Spiritual Gifts

There are four major passages of scripture that talk about Spiritual Gifts. They are found in Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31; Ephesians 4:11-12; 1 Peter 4:9-11. There are twenty different gifts identified in these verses...

• Administration
• Apostle
• Discernment
• Evangelism
• Exhortation/Encouragement
• Faith
• Giving
• Healing
• Hospitality
• Intercession/Prayer
• Knowledge
• Leadership
• Mercy
• Miracles
• Pastor/Shepherd
• Prophecy
• Service/Helps
• Teaching
• Tongues/Interpretation
• Wisdom

If you have never taken a Spiritual Gifts Profile to know what gifts you have, I invite you to take this one that is provided free for you. You can download your free copy by going to this website and follow the link for the free Spiritual Gifts Profile. After downloading your copy, simply answer the questions, complete the score, make a list of your top scores, and then read the descriptions about each of the gifts identified.

There may be more than one gift that receives the same score or is scored very close. When that happens, the gifts that are scored very closely together are often called a person's 'gift mix.' So, when trying to discern what to do with your gifts, take into consideration other gifts that make up your gift mix. If you are a person who has a gift mix, don't overlook how one gift may influence how you use the other gifts in your mix.

Just for an example, say you have the spiritual gift of evangelism and teaching. Separately, each of these two gifts could be exercised in a variety of ways and situations. But, when exercised together, this person would be especially effective when teaching evangelistically!

Always pray when trying to discern what to do with your gifts, and certainly before exercising your gifts in ministry. Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit for two reasons.

1. To bring glory to God. You see, when you do something in the power of the Holy Spirit rather than your own power, God gets the glory for that.
   
2. To help or serve others. When you serve others in the body, they receive a blessing, you are blessed, and the body of Christ is strengthened. When you serve others outside the body with no expectation of anything in return, they receive a blessing and are strangely warmed to something they do not understand. You are blessed as well because God used you to bring help to another person. And the world receives a positive witness about Christians and Jesus Christ.

So, pray that the Holy Spirit would help you discern correctly what you should do with your gifts.

One final thought... Spiritual Gifts are only part of the story. God made you with specific design, purpose and intention. He gives you spiritual gifts when you become a believer so that you might fulfill his original intent when he created you. There are other things we can learn about ourselves that give us more clues for both how God created us specifically and what his purposes are for us to fulfill. If you've ever wondered about that, you may be interested in a six-week study called Understanding My Fit. You can get information about that HERE.