Spiritual Gifts
Spiritual Gifts 03: Discovering your spiritual gift(s) | Discussion Guide
Debrief Last Week’s Practice (10 mins):
How did last week's practice go?
Did you experience anything this week as you asked God to fill you with his Spirit?
Discussion (35 mins):
Watch this life changing video together.
Read this week’s practice together. What stands out to you?
In the practice we read:
“Spiritual gifts are less like superpowers and more like areas where we’re called to be faithful. But God will manifest himself in certain ways through each of us. So, just because you don’t have the gift of evangelism doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share you faith with others. Or just because you have never experienced someone being healed doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pray for healing. You are called to be obedient where you are not gifted.”
Have you ever thought of spiritual gifts this way? Why or why not?
In the practice we read, “Discovering your spiritual gifts is about stepping out and sharing your faith, hearing God’s voice for others, serving, loving, caring for the poor, and building up the church. When you do these things you may discover a supernatural ability and manifestation of God’s presence.” Do you think it’s possible to know if you have a gift or not if you’ve never tried it before? Why or why not?
The spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible are listed below. Have you ever tried any of these before? Which ones?
Love gifts — serving, guidance, mercy, + generosity
Word gifts — teaching, encouragement, apostleship, leadership, pastoring, + evangelism
Power gifts — prophecy, words of knowledge/wisdom, tongues, interpretation of tongues, faith, discernment, healing, + miracles
Paul tells Timothy to fan his gift into flame and not to neglect his spiritual gifts (2 Tim. 1:6; 1 Tim. 4:14). He also tells the Corinthian church to learn to excel or grow in spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:12). Have you ever thought about growing in your spiritual gift(s) before? How would you suggest going about doing that?
No one has every spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:29-30; 1 Cor. 12:4). Can you think of spiritual gifts that you think you don’t have? Why do you think that’s the case?
Do the practice together (30 mins):
Speak into lives. Put one person in your group on the “hot-seat”. Take some time to share what their gifts may be. Try to be specific as you think back to specific times they did something to build up others. Take turns putting people in the “hot-seat”. [Note: this is not a sure way to discover your gift(s). But community and affirmation can be a very helpful discernment tool.]
Share your plan. Choose a few spiritual gifts to try out this next week. share with the group which ones you’ve chosen, why, and how you plan to try these gifts.
Pray for increased awareness. Spend some time praying for God to reveal where he has gifted you and called you to build up the church and reach others for Jesus. Also pray that God would refine each person and help them produce the fruit of the Spirit in their lives as well (Gal. 5:22-23).
Debrief (15 mins):
Come back together and debrief how it went in your group.
As people spoke into your life what did you experience? Did anything resonate with you?
How was it when people prayed over you?
How do you feel about your plan for the week ahead?