FROM GOD TO YOU FOR OTHERS
A study of spiritual gifts from theCross east lake
AN INTRODUCTION TO SPIRITUAL GIFTS
If you have not already you will, at some time, have someone speak to you about Spiritual Gifts. People at the time of the Apostle Paul had the same conversations, I Corinthians 12:1 “Now about spiritual gifts brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” The Apostle Paul was well aware of the fact that when we are uninformed of the type and use of spiritual gifts, we are wide open for misunderstanding and misuse of these gifts. Therefore we should identify and develop our spiritual Gifts so that they may benefit theCross east lake.
I say benefit theCross, because that is why the Lord has seen fit to equip us all with spiritual gifts, so that the church will be blessed by their use. The benefit that we personally receive from our spiritual gifts is only secondary. Their primary function is for the good of the church.
In I Corinthians, Chapter 12, the Apostle Paul compares the church to the body. In that analogy Christ is the Head and the whole body serves and is directed by the head. We read that there are many different parts to the body, but they are all united in one body. The body parts are different but all are needed for the body to function at it’s best!
In looking at the spiritual gifts that God has given us as believers, we realize that God has given every believer in Christ at least one spiritual gift and probably more. These gifts are different, but all work together as the many parts of one body, the Church.
At this point, we need to pause and define just what ”Spiritual Gift” means. The working definition I like to use is as follows: “A Spiritual Gift is a special attribute given by the Holy spirit to every member of the Body of Christ according to God’s grace for use within the context of the Body”
The basic lists of the Spiritual Gifts are found in 3 main sections of Scripture. I Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. Most of what we know about these great blessings to the Church is found in these sections of Scripture. As we said before, the Holy Spirit gives these Spiritual Gifts to every believer in Christ, however, not every believer gets the same gifts or the same degree of gifts from the Holy Spirit.
God has promised that every church will have the right mix of gifts for it to function well for the Lord. As we study the lists and titles of spiritual gifts we need not see these as absolutely all the Gifts that the Holy Spirit has to offer His Church, nor should we feel that every church has to have been given all of the listed Gifts. Rather each church has received the Gifts that it needs to function well for the Lord.
A confusion may often arise between a natural talent and a spiritual gift. Every human being possesses certain natural talents. There are obviously different variations and degrees among the natural talents. Talents are one of the things that give us each our own unique personality. God gives these talents to us and as such they should be recognized as gifts. However, natural talents have nothing to do with being a believer in Jesus Christ. Even people, who have no belief in God at all, still have natural talents.
Spiritual Gifts are reserved exclusively for believers, no unbeliever has one and every true believer in Jesus does. As believers we may dedicate our talents to the Lord, but these are then dedicated natural talents, they are not Spiritual Gifts. Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to believers to be used for the growth and health of the church. The Holy Spirit may choose to use and enhance a natural talent or He may give a Spiritual Gift in another area apart from the believer’s natural talents.
Each of us as believers will have Spiritual Gifts of which we may not yet be aware. Therefore, we must set about the task of trying to discover and develop our own special spiritual Gifts for the growth of the church and for our own spiritual growth. The question then is, “How do we identify the Spiritual Gifts that God has given us?” Here is one method, which may be of help:
Step #1 Explore the Possibilities – Study the Bible; get to know more about all of the gifts – names and descriptions.
Step #2Experiment – Try out as many gifts as possible. Ask yourself; do I have it? Do I not have it?
Step #3Evaluate Your Feelings – Do you seem to enjoy the task to which a gift relates? Do you feel comfortable using a certain gift?
Step #4Evaluate Effectiveness – Does your use of the gift build up the Church? Does the Church grow and do believers become disciples of the Lord by the use of your gifts?
Step #5Expect Confirmation from the Church – Does someone express appreciation and/or growth from your use of the gifts? Do your fellow members recognize the gift in you?
This is an ongoing process; one should not be discouraged to find out that they do not have many of these gifts. Let us remember that God gives to the whole Church the gifts needed for it to function. How many eyes are needed? How many noses? We will find that some of the gifts we have in abundance in our church body and others are scarce. But, each needs to be discovered and developed in order for the church to function at its peak, which is what God desires.
Once we have made a start at discovering our many gifts, we must begin to develop these great blessings of the Lord that are ours alone! This means that once you have identified a certain gift, the largest amount of time and energy reserved for the growth of the church in your life, should be spent on that particular gift or gifts. For example, if your gift would happen to be knowledge, you then would want to spend more time in reading and in study of areas that will help the church, rather than devoting time to hospitality, another gift of the spirit that you may not have. That does not excuse you from showing Christian hospitality whenever called upon by circumstances to do so! It does, however, mean that you might not go out of your way to find ways to use hospitality. Your time would be better spent pursuing the gift of knowledge.
This brings us to another important point. We must avoid the temptation to confuse Christian roles as spiritual Gifts. Christian roles are those things that every believer is called on to do by the Lord. One of the most obvious roles that is also a gift is “Faith”. Every believer has faith and that faith is a gift from God and every believer is called on to exercise that faith and strengthen it. But the faith that every believer has and uses in his day to day life is much different than the spiritual Gift of faith described later in this booklet.
One of the biggest temptations in the discovery of Spiritual Gifts is “Gift projections”. This is when you project your gift onto someone else, when we communicate to another believer that they must exhibit a certain gift. That every believer can show this gift if they just do such and such a thing. This is wrong! God has purposely given different gifts to different people and no gift is available to everyone!
What we should do as a church body is to begin to identify the individual gifts that are present in our body and to use those people in their area! So often we waste time and people by trying without success to have them perform in an area where they have no gift.
In order to help you to begin to identify the Spiritual Gifts that God has given to you there is a survey included in this booklet. The purpose of these questions is simply to help you begin to think about and explore the idea of Spiritual Gifts in your life. This is a tool to help in that task. The answers are not hard and fast and certainly not 100% correct. Rather this is just one of the ways to begin your 5 step process to discovering your Spiritual Gifts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - Most of the material in this study is from a book by C. Peter Wagner, “Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow”
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU BEGIN THE QUESTIONAIRE
The purpose of this questionnaire is to help you begin to discover the spiritual gifts that God has given you. It is not intended to give you a final unchangeable answer. Because of the way the test is designed it is possible that a major gift of yours will not show up in the results. Use the results of this questionnaire to help you begin your search, but please do not let its results control you!
To take this test, read through each statement and then decide which of the following best describes your feelings about that statement:
5….extremely true of me
4….very true of me
3….moderately true of me
2….somewhat true of me
1….not true of me at all
Place the appropriate number in the blank in front of the statement. To score the questionnaire, first respond to all the statements and then turn to the last page for directions. Some of the statements take this form: “I would very much like to…” You may already be doing what the statement describes. If you are, then answer the question according to how well you enjoy doing what you are already doing. For example, the statement may be “I would like to teach Sunday school”. If you are already teaching Sunday school and you like teaching, then a “4” or a “5” might be appropriate. But, if you are already teaching and you don’t like it very much, then a “1” or “2” would be more accurate.
As you take the test, remember, you are a special person and God has given you unique gifts!
___1. If I had the opportunity to preach a series of sermons, I would want the people to have felt like God Himself had been in the pulpit.
____ 2. I would enjoy having the responsibility for the spiritual well being of a group of Christians.
____ 3. People would probably say that my contributions in Bible studies tend to be right on the train of thought and tend to uncover important ideas more often than others do.
____ 4. I enjoy personally encouraging the wavering, troubled, or discouraged.
____ 5. I would like to have a responsibility at the church that would involve persuading others to move toward achieving biblical objectives.
____ 6. I know when and to whom to delegate important responsibility.
____ 7. I feel a strong sense of authority when I relate to other Christians.
____ 8. I would like someone to show me how I could lead others to salvation through faith in Christ.
____ 9. I could adapt fairly easily to a culture different from mine.
____10. Physical danger is less frightening to me than to others.
____11. I am single, and I enjoy it.
____12. I would like to be called upon to do special jobs around church that others don’t seem to want to do.
____13. I would like to be able to manage my money well so that I could give liberally to the Lord’s work.
____14. I would like to be able to work with people who have physical or mental problems to help alleviate their suffering.
____15. I like to provide food or lodging graciously to those in need.
____16. Using the word of God as my guide I can clearly perceive the difference between truth and error better than others can.
____17. I usually seem to recognize prayer needs before others do.
____18. I wish that to reveal the glory of God He would use me to miraculously change circumstances.
____19. I would like to pray for people to be healed and have the prayer answered.
____20. I have spoken in tongues.
____21. I would like to be able to interpret messages given in tongues.
____22. I wish I had the ability and the opportunity to preach a series of sermons that would call believers and unbelievers alike to repentance.
____23. I would like to have the task of relating to the successes and failures of the same group of Christians over a long period of time.
____24. If I led a Bible study it would be very important to me to spend a great deal of time in research to make sure I would be teaching the truth.
____25. I wish I could be used more by God to dislodge the complacent and redirect the wayward to face spiritual reality.
____26. I know where I’m going and other Christians follow me.
____27. I would like to have the responsibility in some area of the church that would give me the opportunity to organize ideas, people, things and time more effectively than they are at present.
____28. I would like to proclaim the Gospel and see new groups of Christians formed in an area where no one has ever before heard the gospel.
____29. When I’ve told nonbelievers how Christ has brought me to himself they seem to understand.
____30. I could learn another language in order to minister to a different people.
____31. Suffering physical persecution for my faith is not a major concern of mine.
____32. I feel indifferent toward being married.
____33. I’ve been able to effectively help out in my church to take care of the everyday needs of the Body.
____34. I give things or money to the Lord’s work with a cheerful attitude.
_____35. I have felt an unusual compassion for those who have physical or spiritual needs.
____36. I want to provide a gracious haven for guests and don’t want them to feel that they are imposing on me.
____37. I can judge well between what is poor and what is good (or evil and good).
____38. I take prayer requests more seriously than other Christians seem to.
____39. I would like God to supernaturally intervene to do impossible things through my life.
____40. I feel a strong urge to pray for the healing for the emotionally disturbed.
____41. I strongly wish God would use me to speak a message to His people in a language that I have never learned.
____42. When I have interpreted tongues it has resulted in the Lord’s body being edified, exhorted, or comforted.
____43. I think that people today need to hear a message calling them to repentance and a return to God.
____44. I have known intimately and have been well known by those I have served and guided.
____45. When I share in Bible studies people don’t have any trouble understanding what I’m trying to tell them.
____46. I’d like to be able to personally help people seek a Biblical solution to their affliction or suffering.
____47. I enjoy leading, inspiring, and motivating others to involve themselves in the Lord’s work.
____48. I am able to make effective and efficient plans to accomplish the goals of a group.
____49. Other Christians seem willing to do what I say without asking many questions.
____50. When I’ve talked to non-Christians about Jesus being my Savior they’ve been interested and wanted to know more.
____51. Given the chance, I think I could relate quite well to Christians of a different race, language or culture.
____52. I think that dying for my faith would be a desirable way to go.
____53. I’m glad I have more time to serve the Lord because I am single.
____54. I feel great satisfaction in performing routine tasks for God’s glory.
____55. I feel deeply moved when confronted with urgent financial needs in God’s work.
____56. When I have the opportunity to talk with someone who is disheartened I can help him or her to be inwardly encouraged.
____57. I have a knack of making strangers feel at home.
____58. I feel it’s important to look beneath the surface and question people’s motives.
____59. God consistently answers my prayers in an obvious way.
____60. In the name of the Lord I have cast out demons.
____61. I’d like to be able through the power of God to successfully treat those who are sick.
____62. I would like to pray to God in a language I have never learned.
____63. I have prayed that God would enable me to interpret if someone begins speaking in tongues.
____64. There have been times when I felt I should take the initiative to confront someone about his or her sin and I have done so using the authority of God’s word.
____65. I have helped needy Christians by guiding them to relevant portions of the Bible and praying with them.
____66. If I were to teach a Sunday school class I’m sure a major concern of mine would be what the students would do with what I taught them.
____67. I’ve been able to counsel effectively some people who have been perplexed, guilty, or addicted.
____68. When there’s been reason for it I’ve been able to influence others to accomplish a particular task or Biblical purpose.
____69. I would enjoy being given the responsibility of giving directions to and making decisions for a group rather than having to try to persuade them to my way of thinking.
____70. With the proper training I think I could be quite effective at exercising God-given authority among a group of Christians.
_____71. If I had to give the Sunday morning sermon I would preach a message that would tell unbelievers how to find forgiveness.