Understanding your gifts oral assessment

Introduction

Today we are going to be talking about the Ascension gift of teaching.

Teaching is a vital ministry in the church, it is part of the 5 fold ministry or ascension gifts and is absolutely necessary for the body of Christ to function in a healthy way from generation to generation.

To expound this we will be talking about three topics

Explanation of the Gift of Teaching

Biblical examples of the gift of teaching

Practical Examples of the Gift at work in the church today.

Explanation of the Gifts

What is an ascension gift.

Literally gifts given when Jesus Ascended. There is nothing for it, let’s dive into the text.

Ephesians 4:7–13 NIV

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” 9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

C.S. Lewis says it like this:

It is Christ himself, not the Bible, that is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him.

C. S. Lewis

Teachers The supernatural ability to make the profound truths of God’s Word simple and easy to apply. They are able to identify the areas in which a particular group of people need to be trained. It is their role to skill the people of God enabling them to respond to the call of God on their life and fulfil their destiny.

Some people may oversimplify the gift to just a smart person who lectures others, it is much more profound than that. It is the discernment to recognise what to and how to teach what God wants to up-skill His body in.

Biblical Relation

Some biblical examples of this gift in operation are this:

The whole book of Deuteronomy is an example of Moses teaching and instructing the next generation of Israelites how to live in the Land God is about to give them

Deuteronomy 1:5 NIV

5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:

He then goes to explain the Torah to a new generation but often adapting it to account for their change in circumstance. This serves as the beginning of the need to reteach every new generation teachings so they can sh’ma them in their own lifetimes.

You can not talk about Teachers in the TaNaKh without talking about Ezra.

Nehemiah 8:8 NIV

8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.

This reading of the Torah and it’s subsequent explanation is a type after Moses in Deuteronomy and led to a full national reformation.

Most importantly we come to Jesus in His most important sermon, He does exactly what Moses and Ezra had done before Him. He took the Torah and restated, adapted and expounded it for a new generation in a new setting:

Matthew 5:1–2 NIV

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said:

Matthew 7:24–25 NIV

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Deuteronomy 30:15–18 NIV

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

We can see that this gift is clearly present in the same capacity to the same effect and purpose.

Practical Examples

Not to be too Meta of a thought but what I am doing right now this very moment is a practical example of the use of this Gift.

Clearly Biblical Scholars usually carry the gift of teaching, but as there is much to learn, the gift is not uncommon in the Body but many do not tread to its spiritual component often or it goes rather unrecognised.

The best teachers are not ones who we learn from, but who we learn through. Teachers who themselves have been transformed by the very thing they are teaching make the most effective teachers.

There is nothing for it, you must know the Word, but knowing is not enough, you must be saturated by it.

Proverbs 7:2–3 NIV

2 Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

Remember that the gift is intrinsically others focused, therefore study how to communicate with other people, research teaching methods and who those methods will work best with.

Never create an us and them division in your mind. Everyone is your brother and your sister.

Conclusion

Today we talked about the Ascension gift of teaching.

We covered:

Explanation of the Gift of Teaching

Biblical examples of the gift of teaching

Practical Examples of the Gift at work in the church today.