When I became a Christain, I really wanted to know what my spiritual gift was. Thus I began the search for my spiritual gift. I was so intoxicated with God’s love that I wanted to do everything I could to serve him. So, I kept asking, “God what is my gift? How do you want me to serve you? Talk to me, God!” I asked.
God heard my cry and answered. Did he write it on a paper and gave it to me? No. Did he give me a vision of it? No. Did he scream from heaven and told me? No. But he did answer in ways I was not expecting. God is just so fun and totally unpredictable. Notice I said, “ways”, he kept answering in different ways and I didn’t even realize it. But thank God I finally did.
“I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
I set you apart before you were born.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:5
Before you were born, your gift has already been given to you, you were already set apart for God’s purpose and plan. So, turns out that I was already manifesting my spiritual gift and I didn’t realize it.
I am an introvert. I am a special kind. I am an introvert who loves to talk. I can literally talk from morning to night. Not only do I just don’t love to talk, but I also love teaching and telling people what I know.
This started back at my high school. We usually have a collective devotion every Friday evening. We would divide up into our various church “denominations” and fellowship together (Oh, what ignorance!) So, I had to do most of the teachings for my Pentecostal members and I loved teaching about God’s word even though I was not all that into him and I did not have a relationship with him back then. All I would do was pick a topic from my devotional book, look up scriptures on it and I just spoke as the Holy Spirit led me. I can confidently say that was the work of the Holy Spirit because I was a total ignorant unbeliever and there’s no way I was able to teach and say all I said from my own wisdom or knowledge.
Then, I went to college and thank God for wisdom. I would literally break down the course and topic and teach my fellow classmates. I also started tutoring and I enjoyed it and honestly I considered switching my dream career from medicine to teaching.
Now that I am a follower of Christ, 80% of my conversation with people became about him. At home, I would just randomly start a chat with my stepmom about a verse I read in the Bible and we would talk about that for an hour. I would stand in front of my mirror and spend hours teaching myself the word of God. So, talking about God’s word is something I love doing.
However, people started complaining and telling me that I talk too much. “Esther, shut up.” I didn’t understand it and I started cautioning myself to talk less. The devil will at all means try to stop you from living in God’s purpose for you. Satan will try to dumb down your gift and shut you up. However, He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). Hallelujah!
The more people told me to shut up and I tried to please them, the more the fire and love of God in me kindled and I couldn’t shut up. I have to talk. I have to get God’s word out. I can’t help it. I have lost myself to Christ. I do not control me anymore. I am a slave to righteousness. I am the light of the world and you can’t hide the light. I will still shine in the darkness. So, I make no apologies for talking about God. I am a teacher of God’s word!
So, the devil was trying to shut me up but he ended up highlighting one of my gifts. Ahhhh, what a boomerang!
I took me quite a while to accept this gift of teaching and I almost buried it. I had doubts like, “How can I teach the word? I have never gone to a seminary school, I am not really good with words. I am shy. If I could have it my way, I’d rather not talk” And many more doubts and thought.”
But understand that, God sees you as you are. He created you, he molded you and has put that gift into you. One of my favorite sayings is, “God sees the end from the beginning. If he knew you wouldn’t be able to function well and manifest his glory with the gift and purpose he has given you, he would not have given it to you at all.” God does not specialize in wasting time or creating nonsense or mistakes. He knew exactly what he was doing when he created you just as you are.
So, don’t be scared to accept that spiritual gift which God has graced you with and live in it all to his glory.
Note, you could have more than one spiritual gift, the Holy Spirit gives this gifts as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11). Personally, I have other gifts aside from teaching such as prophesy, apostleship, giving, etc. But of all these gifts my favorite and the one I desire to keep growing in is LOVE. Apostle Paul told us to eagerly desire gifts but if we have all these gifts without love, we are bankrupt.
The gifts we are given by the Holy Spirit are not for us to boast in. We are to serve (minister) with these gifts. They are for the edification of the church, all to the glory of God. So we are to use these gifts out of love. In fact, I believe we grow in our spiritual gifts when we are filled and saturated with love. Love pushes out fear and pushes us to use this gifts even when we don’t feel like or feel unqualified. All other gifts will pass away but only love, faith and hope remains.
So, while we eagerly desire spiritual gifts, we should eagerly desire love more and more.
Do you know your spiritual gift? Please share below, how you came to discover them and how you are currently using them to edify the church and glorify God.
If you do not know your spiritual gifts, you can start here by taking this free spiritual gift test. Hopefully, it gets you started. Click here
For more study on Spiritual Gifts, study these scriptures:
- Romans 12:6–8
- 1 Corinthians 12
- 1 Corinthians 13
God Bless.
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