Spiritual Gifts

The other day I was doing some yard work and while I was picking up some old briars I’d cut down, a thorn jammed into the crease on the inside of my pointer finger and broke off. Well, I didn’t really think anything about it until the next morning when I went to the gym. So, I get to the gym, I get warmed up, I bend down to perform my deadlifts and as soon as I put pressure on that finger that little thorn in my hand, that I can’t even see, reminded me that it was there.

We don’t often pay attention to little things like our fingers and toes, that is unless they’re not doing their job. And it is once they quit working like they used to that we realize just how valuable they are. We feel handicapped, deficient, or hindered without them working at full capacity. And that’s actually what we find to be the case concerning spiritual gifts in the Bible as well.

As we have gone through the book of Ephesians, we have seen Paul push to emphasize the unity of the Church and as we arrived in chapter four, we saw that God has given us gifts for the good of us all. This is a subject that Paul is apparently very passionate about as we see it mentioned in Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, and Romans 12. And if God included this matter in His Word so frequently, I believe it’s important that we understand the subject a little better and that’s what my goal is today as I aim for us to understand the source, the substance and the search of our spiritual gifts, or to put it more plainly, I want us to answer the questions of: Where do Spiritual gifts come from? What are they? And how do I discover mine?

Well, just like my finger that got hurt; or if you went with us last year, my two toes that got seriously messed up on that trampoline trip, little things that we don’t really think about really do serve a big purpose. Maybe you’re here today, you’re passionate about Christ, you love His Church, and you really want to serve but you just don’t know how you can be effective. If that’s you today, then I hope this will be a help to you. If you are a believer, but you just don’t feel very capable of benefiting the Church in a meaningful way, maybe you feel insignificant, well, this is for you too. And if you feel like you’ve got all the goods and can make everything better, well, this might just help you too as we dive into 1 Corinthians 12, we will answer our first question which is:

The Source of Our Spiritual Gifts

Illustration: Mary Poppins is famous for her magical bag. She pulls all sorts of objects out of it to the children’s bewilderment. They can’t figure out how she does it. They poke their heads inside the bag, but it doesn’t make any sense. That’s because the power is with Mary, not the bag alone

Well, maybe as we think of these spiritual gifts today, you might think of the people who’ve made an impact on you and as we discuss this you might think, “How in the world could brother or sister so and so have ministered to me so much?” Well, that’s because the power isn’t in them, it’s from Him.

In 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, Paul writes, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God produces each gift in each person. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good.”

This passage teaches us that God not only has a plan for our talents and gifts, but He is the One who gave them to us and since God has given us these gifts, we should be quick to take a step back because God doesn’t just do things for no reason. No, there’s a purpose here and that purpose is that we are individually given gifts that we might bless other people. Now, there’s a few things I think we should learn from this truth.

First, God is in control of the gifts that you have. In verse 11 Paul writes, “One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as He wills.” This is a humbling thing. Some people want to have gifts that will get them lots of stardom and in front of people, but that may not be what the Spirit equipped you with. And so, since this is true, we should say, “Lord, you’ve saved me and you’ve given me a gift by your own wisdom, let me be humble in seeking it out and using it for your glory.”

Second, I believe it teaches us the importance of each of our abilities. Like I said before, God doesn’t just do this for no reason. And Paul teaches us the importance of each of us as he writes about the body and its parts in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. In that passage he writes, “God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted.” You might be thinking, “Well, I want to serve, I love Jesus and His Church, but I just don’t have anything good to give.” That’s not what the Bible says! Guys, if you’re a Christian, you have a specific role to serve. Every single one of you has something to contribute if you’re a believer.

With all this in mind, I want to address something about these gifts. I believe in something called Cessationism which means that I believe certain gifts have ceased to exist. Not that God can’t use them, but that it would seem that He has finished His purposes in using them. The gifts I’m referring to are prophecies, healings, and speaking in tongues. These are what I call attestational gifts which were miraculous acts that told everyone, “Hey, what I’m preaching is the truth and God verifies it by this action.” However, now that we have the full Bible, I believe the use of those gifts have ceased. So, when I talk about gifts today, I’m referring to gifts such as hospitality, teaching, administration, giving, mercy ministry, encouragement, evangelism, faith, discernment, and the like.

Now, some of these are things that you may have been good at before you were even saved. You may have always been a good teacher, but since Christ saved you, you want to teach people God’s Word. You may have always been an encouraging person, but now you want to encourage people with the Word of God to keep going in the faith, you may have always been giving, but now you want to give all that you can to the cause of the Gospel. That’s a Holy Spirit empowered gift there. This leads me to our last thing for today which is:

The Search For Our Spiritual Gifts

You may be thinking, “This sounds all good, but how about some practical help in figuring this out?” Well, I’m glad you asked! When it comes to discovering your spiritual gifts, I want you to PACE yourself. By PACE, I mean an acronym which stands for Prayer and Study, Ask, Consider, Examine.

Prayer and Study.

If you’re serious about discovering your spiritual gift, you need to find yourself speaking to the God who saved you and gave you these gifts by praying and studying His Word on the matter.

Ask Others What They See In You.

I told this story to the guys last week, but I’ll share it with you as it was quite influential in my life…

Consider Others Demonstrating Their Gifts

Consider Ken and Sue Elliot and how they function so well in the ministry of encouragement.

Consider Pastor B and K and how they preach.

Consider Melanie Lowe as she demonstrates hospitality.

Consider Debra Ingle as she evangelizes her friends.

Examine.

Ask yourself, “Do I enjoy using this gift?”

Are others being blessed by my gift?

Lastly, just to throw this in, you need to be willing to try new things, even things that might make you uncomfortable.

So, in conclusion, when it comes to spiritual gifts, we should:

Trust in God’s Wisdom

Prayerful seek to discover our gifts

Actively seek to bless others through my gift