John K. Jenkins Sr - A Walk Through Romans, Chapter 13

Praise God! Thank you for being with us. I would like to thank our praise and worship team for leading us in worshiping the Almighty God. I pray that you are doing well and that you’ve had a great day today. I’m thankful for our faithful, dedicated members of First Baptist Church of Glenarden who join us and participate every Tuesday night. May God bless you tonight!

As I promised last week, I will answer some questions we received regarding Romans chapter 12. Actually, today we’ll be in Romans chapter 13, but there were several questions from chapter 12 that I didn’t get a chance to address. Let me take a moment to answer those questions quickly.

One of the questions I didn’t get to answer was, «You said that God does not want His children to be separated. Do you believe periods of isolation are spiritual warfare then, or an attack?» That 's a great question. I know that people can experience moments and periods of isolation, but isolation from the body of Christ is not the will of God. When a person feels isolated or chooses to isolate themselves, I firmly believe that this decision is not from God. I encourage people to maintain relationships.

In fact, we become everything that God wants us to become when we are connected with others. We 're going to see some of that in chapter 13 in just a moment. I am persuaded that the enemy wants us to be disconnected from each other, to refrain from communicating, to lack trust, and not to love one another. That is an act of the enemy. It is not the will of God for us to be isolated or separated. Even Jesus had moments of solitude, but He never disconnected Himself from relationships. He may have taken a few hours away, or perhaps a day or two for dedication to God, worship, or prayer. However, long periods of separation without connection or communication with others are not the will of God.

My firm belief is that we should maintain connections and relationships. The enemy seeks to disconnect us through his thoughts and suggestions. One illustration I like to use is that if you start a fire with 10 logs and that fire is blazing, if you take one log and separate it, that log will burn out much faster than the other nine logs that remain together. I am not convinced that isolation aligns with God’s will.

Another question is: «Can you have more than one spiritual gift?» Last week, I discussed different categories of spiritual gifts, including motivational gifts. I believe all believers have one motivational gift, as we mentioned in Romans 12, which identifies seven motivational gifts. These gifts motivate us to act according to God 's intent and desire in our hearts. I don’t believe you will have multiple motivational gifts; you have one.

The second category is ministry gifts, where a person can operate in more than one ministry gift simultaneously. I understand that people may want to learn about the different gifts. We have a class on spiritual gifts, and I encourage you to take that class or others to learn how these gifts operate.

The third category is manifestation gifts, which are God’s power and presence manifesting in and through your life. God can manifest Himself to you in various ways, so yes, you can have one motivational gift and operate in multiple ministry gifts. He can manifest Himself in you and through you using more than one manifestation gift. I hope this clarifies your questions!