How do I discover my gifts?

There is no unemployment in the Kingdom of God. God has given each member of the Church "gifts according to the grace given us" (Romans 12:6). That means that God has graced each one of us to serve each another in different ways. The question is, "What gifts have I received and what am I supposed to do with them?"

The purpose of the gifts

"Freely you have received, freely give!" Matthew 10:8

Firstly we must understand that God's gifts are freely given to us. We cannot earn them. 

Secondly we must understand that the gifts God gives us are not meant to be self-serving but are given to serve others. In view of what God has done for us (His mercy), God calls us to no longer live for ourselves but for God and others. This change of attitude comes about as we change the way we think about our lives and consider what God desires. The pattern of the world is self-centredness and self-gratification but the way of the Kingdom is other-consciousness and living for the benefit of others. As the believer lives a life of dying to self and living for God, s/he lives as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1-3). 

Thirdly we must understand that God gives us gifts to be used in our lives and not only in the context of the Church organisation or meeting! Too often Christians live as unemployed people because they apparently haven't found their ministry in the Church. That is a very limited view of why God gives His children gifts! Jesus empowered His disciples to demonstrate the Kingdom of God in the world by their freely giving what they had received (see Matthew 10:8; Acts 3:1-10; 6:1-8).

Paul writes,

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Love must be sincere." Romans 12:6-9

We must learn to use our gifts as the Church and not just in the Church. As God's people, God has gifted us to demonstrate God's love by prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, being generous, leading, showing mercy and simply loving others. All these gifts should be used in the context of the Church meeting/organisation/organism as well as in the world.

How do I discover my gifts?

Look at what you already enjoy doing.

There are all sorts of complicated questionnaires one can answer to discover one's gifts. However, it really isn't that complicated. Here are a few easy questions to ask yourself to realise what you already have received.

How do you like to serve others most?

Do you like doing them a favour? (serve)

Do you like to encourage them verbally? (prophesy)

Do you like helping people to know something? (teach)

Do you like to give people gifts? (be generous)

Do you like to influence people positively? (lead)

Do you like giving to the needy? (show mercy)

Do you like to be a shoulder to cry on? (be compassionate)

Do you like being creative to bless others? (cook, create, paint, play music etc)

Do you like to keep things in order? (administrate)

Do you like to bring people and facts together? (manage)

And so on...

Look at what you do that produces positive results (good fruit).

Have a look at what you do that blesses others and even ask others what they think you are good at!

If something costs you a lot of effort and stress to produce, it probably isn't one of your gifts.

What book of the Bible do you find yourself in mostly?

I have found that we are drawn to the gifting we carry. Our worship leaders hang around the Psalms, our prophets hang around the prophets and I tend to hang around the apostle Paul. Whose life in the Bible do you admire most? Ok, apart from Jesus?

Eagerly desire the gifts

God wants us to desire more gifts so that we can demonstrate His love in more ways. The primary motivation to desire the gifts of God must be love and the desire to use the gifts for the benefit of others. 

Use what you have

As you use the little you think you have, God will give you more to steward. It's a Kingdom principle (Matthew 25:14-30; 2 Cor. 9:6).

I encourage you to realise the gifts you have received and to use them diligently to bless others within the Church and in the world. Realise God's greater purpose for giving you His gifts and freely give what you have freely received.

Do you have faith?

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Luke 18:8

God expects His people to have faith.

The Holy Spirit says,

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

It is man's responsibility to believe in God and in His promises. The woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years was healed because of her faith! Jesus commended her and said, "Daughter, your faith has healed you." Mark 5:34

Jesus also commended the centurion's faith and said about him,

"I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." Matthew 8:10

Faith pleases God and releases God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

How can the believer strengthen his faith?

In the account of the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus reveals how the believer can receive from God.

In response to the Samaritan woman, Jesus replies, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." John 4:10

The key to strengthening one's faith is to grow in the knowledge of God and in the knowledge of that which God freely gives. It is as the believer fixes his eyes on Jesus that his faith is strengthened and "perfected" (Heb. 12:2).

The greater the revelation of God, the greater the faith to believe for the impossible!

If the Samaritan woman had known who it was that was speaking to her and knew what He wanted to give her, she would have had the faith to ask and receive! Faith releases the glory of God - the manifestation of His presence and power.

Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" John 11:40

The believer must understand that faith is required. "If you believed.." There is a condition to the revelation of God's glory - faith!

Unless the believer grows in his knowledge of God and the will of God, his faith will not grow. For this reason the apostle Paul prays,

"We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.." Col. 1:9,10

The believer needs spiritual revelation of God and His will!

I encourage you to spend time in God's presence and in His Word so that you grow in the knowledge of God and in the knowledge of His will. It is as we grow in our knowledge of Him and His will that we will be able to pray with faith and confidence and then see the glory of the Lord!

"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Luke 18:8

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What is God's will for your life?

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph. 2:10

When we believe in Jesus and are immersed into God and He in us (1 John 4:15), we become a new creation - God's workmanship (literally God's poem). As God's new creation we are given the grace to reveal an aspect of God's glory.

"..to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it." Ephesians 4:7

God's will is that we appreciate how we have been gifted in Christ and that we honour the grace that is upon others. The grace that is upon our lives is God's commission for our lives.

"Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith." Romans 1:5

Paul received the grace or gifting to fulfill God's will for his life to be a messenger to the Gentiles of God's love in Christ. Likewise, when we identify how God has graced us in Christ, we will understand God's will for our lives.

In Romans 12:1-10, Paul speaks to the Church about how she is to live her life differently, now that she is in Christ. I have paraphrased this passage as follows:

“Brothers, because of God’s mercy to you and the grace you have been given, live your lives set apart for the Master’s use as you serve God and one another with the grace you have been given, in humility according to your faith and dependence on what God has given you. Change the way you live your lives by having the right thoughts about who you are and what God has gifted you to do. Then you will discover God’s will for your life. Don’t think of yourself beyond how God has made you and gifted you. Be honest with yourself and realise how unique you are and how God has given you gifts to serve others in love. Understand that you need one another and that God has put you together with others to encourage one another and love one another with the grace that is upon each of your lives. Recognise the grace that is upon those around you and honour their anointing so that you can benefit from what God is doing through their lives. Don’t think you are better than anyone just because they have different gifts. Everything we have, we have received from God so don’t boast as though you produced your gifting yourself. God’s Spirit is in you for your benefit but upon you for the benefit of others so use your gifts faithfully so that others will be encouraged. This is God's will for your life.”

Rejoice in how God has made you in Christ and use your gifts faithfully as you overflow with God's grace and love. This is God's will for your life.

What are you waiting for?

"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." 1 Cor. 2:13

The Holy Spirit wants to give the believer spiritual revelation and understanding of what he has received.

The apostle Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians with an amazing statement,

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Eph. 1:3

What have we received?

We have received Christ. Jesus is the Father's Gift to us. Those who believe in Christ Jesus are immersed into Him so that the believer becomes one with Him. Having received Christ, the believer is blessed with everything that is included in Jesus - every spiritual blessing.

"...for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." Gal. 3:27

"If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God." 1 John 4:15

"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ." Col. 2:9,10

The believer has therefore received the fullness of God in Christ.

For this reason, Paul doesn't pray that the Ephesians would receive more but that they would receive spiritual revelation of what they had already received.

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know..." Eph. 1:17,18

The Christian life is not about waiting for more from God but increasingly realising what one has received in Christ.

God wants us "to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:18,19).

We are filled as we realise and grasp what we have received in Christ.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you have received and be built up and encouraged in your faith today. You have received!

"From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another." John 1:16

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Can gifts of the Spirit be imparted?

It seems to me that many believers have the idea that God gives people certain gifts that they are at liberty to impart to others. Believers then flock to men and women with a dynamic ministry, hoping to receive some gift they did not have before. Certainly we can benefit from the manifestation of the Spirit's work through one another, but can gifts of the Spirit be imparted?

What does Scripture say?

• Every believer receives the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus. Eph. 1:13,14


• Every believer receives every spiritual blessing in Christ because the fullness of Christ lives in him. Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10; 1 Cor. 1:4-7


• The believer lives in the Giver and the Giver lives in him. 1 John 4:15


• Jesus, the Giver, by His Spirit, distributes gifts as HE determines. 1 Cor. 12:11; Eph. 4:7


• The manifestation of different gifts through different believers is the revelation of the work of the Giver through us. Rom. 12:6

What about Timothy?

"..stir into flame the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Tim. 1:6,7 (KJV)

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  Timothy received the gift of the Holy Spirit when Paul laid his hands on him and not a particular spiritual gift (see Acts 8:18 & 19:6). The context shows us that Paul is referring to the stirring up of the spirit of love, power and of self-control - all manifestations of the Holy Spirit in Timothy. 2 Tim. 1:6,7; Gal. 5:22

What about Paul?

"For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." Rom. 1:11,12

• Paul is saying that he longs to see the Church in Rome to encourage them with his faith. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit in Paul's life was to strengthen and build up the Body of Christ wherever he went. Eph. 3:2; Col. 2:2


• Note that the word translated "impart" here means "to share". Paul shared his gifts with the Church to encourage the Body in their faith.

So, in answer to, "Can gifts of the Spirit be imparted?" I would say, NO. What we can do, however, is encourage one another in our faith to trust God to manifest His Spirit through us as we make ourselves available for "the master's use." Even now I am using my gifts to encourage you to believe that you have received fullness in Christ and that God will use you to be an encouragement to the Body of Christ as you use your gifts to serve others.

Don't run after what you think you are lacking - use what is in your hand and eagerly desire a greater manifestation of the Giver in you!

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