Now,
brothers and sisters, I want you to understand about spiritual gifts. 2 You
remember the lives you lived before you were believers. You let yourselves be
influenced and led away to worship idols—things that have no life. 3 So
I tell you that no one who is speaking with the help of God’s Spirit says,
“Jesus be cursed.” And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” without the help of the
Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of
spiritual gifts, but they are all from the same Spirit. 5 There
are different ways to serve, but we serve the same Lord. 6 And
there are different ways that God works in people, but it is the same God who
works in all of us to do everything. 7 Something from the
Spirit can be seen in each person. The Spirit gives this to each one to help
others. 8 The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak with
wisdom. And the same Spirit gives another person the ability to speak with
knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives faith to one person and to
another he gives gifts of healing.
10 The Spirit gives to one
person the power to do miracles, to another the ability to prophesy, and to
another the ability to judge what is from the Spirit and what is not. The
Spirit gives one person the ability to speak in different kinds of languages,
and to another the ability to interpret those languages. 11 One
Spirit, the same Spirit, does all these things. The Spirit decides what to give
each one. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11, ERV)
The Holy Spirit empowers our talents and abilities so that they can be
used to more effective honor God, and help others.
1. Understand
your gifts because we all have them.
(See 1Corinthians 12:1, 7
above)
How do you discern what your gifts are?
A. Examine
yourself.
3 God has given me grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each
of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your
importance. Instead, honestly assess your worth by using your God-given faith
as the standard of measurement, and then you will see your true value with an
appropriate self-esteem. 4 In the human body there are many
parts and organs, each with a unique function. (Romans 12:3-4, TPT)
B. Ask others.
C. Try out some places of service.
(See 1Corinthians 12:4, 11
above)
2.
Use your gifts.
He joins and holds together the
whole body with its ligaments providing the support needed so each part works
to its proper design to form a healthy, growing,
and mature body that builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:16, VOICE)
If
you wonder how this can benefit you, there is a joy to seeing lives changed in
God’s service because of your talent. Bringing someone from death to life helps
you to realize your importance in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the
free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 ICB)
“Don't let others discourage you from using
your God-given gifts. God can use those gifts to do something amazing through
you.”
(ReadEngageApply.com)[i]
[i] Inspired by the sermon “Gifting: Christmas Spirit, “(installment four) Sunday December 22, 2019, Pastor Dave
Jansen, CenterPoint Gahanna Church Gahanna, OH.
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