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.