My Story

God gives every Christian—without exception—one or more spiritual gifts. You probably already know that. What you might not have realized is that God uniquely calls you to use your spiritual gifts in ways that no one else can. The purpose of this blog is to help you do that.

For example, three times last week, God gave me new insights and encouragement about my own spiritual gifts. I’m almost 60 years old, and I’ve been a Christian for almost 51 years. Therefore, if God can give me new insights about my spiritual gifts, I know He can do the same for you!

Below is the story of my new insights last week about my spiritual gifts. (I changed the names and details of the people to preserve confidentiality.)

At the beginning of last week, as I coached my client Dan, over the phone, about the obstacles he faced in his Christian calling, he told me about meeting Carlos, who has the spiritual gift of prophecy. Carlos encouraged Dan by telling him specific ways that God is pleased with Dan and his ministry and how God would continue to bless him in the future. Dan and Carlos had just met that day, so Carlos’ specific prophecy proved that God approved of Dan and would help him overcome the difficulties in his ministry.

The day after I coached Dan, another client, Celia, a church leader, told a similar true story. Maddy, a woman who regularly prays for Celia, encouraged Celia in specific ways for her ministry. Maddy had no way of knowing what Celia was facing, so Celia knew God was speaking through Maddy. Maddy’s words encouraged Celia, so that she moved forward with greater strength and confidence.

The day after that, yet another of my coaching clients, Jenna, remembered an incident more than 30 years ago about a word of prediction given to her by a well-known conference speaker. She suddenly realized God was now fulfilling that long-ago prophecy!

Occasionally, I give a prophetic word to someone else, although that is rare. When I was one of the pastors at Crossroads Church in Pittsburgh, an outside speaker trained the church staff how to listen for God’s word for other people. God gave me a powerful vision of thousands of young people being deployed from our church into our community, our region, and the world, reaching thousands for salvation and multiplying disciples. The vision was so powerful that I wept when I shared it in our staff meeting. It seemed to resonate with our lead pastor too, and he still remembers that today. The vision was so vivid that I initially thought God was calling me to help train those young people. That was not the case, but even now—years later, after moving from Pittsburgh to Florida—that deployment of young people is happening.

However, prophecy is not one of my spiritual gifts. I have often wished it was! What an asset that would be to me, a Christian coach who specializes in helping people find and fulfill their Christian calling! How I would love to have frequent clear visions for my clients like I did that one time for the church in Pittsburgh.

Therefore, on the day after my coaching call with Jenna, God prompted me to talk with Him about my desire for the spiritual gift of prophecy. Below is a part of that conversation:

God: You feel like you should be able to tell your clients what I am saying to them.

Me: Yes. But I know prophesy isn’t my spiritual gift.

God: That’s all right. What do you do instead? (That question would never have occurred to me, so I know it came from God!)

Me: I don’t know!

God: Here’s what you do instead of prophesying. You indeed don’t tell people what I am saying to them. You help people to hear for themselves what I am saying to them. You do that by using your strongest spiritual gifts are teaching, wisdom, knowledge, and leadership. How else do you think I love for you to use your spiritual gifts in ways that are unique to you?

(The rest of the conversation is too long and personal to include here!)

The Basics About Spiritual Gifts

The Holy Spirit—the third person of the Trinity, who indwells us when we accept Jesus as our Savior—gives spiritual gifts. We cannot choose which spiritual gifts we have—He chooses them for us:

• Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good…. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:7,11)

Spiritual gifts are described most clearly in three passages of the New Testament. Most of these are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, Romans 12:6-8, and Ephesians 4:7-12.

The Holy Spirit gives every Christian at least one spiritual gift. Many Christ-followers have more than one. For example, it is common for a believer to have both the gift of helping/serving and the gift of giving. Some believers have the gift-cluster of wisdom, knowledge and teaching. Others have the gift-cluster of pastoring, teaching, and leading.

An example of a gift-pair that does not appear in the Bible is that of music and videography. If the Holy Spirit endows that combination to create music videos that lead people to Christ, I believe that is a spiritual-gift combination! (I’ll talk a bit more below about why I believe all spiritual gifts are not listed in the Bible.)

It takes all Christians together, using our spiritual gifts, to complete “the body of Christ”:

• The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. … If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. … If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. – 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Most spiritual gifts are a matter of degree of ability, not of total presence or absence of that ability. For example, all Christ-followers are called to help/serve, but some have the spiritual gift of helping/serving. All of us are called to share Christ with other people, but some have the spiritual gift of evangelism. Most of us eventually will share a word of prophecy to someone—a word of encouragement straight from God, as I did, even though I don't have a full-blown spiritual gift of prophecy. All of us eventually show a bit of each spiritual gift at some time during life—but some Christians have an extra measure of endowment from the Holy Spirit to do certain things, hence they are said to have those particular spiritual gifts.

The purpose of a spiritual gift is to accomplish God’s purposes:

• …to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up – Ephesians 4:12

“That the body of Christ may be built up” does not just mean strengthening the church (the body of Christ) as it now exists, but also building up the church by reaching more people with the Good News about Jesus.

A Partial List of Spiritual Gifts

Below is a list (in no particular order) of spiritual gifts. The definitions are taken from C. Peter Wagner’s Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow.

Wisdom:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to know the mind of the Holy Spirit in such a way as to receive insight into how knowledge may best be applied to specific needs arising in the Kingdom of God.

Knowledge:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to discover, accumulate, analyze, and clarify information and ideas that are pertinent to the growth and well-being of the Body and to the Kingdom at large.

Faith:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for the future of His work.

Miracles:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to serve as human intermediaries through whom it pleases God to perform powerful acts that are perceived by observers to have altered the ordinary course of nature.

Healing:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to serve as human intermediaries through whom it pleases God to cure illness and restore health apart from the use of natural means.

Pastor:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to assume a long-term personal responsibility for the spiritual welfare of a group of believers.

Prophecy:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to receive and communicate an immediate message of God to His people through a divinely anointed utterance.

Teaching:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to serve as human intermediaries through whom it pleases God to communicate information relevant to the health and ministry of the Body and for Kingdom purposes.

Exhortation:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement, and counsel to other members of the Body and others in such a way that they feel helped and healed.

Evangelism:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to share the Gospel with unbelievers in such a way that men and women become Jesus’ disciples and responsible members of the Body of Christ.

Mercy:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to feel genuine empathy and compassion for individuals, both Christian and pre-Christian, who suffer distressing physical, mental, or emotional problems, and to translate that compassion into cheerfully done deeds that reflect Christ’s love an alleviate the suffering.

Helping:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to invest the talents they have in the life and ministry of other members of the Body and others, thus enabling those others to increase the effectiveness of their own spiritual gifts and to come to know Christ.

Serving:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to identify the unmet needs involved in a task related to God’s work, and to make use of available resources to meet those needs and help accomplish the desired goals.

Giving:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to contribute their material resources to the work of the Lord liberally and cheerfully, above and beyond tithes and offerings expected of all believers.

Voluntary Poverty:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to renounce material comfort and luxury and adopt a personal lifestyle equivalent to those living at the poverty level in a given society in order to serve God more effectively.

Leadership:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to set goals in accordance with God’s purpose for the future and to communicate these goals to others in such a way that they voluntarily and harmoniously work together to accomplish those goals for the glory of God.

Administration:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to understand clearly the immediate and long-range goals of a particular unit of the Body and to devise and execute effective plans for the accomplishment of these goals in the church and for Christ outside the church.

Missionary:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to minister whatever other spiritual gifts they have in a second culture.

Apostle:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to assume and to exercise divinely imparted authority in order to establish the foundational government of an assigned sphere of ministry within the Church; an apostle hears from the Holy Spirit and sets things in order accordingly for the Church’s health, growth, maturity, and outreach.

Discerning Spirits:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to know with assurance whether certain behaviors purported to be of God are in reality divine, human, or satanic.

Deliverance:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to cast out demons and evil spirits.

Celibacy:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to remain single and enjoy it and not suffer undue sexual temptations.

Martyrdom:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to undergo suffering for the faith even to death while consistently displaying a joyous and victorious attitude that brings glory to God.

Hospitality:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to provide an open house and warm welcome for those in need of food and lodging.

Intercession/Prayer:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to pray for extended periods of time on a regular basis and see frequent and specific answers to their prayers to a degree much greater than that which is expected of the average Christian.

Leading Worship:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to accurately discern the heart of God for a particular public worship service, to draw others into an intimate experience of God during the worship time, and to allow the Holy Spirit to change directions and emphasis as the service progresses.

Tongues:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ (1) to speak to God in a language they have never learned and/or (2) to receive and communicate an immediate message from God to His people through a divinely anointed utterance in a language they have never learned.

Interpretation of Tongues:

The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to make known to the vernacular the message of one who speaks in tongues.

Why This Is Only a Partial List of Spiritual Gifts

There is strong evidence in the Bible that the above list is not exhaustive. Additional spiritual gifts are probably listed in other places in the Bible. For example, Exodus 35:10 mentions “gifted craftsmen,” and 2 Chronicles 2:12 mentions people who were “gifted with skill and understanding” to do the work of building the first Temple.

I believe that God did not intend that the lists of spiritual gifts in the Bible include all of the spiritual gifts. I believe that a spiritual gift is any ability that God has endowed through the Holy Spirit to enable and empower one of his followers to do specific works of service for Him. The Holy Spirit endows many skills for Kingdom purposes, some of which didn’t exist in biblical times. Many biblical scholars believe that such things as visual worship arts, and even computer expertise, are spiritual gifts when the Holy Spirit indwells them and empowers them for His purposes.

What Is the Difference Between a Spiritual Gift and a Skill or Ability?

Of course, people who are not Christians can have great skill at teaching, leadership, and hospitality. Those abilities are spiritual gifts only if the Holy Spirit endows them to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.

The evidence that a skill is a spiritual gift is that the results of using the gift are for God’s purposes and are beyond what could be expected from just natural ability.

For example, a teacher who is not a Christian can powerfully impact the people he teaches and the careers he launches. But God works through a Christian with the spiritual gift of teaching to accomplish His purposes, i.e. bringing people to eternal salvation in Him, training people to follow Him and do His Kingdom work, etc.

Deploying spiritual gifts results in individual transformation and Kingdom advancement, through a church or through a role not connected with a church. For example, God can deploy the spiritual gift of wisdom in a Christian who works in a factory, so that coworkers are drawn to Christ.

Different Expressions of the Same Spiritual Gift

Different people can have totally different expressions of the same spiritual gift or combination of gifts.

For example, I have the spiritual gifts of teaching, wisdom, knowledge, and leadership. I am a Christian life coach. Someone else with the same combination of spiritual gifts could be a high school teacher, corporate trainer, pastor, Sunday school teacher, or the owner of a small or large business, using the spiritual gift of teaching to draw people closer to Jesus.

Also, a person can express his or her spiritual gifts in different ways during different times in life. For example, at different times in my life I expressed my spiritual gifts of teaching, wisdom, knowledge, and leadership through teaching Sunday school, leading small groups at church and in the workplace, being a discipleship and leadership pastor, preaching, and coaching people to find and fulfill their Christian calling.

What About You? Get the Tools in Part 2 of This Blog Series!

In the next blog, I’ll conclude this two-part series about spiritual gifts by giving you some tools to help you hear God about your own spiritual gifts—what your spiritual gifts are, and how God uniquely calls you to deploy them for His purposes in the world. Click here to read the blog.