Covet Earnestly

For the most part, the Bible forbids covetousness. We are commanded very emphatically not to covet anything that is our neighbor’s (Deu 5:21).  There is, however, something the Bible does tell us to covet earnestly, and that is the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are told to covet earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor 12:31) and to covet to prophesy (1 Cor 14:39). 

Why should we covet the gifts? (Besides the fact that the Bible tells us to?) We should covet the gifts because they are the best evangelistic tool I know. Statistically speaking, Christianity is thriving in the global South--South America, Africa, and Asia--but declining in the global North. What is it that the global South is doing that the global North has been neglecting? Signs and wonders. Missiologists have a term for this.  They call what the global South is doing “signs and wonders evangelism.” 

My prayer for every believer is that we will all covet the gifts of the Spirit, that we will all pray to receive them (ye have not because ye ask not) and that we will use the gifts God gives us to evangelize the people we come in contact with. May God give all of us the grace and the courage to be the church God has called us to be!

Margot Armer