Two remedies for angst about your gift

Published on Updated on
|

Do you know what Gift the Holy Spirit has given you? Very few of us Christians do. We would like to help you discover what your Gift is.

 

 

Let’s say you do happen to know your Gift. What we want to do for you is to help you have greater certitude about it, and also to broaden your understanding of the Gifts.

Within the Christian community, there is a great deal of anxiety about figuring out your gifts.

Many of the books on this subject make it seem impossibly difficult to figure out your gift.

Other books make it seem like if you get it wrong, it will destroy your spiritual life. And maybe the whole church.

We have two remedies for you about that whole scene.

 

OUR FIRST REMEDY

Our first remedy is from Thomas Aquinas. You might recall his famous phrase: “Gratia supponit naturam, gratia elevat naturam.” It means, “Grace builds on nature, and grace elevates nature.”

In other words, God does not destroy who you are. Rather, he builds upon who you are.

It is quite likely that your Gift harmonizes with your natural inclinations and talents.

  • Are you good at “A?” Then it is quite likely that your Ministry Gift will involve “A.”
  • Are you super interested in “B?” Then your Ministry Gift will probably be built upon “B.”
  • When you do “C,” do people thank you, or tell you you did a good job? Then your Ministry Gift is probably related to “C.”

In other words, the Gifts are (almost always) an extension of what you are already good at.

 

OUR SECOND REMEDY

Our second remedy is from our Bible studies here at Explore the Faith.

Figuring out your Gift can be complex because the New Testament does have one central list. Rather, there are five different lists. They aren’t all the same, so they need to be combined. And they sometimes use different Greek words for the same gift.

We have invested a whole lot of time doing those things. So we can spare you a great deal of effort.

In the preceding articles, we described each of the 20 Ministry Gifts. We stepped through them, one at a time.

As you read those articles we invite you to consider:

  • Are your natural talents along the lines of that gift?
  • Might you have that particular gift?

You need nothing more certain than a guess. We invite you to jot down notes about the ones that resonate with you.

Don’t be bothered if there seems to be some overlap between some of the Ministry Gifts. There is. To develop the subtle differences would require a prodigious effort far beyond the scope of these articles.

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.