Daily Digest #373

When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your . . . deed may be in secret. —Matthew 6:3-4

I was searching articles about giving and sharing in secret and I came across this article about God's spiritual gifts. I've been curious about this, and today I found His answer.

Let us read the article below and take time to assess ourselves.

A Spiritual Gifts Snapshot

Pastor Erik Rees offers a helpful overview of spiritual gifts

By Erik Rees | Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 12:51 PM EDT

From PurposeDriven. com

God creates every person with a unique set of gifts. But how do you know which gifts he gave you? One place to start is by understanding each gift mentioned in the Bible, and what it looks like when applied. Check out this handy primer from Erik Rees' Only You Can be You

Administration:

This God-given ability serves and strengthens the body of Christ by effectively organizing both people and resources in order to reach ministry goals. If this is your gift, you might be:

• an effective organizer.

• known for being an efficient planner who reaches your goals.

• a natural delegator.

• someone who looks for opportunities to make decisions.

• a person who sees what needs to be done in order for dreams to become reality.

Apostleship:

A person with this gift is good at launching and leading new ministry endeavors for the purpose of advancing God’s kingdom. The original Greek word for apostle means “sent one.” If this is your gift, you might be:

• driven to start new endeavors, most often churches, for God.

• open to risky new challenges.

• someone who enjoys making a difference in the lives of both believers and nonbelievers.

• eager to be known as one of Christ’s ambassadors to the world.

• a person who enjoys working hard to help churches reach their full potential for God.

Discernment:

God gives us this ability to help us recognize truth or error within a message, person, or event. If this is your gift, you might be:

• someone who easily “reads” people and who is usually right.

• able to recognize whether a message is from God, Satan, or man.

• able to recognize inconsistencies in others.

• someone who easily identifies another’s true motives or agenda.

• able to perceive when the truth is communicated with error or is being twisted.

Encouragement:

Some people are naturally able to inspire and encourage others. They often serve as counselors or people who empower others to achieve their God-given dreams. If this is your gift, you might be:

• one who inspires and impacts others to live for Christ.

• able to easily rejoice with those who have overcome difficult life situations through Christ’s help.

• someone who seeks out opportunities to help others reach their full potential in Christ.

• a natural encourager, whether through your words or your actions.

• one who readily rejoices at others’ success.

Evangelism:

People who share the love of Christ with others in a way that draws them to accept Christ’s gift of eternal life display the gift of evangelism. If this is your gift, you might be:

• a person who looks for ways to build relational bridges with nonbelievers.

• able to sense when a person might be open to hear and receive the gospel.

• someone who’s seen many people come to faith in Christ.

• able to triumph over logical arguments, winning others to Christ simply by loving them.

• someone who is deeply burdened for people who don’t yet know Jesus.

Faith:

People with this gift are able to trust God to handle any and all obstacles along the way to accomplishing his purposes. If this is your gift, you might be:

• a person who welcomes the opportunity to take risks for God.

• energized by volatile situations.

• challenged by ideas and situations most people see as impossible.

• often seen by others as having a passionate prayer life.

• someone able to embark on ventures with great God-confidence.

Giving:

This gift is characterized by the ability to joyfully support and fund initiatives for building God’s kingdom through support that goes above and beyond the regular tithe. If this is your gift, you might be:

• able and willing to intentionally give more than the 10 percent tithe in order to advance efforts you see as growing God’s kingdom.

• someone who prefers your donations to remain anonymous whenever possible.

• a person who seeks out ways to increase your resources in order to give more for God’s use.

• someone who sees your resources as tools given by God for his use.

Healing:

People with this gift are able to heal and restore physical health to others by means other than the traditional or natural. If this is your gift, you might be:

• a person who firmly believes people can be supernaturally healed.

• someone who prays to be used by God for the purpose of healing others.

• able to realize without question that healing occurs only by God’s divine permission.

• someone who views traditional medicine as one way God may choose for healing.

• able to embrace this gift as from the hand of God and to see it specifically as a way to bring him glory.

Helping:

People with this gift enjoy assisting others in reaching goals that glorify God and strengthen the body of Christ. It is sometimes called the gift of helps or service. If this is your gift, you might be:

• a person who enjoys and looks for ways to help out behind the scenes.

• someone who rejoices in the success of others.

• detail-oriented.

• often in search of ways to assist others.

• not interested in recognition for what you do.

Hospitality:

A person with this gift enjoys providing others with a warm and welcoming environment for fellowship. If this is your gift, you might be:

• known for making others feel valued and cared for.

• always on the lookout for people who may go unnoticed in a crowd.

• someone who wants others to feel loved and welcomed.

• able to see your home as God’s property for the express purpose of making others feel welcome.

• someone who promotes fellowship among others.

Interpretation:

People with this gift are able to understand a message from God delivered by another using a special language (see Tongues) unknown to others in attendance. If this is your gift, you might be:

• able to perceive a clear idea of what God is saying through another person, even though the language the speaker is using is unknown to him or her.

• able to translate words and messages of God in a way that edifies, comforts, and exhorts believers.

• able to communicate so as to be understood the sounds, words, and utterances made by others that glorify God.

Knowledge:

This is a gift to communicate God’s truth to others in a way that promotes justice, honesty, and understanding. If this is your gift, you might be:

• someone who devotes much of your time to reading Scripture.

• a person who loves to share biblical insight.

• one who enjoys helping others understand God’s Word.

• one who finds time spent studying and researching Scripture beneficial.

• someone who delights in answering difficult questions about God’s Word.

Leadership:

This is the gift to cast vision, stimulate spiritual growth, apply strategies, and achieve success where God’s purposes are concerned. If this is your gift, you might be:

• given to huge visions for God and able to inspire others to work toward accomplishing those goals.

• naturally drawn into leadership roles.

• a motivator who encourages both people and teams to work together in achieving God’s purposes.

• naturally able to grasp the big picture.

• able to delegate responsibility to others who are qualified in order to get things done for God.

Mercy:

This gift involves ministering to those who suffer physically, emotionally, spiritually, or relationally. Its actions are characterized by love, care, compassion, and kindness toward others. If this is your gift, you might be:

• drawn to opportunities that allow you to meet the needs of others in practical ways.

• able to devote significant prayer time on behalf of the needs of others.

• someone who puts the needs of others ahead of your own.

• a person who grieves at the grief of others.

• one who is most fulfilled by visiting people in need, whether in hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, prisons, on the mission field, or wherever God leads.

Miracles:

A person with this gift recognizes God’s supernatural power to act in the natural world. If you have this gift, you might be:

• able to view prayer as a supernatural vehicle through which God acts in the lives of people on earth.

• someone who gives credit to God alone for supernatural works.

• able to grasp fully that miracles only occur by God’s will.

• someone who sees yourself as an instrument for God’s use.

• someone who prays and expects supernatural results in “impossible” situations.

Pastoring:

A person gifted in pastoring takes spiritual responsibility for equipping a group of believers to live Christ-centered lives. Shepherding is another word used for this particular gift. If this is your gift, you might be:

• driven to help others reach their full potential in Christ.

• someone who enjoys serving others and who looks for opportunities to serve.

• good at developing personal, trust-based relationships with others, particularly a small number of people.

• someone with a propensity for meeting the needs of others, willingly giving your time to help them with spiritual issues.

• someone who believes that people take precedence over projects.

Prophecy:

People with this gift are known for offering messages from God that comfort, encourage, guide, warn, or reveal sin in a way that leads to repentance and spiritual growth. The original Greek meaning of the word prophecy is “to speak forth the truth.” The gift includes both forth-telling (preaching), and foretelling (revelation) . If you have this gift, you might be:

• known for publicly communicating God’s Word, using a variety of means.

• someone who loves to share your strong biblical convictions with others.

• a person who views yourself as God’s tool, ready to be used by the Holy Spirit in changing lives.

• someone who finds it easy to confront others’ motives when they are not up to God’s standards.

• a person who frequently receives and shares messages directly from God for comforting, challenging, and confronting his people.

Teacher:

This gift enables you to teach sound doctrine in relevant ways, empowering people to gain a sound and mature spiritual education. If you have this gift, you might be:

• given to hours in the study of Scripture in order to best apply its principles and truth.

• someone who enjoys making the Bible clear and understandable to others.

• a person who seeks out opportunities to speak biblical insight into daily situations.

• good at helping others learn to study the Bible.

• able to recognize a variety of ways to effectively communicate the Word of God, including speaking.

Tongues:

This gift enables a person to communicate God’s message in a special language unknown to the speaker. If you have this gift, you might be:

• one who believes God is prompting you to communicate his message, often through prayer, in a specific language unknown to you.

• someone who intercedes for others in prayer using unknown words, sounds, and utterances.

• one who desires and seeks out opportunities to pray, using these unknown languages for God’s glory.

• ready to share with others the words and/or messages of God given to you using unknown languages.

• able to comfort or exhort others using unknown languages inspired by God.

Wisdom:

This gift is characterized by the ability to make wise decisions and to counsel others with sound advice, all in accordance with God’s will. If this is your gift, you might be:

• one who enjoys speaking biblical insights into life situations.

• sought after by others for advice/wisdom.

• one who takes pleasure in counseling others.

• known for making correct decisions and judgments.

• able to recognize God as the primary source of wisdom and direction.

Erik Rees is Pastor of Life Mission at Saddleback Church. Learn more about Erik, S.H.A.P.E., and Only You Can Be You at his website.

This article is excerpted from his book, Only You Can Be You.

I realize how each one of us had been given a set of spiritual gifts. Now let us ask ourselves: what am I doing with the gifts that He has given me? Am I sharing my talents, skills, knowledge and time to others? Do I take credit for the good things I have done, or do I thank God for making things possible?

For this, let us pray. Lord, thank You for enlightening us with Your words of wisdom. May we not count our good works and expect rewards or more blessings from You. Lord, please speak to us when pride and self-righteousness overcomes us. Please humble our hearts. Please open our eyes to see opportunities to serve with all our hearts, to use our spiritual gifts, talents and skills, and practice our love for You and others. These we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Happy Monday! :D Pray always. God bless!