Spiritual Gifts
Week 03: Discovering your spiritual gift(s)
Growing up, I loved to skateboard. I loved it, but I wasn’t great at it. But humor me for a moment and imagine I was great. Or at least I told you I was great at skateboarding. Imagine I showed up at the skatepark one day and said, “I’ve got the spirit of Tony Hawk inside me”. First of all, you’d think I’m nuts. You’d think I had gone off the deep end and lost it. You’d think I was crazy.
And let’s say I went over to the half-pipe and said, “Watch. I can do a 900. I have the spirit of Tony Hawk inside me.” You would obviously say to me, “There’s no way!” And I said to you, “I know it sounds weird, but I have the spirit of Tony Hawk inside me. I can do a 900.” You would say to me, “Okay, let’s see it.” And so I dropped in and ate it real hard. But not just one time… Every single time I dropped in, I hit the ground and bounced like rubber.
You would question my claim to have the spirit of Tony Hawk inside me. You would think I’m not just weird—you would think I’m nuts. You’d say to me, “I don’t care what you think… You don’t have the spirit of Tony Hawk inside of you!”
In his book Forgotten God, Francis Chan says, “Shouldn’t there be a huge difference between the person who has the Spirit of God living inside of him or her and the person who does not?” He goes on to say, “Yet when those outside the church see no difference in our lives, they begin to question our integrity, our sanity, or even worse, our God. And can you blame them?”
So, what do we do about our claim to have the Holy Spirit living inside us? Shouldn’t we be able to see evidence of his presence in our lives? Shouldn’t we be different? Shouldn’t you be able to tell that the Holy Spirit lives in us? Yes, if you have the Holy Spirit it should be evident by spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts (Gal. 5:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:8-11).
We often think of spiritual gifts as ‘Holy Spirit superpowers’. And there’s some truth to that. Another way to think of it is that spiritual gifts are places where God shows up. Paul talks about spiritual gifts as ‘manifestations of the Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:7). Spiritual gifts are places where God is revealed or manifested.
All Christians everywhere are called to share their faith, but God shows up powerfully when some people share their faith. This is called the gift of evangelism. Every follower of Jesus is called to pray for healing and exercise faith. But when some people do, God shows up in a powerful way. Every Christian is called to serve and show mercy, but when some folks do it’s like God is in the room. This is what we call the gift of service and the gift of mercy. All Christians are called to hear God’s voice for others, but some people do and it’s like they’re reading your mail. This is the spiritual gift of prophecy.
In other words, just because you’re not gifted doesn’t mean you’re not called to be disciplined in that area. You might not be gifted, but you’re called to teach, share your faith, show mercy, serve, pray for healing, have faith, lead, etc. Therefore, 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.
So, how do we discover where God wants to show up in and through our lives in specific and powerful ways? How do we discover our spiritual gift(s)? How do we discover where God is made manifest in us (1 Cor. 12:7)?
Discovering your spiritual gifts is a lot like when Jesus asked Peter to get out of the boat and walk on water. He would have never known the extent of his ability (or God’s ability in him) if he didn’t step out. 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.
1. Seek to love and build people up.
In 1 Peter 4:10-11, we are told to steward our gifts by serving others. Paul also says that the purpose of spiritual gifts is to build up the church (1 Cor. 14:26). Therefore, if we want to discover our spiritual gifts, we should start by serving and loving others. A servant’s heart is a prerequisite for discovering your spiritual gift(s).
As you get your hands dirty serving and building up the church, ask yourself, “What do I do that makes it feel like God is in the room?” The only way to answer that question thoroughly is to serve in all the gifts. The spiritual gifts are found in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, 28, and Ephesians 4:11. The gifts mentioned are:
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
Have you tried operating in any of these areas? Were there ones where it seemed like God showed up (Even in a small way)? As you move into trying these over the weeks ahead, ask yourself, “Where does it seem like God is showing up? Which ones seem to be different?” You can also ask yourself, “What do I do that makes it feel like God is in the room?” This is a great place to start discovering your spiritual gift(s).
2. Seek to grow in spiritual gifts.
In the beginning, you may be tempted to think that you’re not gifted because it doesn’t seem as dramatic as you had hoped. This is because we actually grow in spiritual gifts. 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).
So, it may not be a fully matured gift right away. You will have to learn to preach, evangelize, serve, or prophecy better. You have to grow and develop in your gift. You need to fan it into flame.
We understand that a young preacher may need to learn to preach better. The first time they preach a sermon, we don’t say, “Well, they must not have the gift of preaching.” No, we understand that they have to develop and grow in their gift. The same is true of all spiritual gifts.
So, as you operate in these areas, don’t just give up because you aren’t operating in a fully matured gift. Don’t throw in the towel because you tried to prophecy and got something wrong. Try to grow and develop your spiritual gifts as you discover them. Fan them into flame and learn to excel in your spiritual gifts.
3. Find your place in the body.
God has made us members of his body that work together in order to be healthy (1 Cor. 12:12-26). This means that we each have a role to play. We each have our own function in the body. This means that no one has every spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:29-30; 1 Cor. 12:4).
God has distributed gifts throughout his body so that the whole body works together and is healthy. If one person had all the gifts, they wouldn’t need the church. But God distributes them so that we’re dependant on each other and on God. This is unified diversity. There is a diversity of gifts that need to work in unity in order to be healthy. In the same way, we need to be disciplined in a diversity of areas in order to be individually healthy.
Therefore, the goal isn’t to have every spiritual gift. The goal is to find your place in the body so the Church can fully operate in all of the gifts.
01 – Experiment. Try out spiritual gifts. Step out of the boat and do something you’ve never done before. How will you know if you have the gift of prophecy or evangelism if you’ve never tried before? Experiment with spiritual gifts.
02 – Evaluate. Where did God show up? Did doing this build up the church? Does it seem like there may be different effectiveness when I do one thing over another? Evaluate where you may be gifted.
03 – Excel. Paul tells us to excel in using spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:12). This means that we have to learn to grow and develop our gift(s). This means that practice makes perfect. We need to fan our gift(s) into flame (2 Tim. 1:6). And on the flip side, we don’t want to neglect our spiritual gift(s) so that they shrivel and fall into the peripheral of our lives (1 Tim. 4:14).
Recommended reading: Forgotten God by Francis Chan