Have you ever taken more than one of those spiritual gift tests?
Has anyone ever told you “what they thought” where you belonged in using your gifts?
But deep within your spirit you know where God wants you to be, is extremely opposite than what the world says?
Well, I have been there multiple times in my life. Where many people over the years have tried to tell me where my spiritual gifts are.
When I am faced with these circumstances turning to Jesus is my first and only choice.
Jesus gets the final say in my life. Apart from Him I can do nothing.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-5 ESV
Abiding in Jesus is where I find freedom to flourish in the gifts, He’s given me to steward. Nothing anyone says matters about the spiritual gifts the Lord has given me.
I do not take lightly the spiritual gifts the Lord has entrusted me with. But I want to wield them with integrity and dignity that honors Him.
In comparison, wielding the sword of the Spirit in a way, which is the Word of God. We get the privilege of being able to wield the Word of God.
Wielding the sword of the Spirit is our protection against the schemes of the enemy. We must know how to wield it to know how to use our spiritual gifts.
I have taken several spiritual gift tests over the years. Every single time, the results say my gifting is in teaching, preaching, and exhortation.
And I have had several experiences in life where people try to put me inside of a box and tell me where my gifting is at within the body of Christ.
Yet, every time I go back to God what He says, it overrides what others attempt to say about me.
What I am encouraging you with is that, nothing anyone says can overshadow what God says about you. Jesus has the final say over you.
The Lord created you in His image and is pleased with you. God did not make a mistake with you, He made a miracle in your existence.
With that being said, in the times I have allowed what others said about me override what God has said my spiritual gifts are, is where I’ve gotten myself into trouble.
The trouble I am talking about is, I grew distant from God and listened to people more than the Lord. It is not a good thing and very unhealthy place to be at.
This is not where God wanted me and it is not where He wants you. The Lord wants us to be close abiding in Him.
When I realized the truth and saw the Lord’s light of where I needed to be. I began to abide in Jesus more and more.
I found freedom in the presence of Jesus to flourish in what He entrusted me to wield with my spiritual gifts of teaching, preaching, and exhortation.
I began to realize God’s approval is more important than peoples approval.
Teaching, preaching, and exhortation excites me to serve God in this way.
Stepping into position in using my spiritual gifts is what I am ready for. It is what I’ve been made for by God.
In all honesty the thought of getting in front of a crowd of people used to make me nervous. Now I am not intimidated, but ready to step into what God has for me in this way.
References:
The Holy Bible English Standard Version (20001), Crossway Publishing, Wheaton IL,
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