Ascertaining and Appreciating Your Spiritual Gifts, Part 1

Tonight, we want you to understand how to ascertain and appreciate your spiritual gift. We're not going to give you a test, although we do have those. We're going to give you some principles that will help you understand how you come to realize what your spiritual gift is.

So, number one: how to ascertain your giftedness.

Principle number one: As you note, there's the acrostic G, stands for gifts. Good, we're all together. The G, here's the principle: go to God in prayer and seek His guidance. Go to God in prayer and seek His guidance. Now, this is where you need to begin.

You ask the Lord for wisdom. We tend to pass prayer off as no big deal. But we are to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let our requests be made known unto God. Not to worry about what our giftedness is, but we should pray about the guidance from God. The Bible talks about trusting the Lord with all of our hearts and leaning not unto our own understanding. In all our ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. He wants to direct us, but we need to acknowledge Him, need to trust Him, and lean not on our own inclinations. We tend to do that quite often. And so we need to be able to go to God in prayer and seek His guidance.

Why is that? Turn to me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Look at verse 11. Speaking of giftedness, the Lord God says to the pen of the Apostle Paul, "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills." God distributes to each person individually exactly the gift He wants you to have. Look down in verse number 18. "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as He desired." Do you know that God places members in the body just as He desires? You didn't come to Christ Community Church by accident. You're here because God placed you here, because God has a purpose for your life and ministry.

Look what it says over in verse number 27. "Now you are Christ's body and individually members of it, and God has appointed in the church." Your giftedness is a divine appointment by God. Romans 11:29 says that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. God gives you a gift, He doesn't take it back. He doesn't say, "Here's a gift, now use it. Oh, you're not going to use it? Give it back. I'll give it to somebody else who will use it." God doesn't do that. The gifts and call of God are irrevocable. He expects you to use what He gives you. He wants you to use what He gives you.

And so we need to understand that we need to go to God and seek His guidance. That's important. Now, listen. We don't go to God and ask Him for a specific gift. Why? Because His giftedness is a sovereign choice of Christ. He gives you what He wants to give you. You have no say in the matter. It's not like you can, "Okay, Lord, I like that gift over there, like that gift over there, and that one over there. So, whatever one you want to give me, that's great, but those are the three I like best." Doesn't work that way. You can go to the store with your mom and dad and ask for things for Christmas and for your birthday and maybe get it that way, but that's not the way it works in the kingdom of God.

Now, there's always somebody who takes you to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, or excuse me, 12, verse number 31, where it says this, "But earnestly desire the greater gifts." And they'll say, "Well, isn't it true that we should earnestly desire the greater gifts?" Well, which ones are the greater gifts? Well, they're the showy gifts. They're the signs and the miracles and the tongues and interpretation of tongues. Paul says right there, 1 Corinthians 12:31, "But earnestly desire the greater gifts." Is that what he says? No. That's not what he says. How do you know that's not what he says? The word he uses is zeloo. Zeloo is a word that means to covet, to be jealous for, to be envious of. Usually in Scripture, it's translated in the negative sense. Here we know it is.

Why? Because of the context of 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. The Corinthians were abusing the gifts. That's why Paul wrote to the Corinthians. You see, the Corinthian church had a problem. Everything they did in the secular world, when they got saved, they brought it into the church and thought it would be okay. So Paul writes 1 Corinthians to talk to them about, "No, that's just not the way it works." And one of the problems the Corinthians had was that they wanted the showy gifts, the big gifts, so everybody would know that they were special people. So Paul says, literally, "But you in a negative way, only desire the showy gifts. And I'm going to show you still a more excellent way." And then he goes into chapter 13, which is the love chapter.

Why would Paul give them the command to do something that they were already sinfully doing? That's the question you've got to ask yourself. And so that's why when you come to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, he says, "Pursue love." 1 Corinthians 13 is the whole chapter about love. "Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts." You see, it's not wrong to desire giftedness. It's only wrong when you desire certain kinds of gifts over others and elevate them above others. And that's what the Corinthians were doing, you see.

So, God made you. We are His workmanship. Ephesians 2:10. He's created us for a specific purpose. And that purpose is to be used in the body of Christ for His glory and for His honor. So we go to God. Go to God in prayer, seek His guidance.

Number two: identify the gifts as they appear in Scripture. Identify the gifts as they appear in Scripture. And we've tried to do that for you. We tried to identify them in four categories: special gifts, speaking gifts, support gifts, and sign gifts. Group 1 and 4, we did not cover. We did not cover them because they are not in 1 Peter 4:10 and 11. If you want to get the tape on sign gifts, you can. If you want to get the tape on special gifts, you can do that as well. Special gifts are gifted men given to the church to equip the saints for the work of ministry. But we specifically discussed the speaking gifts: word of knowledge, word of wisdom, teaching, prophecy, exhortation. Then we talked about the support gifts: understanding what faith was, giving, mercy, help, service, discerning of spirits. Helping you to decipher what those gifts are and how they are shown and illustrated in the Scriptures. We told you that they were located in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4.

So you need to identify the gifts and where they are in Scripture. You need to know the parameters. You need to know what they're about. If you missed last week or the week before that or the week before that, you need to get the tapes, so you understand how they are used in the Scriptures. To see whether or not that gift is something that might be one that you have, or more than one that you have. You can't force yourself into any specific gift, starting to think, "That's the one I want, so I'm going to make myself fulfill that area of ministry." It doesn't work that way. You have to go to God, seek His guidance, and you have to identify the gifts as they appear in Scripture.

And then, number three, you have to find an appropriate arena in which to exercise this gift. You have to find an appropriate arena in which to exercise this gift. Don't wait for the church to come to you and say, "Hey, why don't you do this?" You take the initiative to find an arena whereby you can exercise your giftedness.

You've identified the gifts, you understand the parameter of those gifts, you understand where they are in Scripture, and then you find the arena that best fits your area of ministry.

Now listen, when Christ Community Church began ten years ago, we never purposed to do any kind of ministry in the church until someone said, "I want to do this." We never said, "Okay, we've got to have this ministry. Who can we find to do this ministry? Okay, we got to have this ministry. Who can we find to do this ministry?" We didn't do that. We began by saying, "Look, this is the church. We're going to meet on Sunday morning. We're going to preach the Word. We're going to worship our God. And then we're going to wait and see what God does in the lives of people and see how they rise to the occasion to do the ministry." That's how our children's ministry began. That's how our Wednesday night program began. That's how our women's ministries program began.

So once you understand what your giftedness in this area is, maybe it's a gift of service and you want to be of service to someone. And so you go to an arena and say, "Look, I've got this opportunity. I really want to serve people. And this is what I can do. And this is the timeframe I can do it in. If you need me, call me because I'll be there. I'll do whatever I can." Or find someone who has a need that needs to be served and do it. Don't wait for someone to call you and watch how that develops. Be faithful in a little area, and God will then begin to expand your area. If you're not faithful in a real teeny, teeny, teeny area, guess what? God's not going to give you a bigger area.

If you say, "Man, I want to teach a class." You know what we say? "Great. Find two people, teach them." "Well, can't you publicize it for me?" "No, you find two people and teach them." And then watch and see how God grows that class. See, most people don't want to do that. And yet, when you do that, and you're faithful in teaching two, God multiplies it to four, to eight, to 16 and so forth down the road. But God doesn't multiply, right? Find the arena to exercise that giftedness.

And then, number four, trust another more mature believer to assess your exercise of that gift. Trust another more mature believer to assess your exercise of this gift. Listen, if you think you are gifted in a specific area, you need to go to someone and say, "You know, I want you to be able to assess this in my life. I want you to observe it from a distance, and I want you to be able to critique it. And I want you to tell me whether or not you think I got the gift or not." Now this is very difficult. Because someone might come along and say, "You know what? You don't have that gift." You might say, "I don't?" Say, "No, you don't have that gift. You got something else, but you don't have that one." And you've got to be able to sit there and take it and say, "Wow, okay. That's good to know."

Instead, we say, "Well, who do you think you are to tell me I don't have that gift? What do you think your gift is? Let me assess your giftedness." You know, and we get defensive. It's simply sit back and say, "You know, either you got the gift or you don't got the gift. Either you have the gift of teaching or you don't."

If you think you've got the gift of teaching and your classroom is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, maybe you don't have the gift. You might have the gift of word of knowledge, but you might have the gift. And when someone sits back and assesses what you say and how you say it, how you communicate that, you need to be able to accept it with an open mind and to learn from it. And maybe there are some things you can improve on. But be open to what the individual says. If you think you have the gift of mercy and yet, you don't like to be around sick people, you don't have the gift, right? I mean, that's pretty obvious. And so you need to be able to let a more mature person assess what it is you're doing, evaluate it, and say, "You know what? You're there. This is where God wants you to be." That's important. The wisdom and advice of a pastor or an elder or a teacher or a leader in your church goes a great way to helping you understand what God is doing.

And next, seek for growth, blessing, and joy as a result of exercising your gift. Seek for growth, blessing, and joy as a result of exercising this gift. Now this becomes very, very important. Why? Because however you are gifted, however you are made in God's plan, His masterpiece. You are made to do this particular ministry. And there is great joy in it, great blessing in it, great rewards in it. See, God is not going to bless you or gift you in an area that you don't want to be gifted in or will not like. It's not going to happen that way. He's going to gift you in an area that you'll be able to look back on and see God's hand in. You see, when you look back on your life and ministry in the church, how is it that God has used you in the lives of people? That's where your gifted area is. That's the best way to assess your gifted area. Do you have joy in your giftedness? Are you miserable in church? Are you miserable in the area of ministry you're in? Get out of it!

Do yourself a favor and do the ones you're ministering with a favor and go do something else. Right? Could you imagine if I got up here every Wednesday night and I was miserable? And I was depressed, discouraged. Wow. You wouldn't come back, right? You wouldn't want to be here. And so, you know, do yourself a favor. Understand what the gifts are. Ask God for guidance. And then find an arena where you can exercise that gift. Get someone to assess it to make sure you're in the right area. And then look back at that ministry. Was there joy? Was there blessing? Is there growth in your life, in the lives of the people you're ministering to? Those are indicators that God's got you in the right spot and that you have understood where you are to be following God's call in your life.

Main point number two: appreciate your giftedness. Being aware of your gift pleases the giver. Being aware of your gift pleases the giver. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse number 1, it says this: "Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware." So being aware of your giftedness pleases the giver. He wants you to be aware. And so you show your appreciation for your giftedness by understanding what gifts are and how they are used in the body of Christ. You see, Satan seeks to counterfeit the gifts. Satan seeks to confuse you in understanding the gifts. Satan seeks to cause chaos in the church through spiritual gifts. There's always a good indicator as to whether or not it's a spiritual gift being operated in the spirit or in the flesh when that giftedness divides the body. Then you know there's a problem, right? So you got to be careful about that. But the Bible says that we need to not be unaware, but be aware. God wants you to know what gifts are.

Could you imagine giving a gift to somebody for Christmas and they not opening it? Going to their house at Thanksgiving and looking at the counter and say, "Well, didn't I give you that gift last Christmas?" And they say, "Yeah, yeah, you did." "Well, how come you didn't open it?" "Well, I didn't want to open it." "Well, how come?" "I just didn't want to." What would you think of that person? What would you do to that person? You know, you certainly wouldn't give him another gift this Christmas, would you? Say, "Come on, man, open the gift. You know, look what's there. You could use this. Believe me, I've ate your food. You could use this. Use this gift." You know, and so the bottom line is that when God gives us a gift, He expects us to use it, right? And that. Being aware of it and appropriating that gift pleases the giver. It pleases Him. Why? Because He gave it to you. And He specifically and uniquely designed it for you and nobody else.

Do you know that you have a gift that once used in the body can't be duplicated by anybody else in the body because you are unique and God specifically designed you to do that in the church and that's your value in the church, you see. That's why we need you. We can't function without you. That's so important.

Number two, being yielded to the Spirit is essential to the effective exercise of your gift. Being yielded to the Spirit is essential to the effective exercise of that gift. Listen, the bottom line in anything in Christianity is to be filled with the Spirit of God, to walk in the Spirit. When you walk in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5. And when you walk in the spirit, guess what? You will be obedient to God. You'll be used by God. And you'll be able to look back on your life and say, "Oh, that's what my gift is." You see that? Sometimes we become so preoccupied with: "Well, is this my gift or is that my gift or is that my gift? Or what is that one over there? What if that one over there?" We become so preoccupied with that we forget to do what God has asked us to do, and that is to follow His will, walk in His Spirit, so we don't fulfill lust of the flesh.

And when we follow His Word and are controlled by His Spirit, guess what? We will minister for God, and that gift will all of a sudden rise to the top. Everybody will see it. You will see it, and you will look back and say, "You know what? That's what God has caused me and called me to do."

Number three, being willing to use your gift builds the body. Being willing to use your gift builds the body. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says it this way. "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." Sumpherō, which means to profit. You're given a gift to profit the body. You want to bring profit to people's lives? Exercise your gift. It's for the common good. It's for the good of all who are here. We benefit from you. You benefit from us, we benefit from you, everybody benefits. And so you need to understand that when you're willing to use your giftedness, it builds the body of Christ, it makes it stronger, it makes it more stable, it gives it security. See? It gives it the opportunity to stay strong without faltering because you're a part of it. See? And that's why you need to be willing to use your giftedness.

Number four, being satisfied with your gift honors the giver. Being satisfied with your gift honors the giver. Are you satisfied with where you're at and what you're doing in the body? You know, sometimes we can sit back and say, "Wow, you know, man, I wish I could say it like that. Wow. Oh, man. I just can't say it like that. I wish I could, though, man. Oh, wow. Boy, I wish I could give like that. I wish I, boy, you know," and all of a sudden we become very discontent with the area God's called us to live. And we can tend to look at someone else's giftedness instead of saying, "Boy, man, God is using them in a great way. Praise be to His name. I trust that God can use me in a great way in my area of giftedness." See? You need to be satisfied with that area. That honors the Lord. That says, "You know, Lord, you did the right thing. You put me in the right spot. You gave me the right people. You gave me the right ministry. You knew what I needed more than I knew what I needed, and I want to thank you for that." It's important.

And lastly, being gifted now will require an accounting later. Remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 4, verse number 10? He said that you need to be stewards of the manifold grace of God. If you employ your gift, if you exercise your gift, that means you're being a good steward. That means you're a good household manager. A steward is one who manages the household, who manages the affairs of the household. If you don't exercise your gift of this, guess what? You're a bad steward. And the Bible says, "To whom much is given, much is required." And one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, that everyone will receive that which is done in his body, whether it be good or bad. But we're going to give an accounting. And God's going to say, "You know, ah, what'd you do with that gift I gave you?" Some people are going to, "Well, what gift?" "The gift I gave you. What'd you do with it?" "I didn't... They know how to gift," and they're going to lose their reward. You know, what would you do if God said, "You know, how's it come with the gift thing? Did you exercise it this week? How'd you use what I gave you?" That's important, isn't it?

Do you know what your gift is? Do you know how to use your gift? Are you using your gift? Are you coming each and every week and just sitting and learning? That's good. But there comes a time when you learn to say, "Okay, now it's time for me to step into the realm of ministry and use my gifts to help others in the body of Christ. To be used in a way where people will grow and they walk with the Lord." And if you've been here for a long time, you need to step into that arena. You need to step up to the plate and, you what? "It's time for me to serve." And once you begin to serve, you begin to watch the growth and the blessings and the joy that take place because God is using you to build this body. See, that's so good. We need you. There's nobody here we can do without. Need every one of you. And that's why God brought you here. To be used by Him.