Gifts For Men, Part One

Post date: 03-Dec-2012 23:26:55

GIFTS TO MEN

Firstly lets look at "gifts to men" in Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8

Some translations say "gifts to men"

Wel its obvious that the gift of Grace applies to all mankind, that is " all mankind "

A grace that permits even those who will not walk in the ways of God or follow Him, for if

this grace did not abound for "all mankind" then none of us "the world" would not be allowed to

continue

Yet God the Father sends down His sun to shine on evil and good and each new day is given, not

just to those who are made righteous

But referring to the "Righteous" those made right with God through His Son ! we see that this gift

of Grace apportioned applies to those who are in "The Church" The Bride

Now without being controversial :D we can assume that that this gift of Grace is accompanied by

"gifts" to build up the Body Of Christ

So we see that "Men" or "People" aplies to men and women and can be seen as a general term

for "people" or "Mankind"

Therefore these gifts apply as much to women as they do to men and there is no "favouritism"

Therefore we must assume when reading 1 Timothy 2:12 we must assume that the gifts have

limitations when applied to women !

Can we indeed say that "Gifts " of God are limited when it comes to the female gender ?

If indeed we say that the gift of teaching has limitations when applied to women we must also

apply it to the gift of Prophesy

As we mentioned previously the gift of Prophecy can be said "to be someone who teaches the

Word Of God"

As the word of God is a prophetic Word

The word prophecy means to "bubble up, to flow forth, or to cause to drop like rain." this could

be applied to teaching and prophecy

We must also ask are the gifts of Wisdom, Knowledge,Discernment,Faith ,Healings ,Miracles,

Prophecy,Tongues and Interpretation of tongues all manifested and given as the Spirit wills ?

If so why would teaching be the only one with limitations of use regarding women ?

Lets mention some women Prophets in the bible and their names are Miriam see : Micah 6:4 and

Deborah in Judges 4:4 ,Huldah Kings 22:14, Noadiah in Nehemiah 6:14 NLT ,Isaiah's wife in

Isaiah 8:3 , also Anna Luke 2:36, The Daughters of Phillip Acts 21:8-9

also don't forget Judges 4:4,"Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth,

Women Teachers, Romans 16:3, Hannah in Samuel 1:20 and Hannah trained him and taught

him until he was old enough to go and live in the house of the Lord with Eli the priest.

Also Romans 16:1,Acts 16:15,Joel 2:28,

Matthew 28:18-20, applies to both men and women

And so we see that "Men" is a general term to be used for "Humankind"

The Grace of God and His love outstretches to all humankind, however those who are made right with God

through the blood of Jesus are given and aportioned gifts

DISTRIBUTE

So why is there a fifference between Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8 ?

Psalm 68 seems to be saying that "Jesus receives gifts"

Whereas Ephesians 4 says "gave gifts unto people"

There are many Conjectors on this

In the times when this Psalm was written a triumphant army would take the leading generals and

officials and the conquered King and tie them to the backs of their chariots and thus on returning from

battle would victoriously parade them through the streets as "like a Procession"

[url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+6%2C1+Chronicles+13%2CPsalm+68%2CMatthew+17&version=NIV][color=orange][size=10pt][b][b]READ 2 Sam 6; 1 Chron 13; Psalm 68; Mat 17 HERE[/b][/b][/size][/color][/url]

All the bounty of the conquered enemy would be distributed among the officials and men

Often coins and booty would be tossed to the crowds on arriving back from war

This was the triumphant entry of a conquering King

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And so in this as Jesus rose from the dead he made captivity captive

So those who were captive were released to be willing captives to serve a new master and to live

a new life

As the conquering King Jesus rises we see once more this imagery of throwing the "gifts" and

distributing the bounty of war

For further study you might look up Genesis 14:1-24

Thou hast received gifts for men - "And gave gifts unto men;" Ephesians 4:8.

Dividing Up

Amazing to think that www. has always been and always will be and where would we be

without the "World Wide Word ?"

The bible is like a web and if you take one scripture out of the Word of God then others will

not linkup

REBELS

With that analogy lets go to Isaiah 53:12 HCSB Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will

receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted

among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

[quote]I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier Isaiah 53:12 NLT[/quote]

[quote]Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, Isaiah 53:12 ESV[/quote]

The dividing of the spoils of war , Jesus being raised up , left captives in His train, the glorious

procession of chariots and the gifts thrown and given as the Spirit wills

Jesus Himself conquering death and "resting" sitting at the Right Hand of the Father bringing many

sons to glory and making those captive to sin captivated

DIVISION

Another picture to explain and understand Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8

and to begin to comprehend the meaning, might be Luke 11:20-22 HCSB

And so One whom is stronger and has a higher power makes war and plunders the enemy camp

overpowering it, He takesthe weapons and divides up the plunder

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Yet Another way to understand this and to place into our minds this concept of the "distribution

of Gifts" is to say

Psalm 68:18 : is of a king despoiling his enemy

Ephesians 4:8 : is of a king distributing the spoils or gifts.

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GIFTS FROM MEN

Another way to understand this is :

[quote]Numbers 18:6 "Behold, I Myself have

taken your fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel; they are a gift to you,[/quote]

So Jesus takes gifts from His people, the Levites as His possession and gives them gifts

They offered up to God and God accepted their offerings

The people give to the Levites, the Levites give to Jesus and Jesus gives His forgiveness

Hebrews 7:27

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This too might be paralled with Acts 6 in the new testament

And so deacons were to serve the people and to distribute to the needy

They took from others to distribute to the poor and widows and to free up others for service

the ministry of the deacon being to "serve" others

To be a gift offering to God and unto people

Romans 16:1

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