What You and Every Believer Should Be Doing

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.  Romans 12:6-8

 

Do you go to a car mechanic when you have a toothache? 
Do you go to a dentist when your car won't start?

 

Then why do we go to those in the body of Christ who are not spiritually gifted in an area of our spiritual need?

 

Every member of the Body of Christ has at least one spiritual gift, at least one ability to supernaturally meet each other's need to grow in the knowledge and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

What you and every believer in Christ should be doing is this:

Only use your spiritual gift. 

Only do what you are spiritually gifted to do.

You do this in two ways:
1.  According to the grace given to you.
2. In accordance with your faith.

 

The grace given to you means the limitations of the gift God gave you.  You are not all powerful, so you can't do everything.  Even in the context of your spiritual gift, you have certain God given limitations.  For example, if God gave you the gift of teaching, you won't be able to teach everything and everybody, no matter the subject or context.  You will have a specific subject or topic, and a specific type of students that you are gifted and called to teach. So the first thing is to know the limit of your gift.

 

Next, know the limit of your ability to use your gift, what is "in accordance with your faith."  Go back to the teacher.  Say a teacher knows he is gifted in teaching science, and he knows he's gifted in teaching high school students.  He's not gifted in teaching English at all.  He's not gifted in teaching kindergarten students at all.  This is "according to the grace given him."  This is the limit of his teaching gift. 

 

Now what is "accordance with his faith" is his knowledge of how he approaches teaching, his own unique abilities and capabilities.  He's gifted in visual presentations of science, very good at painting mental images of his lessons.  His students, and fellow teachers recognize how gifted he is in putting scientific pictures in his students head that are unforgettable.

 

Apply this to spiritual gifts.

 

• You have a spiritual or supernatural ability from God, a spiritual gift. 
• This gift will have a limited jurisdiction or authority,
• It will fit your passion and imagination. 

-You know you have at least one spiritual gift because Paul the Apostle says so.  In his letters to the believers in Corinth, the Rome, and the Ephesus, Paul makes it clear that Christ by the Spirit has given every member of the Body of Christ at least one spiritual gift.
-You know that your gift is limited to a specific area because you're not God, you can't do everything.
-You know that your gift is connected to your faith, what you believe or what you can imagine according to your God given burden.


Do you know what your spiritual gift is?  Let's help you find out right now.  click HERE

How to KNOW and USE Your SPIRITUAL GIFTS (PART 4)

No matter what spiritual gift we consider, whether they are the spectacular ones or less spectacular, the procedure for their use is inherent in the gift itself. Gifts of speech have a spiritual source, but the same mechanics. Like with the virgin birth, for example. Once the Holy Spirit “impregnated” Mary, she went through the same nine months that every woman goes through. A prophet receives inspiration within to share a revelation, but uses words according to the same rules of grammar he always uses. The healer receives healing power in her hands, and touches the one she heals. The extension of her hand to touch the sick is by the same muscles she uses to extend her hand to pass the salt across the table. In one instant, she has faith that she can reach and pass the salt shaker. In the other, she believes power from the Spirit is transmitted from her hands. When Jesus told a man with a maimed hand to “stretch out his hand," the act of stretching out his hand wasn’t supernatural. The word of the one who commanded, and the faith of the one who obeyed, had power to heal.

How to KNOW and USE Your SPIRITUAL GIFTS (PART 3)

The essence of the last article leads right into the use spiritual gifts. It is this: The spiritual is practical, so the use of the gifts is practical. If gifts are transient and indefinite, then how can Paul and Peter consistently exhort believers to use the specific gifts they each distinctly have? In other words, Peter and Paul not only assume each believer has a specific gift, but that each believer KNOWS his or her gift AND how to use the gift! This has to be the case if the apostles are exhorting them to use their gifts according to their faith! So how do we use a spiritual gift? First, we look at the name or title of the gift, and then we focus on its function. The function determines the technical use of the gift. For example: If your spiritual gift is healing, how do you do it? You follow the example of Jesus or the apostles as far as their “regular” healing techniques. You primarily see Jesus commanding healing, or laying hands on the sick. So do what He did! If you believe in Jesus, have an undeniable desire to see people healed, and you can imagine and believe that you can perform healings, do so in the way Jesus or the apostles did it, according to what you believe you can do.

How to KNOW and USE Your SPIRITUAL GIFTS (Part 2)

Before we discuss using your spiritual gifts, we must discuss the essential nature of the gifts. Your spiritual gift is distinct and permanent, just as distinct and permanent as the different parts of your physical body. The scriptures make this comparison of physical body parts to the spiritual gifts in the church. This comparison goes against the notion that God gives us spiritual gifts “as the need arises.” A blind man may gain an intensified sense of hearing, but he doesn’t gain sight “as the need arises.” We go to a dentist when we have a toothache, not to a surgeon, because doctors cannot simply perform just any kind of medical procedure “as the need arises.” There are specialists who have specific specialties. So it is in the body. Yes, we can all take pain medications and do things to preserve health, but this doesn’t make us all doctors. All are not eyes, noses, or feet in the body, nor CAN body parts transform into other body parts. So if a gift is missing in your church, you should pray for a member with that gift, just as a blind person needs someone with sight to help her across the street.

How to KNOW and USE Your SPIRITUAL GIFTS (Part 1)

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh.  That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."  The Lord Jesus

You know your spiritual gifts in the same way you know your natural gifts.

You were born good at something.  You were born liking to do certain things.

How did you find out that you like and are good at those things?

I like and I’m good at dancing.  I remember the very day I found this out.  I heard music that moved me so deeply I had to move to it.  I saw dancers like Michael Jackson and MC Hammer and knew without doubt I could move like they move.

You’ve experienced the same with your talents. One day you were in a situation that pulled your abilities out of you, like Adam in the Garden of Eden.  God made Adam a Gardner.  He then put Adam in a garden.  That’s all God had to do.  All He had to do with me is let me hear music. All he had to do with you is put you where your soul came out.

Your natural gift was with you when you were born.

Your spiritual gift is with you when you are born again.

What do you like to do now that you are born again?  What are you good at?

Do you find yourself in situations where you meet spiritual needs almost without thinking about it, like when I moved to the music without thought?  That, at least, is your spiritual gift.  You know it the same way you know your natural talents.