No 'Cloning' Around

It should go without saying that you were created to be who you are and not who somebody else is, or who somebody else expects you to be or thinks you should be.

The human body is one unit, and it's made up of many different and diverse parts.  It's the same with the body of Christ:  One body, one unit, many different and diverse parts.  We're not all meant to be the same, or to do the same things.  Christ Himself is the head of this body.  As the head, He has specially gifted you to carry out certain "functions" in His body (just as an arm or a tongue carries out certain functions in a human body).

Other people may be able to see things in you and point things out to you that help you to see the part you play in the body of Christ, and that's a good thing.  We're called to encourage one another and build one another up in who we are and how we fit into the body of Christ as a whole.  But in the end, it's not anybody else's determination as to what part you play in the body of Christ.  It's Christ's determination as He leads and guides you.  Follow His leading.

At the same time, don't expect others to do the same things you do or to walk in the same functions that you walk in.  They're not meant to!  They're meant to walk in the functions that Christ has ordained for them to walk in.  If you're "equipping" or helping others find out what special gifts and abilities they walk in for the sake of the body, it shouldn't be your goal to create copies or clones of yourself and your particular acts of faith and service, or even to create copies or clones of various Bible characters and their particular acts of faith and service.  What God does in people may look absolutely nothing like the "religious" or "spiritual" ideas we get when we think of Christ's work in people.  (For example, Rahab the Harlot was known for hiding spies.  How spiritual-sounding is that?!)

Your job isn't to point others to a robot-like series of preprogrammed instructions to follow, but rather to point others to Christ Himself and His unique ways of working in them.  He knows what He's doing in them individually and in the body as a whole!