Spiritual Gifts

This morning we had a conversation in church about spiritual gifts. I find that often believers either ignore them, abuse them, or misunderstand them. But God tells us that He doesn’t want us to be ingorant about them (1 Corinthians 12:1) …He wants us to understand.

The Bible says there are different kinds of gifts. Many believers embrace the idea that God has given everyone one or more gifts which identify them—it’s what you are good at, what you love to do. I really like that this has been recaptured in the Body because I think that God has gifted everyone and He expects that we will use those gifts for His glory. Beautiful.

But there are also manifestations. These are not things I may feel naturally good at (though any spiritual gift, properly used, is actually supernatural), but special Holy-Spirit given ability to display God’s power and grace in someone’s time of need.

Example: I’m a creative and passionate communicator (preacher/teacher) at heart. I’m also able to lead. And, I tend towards the prophetic. Those are strengths that show up on every spiritual gifts test I’ve ever taken. But I score 0—a big goose egg—on mercy and pastoring. But I’m a pastor! So when you come to me for counseling, I wring my hands before you show up because I have no idea what I’m going to say. I get nervous about trying to help someone with their personal problems ’cause I don’t want to mess anyone up. But I pray for the Holy Spirit’s insight. And you know what? It almost always happens. I’ll meet with you and you might think I’m an awful counselor (see, told you), but at some point God gives me this moment of insight and I ask a question or state something that will help immensely. That is the manifestation of the Spirit at work. I sure know it’s not me.

So the point is, we all have a gift or two that we are supposed to develop. And we all should be open to the supernatural gifts that God wants to manifest through us depending on what is needed at the time. And in both areas, I need to be open for God to work through me.

More on the gifts when I get back to preaching in 2 weeks!