Adapted from The Rest of Your Life Zondervan Publishing House
The following comments were made recently during a small group meeting I attended with a number of Godly men. They are typical of the comments Christian men everywhere are making:
"I finally have peace in my career. I
want to do more for Him."
"I just turned 40. I've been in the battle for 25 years. I find myself
wanting to feel more significant."
"My Christianity is like a savings account that has not produced a very
good return."
"Will you pray for me. My passion to serve the Lord is gone, and I want it
back."
"I only have one talent, but I want to be faithful with the one I
have."
"I burn with a desire to serve this generation."
THE GREAT DESIRE
The greatest yearning I hear today in my travels is that Christian men have an intense desire to make their lives count. "I want my life to make a difference. I want my life to have mattered." I know that women feel this way too.
However, there is a new sense in which men are thinking these thoughts. In the 1970s and 1980s men wanted their lives to count in their work and families, and to achieve financial success. While these desires have not gone away, today men want more. Today men want their lives to count for God.
If someone wants to make a contribution to building the kingdom and tending the culture, one of the most important steps to take is for them to understand their spiritual gifts.
It would be foolish to try to become a salesman if you prefer to work with numbers. In the same way we pursue vocational employment based upon our aptitudes and abilities, we pursue our spiritual service based on an understanding of how God has gifted us.
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
Every believer receives at least one
spiritual gift. "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given
for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7, italics added). The Holy Spirit
determines our spiritual gifts. "He gives them to each one, just as he determines"
(1 Corinthians
The purpose of our spiritual gifts is to
serve Christ by serving others, helping to fulfill the Great Commission.
"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others . . . . " Our responsibility is to be faithful. ". . . to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its
various forms" (1 Peter
Spiritual gifts include service gifts, speaking gifts, and signifying gifts. While theologians and teachers often differ on how to precisely classify and name these gifts, the following generally captures the gist of the different gifts.
SERVICE GIFTS
Service gifts are the ligaments and muscle
tissue that hold the
People who serve are eager for God to
receive the credit for whatever good comes. "If anyone serves, he should
do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised
through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter
Mercy: Special ability to show sympathy to the
suffering saints. A meal to the sick, hospital visits, phone calls, and visits
to the hurting.
Service: Special
ability to joyfully serve behind the scenes. Set up chairs, ushering, assist
leaders.
Hospitality: Special desire to offer home, food, and
lodging. Host missionaries, Bible studies, singles to
dinner.
Giving: Special
desire and financial ability to give above and beyond a tithe. Generosity toward youth mission trips, deacon fund
offerings, para-church ministries, a suit for the
pastor.
Administration:
Special ability to orchestrate program details. Committee
work, volunteer for church office, conference supervision.
Leadership: Special
ability to preside or govern wisely. Boards of Christian
ministries. Visible roles, elders, deacons, committee chairmen, run nursery
program, fund-raising.
Faith: Vision for new
projects that need doing and perseverance to see them through. Building
programs, new ministries.
Discernment: Ability
to detect error. Meet with teachers who may be teaching incorrectly, letters to
the editor.
SPEAKING GIFTS
Speaking gifts include knowledge, wisdom,
preaching, teaching, evangelism, apostleship, shepherding, and encouragement.
"If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of
God" (1 Peter
Knowledge: Spiritual
ability to search and acquire Scriptural truth. Academic
pursuits, writing, teaching.
Wisdom: Special
insight into applications of knowledge. Counseling, teaching,
discussion group leader, accountability groups, friendship.
Preaching:
Special ability to rightly proclaim and expound God's truth. Preachers, lay preachers.
Teaching: Special ability to explain Scripture in
edifying ways. Sunday school teachers, Bible studies, home groups, children,
and youth programs.
Evangelism: Special ability to clearly present the gospel
to non-believers. Sunday night church visitation program, share faith with
contacts on job, sponsor outreach events.
Apostleship: Special
ability to begin new works. Missionaries, church planters, Christian service
organizations.
Shepherding: Unique
ability to care for a flock of believers over the long haul. Pastors, elders, nursery program.
Encouragement: Special skill to inspire, encourage, and
comfort. Being a friend, counseling, writing letters.
People who have been given speaking gifts
are able to help equip others to have a personal ministry of service. "It
was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be
evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for
works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" (Ephesians
4:11-12, emphasis added).
SIGNIFYING GIFTS
The signifying gifts are miracles, healing, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.
Tongues: Spiritual ability to speak in a language
foreign to speaker.
Interpretation of Tongues: Spiritual ability to interpret
the message of one speaking in tongues.
Miracles: Spiritual
ability to actuate the supernatural intervention of God in ways beyond His
ordinary working through the laws of nature.
Healing: Spiritual
agency of God in curing illness and disease and restoring to health
supernaturally.
TWO RECOMMENDATIONS
To satisfy the deep longings of our hearts to do something significant for God we must first know how God has uniquely gifted us. If you have never studied and understood your own spiritual gifts, let me make two recommendations.
First, take some time right now or during an upcoming
quiet time to reflect on the spiritual gifts cataloged in this article. Put
check marks by the ones to which you are drawn. Study the four passages of
Scripture which deal with spiritual gifts: Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians
12:1-31; Ephesians
Second, I have read two books which helped me tremendously: Unwrap Your Spiritual Gifts, by Kenneth O. Gangel (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1974), and 19 Gifts of the Spirit, by Leslie B. Flynn (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1983). You may want to read one or both of them. May you fully satisfy your desire to lead a life that counts for God.
May you be able to say, "My life made a difference. My life mattered." The life that counts the most is the one that fully employs the special abilities God gives.
Business leader, author, and speaker,
Patrick Morley helps men to think more deeply about their lives, to be
reconciled with Christ, and to be equipped for a larger impact on the world.
© 1998. Patrick M. Morley. All rights reserved.