Preamble

God gave talents (Matthew 25:15-30) to His sons and daughters. Unfortunately, most of us never discover those talents let alone use them for the benefit of humanity. As such, majority of us have either buried our talents, are living way below God’s capacity for us, or are busy chasing after other people’s.

God also gave gifts to everyone. The gifts are innate, but could also be desired by asking God directly for it. The spiritual gifts are freely given (by grace) to us by God, our Creator. They are therefore supposed to be used freely for the purposes and the benefits of mankind. The gifts are also given in proportion, and according to ability, of our life purposes or mandates.

Per Ephesians 4:11-12 above , the offices listed are often termed “The Five-Fold Ministry.” They are the church roles given as “a framework to grow, build and mature the Body of Christ to continue the workings of Jesus through the lives of the saints.” Click the link if you’re inclined to learn more on the five-fold roles. If you’d like to take a test to see if you’ve been chosen for one of the roles, click here.

Biblically, there are nine spiritual gifts. These gifts are called “spiritual” for a reason mainly, per Dave Ramsey because they “are supernatural abilities God gives each Christ-follower.” They are separate and different from our talents, knowledge, skills, and abilities (TKSA) such as academic gifts (e.g. geniuses), social gifts (such as having charisma and being an influencer). But the spiritual gifts can compliment and complement our TSKAs.

The spiritual gifts are not “magic” or “magical.” Please click on these words to understand their meanings which, hopefully, will lead to a better understanding of the spiritual gifts.

Dave Ramsey also has the following to say:

“God wants you to use your unique role in the body of Christ to glorify Him. So, if God made you an amazing singer, sing for Him. If your talent is a little less conventional—maybe you’re good with numbers or with writing code—then find a way to translate that into a job or volunteer work for a God-honoring company or ministry. Use your God-given abilities to reach those who don’t know Him—and give Him the credit for your talents.” (Supporting Scripture: Colossians 3:23-24)

. . .

The Spiritual Gifts

The spiritual gifts, according to the Bible, are:

1. Word Of Wisdom
2. Word Of Knowledge
3. Faith. I earlier blogged on this gift. Click here to read it.
4. Gifts of Healing
5. Working Of Miracles
6. Prophecy
7. Discerning of spirits
8. Divers kinds of tongues
9. Interpretation of tongues.

The above gifts are also often categorized as:

The Revelatory Gifts are:
1. Word of Knowledge
2. Word of Wisdom, and
3. Discerning of Spirits

The Power Gifts are:
1. Healing
2. Working of Miracles, and
3. Faith

The Communication Gifts are:
1. Prophecy
2. Divers kind of tongues
3. Interpretation of tongues, and

Having stated that, however, we acknowledge that there are:

• diversities of gifts, meaning that there are a variety of the particular gift; e.g. one might have a gift of faith for healing, another to believe for anything they desire, an another for provision; also, one can have multiple spiritual gifts but will however be dominant in one;
• differences of administrations, equates the different ways in which the gifts function; e.g. one can believe by reading and meditating on a particular scripture and see it manifest, another might believe that once s/he reads the scripture, s/he has to lay hands for it to manifest, while another might believe that “I’ll just send the Word” and believe for manifestation;
• diversities of operations, mean that there are equally various processes by which the gifts work; e.g. seeking employment and using the gift of faith; I might believe that in faith I will go out to job search and that I believe that the first company that I knock on will hire me; on another day, I might simply hear a word that says “call ABC Company,” calling the company might lead to a job offer; yet another day it might simply be that after I have prayed, I just simply say that “I believe that someone will call me today for a job offer.” Each scenario is different but I am the one and same person exercising the gift. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have questions or additions.

How do you know your spiritual gift(s)?

• By asking God
• By paying attention
• By other folks (family, friends, colleagues, associates, pastors and church, etc.) telling you
• By the laying on of the hands (of an apostle or prophet) (1 Timothy 4:14).

Click here to take a test to find out what your spiritual gift(s) is/are. Does your result confirm what you’ve been told or know? Feel free to share in the comments. Thanks and await Part 2.

Disclaimer

The topic of Spiritual Gifts is exhaustive and this post (nor its Part 2) does not do enough justice to cover it. But I hope that it does help to stir your curiosity, if you are not already aware, of having a spiritual gift and leads you on a search to know what it is so that you can start using them to glorify God and benefit humanity. The simplest way is to ask God “what gifts have you blessed me with?”

Thanks for reading.