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During my career in federal law enforcement, I was asked to assist in a multi-agency investigation of a nationally known trade school suspected of fraud and possible ties to a terrorist network. As part of the investigation, search warrants were issued for all branches of this school throughout the country. My assignment on the morning of the search warrant of the local branch of this school was to wait for the first employee, believed to be the custodian, to arrive in the morning so that entry could be gained to the school without unnecessarily damaging the doors. Once my partner and I gained access, we were to make sure that no records were destroyed and to radio the rest of the agents waiting nearby to conduct the search.

As I waited in the very early morning hours in a parking lot adjacent to the school, an agent from another agency drove up and voiced concern about a white van that he believed was conducting counter surveillance on our operation. When he pointed out the van, I told him that I had seen that van and it was not involved in any nefarious activities. When he asked me how I could be so sure, I told him the van just dropped off patients at the kidney dialysis center and was probably headed out to pick up more patients.

The problem was that this agent attempted to complete a job that was already assigned to someone else. As a result, he abandoned his own post and assignment. The agent in charge of the entire operation counted on each agent to complete his or her own job assignments. The agent in charge saw the big picture and how each assignment would lead to a successful outcome. Though it was not critical in this instance, disobedience of the agent in charge of the operation could have been critical, and even deadly in a different situation.

Have you abandoned your post and your own assignment? That is, have you abandoned your spiritual gifts in the pursuit of ones that you deem more important or more exciting? In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul compares our spiritual gifts to parts of the body. Each part is important to the body’s function. If one part of the body fails to complete its role, the body may experience sickness, disability, and even death. Paul instructs us in 1 Corinthians 12:17–20:

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

God as the Holy Spirit is in charge of the distribution of spiritual gifts. He sees the big picture and He knows which gifts are needed and when they are needed. He created a great diversity of gifts that are to be used in cooperation with one another. Don’t disobey the Agent in Charge and attempt to be an eye, when you are assigned to be an ear. Instead, embrace the gifts that the Holy Spirit has assigned to you so that the most important operation of all, serving and glorifying God, can be completed harmoniously and successfully.