Your Divine Design - How to Discover Your Primary Spiritual Gift, Part 2

Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? I mean, why is it certain ministries resonate with your heart and others?

You know they're important, but they just don't motivate you at all. Well, there's a good reason for that, and today I'll share with you straight from the New Testament how you can begin to put the pieces of your spiritual gift puzzle together and do it in a way that will bring you great joy and bless other people in the process. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouy, and in a minute we'll pick up where we left off in our series, Your Divine Design, as Chip shares part two of his message, How to Discover Your Primary Spiritual Gift. But before he does that, if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge or you just want to learn more about what we do, go to livingontheedge.org.

There you'll find tons of resources on a wide range of topics and countless programs to enjoy. Well, with that, let's join Chip as he dives right in today by unpacking for us the details of each spiritual gift laid out in scripture. We're going to walk through specifically each one of these gifts, and here's how we're going to do it. I'm going to give you a written definition that you can see there. Then I'm going to give you some quick characteristics. And by the way, don't try and write these down. I'll make you nuts.

If you're obsessive compulsive, just lean back. And then here's what I want you to do. Underneath in your notes where it says prophecy, I want you to write the words yes, no, maybe. And then when I get done, just gut reaction, circle, yes, no, or maybe.

All right? So I'll give you the definition. I'll give you a few characteristics.

And then we'll do a quick application. Prophecy, motivational gift from Romans 12, six to eight. The divine enablement to proclaim God's truth with power and clarity in a timely and culturally sensitive fashion for correction, repentance or edification. It's the ability to reveal God's word accurately. Now, one of the good tests is people with this gift often intuitively ask about almost every situation, what went wrong?

What caused this? By way of definition as well, in the Old Testament, obviously prophets were telling the future and forthtelling or preaching. In the New Testament, we get some rare occasions where there are telling the future, but the primary nature of this gift, we'll discuss this later on this issue, is the forthtelling or the culturally accurate preaching of God's word. It's the ability and consuming desire to reveal the truth of God that it might impact lives. I found a little quote, you know those scholarly books where they have the print that's, you know, like microscopic?

I cut this out and pasted in my notes. And this is by an older fellow named Darby and I love his description of this. He says, by a special energy of the spirit, doesn't that sound like old school? By a special energy of the spirit, it can unfold and communicate the mind of Christ where the church is ignorant of it. Though, it says, this treasure is already found in scripture. It brings truth hidden previously from the knowledge of the church in the power and the testimony of the spirit of God to bear on the present circumstances of the church and the future prospects of the world.

And thus it practically is prophetic, though there may be no necessary new information or revelation. It's someone who has a sense of the culture and the needs of the church and God gives it where there's an alignment. So when they speak, they speak to where the real issues are of what we need to address. Characteristics. They tend to be persuasive speakers. They can read people. They often are opinionated, very black and white.

They often like large groups rather than one-on-one. People with this gift often, I've been with people that, I mean, you fill a stadium and you feel like you're their best friend and you sit next to them on the airplane and you say, hey, how you doing? Fine. And you're thinking, but I just had this warm, wonderful experience with 50,000 people in the stadium.

How's it going? Great. I mean, there's just something about some people with this gift is they don't necessarily like the one-on-one stuff. Some of the dangers of this gift, there can be a tendency to be proud of their speaking ability, depending on the speaking ability rather than on the power of the Holy Spirit.

And people with prophetic gift who want to make it right can be insensitive to the feelings of other people. Okay. How about you? Yes, no, maybe. Does that kind of describe you?

Just take a quick shot in the dark. Don't over analyze it. Gift number two is service. It's the divine enablement to attach spiritual value to the accomplishment of physical tasks within the body of Christ. It's the ability to demonstrate love by meeting practical needs that releases other Christians for direct spiritual ministry. The question these people intuitively ask because of their gift is what can I do to help?

What can I do to help? The gift of word here is our word diaconon. It is translated deacon.

It literally means to serve or to wait on tables. Some characteristics of this person doesn't need much public recognition. These people don't seek the limelight. They're content to work behind the scenes. They often like manual projects, unusual ability to detect people's personal needs. These are the kind of people that walk in your house or there's a little conversation and they come back around later and they give you something and you're thinking, well, how did you even know about that?

Well, you mentioned it three months ago when we had dinner and you're going, I didn't even know I needed that. They're just really attuned to meeting the practical needs of people. They're able to overlook personal discomfort in order to meet other people's needs and will often use their own funds to make things happen because they just want to serve. Some of the dangers, they can be bitter when their deeds are not recognized. They don't need a lot of limelight, but when they get none, it's kind of like, hey, does anybody care? And by the way, these are the most neglected people in the body of Christ in the church.

These are the people that I'll tell you what, when you go to your church this weekend, you don't see them, but they really make it happen. Someone got in early. Someone turned on the lights. Someone cleaned things. Someone folded the bulletin.

Someone typed something. Someone's watching the kids. Someone fixed the buses. Someone's helping the single moms.

Someone's doing repairs at night. These are the kind of people that where the Spirit of God, where the rubber meets the road practically, in my mind, these are heroes. In fact, Paul says, you know, the more unseemly, less visible members we need to exalt, that's this gift.

Another danger is putting an overemphasis on practical needs to the exclusion of spiritual needs. In my life, there's a guy named Dick. Dick was a school teacher. Dick retired. Dick found a group of eight or ten retired guys, and we had one who was a plumber, one who was a carpenter, and I mean, we fixed single moms' cars. They fixed everything around the church. You know that verse that we kind of overlook in James? True religion is caring for widows and orphans. Dick thought that was in the Bible and we ought to actually do it, and he developed a team of people, and I mean, we just did practical service. He was an elder, and in elder's meetings, what I knew, no matter what we talked about, guess where Dick was going to come back to?

Bang. Here's what you've got to understand about what you bring. In every discussion, every decision, it's the lens you look through.

I don't care what we're talking about. We can talk about money. We can talk about church. We can talk about families.

The lens I'm going to look through is, hey, what went wrong? How can we make it better? How do we help people reach their full potential? That's what prophets do. Other people are going to be the lens you look through is, how can we serve them?

How can we help them? Third gift. Oh, are you ready? Yes? No?

Maybe. Circle it or just write that word. Third motivational gift is teaching. It's the divine enablement to understand and give detailed explanation of biblical truth. It's the ability to search out and validate truth which has been presented. People with this gift are asking the question, what is truth? Where did you get that?

Why? The classical Greek word here is to impart information in order to develop talent and potential. It's the motivation and power to present with clarity the truth of God's word. People with the gift of teaching, few characteristics here, they love to do research. They love to study. And they like to study down to the minutiae.

I mean, stuff that you and I think aren't that important, it matters to them. I mean, you know, the people that make all those long charts, if you're a pastor, the people that come up and ask questions like, I remember one guy said, do you think Daniel was a eunuch? I'm thinking, you know, I've stayed up nights on that one, but I really haven't come to a conclusion.

And then he said, you know, last week I was on a business trip and, you know, I took my laptop and I put about 25 hours of research into it. And, you know, in the Mesopotamian culture, this happened. And then, of course, Daniel was over here in this other and I'm looking at the history of a eunuch. And, you know, when I think about what was going on in the culture and, you know, I've kind of come to the conclusion, what do you think, Chip? And I'm thinking, immediate reaction, I don't care. You know, I really don't.

And my second is, is how could anyone spend 25 hours studying on what's a eunuch? But that same guy's name is called Bill Carter. Bill Carter had the gift of teaching. Bill Carter was the first one in his words who opened up spiritual gifts to me to say, have you ever considered looking at it through this paradigm of motivation, ministry and manifestation? You know, Chip, I've been doing some work.

I spent about 120 hours. He kept track. I don't know why. I guess he's got the gift of teaching. And he said, you know, as I've been tracing it through, and you know what, I just learned from it. He asked me questions. He thought, because I went to seminary, I knew, I always thought, I got to where, hey, Bill, that's a really great question. But before I answer that, could you answer this one?

Because he actually knew the Bible far better than me. When you have the gift of teaching, very content, very doctrine-oriented, you love the research, you love to study. These are the kind of people too, when someone teaches, if you have the gift of teaching, your lights are going off like crazy.

When I'm teaching, ding, ding, is this true? What about this? Where do you get that? What about this? What about this?

You know, that word I've heard, it could mean this and that word. I mean, it is like, where's the research? You know, show me the meat.

Show me where you got that. That's the gift of teaching. The danger of this gift is to concentrate too much on content to the exclusion of application. Danger is boasting or getting proud about their knowledge. Knowledge puffs up.

Another danger is being inattentive to the response of students. See, if you got the gift of teaching, the truth is so wonderful. I mean, they just like, they swim in the truth. The truth is so wonderful. They can get up and study and study and study and they can give it and like the back row can be asleep. So what?

I mean, they're just missing out. The truth and did anybody apply it? Who cares? I'm going to go back and study.

You know, that's why we need the body. Okay. What? Yes.

No. Or maybe you got the gift of teaching. Could it be, could that be your primary motivation? Next is the gift, motivational gift of exhortation. It's the divine enablement or power to come alongside another in need of encouragement to reassure, strengthen, affirm, and notice, challenge those who are discouraged or wavering in their faith. It's the ability to stimulate the faith of others. People with this gift ask, what must be done to fix this?

These are fix it people. And then next, how can we move this person to wholeness? This gift of exhortation, the biblical word, you know, when it says another comforter will come, the Holy Spirit, the word is para alongside Kaleo.

Kaleo called alongside para Kaleo. This word, exhortation, same word. This person is called alongside other people.

And the best way to get the definition of this, it's interesting because it's like a coin with two sides. Their goal is to bring wholeness and fix things. And often it's comforting, loving, affirming. Oh, you've been through it.

They're great counselors. Oh, you've been through a hard time, but if the people don't change or if they're messing around, they also, the flip side of that coin is not just all the comfort, it's challenge. And they'll get in your face and say, you know something we've been meeting for 11 weeks now, and you've been telling me I'm in a terrible marriage. I'm in a terrible marriage. I'm in a terrible marriage. I'm in a terrible marriage.

I'm in a terrible marriage. I got the part about your terrible marriage. Now, you know what? We gave you some assignments. You did half of the first one. You did part of the second one. We prayed the last three because you cried through those, okay?

And if you want to have a session 12, honey, you better get off your terrible marriage and ask what God wants to do in you to make this marriage better than what needs to happen in him. Do you understand? And people with a gift or exhortation will do that. They have a long fuse. They're very loving, very affirming. But their goal is to help you get whole.

And if you don't want to get whole after a while, they'll kind of cut you loose. This characteristics of a person, they're gifted in counseling. They see practical application from scripture.

I remember I shared in another message where I went for counseling early in our marriage because we both come from pagan backgrounds and didn't know how to communicate. And a guy named Richard Meyer, he was a senior pastor for 20 some years and then he went back and got training in counseling. He had this gift. He helped my wife and I see different things. And then he would give us a biblical passage, but then he would give us this very practical, specific things to actual from that passage work on. And it's a phenomenal gift. People with this gift see practically how to put the scripture and the truth applied to your life. They call us to godly living.

They initiate, they implore, they request, they entreat. These are great people to have as friends. The dangers of this gift, they spend too much time with people who only want temporary solutions to their problems. See, they care so much. It's like, you know, maybe they should have said that at session six instead of session eleven. You know, I'm in a terrible marriage.

Well, okay. Another danger is they can become discouraged from lack of results from people who they're ministering to. These people, they've got to see people's lives change. And if people's don't lives change, they get really discouraged. Like, you know, what's the deal?

Am I doing something wrong? So how about you? Gift of exhortation. Are you motivated to ask, hey, how do I fix this? How do I bring this person to wholeness?

Yes, no, or maybe? Next gift is the motivational gift of giving. This is the divine enablement to earn money, manage it well, and wisely contribute to the work of the Lord with cheerfulness and liberality. It's the ability to entrust personal assets to others for the furtherance of their ministry. People with this gift ask this question, what can I give to meet the needs? What can I give to meet the needs? The word here is to share or to give. It's not necessarily money, but primarily it shows up in people's finances. But this is a person with generosity.

Notice in Romans 12, let him give, give it liberally. The word is haplos. It's a word for having a single eye. These characteristics, these people don't like the limelight. These people like to give anonymously.

These people like to have a single focus. These people want to know what the ROI is on their gift. I mean, hey, you know what I want to know is, so, okay, I gave you a hundred thousand dollars to do this and do this.

Did this, this, this, and this happen? And if not, I'm going to give my gift next week somewhere else. These people hate high pressure tactics. They smell manipulation in a New York minute. They can tell when people are trying to con them and put them on and what they have is an ability to earn money, manage it wisely, and they see opportunities and they see, you know what, with this much money, this is what could really happen. Those are the basic characteristics of someone with the gift of giving.

They do not have to be wealthy. Obviously this gift is operating in the third world. You can have the gift of giving in Haiti and you may not have but two coconuts, but you're willing to give, you know, one and a half of years away. The danger of this gift is there can be a tendency to be proud of it, as is evidenced by this gift was given by Mr. and Mrs. so and so and so and so and here's the plaque and see, for every great gift, there's always a danger and there can be a danger that you want people to know what you gave and, you know, sort of in a nice, sophisticated Christian, you don't want people to know too much, but you want them to know just enough.

Not that you're proud, but that you're wonderful. Another danger is overemphasizing material needs to the exclusion of spiritual needs and judging others spiritually by their bank accounts. See, again, you look at others through this lens and it's so easy for you to make money, it's so easy for you to do stuff, it's like my lens, I mean, the guy's got the gift of service and he's been working on that job for 11 years, I appreciate the guy, that's the most beat up dumb truck, his kids are still riding in the back and that's dangerous. My lens, save so much, start with tithing, do this, set aside some, get yourself, get your finances in order. What's wrong with you? I mean, they just go nuts when they see financial mismanagement because to them it's just, you know, it's so natural how you ought to operate your life.

How about you? Yes, no, or maybe. Next motivational gift is that of leadership. It's the divine enablement to notice, see what needs to be done, set goals, and then attract, lead, and motivate people to accomplish the work of the ministry. It's the ability to coordinate the activities of others for the achievement of common goals. People with this gift are asking, what's the goal? Where are you trying to go? What's the target on the wall? And the other thing that they're always asking, what's the results? Okay, this activity, fine activity, you're saying you're doing this, doing this, show me, you know, what did you accomplish?

What's the goal? It's interesting in terms of definition, this is a person who gives vision and direction, can mobilize other people. It originally has the idea of someone who stands in front. It's the ability to lead and delegate, they take charge, they enjoy responsibility.

This is the guy that wants to take the shot, the last shot in the game, and if he misses, he misses, but he wants the ball in his hands. When there's a vacuum and nothing's happening, a person with the gift of leadership is just frustrated to death. It's disorganized, it's going nowhere. What they want to do is say, look, okay, if no one else is going to do this, okay, look, I'll tell you what, you seem to be good at this, good at this, let's come up with a plan, there's a target on the wall for the next six weeks, let's go for it.

Does everyone agree? And everyone goes, oh yeah, I don't know why we didn't know how to do that, it just makes sense. And so, that's what they are. They stand in front. It's a person who has the ability to see how things fit together, what needs to be done, how it can be accomplished. And they have a way of doing it where people are attracted to them and they see the big picture and they mobilize people and getting them in their strengths. The danger is they can use people to achieve their goals. Danger is they can get proud or pushy with the power that's given with them.

We've all been around leaders that know God, that we wish they knew him a little better. And that they get a little grace with all that drive and intensity. And sometimes they forget the purpose of the project. I mean, it gets, gotta get it done, gotta get it done. We gotta build this building, gotta build this building, gotta build this building, gotta build this building. Come on, what's wrong with you? You need to give more, why aren't you giving more? Come on, these contractors, hey, we're already 10, 12% of our budget.

What's wrong with this committee? You know, we start on time, we get this thing done. And someone says, and why are we building this building? Because we gotta love people. Huh. And maybe we ought to start in this committee. Okay.

It's just one of the dangers. How about you? Leadership? Yes? No?

Maybe. The final one is the gift of mercy. It's the divine enablement to minister cheerfully and appropriately to people who are suffering or undeserving and to spare them the punishment or the consequences they justly deserve.

Isn't this a wonderful gift? This is those people that you've blown it and you've really blown it and you know, you can blame others, but it really is your fault and something in them not only wants to help you, but they don't want you to have to suffer the consequences that you really ought to get. Kinda like God, huh? It's a gift of mercy. It's a gift of wanting to withhold just consequences from those who deserve it.

They're always asking the question, how can I make them feel better? There's a high identification with people's hurts and people's needs and what they're going through. The definition of this word at the heart of it is an emotion that is aroused by the affliction or the needs of others that gets translated into action. There's just something in the heart, this compassion, this sympathy and empathy that wants to reach out and help people. The characteristics they are able to detect and discern people's feelings. I mean, have you ever been there? You're with someone with the gift of mercy and actually you're talking, you go through the meeting and you think, wow, that was a good meeting.

You walk out and you walk out with someone with the gift of mercy and say, hey man, we really need to pray for that guy. Why? I thought it was a good meeting. You didn't pick up on it.

Pick on what? And his marriage is in trouble. What do you mean his marriage is in trouble? We were talking about marriage.

We're trying to get a building built. Didn't you pick up on the signals? He said this, he said that. When you ask about his family quickly, we went around and shared, his countenance fell and these people, man, they got this antenna. They got this radar and when there's needs and when there's hurts and when there's, they pick up on it. And then they're drawn to it and they want to help and they want to care. And the characteristics here, not only are they detect and discerning, they're very sensitive.

They're sensitive to the point of action. They want direct personal ministry. The gift of mercy, they don't want to delegate this. They are moved highly by the world vision or the food for the hungry commercials and they're glad to give, but they want hands on helping people with very specific needs. The dangers here, they tend to have a hard time to be firm when necessary.

I mean they look at life, especially in their parenting. You got the gift of mercy, being very disciplinarian is pretty tough with the gift of mercy. Resentment for those who don't have this gift. People with the gift of mercy and people with the gift of leadership can have significant problems in the body of Christ.

And God's goal is that this person does this out of his grace and this person does this out of his grace and the leader becomes more merciful and the merciful person learns to lead with clarity and direction and apply their gift much better. They often are misunderstood by people of the opposite sex. If you have this gift, you got to be careful because someone's really hurting and you're a woman or vice versa man, woman and you reach out to help them and the guy or the gal goes, hey, it's pretty cool.

I think she's kind of coming on to me or he's coming on to me. No, no. I see your need. I see your pain. People often with this gift end up in very dysfunctional relationships because they're trying to rescue people and they get involved emotionally in helping people they shouldn't be helping.

What you need is to find another sister to help that gal or a brother to help that brother on these kind of issues. Yes, no or maybe. Well those are the seven motivational gifts and someone has I think rightly said often a picture is worth a thousand words and I got this from a buddy and I don't know where he got it but I've got it on a little page that they do in their spiritual gifting networking class in California. And he tells a story about a waiter who's at a Christian banquet and there's a big Christian banquet and there's a big front table up here and believe it or not there's exactly seven leaders and each leader has a different one of the motivational gifts and it's a big Christian banquet and they're all godly so they operate in their gifts controlled by the Spirit of God and it's a huge banquet and they're raising a lot of money and doing great things all over the world and they're clearing away the tables and as they're doing it the dessert is coming out and there's a very nice waiter who's been serving them and he comes and he's got this huge plate of desserts and as he comes here someone's clearing a table they bump it goes splat goes everywhere it's in front of everyone microphone goes over bash everyone's every eye looks up the waiter's there he's got ice cream and chocolate and sundaes all over him the main speaker looks like he's been you know dressed for a dog to lick you know chocolate off his vest and then the gifts go into action and so the person with the gift of prophecy gets up and says I could see this coming it was a mistake from the very beginning tell you what you cannot take away plates and bring dessert at the same time motivation is to correct his life the person with the mercy jumps up and says oh don't feel so badly it could have happened to anyone it's okay motivation how can I relieve the embarrassment the person with the gift of serving goes oh let me help let me help she can I wipe this off and she's picking up or he's picking up what's fallen down the motivation is to fulfill a need the person with the gift of teaching backs off they always think their gift is most important in these situations and they step back and say you know the real reason this happened was not as you thought that they were taking away the plates and bringing in the dessert the real reason I've analyzed this and what you see is that if you have seven desserts on one time and five desserts on the other side the equal equilibrium and the balance if you wear those kind of shoes on this type of cloth will cause a tilting and the goal is to motivate and to discover why it happened the person with the gift of exhortation just jumps up and says hey next time I've got an idea why don't you just serve the dessert with the meal and his motivation is we'll just correct this for the future the person with the gift of giving looks and goes okay I've got a suit that's ruined I got a microphone that's broken I got carpet this destroyed we've rented the church and he goes I'll tell you what guys I'm not sure what we need to do on this but I'll tell you what if you'll go ahead and speak here's my jacket and I'll buy you a new suit and you know something this is a nice church we've rented this carpet has been needed replacing probably for years I'll tell you what I'll throw in the first five thousand dollars that the rest of you will jump in with me and his motivation is to give to relieve a need and then finally you have the person with leadership and as people are doing this he steps up and he goes hey Jim could you get a mop Sue would you please help pick up Mary and we get one more dessert I'll tell you what let's make an announcement Bobby I'll tell you what you know that song you did earlier do it again and do it again right now okay we're gonna clean this up right now thanks you get the jacket okay everybody in about 15 minutes will be ready to go I believe that God has given everyone in this room one primary motivational gift which one of those seven did you most resonate if you were at that table what would you naturally jump up and want to do or want to solve you know top one or two because what I'm gonna say to you is that you are a workmanship you are a piece of art God has given you gifts of different nature and hues that he wants to paint out of his grace into the lives of other people and if you think you're this and God wants you to be this not only are you frustrated but think of what's happening in the body of Christ who need your gift of leadership or your gift of mercy or your gift of exhortation and when you understand that there are primary motivations and then that motivation will play out in different ministries at different times at different seasons in your development and the development of the ministry that you're called then what we'll learn is how you develop those ministry gifts and how all those other manifestation gifts operate in the body of Christ because I'll tell you what God wants you to walk in the good works that he before ordained from the foundation of the earth that you should do those good works and I'm gonna tell you when you do you'll get the double F in your life unbelievable fulfillment and unbelievable fruitfulness did you get maybe just a tiny little inkling that we learn some things about God's Word but one guy in the room had a lot of fun unashamedly I just had a blast you know why because I just did what God made me to do I'm not special I'm not smarter I'm not more important I'm not more holy I just understand this is what he made me to do and my dream is that you'll discover what he made you to do. Chip will be right back with his application for this message how to discover your primary spiritual gift from his series your divine design did you know God has given you a set of spiritual gifts or tools to help you fulfill his calling on your life are you actively using them or are you unsure what they even are in this series chip will help you discover develop and deploy your spiritual gifts to make an eternal impact and if you want to dive deeper into this meaningful topic let me encourage you to order chips book your divine design it'll really open your eyes to the incredible blessing and responsibility of your unique gifts to get your hands on this new book go to Living on the Edge org call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 app listeners tap special offers well chips with me in studio now to share a quick word thanks Dave I just wanted to take a minute before we go on in today's teaching and talk to a group of people that have supported us at Living on the Edge in prayer and supported us financially it's that group of people that maybe during one of these matches or spontaneously you know God speaks to them they give a gift here a gift there and it is so deeply appreciated and what I want you to know is that we have exploded in terms of impact at Living on the Edge training pastors all around the world and doing some digital things for the next generation that are extremely expensive but also have borne such fruit and so here's my request we know you care you've already given would you prayerfully consider supporting us on a monthly basis and it doesn't really have to be a lot we need thousands of people to step up and say you know twenty dollars or thirty dollars or fifty dollars whatever you'd be comfortable with I could do that each month and it would help us so in terms of our planning and knowing as we go around the world and as we create new discipleship resources knowing that we can count on you would help us more than you could ever imagine would you just pray about it and then would you do whatever the Lord shows you thanks so much. Thanks Chip well if joining the Living on the Edge team is an idea that makes sense to you let me encourage you to become a monthly partner now you can do that today at Living on the Edge org or via the Chip Ingram app with just a few clicks you can set up a recurring donation and help others benefit from this ministry or if it's easier text the word donate to seven forty one forty one that's donate to seven forty one forty one thanks in advance for supporting us any way you can well now here's Chip with some final thoughts he'd like to leave you with okay today is an important day I mean what I want you to do is don't think too much don't let too much get inside your head don't try and remember every specific point about each gift I'm going to name these seven motivational gifts and all I want you to do right where you're at give me twenty two seconds and then the first two that come to your mind that you think to yourself yeah you know that's kind of sounds like me don't be critical just yeah yes or no so are you ready let me go through the seven prophecy service teaching exhortation giving leadership mercy which to just pop to the top for you have you got it now what I want to tell you is if you will go to the internet Living on the Edge org I have these gift listed I have a description of them it will say people with this gift will ask certain questions the questions are there here's my heart just read through these prayerfully and then who's your best friend that you can talk about this stuff with it might be a guy at work it might be your mate it might be someone in a Bible study take these notes lay them down on a table open the Bible and read where these gifts come from and just say hey you know what you know just between you and me if you had to choose two of these I'm not going to tell you what I was thinking but which two of these do you think might be me and I'll tell you what you get a little feedback you look at the scripture you ask the Spirit of God to show you I'm going to tell you it will help you like never before to start to narrow down the core or primary motivational gift God's given you now if you really want to take this to the next level this is so critical we filmed this and put it on DVD in a very inexpensive format with all the notes and all the material where I mean you can get it live and see the charts and see the whole nine yards I believe this is one of those kind of breakthrough type things for the average believer thanks Chip well if you'd like to get plugged in with any of the resources chip just mentioned go to Living on the Edge org there you can download our message notes check out our small group studies or order chips newest book your divine design we want to help you grow in your walk with Jesus and the resources for this series are a great place to start well for all of us here I'm Dave Drewy thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.