Embrace your spiritual gift as a window to discovering what God made you to do for him in the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12).
As followers of Christ, we all have one or more spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are God-given abilities to serve others beyond our normal capacity. Working spiritual gifts are the category of gifts that are ministerial.
In Ephesians 4: 11, some of the working spiritual gifts are mentioned:
Prophets – those who speak strongly about God’s Word
Evangelists – those who express the good news of Christ to people who need Him
Pastors – those who care for the spiritual well-being of God’s people
Teachers – those who communicate God’s truth in a way that people can understand and apply it.
Other working spiritual gifts are mentioned in Romans 12: serving, encouragement, giving, leadership and showing mercy. All of the gifts are needed. If we don’t use our gifts, others will miss out.
In Ephesians 4:12, we see that exercising our spiritual gifts helps others discover what God made them to do for him (v.12). The word translated “equip†means two things: repair or mend as in a fishing net and it also means to prepare something so that it is ready for use. In the church, I find that people are one of two stages of spiritual development. They either need to be repaired – i.e., broken lives that need mending first – or they need to be unleashed into ministry because they are spiritually ready. Preparing means coaching, facilitating, mentoring, modeling, empowering and motivating them.
As ministry leaders, we need to discern if people need some mending or healing first – or are they ready to serve. People are in different stages. As we get to know each other, God asks us to be either menders to help people heal – or preparers to help them to discover their own giftedness and begin to use it to love and care for others.
Eccl. 4:10 – If one falls down, his friend can help him up.