The Holy Spirit - How to Discover Your Spiritual Gifts, Part 1

If you long to experience supernatural joy, if you want to discover where to invest your life in the things that bring deep and lasting satisfaction, and just flat out want God's presence and power in you like never before, then you need to know one thing, and that one thing is what we're going to talk about.

Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram, and we're nearing the end of his insightful series, The Holy Spirit, Experiencing His Power and Presence 24-7. For these last two programs, Chip's going to focus on a vital but often overlooked aspect of the Christian life, spiritual gifts.

What are they and why do they matter? Chip will tackle all that and more, but before he does, let me remind you that the Chip Ingram app is a quick and easy way to stay connected to Chip and Living on the Edge. You can listen to our most recent series, look through some of our resources, and even send us a prayer request if you have one. We want to help you grow spiritually, and the Chip Ingram app can help.

Check it out today. Okay, here's Chip with his talk, How to Discover Your Spiritual Gift. The Holy Spirit does a lot of things. We learned He indwells us, He controls us, and one of the great things He does is He gives us spiritual gifts. When you think about a gift, you think about a birthday, you think about an anniversary, you think about surprising someone, you think about the perfect gift. I mean, we give gifts to whom? People we care about to celebrate major things, to remember certain things, and we think about what do I want to give someone that they could really use that fits them perfectly and would express our deepest love.

Isn't that why we do it? Birthday gifts, anniversary gifts, graduation gifts, special gifts. What I want you to know is that's so true of us humanly, but when you talk to people in the body of Christ, many regular ordinary Christians, and you bring up the subject of spiritual gifts, you usually have two extremes.

Extreme number one on the left is denial. There's lots of people that say, I don't think God gives any gifts anytime, anymore. And then you have people on the other side that are dogmatic about the gifts.

There's these or not these or there's all these. And what I've discovered in the body of Christ is most people are somewhere in the middle because if you've been around people that say they don't exist, or if you've been around people that say this is the way they exist and it's got to be like this and this is how we see it, I find most Christians kind of sort of go to the middle of confusion, I'm not really sure. I don't think I'm going to talk about that because people seem to argue a lot. And I've done this a lot, but if I ask you to pull out a three by five card and the God who died for you, Jesus, and who rose from the dead and sent spiritual gifts to you, I will tell you there's probably not two people in ten that couldn't say on a three by five card, this is my primary spiritual gift, this is my ministry gift, this is how I use it, and this is how I make decisions, and this is very important to me and I understand it clearly. You will not find that in the body of Christ. You ask people, well, what's your spiritual gift? Well, I think it's mercy and leadership and sort of administration, hospitality, playing the piano, tacos. I mean, and how does that really help you live your life?

I don't know, I just took a test once. So are you ready to learn about what spiritual gifts are all about and how it works and how important it is? I'm going to suggest there's four questions everyone needs to ask and answer about spiritual gifts.

Number one is super pragmatic. Why bother? Why does it matter that we understand spiritual gifts?

I'm going to give you four reasons. One, they're essential for determining God's will. People want you to do all kinds of things. When you're in your sweet spot, when you're doing what God wants you to do, doesn't it make sense if he has a Ephesians 2 10 calling on your life? You are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which before the foundations of the earth, he's called you to walk in. Don't you think he's gifted and designed you to walk in that good work?

So you better be doing that, not responding to all the needs everywhere. And if you don't know what your primary spiritual gift is, how will you know where to invest your time and your energy? Second reason, they're God's stamp of approval on your value as a person. Spiritual gifts remind you that you got this gift because Christ died. He loves you.

He's for you. You give gifts to people you care about. He gave this gift to you to remind you every time you use your spiritual gift, I must matter.

It's like if some of you have had a grandfather give you one of those watch that opens up and every time you hold it and you've got that watch or some people have a little thing around your neck and you can open it up and has a heart and has a picture of someone or something engraved or some of you for special gifts have a plaque and there's something engraved in it. And it reminds you that whoever gave that to you says you matter. And that's when Jesus gave you a spiritual gift, he wants you to know you matter.

He gave it to you, especially for you. And third, when known in exercise, they put you in the place of meeting needs and building deep, meaningful relationships. See, when you know your spiritual gift, it helps in decision making. It literally helps your self esteem in the positive sense of that. And third, it really solves a lot of the loneliness problem.

There's all kind of Christians that are very, very lonely that don't feel a part of anything. When you start using your spiritual gifts, you know what you're doing? You're meeting the needs of other people and you're getting close to people. You get connected to people. You're needed. You're helping. Your focus is on what God is doing and other people.

And that's the fourth one. It produces something pretty amazing. The byproduct of exercising your spiritual gift is joy.

It's joy. I remember learning this the hard way. Teresa and I had gone to Dallas to go to seminary. We went to a large Bible teaching church where a lot of the professors were at the seminary. They had a children's program that was second to none. They had puppets.

They had all kind of stuff. I mean, this place ran like crazy. The editor of the NIV Bible taught one class and he did that on the Psalms. And there was another professor of Christology and he taught a class. I mean, it was like going to a conference every week. It was unbelievable.

I mean, you didn't even have to pay to go to these classes. It was just church. And I remember, you know, we came from West Virginia where like a mega church is like 200 people. I mean, mega mega church is 200 people, maybe 300. I mean, it's huge.

There's only a million people in the whole state. And so here's this church of two or 3000 people or whatever in Sunday school classes bigger than any church we've ever been in. These professors and the Hebrew word for this and the Greek words for that. And it's like, we went week number one, week number two, week number three. Like, can you believe this? I mean, it's like we're getting drunk on God's word. And then we got into about week six or week seven and we had this interesting experience.

I'll never forget it. We're getting to the front of the church, ready to open the doors. And I turned to Teresa. I said, do you feel like going to church today? He said, no. I said, I don't either. I said, do you want to go to Wendy's? Yeah.

Okay. So we'd already dropped off our kids. This doesn't sound so spiritual, does it?

But we did. So we go to Wendy's and it was right next to the church and we sat down and I, and I said, man, I don't know what it is, but I mean, this is all great, great, great, great, but something's wrong. Something's really wrong. And as we sat down and jotted a few things on a napkin, it was like, you know where I came from? Is I had a Bible study every Tuesday morning with a group of guys and, and I was teaching every Thursday night to a group of college students. And this is why I came to seminary and Teresa was meeting with a group of girls. And what we realized is we were getting, getting, getting, getting, and we weren't, we weren't using, we weren't using our spiritual gifts.

And you know what? The joy factor, we weren't growing. We were getting smarter. Man, I knew more Greek words and Hebrew words and the Psalm and a lament.

Man, there were stuff I learned to pronounce things like pneumatology, eschatology and something-ology, you know, I was learning all kinds of stuff, but I was shriveling up. And I remember I set an appointment, you know, it was a very large church and it was my first experience with a large church. So I got an appointment with the pastor. I got on his calendar.

So three months later I got to meet with him. And so I thought, you know, I got one shot and I'm pretty organized guy when it comes to this kind of stuff. So I wrote down on a, on a three by five card, I've done this, I live this kind of ministry. I think my primary spiritual gift is this. I'm open to doing whatever anywhere in the church.

I just want to serve, just put me in the game, you know, kind of thing. And here's a little bit of background and here's a couple of names if you get a reference because I know it's a large church, you don't want some wacko. And so we sat down for lunch and his name was Don Geiger. I said, hi, Don, how you doing? I said, oh, excuse me, I got a card for you.

And would you just look this over before we eat? And I gave it to him and then I faked like I had to go to the bathroom. So I just went into the bathroom, washed my hands and I thought, I think he's got the card read by now. And then I walked back down, I sit down and I said, so Don, what do you think? He says, he sounds like you, you want to get to work, don't you? I said, Don, I know I got a full schedule in seminary. I'm dying.

I'm shriveling up. You just, you tell me where you need anybody in this church. And my wife and I are in, we need to use our gifts. And two weeks later we were teaching a sophomore class, you know, high school class and a few months later we were leading the college ministry and you know, our whole life changed. The joy factor went up.

Kids are in our living room again. Why bother with spiritual gifts? Well, decision-making, loneliness, joy. Heck, if that's all that I gave you, that would be enough. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll get you back to our series, The Holy Spirit, in just a minute. But first, if this teaching has ministered to you, consider becoming a monthly partner. Your regular financial support goes a long way to help us encourage leaders, create resources, and share Jesus with today's youth.

Visit livingontheedge.org today to learn how to support us. Well, with that, here again is Chip. Second question you need to ask about spiritual gifts is not just why bother, but what is a spiritual gift?

Let's get on the same page. Because as wonderful as it is, as playing the saxophone or the piano or cooking a great dinner, those are talents, those are not spiritual gifts. So what is a spiritual gift?

Definition, a divine enablement of special ability upon every member of the body of Christ which fits them for specific and corresponding service. Now, if you will, open your Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. As I read it, I want you to circle three words, gifts, service, and workings, depending on your translation.

Let's pick it up at verse 4. The question in the Corinthian church is who's spiritually mature and about spirituality and maturity. A lot of groups think in this particular church that certain gifts make you really mature, and so Paul's explaining about spiritual gifts. And so in verse 4, he says there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service or ministry, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of workings or manifestations, but the same God who works all of them together.

There's only two or three doctrines in all of Scripture that when they're described, the whole Trinity comes together, the Great Commission, redemption. And he says here, there are gifts, services, and workings. And notice the Spirit, the Lord Jesus, God who works all of them and all men. You need to understand God has given you a gift, I believe a primary or motivational gift. And when you exercise that, I think he will give you ministry gifts.

And then as you function in that way, the Spirit of God will cause manifestations of growth to help other people see God for who he is and love them and inspire them and encourage them and heal them and comfort them. A gift, the word is charismatic. It simply means used exclusively in the New Testament for a gift.

It's not a natural talent. It's root word is charis, which is the grace that's used 150 times in the New Testament. And the idea is beauty or favor in action. That's what a gift is. It's beauty or favor in action. The prefix spiritual or pneumotikos just has the idea of what kind of gifts, it's from the source in the Spirit of God. So God gives something that's for beauty in action. It provides ability. When you have a spiritual gift, you have a supernatural enabling from God. It may align with your natural gifts.

It may not. One of the greatest evangelists I ever knew was a man named John Saville. He was the shyest human being I've ever met. But when he came to Christ late in life, and I watched John in an elevator.

I mean, an elevator and that was a really long elevator, you know, like 50 stories. And I was going to lunch with John. And John had come to Christ in his 60s after, you know, going bankrupt two or three times and having some really hard times in his life.

And he just loved lost people. And I remember being in that elevator and I was going to lunch with John and we're there and it's Dallas, business suits, pinstripes, the whole bit. And there's three very official people behind us. And I'm here and John's there and there's a nice lady in a business suit. And John turns to her and says, excuse me. And she says, yes.

Has anyone ever told you how much Jesus loves you? And I'm going, John. I'm his pastor.

He's chairman of the board. I'm thinking, John, this is, you don't know, this is uncool. This is not how you do it.

There's three guys in suits. You love Jesus. Come on. And she said, no. He said, well, would you like me to tell you? And her eyes get watery and she starts to, I mean, this is an elevator.

This is a 20 second deal. Eyes get watery. Tears start to come down. John pulls out a track. He leans over. He reads the first part of the track. He folds it, put it in his hand. He goes, I own Savile Dodging and Company. Tell you what, you come up and give this to my receptionist.

I'd just love to tell you about Jesus. And she took that thing and held it. The door's open.

She gets out. I'm thinking, how does that work? This is the shyest guy I know. You know why? A spiritual gift is a supernatural enabling. God does something in you and through you that isn't just like supersizing what you are.

It's supernatural. It is the ability. It's the qualification.

Don't get me wrong. I believe Bible training is important. Seminary training is important.

But I think we've gotten to the day where we're more worried about accreditation than real qualification. I'll tell you, you know what? D.L. Moody was a shoe salesman with a very limited education.

He did okay. When I had the privilege of pastoring at Santa Cruz 12 and a half years, I remember at one point in time we had about 90 people on staff. We grew from several hundred to a lot of people. And we had about 90 some people on staff. And I looked at one time and I realized we had like 35 people in seminary. But I guess our staff came out of our church. I think I only hired two or three people on the outside, you know, like counseling and special qualifications.

Why? Because they proved that they could do the ministry. They had our heart. They had our DNA.

They were producing spiritual fruit. Then what they realized was I need some training. So I'm not against training. But I want you to know we've gotten in the day where people think that, well, I haven't been to Bible school so I guess I can't teach that class or I can't do that or I'm not qualified. Here's what makes you qualified. Loving Jesus, being gifted, getting the word, step out. I mean all through scripture it's like these people you would never think God would use.

That's who we are. God has given you power. But if you don't know what your gift is, you don't even know where to plug in. So it gives ability, qualification. It gives strength. It gives energy. It gives endurance. When you're in your giftedness, there's joy.

Finally, it's about responsibility, ability, qualification, strength. A gift is just like your time. It's just like your money. You're a steward of it. God has deposited in you a supernatural ability to help people in ways where miraculous things can happen. Now think of this. He died. He rose from the dead. He gave you this gift.

How sad it would be if you don't know what it is. I mean what would it be like like your six-year-old's birthday? I mean the one and you know he wanted a bike. He wanted the bike. He wanted the bike. He wanted the bike.

Oh, could I have a bike? And you get this big box and you put it in and so he can't tell what it is and there's a big ribbon and then you stick it on the you know right in the center of the garage and then you give him the garage door opener. It's your birthday and he presses it and he opens and there's the big box and then he goes well I think I'm gonna go play with my friends. What about the box? Well I'll do that later. What about the box?

Well how would you feel as a parent? Open the box! That's a $200 bike kid.

You've been dreaming about that. You were made to ride that bike. Open the box! That's how God feels. Some of us have never opened the box. You don't know what it is. You don't know how to use it.

You never got on it and ridden it. And so there's a joy factor and there's a lot of Christians that are very frustrated and really burned out. And part of that is if you don't open the box because you're good sincere people and want to be nice and helpful and it's really hard to say no, you're on this committee, on this committee, you help out here, you do this, you do that, you do this, you do that and you do that for a few years and then you get really burned out and a lot of you used to do all that and right now you don't do anything. Correct?

You don't do anything. It's like I've spiritually retired. I'm going to let those younger people carry the ball from here on out. Where'd you get that?

In a John Wayne movie or something? I mean this life you have and this spiritual gift deposited is until the day you die. And God often will use it in the latter part of your life more than in the earlier part because you actually now have some life experience and wisdom to go with the gift. But if you don't know what it is, you don't know how to cultivate it, then you miss.

So there's a stewardship. The stewardship of your spiritual gift is just like your money, your time or anything else. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message How to Discover Your Spiritual Gift from our series The Holy Spirit. Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. In this eight-part series Chip takes the mystery out of this critical third part of the Trinity. Join us in key passages across scripture that illustrate the Holy Spirit's power, presence, purpose and relevance to our lives today.

Learn why he is more than a spiritual force and how a meaningful relationship with the Holy Spirit can lead to deeper intimacy with God the Father. Let me encourage you to stick around for each message. But if you do miss any part, catch up through the Chip Ingram app. Chip's here in studio with me. Chip, you've got a powerful application to share, but before we get there, it's been a while since you've explained why you ask listeners to support Living on the Edge financially.

If you would, take a minute to do that because I think it's really important. First of all, ministry is always an issue of the heart, and Jesus says that wherever our treasure is, that is where our heart will be. The Bible also commands us to be generous and open and free, and everything that I have, everyone listening to my voice right now, everything they have, God has entrusted that to them. The second is the Bible is really clear not only that we should be generous, but where we should be generous.

I personally believe that your first commitment is to your local church, but then there's that opportunity to give over and above that first portion and to express love because God says wherever you're spiritually ministered unto. In fact, the apostle Paul would say to a group of Christians, I ministered spiritually to you. And he actually went so far to say, you have a financial obligation to minister back to me.

And in his situation, it wasn't like for airtime, I guess it was maybe donkey time or, you know, I need some new parchments or I need your financial resources to get on that ship to go from Corinth to Ephesus. And it's just the same here. You know, if you get ministered unto, one of the ways that you not only say thank you, but then you generously pass it on to others is to support that ministry that's ministering to you. So that's kind of what biblically why we do it. And, you know, there's just the reality of need and it's a partnership and a team. And so, and people are generous.

I mean, I'm thrilled. I'm very excited about how they do give. And so I want to say, if you haven't, you can get in on this and if you have, thank you very much.

Thanks, Chip. If partnering with Living on the Edge is an idea that makes sense to you, we'd love to have you join us. We believe encouraging Christians to live like Christians will radically change the world we live in. To send a gift, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org. App listeners tap donate. And thanks for taking the time to help others benefit from the work of this ministry.

Well, here again is Chip to share his application. As we close today's program in my journey of about 30 years as a Christian, I've certainly heard a lot of people argue about spiritual gifts. And then I've kind of gone the route of asking people, so what is your primary spiritual gift?

And I usually get some blank stares or, you know, people rattle off seven or eight different gifts. And then I usually follow up with, well, okay, if it's maybe one or some of these six or seven or eight spiritual gifts, how does that help you make good decisions? And what difference has that made in your life?

And I usually get another blank stare like, duh, it really hasn't. And I had an experience when I was teaching in Russia that forced me to go to the Bible and for a group of pastors help people discover clearly and practically their spiritual gift, so it made a difference in how you prioritize your life, what you do with your life, and how you get a handle on it. And I touched on it in this series, but what grew out of my time in Russia was a teaching called Your Divine Design.

We put it in small group DVD. It's very clear. It's an eight-part DVD series that literally thousands and thousands of people have gone through, and here's what they tell me. You know something? The light came on. I understand my primary spiritual gift. I am realigning my life around what God made me to do. My joy factor is really up, and my impact factor is beyond what I ever dreamed.

Here's what I got to tell you. If something is sparking in you and you're thinking, you know, in this season of your life you really want to discover your spiritual gift, let me encourage you. Go to our website or give us a call and get the series Your Divine Design.

You'll be glad you did. Thanks, Chip. For complete details on that small group resource, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Through this study, you'll be reminded of how you were uniquely created by God and the specific skills and abilities He's given you to fulfill your purpose. Again, to learn more about the Your Divine Design small group, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. We'll listen to next time as Chip wraps up his series, The Holy Spirit. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.