All believers are called to serve the Lord within the Church. yet each one needs to discover how to do that with the gifts and personality God has given them. One of the keys to this is to realize that we are all members of the body of Christ and are given gifts to use in his service. As we see that our whole life is to be one of service to God we can see that we need to receive his wisdom and insight.

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Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2. In this passage, we see something of Paul’s heart for the believer, he wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God and by so doing to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. This is not for primarily intellectual reasons but rather practical ones in knowing God’s will. We are called to have a have a very different mindset to that of people in the world our is to be a mindset which reflects the new age of which we have become a part in Christ Jesus. As our minds are transformed we will know God’s will for us, this is far better than anything we could devise for ourselves. Notice that it is his perfect will for us, God’s will is the place where we find that he as our creator knows what is good for us and therefore He will lead us in the way which is best for us.

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. ( Romans 12:3-8) These verses spell out in more detail what is implied by becoming living sacrifices and living the life of service which God desires for us. Firstly we are called to think soberly about ourselves this excludes pride because that would miss the importance of the whole body of Christ. Service by definition calls us to serve the Lord and each other and therefore should spring from a heart of love. Each of the gifts that Paul lists here is to be used to serve the Lord and others and each gift has a valuable function within the body of Christ. We are to use these gifts to serve one another and to build the church up. As the gifts spring from God’s grace they are not something we can be proud of but rather we receive from the Lord what he has given to us and use it for the benefit of our fellow believers. some of these gifts are upfront ministries but others are less conspicuous, but all are equally important to the life and vitality of the local church.

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12:9-16)   

In the above verses, we see that Paul once again returns to the theme of loving one another, other believers are to be put first. One of the ways to maintain our love for believers is to be full of zeal and to have this we need to maintain our spiritual fervour. For Paul spiritual fervour leads to very practical results in our care for one another, we very often tend to think of spiritual fervour as being shown in our worship in Church, here we see that although this is true it is much more than that  because it is our spiritual fervour which causes us to reach out in love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to live in harmony with one another and to achieve this we need to keep control of any tendency to pride on our part. We need to be fully open to one another.

Sometimes people say that that do not have any gifts but one of the quickest ways to discover our gifts is to serve the church in any way we can. It soon becomes obvious what our strengths and weaknesses are. It is not always given to us on a plate but we have to step out in faith. sometimes we try something and it soon becomes apparent that this is not our gifting, on other occasions, we try something and find ourselves enjoying it and being more and more drawn to it.also at various times in our lives we need to reevaluate what we should be doing to build the church up.