by calling and stirring every dormant gifts in you to work.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
Matthew 17:14-18:1-14 & Exodus 8-9
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