Part 1 All He Has for Me (Discovering my Spiritual Gift/s)
A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."
Our church services should not be boring, but alive and energetic. By taking responsibility and time to discover your spiritual gift and exercising that gift (not just when the church meets in a local assembly) you become a key contributor of making the body healthy and vibrant.
How can we discover our gift/s?
First we should know what gift/s are available. God has a purpose for you. He does have a wonderful plan for your life! One aspect of fulfilling that purpose is to understand, discover and exercise the spiritual gift/s you have from God. We have already seen, at least in part, what some of these spiritual gifts are.
The question before us now is how do we discover what our gift/s is/are? Some well meaning churches offer a spiritual gifts “quiz”. It asks the participant questions and based on the answers one learns what gift/s God has granted them to develop. This may be somewhat helpful in getting one to think about the possibilities, and with the right rudiments one may discover his or her gift I would not want to discourage this. I would also like to present the following helpful suggestions from Dr. John MacArthur; he offers nine guidelines that can aid us in discovering our spiritual gift/s. They can be found in The MacArthur Commentary on Romans, p. 162. This may even be more effective than taking a quiz.
1. Present ourselves as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1).
2. Recognize that all believers, including ourselves, are gifted (Rom. 12:3).
3. Pray for wisdom (James 1:5).
4. Seek for nothing (Acts 8:18, 24).
5. Examine our hearts desire (1Tim. 3:1).
6. Seek confirmation. [This often occurs without seeking].
7. Look for the blessing of God.
8. Wholeheartedly serve Him.
9. Cultivate the gift as it becomes obvious.
Do you know what your spiritual gift/s are?
Our church services should not be boring, but alive and energetic. By taking responsibility and time to discover your spiritual gift and exercising that gift (not just when the church meets in a local assembly) you become a key contributor of making the body healthy and vibrant.
How can we discover our gift/s?
First we should know what gift/s are available. God has a purpose for you. He does have a wonderful plan for your life! One aspect of fulfilling that purpose is to understand, discover and exercise the spiritual gift/s you have from God. We have already seen, at least in part, what some of these spiritual gifts are.
The question before us now is how do we discover what our gift/s is/are? Some well meaning churches offer a spiritual gifts “quiz”. It asks the participant questions and based on the answers one learns what gift/s God has granted them to develop. This may be somewhat helpful in getting one to think about the possibilities, and with the right rudiments one may discover his or her gift I would not want to discourage this. I would also like to present the following helpful suggestions from Dr. John MacArthur; he offers nine guidelines that can aid us in discovering our spiritual gift/s. They can be found in The MacArthur Commentary on Romans, p. 162. This may even be more effective than taking a quiz.
1. Present ourselves as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1).
2. Recognize that all believers, including ourselves, are gifted (Rom. 12:3).
3. Pray for wisdom (James 1:5).
4. Seek for nothing (Acts 8:18, 24).
5. Examine our hearts desire (1Tim. 3:1).
6. Seek confirmation. [This often occurs without seeking].
7. Look for the blessing of God.
8. Wholeheartedly serve Him.
9. Cultivate the gift as it becomes obvious.
Do you know what your spiritual gift/s are?
posted by J. Wendell at 6:00 AM
5 Comments:
Good post.
I think also there is another side to this in that there must be liberty to use gifts.
In the Brethren their used to be the belief that any man had the liberty to preach and minister in the assembly.
These days, the Open Brethren have adopted the more mainstream custom of deciding who will preach before meetings.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
By
Matthew Celestine, at 30/6/06 4:28 PM
Matthew,
I agree that there must be liberty to use gifts. I think that this can be and is done in the assembly and outside of the assembly. Further, everything should be done decently and in order.
When I was involved in a Pentecostal church, there were a lot of things going on in the assembly at one time. I would often feel aggravated, but (at that time) I thought I was unspiritual for feeling that way, until I read 1Corinthians 14: 40 in the context of chapters 11-15.
I feel that if one is called to preach (or teach) that one is also called to prepare. In fact preparing is what I enjoy most about teaching. However, I also feel very comfortable in presenting what has been prepared.
I would like to visit one of your meetings.
May His every blessing be to you my friend.
By
J. Wendell, at 1/7/06 6:26 AM
I expect you would like my church more than I do. It is closer to your model than my background or the model I favour.
It is important to prepare for preaching. But only the Holy Ghost has the authority to decide which prepared person preaches.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
By
Matthew Celestine, at 1/7/06 8:19 AM
It is important to prepare for preaching. But only the Holy Ghost has the authority to decide which prepared person preaches.
Good point!
I expect you would like my church more than I do.
Brother perhaps it's time to loosen up a bit and enjoy the blessings and the liberty God has for you and others there. And as the late Dr. Cook used to say "Be a blessing."
By
J. Wendell, at 2/7/06 8:01 AM
I do not think there is an awful lot of liberty there. But I am glad that it is growing and seeing new converts.
God Bless
Matthew
By
Matthew Celestine, at 2/7/06 9:22 AM
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