1 Corinthians 15:31b I die daily.

We know that we do not physically die every day. We know that we have been baptized into Christ death, that being born again we are a new creature. So what does Paul mean when he says I die daily?

Think back to those first days of your salvation. You surrendered to God and you became His. Were you not still you? Did you stop having the same personality traits you developed as you grew up? Wasn’t family and friends a large influence in your identity back then? Did that stop altogether just because you accepted Christ by faith? No, it didn’t. It didn’t stop for me.

Being conformed into the image of the Son isn’t an instant transformation. You now belong to God, but at that moment you were a babe in Christ, with everything to learn, no matter how old you were. It is a sad truth that we do not all come to Christ at a young age. Some of us have a lifetime of being the old man before becoming a babe in Christ.

Growth in Christ is a process that takes time. The older we are, the more set in our individual personalities became. Growing in Christ does not remove all of what we were but changes from glory to glory according to God’s will. He will transform us into perfection but only when we are received into that incorruptible body. We live in a corruptible body today, and it is still subject to decay, not only in life force, but in spiritual maturity.

The old man doesn’t want to stay in the ground and does not stop being an influence just because we have a new Lord. Paul is warning me, if not you, that daily death is making sure the old man stays in the ground, harmless to interfere with growth in Christ. But what if not all parts of the old man have been laid to rest.

Philippians 2:3-4 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

If you are looking at my things, and you see the old man, please warn me.

1 Corinthians 12:8-10 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

Allow me to point out what might not be obvious, Spiritual gifts are neither natural nor vocational. You are neither born with them nor are they learned. You cannot be trained in the use of spiritual gifts. You can however exercise your faith to identify how God might manifest Himself in these spiritual gifts. Your faith is the release point of spiritual gifts. Your faith is the first and most important of the spiritual gifts for without it, nothing is possible.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Spiritual gifts are a reward for faithful seeking. You do not control spiritual gifts, they are spiritual in form, power and purpose. Spiritual gifts do not serve you or the body, but rather the will of God.

We do not possess spiritual gifts, you are used of God in the exercise of the Holy Spirit, or not.

It might be noteworthy to see that the only gift that appears in more than one format is the vocational and spiritual gift of prophecy. At one time the office of the prophet was vocational. Look to Samuel and see that he was given by his mother at a tender age to grow up in the school of the prophets. Men dedicated their lives to the office of the prophet. Only a few became Elijah or Elisha or Isaiah or Jeremiah.

Consider this, that prophesy is nothing more than the revealed mind of God. If used as encouraged in 1 Corinthians 14:3, then all should prophesy to the edification and comfort of believers. Not to be an Elijah but to show forth Christ in love and grace.