Life-Sharing 1 Spiritual Gifts-The Power For The Church

  1. Have you ever given someone a gift before, and the person never used it? How did it make you feel?

Yes I felt as though the gift was unappreciated and that the person did not want it. I got upset with the person at times when I just thought about the gift and it not being used.

  1. What do you think of when you hear the term Spiritual Gift?

I think of something God wants to give us to use. It’s like an added blessing just for being a believer in Jesus Christ.

  1. How would you define a spiritual gift?

A spiritual gift is a divine, supernatural ability given by God to enable a Christian to serve and to minister. A spiritual gift is a special tool for ministry.

  1. What do you learn about Spiritual Gifts From The Following Passages

Romans 12:5-6 (NIV)
5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

1 Corinthians 12:4 (NIV) 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:31 (NIV) 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

1 Timothy 4:14 (NIV) 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

  • God’s grace determines which gifts that we receive
  • We have different gifts.
  • There are different kinds of gifts, but the same God gives them out.
  • We can desire gifts that we may not have yet.
  • We may be tempted to neglect our gifts.
  • We received gifts to serve others.
  1. How does a spiritual gift differ from a Christian responsibility say for instance when a person needs mercy or a church has a financial need? (Involving gifts of mercy and giving)

The 2nd greatest commandment is to love one another. As Christians we are to do what love requires in a given moment. After talking about spiritual gifts in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, Paul says, and now I will show you a more excellent way. He then goes into chapter 13 which is known as the love chapter and what it means to love. Spiritual gifts are underneath love, so that our spiritual gifts are to operate out of love.

A person with a spiritual gift in an area tends to see things in that area before others do, and are generally more likely to respond quicker than others in that particular realm. They quickly put themselves in the place to be used to meet the need which may arise at the time. A person without the gift of mercy may help a person out, but the people with the gift will probably involve themselves more deeply into the person’s life. Likewise a Christian may give something to help out, but a person with the gift of giving will probably offer a greater % of what they have.

5. What are some important advantages of being able to identify your spiritual gifts?

  • Helps you determine God’s will for your vocation. A knowledge of your gifts will provide a context for making career and ministry decisions regarding what not to attempt as well as what to enter into with confidence.
  • Moblizes the entire church for mission. Since a small percentage of the church consists of clergy and more than ninety percent of the church consists of non-clergy, the church obviously must equip and encourage every Christian to minister in his or her respective sphere of influence.
  • Assist you in setting priorities for study, growth, and ministry. Since each of us has a limited amount of time to develop our potential, it seems clear that we should develop ourselves in the areas of our special gifts.
  • Gives each Christian a sense of dignity and self worth. Every Christian is an important part of the total church.
  • Enables you to receive the gift ministries of others. When Christians become more knowledgeable of their own spiritual gifts and those of other Christians, they can more easily function harmoniously as the Body of Christ, both giving and receiving ministries.
  • Fosters unity among fellow Christian believers: As the members of the church function inter-dependently, and awareness of spiritual gifts leads them to respect one another as they live together in the common life of the Spirit.

6. Is it biblical to come to church and never be involved in any ministry of the church? (why or why not/)

Part of the reason for coming together is to have the body of Christ put their gifts into action for the building up of the kingdom. To come to church and never be involved is like having your gift and refusing to open it. As the body, we are to minister to one each other. Coming to church is not about what I want. We should come asking how can I minister to the body. It is in ministering to the body that we find ourselves being ministered to.

7. Why do some people have more spiritual gifts than others?

  • From The outset, God may give some people more gifts than others.
  • We are told to desire higher gifts. Some people do not want God to give them gifts that will place them in front of others so they don’t desire them.
  • Some people make themselves more available for different kinds of ministry and in the process, God gives them additional gifts.
  • Some people will not use the gifts that God has given them so God does not give them more.

8. How does the improper use of just using people who will volunteer, hurt the ministry of the church?

If you allow a person to teach a class of kids who does not have a gift for teaching, that class is not going to go well and the kids are probably not going to learn much. If you have a person who is a greeter who lacks the gift of hospitality, it is probably going to cut down on your repeat visitors. If you chose a person to lead a group who lacks the gifts of leadership or administration and not pair the person with someone who has, that ministry is going to be disorganized.

9. This week we looked at the gifts of discernment, wisdom, tongues, evangelism, celibacy, martyrdom and voluntary poverty?

Discerning of Spirits: "The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to know with assurance whether certain behavior purported to be of God is in reality divine, human, or Satanic."
This gift is a practical gift. Christians with this gift can recognize the true motives of people and also recognize when a person is distorting the truth or communicating error. This person often can recognize when Satan or other evil spirits are at work in a given person or situation. Scriptures: Matthew 16:21-23; Acts 5:1-11; 16:16-18; 17:11-16; 1 Corinthians 12:10; Hebrews 5:14; 1 John 4:1-6.

Celibacy: The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to choose to forgo the idea of marriage and family in order to make one’s self more available for service in the kingdom of God. The person chooses to remain celibate thereby avoiding sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 7:1-10, 7:29-35

Evangelism: The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to readily share the gospel with unbelievers in such a way that men and women often become Jesus’ disciples and responsible members of the Body of Christ.
This gift is a practical gift. While the task of evangelism is an important spiritual exercise that all Christians should be involved with, God gifts certain members with an ability to have unusual sensitivity to when someone is ready to accept Christ, and will generally have greater success in leading people to Christ than other Christians. People with this gift should be active in training others to share their faith. Scriptures: Acts 8:5-6, 26-40; Ephesians 4:11-14; 2 Timothy 4:5.

Martydom: The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to readily be able to lay down their lives for the purpose of furthering the cause of Christ. They are not afraid to put themselves into dangerous situations in order to reach others with the gospel message. Acts 20:22-24 21:10-14

Tongues: "The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ (a) to speak to God in a language that they have never learned and/or (b) to receive and communicate a message of God to his people through a divinely anointed utterance in a language they never learned."
This gift is a sign gift. Tongues is often associated with intercession and/or faith, but must be recognized as not necessarily being the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit or even as evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Tongues, like any other spiritual gift, is given by God to whomever He chooses to be used to His glory and the edification of the Church.
1 Corinthians 13:1 suggests that there are two forms of the gift of tongues: tongues of men and tongues of angels. This would mean that the speaker could be speaking in an earthly language, or in a language beyond normal human understanding. Scriptures: Mark 16:17; Acts 2:1-13; 10:44-46; 19:1-7; Romans 8:26-27; 1 Corinthians 12:10,28; 13:1; 14:13-19, 26-28, 39.

Voluntary Poverty: "The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to renounce material comfort and luxury and adopt a personal lifestyle equivalent to those living at the poverty level in a given society in order to serve God more effectively."
This gift is a practical gift. Those with the spiritual gift of voluntary poverty will often choose to live among people who are considered poverty-stricken in a given area, and live at their level, although they have the means to live at a higher standard. Th primary motivation for this choice is to minister more effectively to the people through identification. Scriptures: Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-27; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:9.
Note: This gift is often associated with the gift of giving, however, notice that the motivation for this gift is for effective ministry through identification with a group of less-fortunate people, where those with the gift if giving are motivated by what their money can do towards God’s work.

Wisdom: The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to know how given knowledge may best be applied to specific needs arising in the Body of Christ.Knowledge: These two gifts are very similar to each other, and will be defined nearly the same depending on the author you are studying. Knowledge : The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to know a fact or truth about a person or situation as it is directly revealed by the Holy Spirit.

This gift is a practical gift. Those with this gift have an excellent ability to apply spiritual truth to everyday life. Often, people in the church naturally seek out people with this gift when they are facing complicated spiritual problems. When a person with this gift considers past experience, they realize that they often make good and correct decisions and judgements. Scriptures: Proverbs 4:5-8; Acts 6:3, 10; 15:13-20; 20:20-21; Romans 12:17; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11-14; Colossians 1:28.

9a. Which of these gifts do you see evident in your life?

Answers will vary. Some people may not have a gift in this area of gifts. Do encourage everyone to take the spiritual gift test.

9b. Which of these gifts do you not understand?

Be willing to read over the gifts and discuss them if needed. Look at some of the biblical passages after the gifts in the descriptions above in order to help you come to an understanding of the gifts.

10. Which of these gifts would you like to seek God for to add to your spiritual gift?

Answers will vary to this question. You may also ask which of these gifts would you least like to have added to your spiritual gift mix.

To take the spiritual gifts test, go to our website at and click on information. Then click on Spiritual Gifts Test 2. Answer the questions. 0 means never, 1 means 25% of the time, 2 means 50% of the time, 3 means 75% of the time, and 4 means all of the time true about you.

Life-Sharing Lesson 2 Spiritual Gifts-Power For The Church

1. John 3:16 begins with, “For God so loved the world, that God gave..” When was a time when someone loved you, that they gave something to help you?

My wife gave me the go ahead to get a word processor to help me out in law school during my first year of school, and then gave me permission a year later to get our first computer to do my assignments.

2. What’s the connection between being a Christ follower and service.

The choice to become a Christian, is a choice to serve others and to serve God. Jesus gave us the commandment in John 13:34 (NIV) 34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Matthew 23:11-12 (NIV) 11 The greatest among you will be your servant.12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

John 13:14-17 (NIV) 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

3. This past Sunday we looked at the spiritual gifts of Giving, Service, Helps, Hospitality and Mercy. How will these gifts differ from what every believer is called to do as a follower of Christ?

We are all called to show all of these gifts at some point in our Christian walk when the need has arisen. However, once again, the person with the gifts, will respond more quickly to the need, and have a more positive attitude toward fulfilling the need. They will probably get a greater joy from having met the need than the ordinary Christian will.

Giving: "The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to contribute their material resources to the work of the Lord with liberality and cheerfulness."
This gift is a practical gift. While all Christians should practice the discipline of giving through the minimum of 10% (tithe), God gifts certain members of the body to give remarkably greater amounts of their income with liberality and great joy. These people have an acute awareness that all they have belongs to the Lord and they are merely stewards, therefore they know that God will supply their needs and richly bless them in their giving. Scriptures: Matthew 6:2-4; Mark 12:41-44; Romans 12:8; 1 Corinthians 13:3; 2 Corinthians 8:1-7; 9:2-8; Philippians 4:14-19

4. How is this gift practiced on a regular basis at New Life At Calvary?

There are many members of our church who tithe and still support many of the other missions of the church with their giving through the special offerings that we take up. There are members of our church who fund things at the church like Thanksgiving dinners or Christmas gifts for single parent families out of their own funds. There are people in the church who give special gifts for certain campaigns that we do in the church. There are people who have given significant offerings with the directions to use the offerings where they are needed the most. There are people in our church who tithe, and still give extra gifts to help out their family members.

5. The Bible speaks ofbelievers marrying believers and not marrying unbelievers. What kind of problem could the gift of giving cause for a marriage if one of the persons in the marriage is not saved?

The issue of tithing to the church could be strongly opposed by the person who is not saved. The person may see the money as being wasted. The person may want to give a lot less to the church. The person with the gift of giving, will also probably want to give more to people apart from the church. Their desire to be a blessing to others could produce a lot of stress and tension in a marriage, especially if money is already tight.

6. How should a person with the gift of giving deal with choosing between giving and paying his/her bills?

The person should pay their bills first. The person with the gift of giving will often be willing to go without certain things others may consider necessities in order to be put in the place of having resources to be a blessing to others. Remember the gift of giving is used to further the kingdom of God, not just buying nice things for people for the purpose of lifting their spirits. God gives us balance in our lives. No spiritual gift should lead us into huge amounts of debt. Even the person with the gift of giving must consider how their giving is going to affect others in their family. It’s not a simple formula of, if I give this to God, then God is going to give that to me. The person with the gift of giving is not thinking that God is going to give it back to me. They give with the idea of sacrifice.