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Assessing Your Spiritual Gifts
By Julie | June 4, 2008
Sunday in church the sermon was on spiritual gifts. I’ve heard about this part of scripture my whole life. I thought I understood most of it. Sunday I found out I didn’t understand. For the last couple days I’ve been processing the insights I got from the sermon. I love that one way I always know if I’ve heard a good sermon is if it stays with me and I analyze it for a few days, or even a few weeks.
The minister said there was so much to cover on the topic of spiritual gifts it was hard to narrow it down for one sermon. He used his hour to narrow down the typical: who, what, when, where, and how’s. Here is his summary of the sermon, from my notes and memory (sorry, I didn’t write down all his scriptural references):
Who receives spiritual gifts: Every true believer.
What are they: A range of gifts / abilities given to believers to exalt Christ. The pastor said they are “divine enablement to do something to leave impact for eternity”. He said these are not our natural ability, because they are a sign of the change that takes place in us when we receive Christ. So, if we are bumbling idiots in one area, after we are saved God could gift us in that way. Then people we knew could say, “Whoa, it must be real, because that guy certainly couldn’t do that before. The change in that person would then point back to God.
Where are they given: To a willing and obedient heart. This makes me wonder how often my stubborn heart has kept such a blessing away.
How do you use them: Just test them out by trying every opportunity that comes your way. As your gifting and calling take shape, you may even accept or seek further training.
Why use them: Since each Christian is gifted in different areas, our gifts unify us, and make the body of Christ complete.
I know a few of the natural abilities God gave me, but if natural abilities are not spiritual gifts, I didn’t know what mine were.
So Sunday afternoon when I had a couple minutes to myself I looked online for anything to help me determine my spiritual gifts. I found the Spiritual Gifts Assessment. If you’re interested, follow the link, and you’ll go right to the first page where it asks you to type in your name, though it assures you it doesn’t keep your personal information. Then it leads you through 113 questions that determine “your strongest of 19 spiritual gifts.” The questions take a little time to go through. But I found it taught me a lot about myself.
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