How are you Feeling about your Spiritual Gifts?

It is uncanny how the topic of Spiritual Gifts keeps coming up in conversations I’ve had in the past weeks. Mentoring university small group leaders, talking to people after church, and chatting with kids after speaking for the chapel program at Edinburgh College. “How is God using you and your spiritual gifts?” just keeps popping up again and again.

Something is happening in the world, within me and, perhaps, you. It is a singularity focused on the Spirit and the gifts He releases to grow the Kingdom of God.

This morning, my wife and I enjoyed the view and the delicacies at the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie. As she cut up her waffle, Jenny said, “We’ve been talking about Spiritual Gifts among the teachers at school.” I listened as she shared some thoughts from their conversations.

Then, sawing my way through an impossibly tall Avo Stack, I said, “How do you feel about your spiritual gifts?” She smiled and said, “I know God is using me every day as a teacher. Some days I feel it and other days it’s more in the background. But, as far as ‘gifts’ go, I’m not sure.”

When I was mentoring Lilli in Tasmania (over video chat) last Friday, she said, “I did one of those Spiritual Gift quizzes last year at church. But, I was left wondering afterwards. It just seemed really random.”

After speaking to the High School students at Edinburgh College the previous Friday, four students came from different directions with questions after my talk. A couple were just looking for details about the Bible story I had just shared. But, one said, “You mentioned that your Spiritual Gifts have changed but tend to revolve around communication. How do I know my gifts?”

In all of these chats, I shared the answer I was given decades ago, as a pastor. I was leading a church through a Spiritual Gift inventory and found myself really disillusioned as I planned it. Did God really drop a list from Heaven and say, “Here’s a list of all the ways I might need your involvement. Consult the list and find your purpose! If you are on the list, you are in! If you find the list odd and unlike you, you are not trying hard enough! Read the list again!” It just seemed… shallow, boring and quite unlike the God I see in the Bible. He’s anything but boring!

I spent time in prayer and reading anything I could find on Spiritual Gifts and participation in the Kingdom of God as ambassadors for Christ. I do not remember the first time I said it, but when it came out of my mouth, I knew – Those were not my words. God had just collated everything I’d been studying and praying about and given me an answer simple enough that even I could remember it. Since that day, I’ve been answering the “Spiritual Gift” question with the same answer. This is the answer I gave the student, the mentee and the people at church. (My wife has already heard it at least a thousand times! lol)

There are two questions to ask to know your Spiritual Gifts:

1. What do I take joy in doing for God? (Where do I feel excited, blissful, impassioned and filled with love for God and for people?)

2. What do other people say I do well? (Other people can often see God using you long before you see it yourself.)

With those two questions in mind, you will find your role in the Kingdom of God. Jesus is our bliss. He calls us and then equips us. Don’t look at your skills to know your Spiritual Gifts. Look to Jesus. He doesn’t call the gifted, He gifts the called.

A few Sabbaths ago, while preaching at Warragul Church, a sentence came out of my mouth that wasn’t in my notes or my mind. A lady came up afterwards and said, “I’m so glad I visited Warragul today. When you said, (she looked down at her notes) ‘our energy and our giftedness do not come from the same place — our energy is physical and comes from our fitness. Our Gifts are spiritual and come from the Holy Spirit’ — I really needed to hear that.” I remembered saying it, because I thought, “Hmmm. That’s a good thought. Wish it was mine!”

God is like that. I told you already that my gifts revolve around Communication. If you look at a list of Spiritual Gifts, you will not find the words ‘communication’ or ‘revolve’. But, I know this is where God has gifted me because this is where God peeks and speaks through me into the world.

Sometimes, it’s when I’m writing. Time rushes past and I realise I’ve been lost in the flow of the Spirit for hours.

Sometimes, it’s when I’m mentoring. A kind word or a helpful thought comes out of my mouth and I know that was God meeting needs I hadn’t even seen.

And sometimes, it’s when I’m preaching. Someone will hear something I didn’t say but God wanted them to hear, or God will use my mouth to say something new so I’ll hear it and say it again and again and again in the future.

I tell you all of this to show you, this is my bliss – to share Jesus in my words. And to invite you to explore your bliss. Where is God honoured through you? Where do you find your joy? How have other people affirmed you recently?

God is there. He is gifting you! Lock in on those Spiritual Gifts and use them to serve Jesus with your heart and soul. You’ll never regret those minutes, hours, days and years spent serving in the Kingdom of God.

How do you feel about your Spiritual Gifts?