Episode 827 Spiritual Gifts
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 827 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:07]David Smith: [00:00:07] I'm David Smith author of who's got your back making and keeping great friendships among men. I encourage you to invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talents and your treasures to live out your calling.
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[00:00:43]Scott Maderer: [00:00:43] as they volunteer and say yes and do more and more people that actually have the gifting and might be willing to serve, but they ended up never being asked. They ended up ever being supported. They ended up never growing into their own gifting because [00:01:00] other people are already occupied in those spaces.
[00:01:03] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time. Your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:29]In today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence. I talk with you about first Corinthians chapter 12, verses 27 through 31. I share how we all have different types of gifts and why this can lead to confusion. And I also share some of the main categories of gifts and why it's important to understand your gifting.
[00:01:52] First Corinthians chapter 12, verses 27 through 31 goes like this. Now you are the body of Christ and each [00:02:00] one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church. First of all, apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping of guidance and of different kinds of tongues are all apostles are all profits are all teachers do all work miracles, do all have the gifts of healing, do all speak in tongues, do all interpret.
[00:02:21] Now eagerly desire, the greater gifts, and I will show you the most excellent way. Know, this is one of several passages in the Bible that talk about spiritual gifts. And first off, there's a lot of different lifts of gifts in the Bible. There's not one all in comprehensive lists that just shows every single possible spiritual gift.
[00:02:44] And the other thing is because we use the term spiritual gifts, not just the way it's being used here, but in other ways we often find a lot of countries. Fusion around this area of what are my gifts? How do I use my gifts? How do these [00:03:00] gifts work within the greater context? And not only that, but often if you've discovered that you have certain gifts, you become envious or jealous of other people in their gifting.
[00:03:12] And there's much controversy and confusion around this area of spiritual gifts, which is really a shame because the truth is spiritual gifts are meant to be graces from God that help the church. And in fact, this is the definition of spiritual gifts. These are gifts given to God's people.
[00:03:35] By the Holy spirit for the common good for the growth of all, not just of one person. They're not meant to set one person apart or set one person above others. Instead, it's the way that the entire body of Christ works together to serve and to build up the body of Christ. It comes from this idea [00:04:00] of.
[00:04:00] These ideas of charisma, which in Greek really means gifts. We've taken it to me nowadays that gift that people have that allows and attracts other people to them. But it's really just the expression of gifts. And in this case, it's gifts of the spirit. These gal God-given graces are meant to manifest and help the body of Christ as a whole work for service and benefit of everyone.
[00:04:30] And it broadly speaking, if you look at all of the different lists of gifts in the Bible, you end up with kind of three big buckets. There's gifts that work around the areas of ministry. There's gifs that work around the areas of manifestation and then there's gifts that work around the area of motivation or influence.
[00:04:52]What are these three broad categories? Ministry gifts are gifts that help others. And you see [00:05:00] the plans of God. These often you will find in areas where you serve within the church in an office or a calling rather than gifts, that kind of show up all over the place. Gifts of apostleship gifts of prophecy gifts of being an evangelist, a pastor or a teacher are all some of these gifts of ministry.
[00:05:25] They're the gifts that allow and lead the body of Christ as a whole. These are the ones that go out to others and bring them in to the church. These are the ones that begin to speak out what God wants us to speak. These are the ones that shepherd those that have already come within the body. And these that are help teach others spiritual disciplines and the ways to grow within their own gifting.
[00:05:54] All of these are these areas of gifting around ministry. [00:06:00] Manifestation gifts are the other ones and there's a category within those. You'll often hear those subdivided into utterance, power and revelation. Utterance gifts include again, the gift of prophecy. So this is that ability to tell the truth, speaking in tongues, which is being able to communicate with others even.
[00:06:22] Across language barriers and in ways that are deeper than just the spoken word. And then of course, interpretation or understanding of that as well, power gifts like faith, healing and miracles are falling into this manifestation category. The ability to actually help others recognize their faith, to see healing and speak healing into other people and to do other things that would be seen as a miracle.
[00:06:52] Revelation gifts fall into that idea of the word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, or having a discerning [00:07:00] spirit. There's also motivational gifts, these gifts that help keep other people moving forward. So we end up with these long list of all these different kinds of gifts and these different kinds of giftings, but it's important.
[00:07:15] If you are working within the church in a volunteer position or in a more formal position that you begin to understand your own gifting because all too often within the church, what ends up happening is we ask people who are willing to serve to continue to serve more and grow more in different areas to step outside of their own gifting zone, not their comfort zone, but the area of gifting, because someone.
[00:07:43] Is willing to help out in another area. We ask them to go become a teacher, or we ask them to go become a profit. Are we asked them to go serve in other ways, which don't actually align with their actual gifting. And when that happens, they end up [00:08:00] tired. They end up frustrated and they don't do as good of a job, but it happens all too often because the same 20% of people keep doing more and more.
[00:08:09] Ironically, as they volunteer and say yes and do more and more people that actually have the gifting and might be willing to serve, but they end up never being asked. They end up never being supported. They ended up never growing into their own gifting because other people are already occupying those spaces.
[00:08:30] It's why it's so important to learn what your gifting is and say yes to opportunities that lie within your gifting, but to say no to those areas that lie without your gifting, because if they fall outside of your gifting and you end up doing it. Number one, you're not going to do it well. And number two, you're going to end up blocking that space from someone that might actually have the calling and the gifting to do it.
[00:08:57] And I've seen this happen over and over [00:09:00] again in churches, and it's not helpful at all. I want to end with Romans chapter 12, verses six through eight, which says having gifts that differ according to the grace, given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith of service in our serving the one who teaches it is teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
[00:09:28] So the truth is. Find your gift and serve within it. And that is the best way to serve the body of Christ. Thanks for listening.
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[00:10:20] Oops, there until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .