Did you know that you have a spiritual gift? Every believer has one or more. Spiritual gifts are a gift from God given to every believer to build up the faith community. Why should you be interested in knowing your spiritual gifts? The Bible says so. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.”
Second, knowing our spiritual gifts helps us to understand why God celebrates our uniqueness. We tell our children that there is no one like them on the face of the planet and God tells us that too!
There are many spiritual gifts and you could have any combination of them. You don’t get to choose your gifts; God chooses them for you with purpose and thought. Isn’t that amazing? I promise I didn’t make that up! Paul tells in 1 Corinthians, “All these [spiritual gifts] are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” Remember, you are a beautiful creation of God. Doesn’t just knowing that God chose your spiritual gifts, make you want to know what they are?
Finally, you should know your spiritual gifts because God gave them to you for a purpose. Paul writes again in first Corinthians 12:7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” You are given spiritual gifts so that you can build up, support, lift, encourage, assist, defend, take care of, work with, strengthen, uphold, confirm, and love the community of faith. Your spiritual gifts are not for you they are given to you so you can assist other people. Now it stands to reason that as you utilize the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in you, you will naturally be drawn closer to God as you use your spiritual gifts, but that is not their purpose. You were created to become a part of something that is bigger than yourself. You were designed to be a part of the body of Christ. Paul says a lot about the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. I encourage you to read it.
If you do not know your spiritual gifts, and you would like to find out more information you can go to UMC.org and take their Spiritual Gift Assessment. The first assessment I took included the gift of humor. I ranked pretty high on that one. I love to laugh, I like to make other people laugh and I like to be around people who are laughing! I haven’t seen many Spiritual Gift Assessments that include humor. Most recently, when I took the assessment, my spiritual gifts included encouragement, hospitality, and teaching.
What are you waiting for?
-Rev. Stephanie Hughes, Associate Pastor at Cypress United Methodist Church
