Stewardship of Talent (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday May 20, 2026

Stewardship Series: Stewardship of Talent

Lesson # 3

The second area of stewardship for the believer that the Lord Jesus Christ will evaluate at the Bema Seat is that of his spiritual gift.

Every believer has been given a spiritual gift for the purpose of serving other members of the body of Christ (See 1 Peter 4:10).

The distribution of spiritual gifts was authorized by the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His strategic victory over Satan at the cross during the dispensation of the hypostatic union (Ephesians 4:7-10).

However, the actual appointment of the believer’s spiritual gift is made by God the Holy Spirit as per 1 Corinthians 12:11.

In 1 Corinthians 12:7, “manifestation” refers to the fact that every believer receives one spiritual gift since the word is in the singular (See 1 Peter 4:10).

Spiritual gifts are assignments of position within the body of Christ.

Just as a car operates on gas so the believer’s spiritual gift operates on God’s love, which is indicated in that in Romans 12 after Paul discusses spiritual gifts in verses 6-8, he then discusses loving one’s fellow believer in verses 9-16.

Also, after discussing spiritual gifts extensively in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul then discusses the importance of the believer operating in the love of God in 1 Corinthians 13 and even teaches that loving one’s fellow Christian is more important than spiritual gifts since they run on love.

Nature of Spiritual Gifts: (1) Gifts are never merited or earned. (2) Gifts are a special grace-given ability (nature or essence) (3) Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit (a divine endowment) (source) (4) Gifts are given to each believer in Christ (recipients) (5) Gifts are for service to the body of Christ that it may grow quantitatively (evangelism), qualitatively (edification), and organically (developed ministries and offices in the church) (immediate purpose) (6) Gifts are for the glory of God (ultimate purpose) (7) Spiritual gifts are God’s special gifts given to believers to enable them for special service to the body of Christ and in the world. When related to the gift of ministry or service or helps, it may include natural talents received at birth.

The following is a list of what a spiritual gift and what it is not: (1) It is not an office in the local church like elder or deacon. Certain gifts are needed to function effectively in those offices, but an office and a gift are not the same thing. (2) It is not a particular geographical area or a place of service. It is the ability to serve, not the place where one serves. (3) A spiritual gift is not a particular specialty or method of ministry. The gift of teaching may be used through radio or through writing or through the classroom, etc. (4) It is not a certain personality type (vivacious, scintillating, dynamic, etc. (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1-5 with 2 Cor. 10:10).

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I appeal to each and every one of you spiritual brothers and sisters on the basis of the merciful acts produced by God the Father to offer your bodies as a sacrifice-alive, holy, extremely pleasing and beneficial to God the Father, which is your reasonable service. 2 “Consequently, do not conform your behavior in accordance with the standards of this age. On the contrary, permit yourselves to be transformed by renovating your mind in order that each and every one of you may discern what is, as an eternal spiritual truth, God the Father’s will, that which is good as well as extremely pleasing and in addition perfect. 3 In fact, by means of the spiritual gift, which was assigned to me for the benefit of myself and others I say for the benefit of each and every person, namely those who are at this particular time living among all of you not to think more highly of oneself than what one is, as an eternal spiritual truth, obligated to think. On the contrary, make it a habit to think so that you think properly about yourselves consistent with the objective standard God the Father distributed to each and every person without exception for their benefit, namely justifying faith. 4 Because in fact, just as in one body, we, as a physiological fact, possess many members however all the members, as a physiological fact, by no means possess the same function. 5 So in the same way, we, the many, as an eternal spiritual truth, exist as one body in union with Christ, thus logically are, as an eternal spiritual truth, members individually belonging to one another. 6 Thus logically, as a result we, as an eternal spiritual truth, do possess and experience diverse spiritual gifts according to the grace which was given for the benefit of each and every one of us: whether the function of prophesy, according to the standard, which is the Christian faith 7 or the function of service, by service, or the one whose function it is to teach by teaching, 8 or, the one whose function it is to encourage by encouragement or the one whose function it is to give sincerely or the one who devotes himself to exercising leadership diligently or the one whose function it is to demonstrate compassion cheerfully. (Pastor’s translation)

“Prophecy” refers to the exercise of the temporary or discontinued spiritual gift of being a prophet, which is no longer existent since it existed during the pre-canon period of the church to fill the void until the New Testament canon had been completed (See 1 Corinthians 12:10; 13:2; 14:22; Ephesians 2:20; 3:5; 4:11).

“Service” refers to the permanent spiritual gift of service and is synonymous with “helps” in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and “whoever serves” in 1 Peter 4:11.

“Teaching” refers to the permanent spiritual gift of teaching or communicating the Word of God to the congregation.

“Exhortation” is a permanent spiritual gift manifesting itself by encouraging members of the body of Christ to live in a manner worthy of their calling, to grow up to become like Christ.

“Giving” is concerned with distributing one’s own money to others and is to be done with simplicity, i.e., with no thought of return or gain for self in any way.

“Leadership” refers to the function of the permanent spiritual gift of leadership and is identified by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:28 as “administrations” which translates the noun kubernesis.

“Showing Mercy” is the gift of compassion rather than mercy because the latter has the connotation of withholding judgment whereas the former connotes the intense desire to act to alleviate the pain and suffering of another or remove its cause (1 John 3:16-17).

This gift has been given to both men and women in the body of Christ and is a permanent gift in that unlike the gift of prophecy it was not discontinued with the completion of the canon of Scripture.

1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed’; and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, 10 and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. (NASB95)

“Word of wisdom” is a temporary gift that was needed during the pre-canon period of the church and proclaims that Jesus Christ crucified is the wisdom of God, which is superior to the wisdom of men (See 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Colossians 2:3).

“Word of knowledge” is a temporary gift that was needed during the pre-canon period of the church and proclaims specific revelation from God and reveals great knowledge or insight regarding the person of Christ and the plan of God (See Colossians 2:3).

“Faith” is the ability to have trust in the Lord in a great crisis beyond that exercised by most Christians in a crisis (See Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2) and “Healings” was also a temporary spiritual gift given to the apostles to establish their authority as being from God (Acts 3:7; 5:16; 9:34; 14:10; 16:18; 19:12; 28:8).

“Miracles” was a temporary “sign” gift that was given to the apostles to establish their authority as coming from God and was an instrument used to draw the unsaved to hear the message of the gospel.

“Distinguishing of spirits” is the ability to distinguish between true and false sources of supernatural revelation when it was being given in oral form and was essential before the canon of Scripture was completed for there were those who claimed to bring revelation from God who were not true prophets.

“Tongues” was a temporary spiritual “sign” gift designed to evangelize the Jews in Gentile languages during the pre-canon period of the church age (See Isaiah 28:11-12; 1 Corinthians 14:21-22; 1 Corinthians 1:22).

“Interpretation of tongues” was also a temporary gift that was used to interpret the message that was communicated in a foreign language to the unsaved.

1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, 29 then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 30 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? (NASB95)

“Apostles” is the unique and temporary spiritual gift which held maximum authority in the church and was sovereignly delegated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Helps” is synonymous with “service” in Romans 12:7 and is a permanent spiritual gift and expresses itself in a variety of ways that aid the church and its members and often individuals who hold the office of deacon have this gift.

“Administrations” is synonymous with the gift of “leadership” that appears in Romans 12:8 and is a permanent gift and provides the recipient the ability to administrate the affairs of the church and those with this gift often hold the office of deacon or some type of administrative capacity in a church.

Hindrances to Good Stewardship of Our Gifts: (1) The belief God only calls preachers, evangelists, missionaries, etc. (2) Fear that we will fail, we will be persecuted, or that we don’t know how. (3) Personal agendas in ministry for various reasons of covetousness—position, power, praise, applause. (4) Apathy, lack of devotion to the Lord and the body of Christ. (5) A wrong view of the church as an organization rather than an organism.