# 54 What Do You Have That You Did Not Receive From God?

Joh 3:27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

What a great statement of truth from John! Would that we would all receive it! It sure would strike a death blow to the mentality of entitlement. Why, the very breath we breathe is a gift from God, not to mention all the other gifts we receive from Him.

I like to look at cross-references in the margin of my Bible and thought it would be helpful to share some of them with you today concerning this statement from John.

Ro 12:5-8, Paul writes of the various gifts given to the body of Christ, and in v6 he says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us”

 According to what? According to grace, according to that which comes from above!

In 1 Cor 3:5, Paul writes: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?” In other words, these weren’t Paul’s believers, or Apollos’ believers, they only believed through Paul and Apollos AS THE LORD GRANTED. As the Lord grants is another way of saying grace!

Even more to the point is  Jas 1:17,18a “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth,”

And finally, Peter, speaking about spiritual gifts in 1Pe 4:10 says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

There are more references concerning the gifts that come to us from above, but these were just the cross references in one of my Bibles!

This is liberating truth! It takes all the pressure off you and I to perform to earn gifts from God. Our part is to receive and then seek to be good stewards of what God has given us. There is no room for pride in such an arrangement. No room for competition, just humble obedience and total trust in God for the results.

After all what do you have that you did not receive from God?