Discovering the Spiritual Gifts: Part 1

I wonder what comes to your mind when you hear someone mention “spiritual gifts”? Maybe you grew up in a church tradition that held them in high regard.  Maybe you never talked about them in your church. Perhaps you’re wary of their mention because of past abuses you’ve witnessed, or maybe you’re eager to learn and engage with them.

When I first came to faith at the age of 19, I didn’t have a connection to a church or tradition and, as a result, I didn’t have any predilections concerning spiritual gifts. I didn’t even belong to a local church yet.   

What I had was a Bible and I believed it. As I read through Scripture, I saw it describe a people who were living by the power of the Holy Spirit and doing things that were not part of my experience in life: healing people miraculously, speaking in languages they did not know, receiving dreams and visions from God, operating in ways that were beyond their natural ability and more. Yet, these accounts appeared to be normal in the life of the Church, according to scripture, and a practical way God would use His people to build up and encourage others for the glory of His Kingdom.

So while I did not have a history with the spiritual gifts, it seemed reasonable to me, as a novice in the faith, that I should expect to have these experiences too. But for several years I didn’t really witness the gifts of the Spirit, not in the ways I was expecting to anyhow.

After a while, I began a foray into understanding, encountering, and eventually practicing the gifts. The setting for this discovery was in our small group (which is the PERFECT place to explore spiritual gifts). We all wanted to know more about them, to figure out what ours were and how they best could be utilized for the glory of God and the good of others. Through the use of a good online “gifts test” and a lot of conversation with others in the group, we began to understand what our gifts were and how we used them for the benefit of others.

From then on, I was more attuned to watching for spiritual gifts in action. For example, I would see Laura – who possessed a gift for serving – constantly find ways to serve our group, neighbors, and others in the church. That doesn’t come easily to me, but it flowed out of her! The end result for those who received from her gifts was joy, gratitude, and closeness to Christ. By contrast, my spiritual gift for teaching would become useful to others in the group when studying Scripture, helping to bring understanding, clarity and a greater love for God’s Word.

Over time, I also began to have experiences with some of the more miraculous gifts. Like the time a man prophesied about an event that would happen 6 months later in my life, or a lady who received a “word of knowledge” about a disappointment I was struggling with and delivered it with comfort and assurance from the Lord. I even saw someone receive prayer for healing regarding a sickness and then actually getting healed. It encouraged me to pray for these types of gifts myself, and in God’s perfect love and timing, He began to give them to me. Sometimes it would look like a word or impression that I was able to deliver for the comfort and encouragement of another. Other times, discernment around a situation or decision. These encounters helped to increase not only my belief in the miraculous, but also my faith and love for Jesus!

Discovering the gifts of the Spirit has been one of the most edifying aspects of my walk with the Lord. While I still consider myself a student in this area, there is a joy that comes from faithfully using the gifts God has given me to encourage and build up the body of Christ. When we learn and use our unique and God-given gifts, we can contribute to the Church and the mission of the Kingdom as a whole body, just as Christ intended. So as Paul exhorted Timothy, don’t neglect the gift you’ve been given – they are, after all, gifts from God and He wants you to use them!

If you want to start your own journey of discovering and growing in the spiritual gifts, I’d make the following recommendations:

1. First, start with prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the gifts He has empowered you with and what they are for.  
2. Next, I would take a gifts test online to get some idea of what your gifts might be. Take time to read through the descriptions of other gifts as well, you may read some that resonate with you but didn’t show up in your results.  
3. After you’ve done those first steps, reach out to some of your closest and most spiritually mature friends. Buy them a coffee and ask them what they think your spiritual gifts are.  Or you can do what I did and explore this together with your small group!

Check out The Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Gifts by Sam Storms. It’s a fantastic primer on the subject, especially for understanding the miraculous gifts.