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| God's Spiritual Gifts for His people |
and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” 1 Corinthians 12: 11 (NIV)
Read 1 Corinthians 12
The Apostle Paul explains to us the qualities, or assets, the Holy Spirit gives to individuals in a body of believers. In this chapter he describes various strengths needed by churches in order to build God’s Kingdom.
From time to time, I have read about or heard of a group or an individual holding teaching seminar on asking for a certain Spiritual gift.This passage tells me God has a different approach. I once sat in a worship service where the person in charge started to delve into this topic. Two of us had to remind the man that it was the Holy Spirit’s decision as to who received what gift. The man never spoke of that subject again.
While it is true that every believer receives one Spiritual gift, a believer can receive several but no one receives all of them. If a person has several gifts, those gifts are termed a ‘gift mix.’
At different times in my Christian walk, I have taken a ‘Spiritual Gifts Survey’. The one I was most familiar with was a study book that had descriptions of each gift and how they could be used in God’s Kingdom. The material cautioned us on how to recognize if we were abusing the gifts. I believe Zondervan published it. I researched this and found information on their website.
After we took the survey, our scores were compiled. Our three highest scores were our working gifts, our next three highest- our waiting gifts, the scores left were not our gifts.
In my experience of taking this survey I have learned: 1) The gifts usually hold true. The gifts we have in 2011 will be evident in 2012 and beyond. 2) Those waiting gifts are qualities that we can develop into working gifts. 3) Other people confirm our gifts.
The purpose The Holy Spirit has for giving us these gifts is to build God’s Kingdom. We should all be working toward enlarging it.
We've been through courses designed to help us learn what our gifts are. It's very helpful! You're right - no one gets them all. That's why we have the body, so all the different gifts/talents/personalities come together and make a complete picture.
ReplyDeleteRhonda:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insight. As I understand the process, God brings people together whose gifts compliment each others'. We gain more skill as we exercise them.