- This article offers a great perspective on discovering and using our spiritual gifts. I especially found the thoughts on Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4 helpful. It is interesting to see how these verses describe different aspects of our gifts and how they function in the Church. For those of you who want to delve deeper into understanding your gifts but are not good at writing about it, you may find additional resources helpful. For example, you can review https://essays.edubirdie.com/buy-essay this site to improve your writing. It is very gratifying to think about how the recognition and use of our gifts can contribute to the prosperity of the church community.
Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts
When, by the grace of God, a person puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone, they are made a part of His body (the CHURCH) and filled with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, God works through a believer by giving divine unction (motivation), strength, and power (manifestations) to accomplish His will in and through the Church so that Christ's life and His kingdom may continue to be made manifest in the world. Those motivations and manifestations of the Spirit are referred to as Spiritual Gifts or Gifts of God's grace.
Our big idea from Sunday was that "when the body of Christ is
functioning well, God is glorified. It is crucial that each part of the body understand
and engage its function well. It also stands to reason that is God's desire as
well. We can believe that God wants us to know our spiritual gift and how to
use it.
The most effective way I have found to pursue an understanding of
spiritual gifts is through the lens of motivational gifts. Discovering your
Motivational Spiritual Gift is a perspective of the gift passages in the
New Testament. From this perspective, Romans 12 is a list of motivational gifts or what God does
"to us", 1 Corinthians 12 is a list of manifestation gifts or what God does "through us", and Ephesians 4 lists vocations or God's grace
given to and through people to equip the saints.
As I mentioned on Sunday, 1 Peter 4:7-11 offers two broad categories
of giftedness, speaking and serving (or doing). It is a good
place to start in your discovery of spiritual giftedness. Ask this question; do
you use words or actions more? The question isn't about being more comfortable
speaking in front of people or serving behind the scenes. Instead, it is a question
about whether you find yourself using words or actions more frequently in your
interactions with others, especially believers.
From 1 Peter, I would encourage you to head over to Romans 12. The
whole chapter offers insight into how to function well as the body of Christ.
In verses 6-8, we get a nice tight list of 7 gifts. The importance of the
number 7 is one reason why I believe this is a complete list of motivational
gifts. Another reason is that Romans is
Paul's most comprehensive and well-organized book of doctrine.
Here is what I would recommend then. Read Romans 12. Identify the 7 gifts mentioned in the chapter. Begin praying about them. I believe that God wants you to know and use your spiritual gift. Ask him to reveal it to you. After reading the chapter and prayerfully reflecting on it, read through the document Discovering Your Motivational Spiritual Gift on our website.
My prayer is for you to understand and apply your identity, gifting, and calling in Christ so that you grow in spiritual maturity. Our expression of Christ's body here at MCF will function even better to the glory of God.