1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
Which Spiritual Gift have you been given? We are told in the Epistle today that there
are diversities of Spiritual gifts which are given to every man—and
I would add every woman in today’s inclusive language.
We are also told the form in which these gifts can
take: the word of wisdom, the word of
knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of
tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
That is quite a list. Do any of
them resonate with you? Surly you have
one of them. After all the scripture
does say the Spirit is given to everyone.
You may be saying to yourself, well I certainly don’t think I have
received any of those gifts despite what the scripture says.
Here is what I believe.
I believe that each of us is given the gifts of the Spirit. However, we have not been taught how to
recognize them. Let me tell you a
secret. I believe that we are given
gifts of the Spirit every night. We are
given the gifts in our dreams. You might
say that I don’t dream. Well, what if I
told you that science has confirmed that we all dream every night and if we
don’t dream, due to disruption of sleep patterns, for a while we will become
mentally disturbed. You could reply,
well I don’t dream very often and anyway when I do, I they don’t seem to be
about anything that makes sense.
That is true for many people but the problem is that
our culture have for a long time not believed that dreams are important or
meaningful and we have believed what our culture has taught us. Here’s the thing, we often do not remember
our dream because we do not believe they are important. When we start to pay attention to them you
will be surprized that you will remember many more of them. And when we ever work with them by writing
them down and considering them we remember even more.
I
believe that dreams are God’s forgotten language. We have consequently never learned the
language of dreams. Dreams will usually
occur in the native language of the dreamer—English for us. Not always as in the case of King Nebuchadnezzar.
You may remember the story in the bible where he had a dream of a hand
writing a message on the wall in the plaster; mene, mene, tekel, parsin. Daniel was able to interpret the meaning for
him—he
translated the language of the dream:
With a few exceptions, dreams are
usually in the language of the dreamer. However, that doesn’t mean that we will
naturally understand them any more than King Nebuchadnezzar. We
need to learn how to interpret and understand what the message is in the dream. Dreams speak to us in the language of symbols
and we need to learn how to discern the meaning of symbols which is often not
easy.
Dreams can tell us if our lives are
on the path that God intends for us or if we have gone astray. In the same way I believe that God speaks to
us in many different ways. I work as a
Spiritual Director primarily with theological students at Huron University
College back in Ontario in London. My
goal with my directees is to help them identify how God is working in their
lives—speaking to them.
Here are a few other examples of how
God speaks to us. One way is through
what we are naturally drawn to, for instance are there ways in which you feel
connected to something bigger than yourself?
It may be when you are in nature, I must admit that is not a big one
with me but I know many people that feel that connection.
God speaks to us in prayer. I find it works better if it is a two way
conversation and not just talking to God; although that can also be
effective.
One way that I’m sure all of you are
aware of is through scripture. The
regular reading of the bible is a way many people connect with how God is
speaking to them. There are ways in
which it can be even more meaningful.
Reading a passage out loud is more effective that reading it
silently. Also there are methods such as
Lectio Divina (which is just a fancy of saying Holy Reading) which help us to
find the meaning for us in our lives at the present moment.
I believe that we have generally
forgotten how to understand the Language of God. We need to learn and relearn how to listen to
those many different ways and to learn how to understand them as we would a
foreign language.
I invite you to pay attention to
where you find God connecting with you.
The most important first step is to be open to the possibility of God in
any and all aspects of your life. St.
Paul tells us that the manifestations of the Spirit are given to all of
us. Try it out and see what happens.
I will close with the prayer that I
use at the beginning of my Spiritual Direction sessions. Let us pray:
Bless
this time, in the name of the Three who are over us.
Bless
this time, in the name of the One who guides us.
Open
our eyes to see how our lives
Can
reflect something of You.
Aid
us in understanding Your will
With
our hearts as well as our minds
Give
us the wisdom to discern Your intention for us;
The
strength to follow the path You prepare for us;
And
Your comfort on the journey You offer to us.
Amen
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