Spiritual Gifts, Talents and Evidences

In a recent adult ed class during the Sunday School hour at church, we had the opportunity to explore what spiritual gifts are and what our own particular one might be. Sounds fairly routine, right? Not necessarily.

First, what are spiritual gifts, and how are they used? Is there a relationship between your natural talents and your spiritual gift(s)? And how are fruits of the spirit evidenced? Are they different yet?

For example, if you have sales abilities, does it mean you have the gift of evangelism? If you have a carpentry skill, does it mean you have the gift of craftsmanship? If you are a good manager, does it mean you have the gift of administration?

Perhaps, but not necessarily.

I don’t purport, in one short blog post, to offer any comprehensive answers here (probably couldn’t even do so in a long post :-). But in our class we came up with some things to contemplate.

Comparing scriptures seems to indicate that every Christian has been given at least one gift of the Spirit for ministry (Eph 4:8). There are more than 20 gifts (literally translated grace-gifts) identified in four primary New Testament references: Romans 12:1-8, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:1-16, and I Peter 4.

Lutheran thinking organizes the gifts into four categories: Gifts for Shepherding (apostle, pastor, prophet, teacher), Gifts for Service (giving, helping, hospitality), Gifts for Strengthening (exhortation or encouragement, healing, mercy), and Gifts for Spiritual Insight (faith, knowledge, prayer, wisdom).

The Holy Spirit himself distributes these gifts “for the common good” of the body of Christ, and their distinction is that they always glorify God, not man. Spiritual gifts are not our choice; they are given according to God’s plan.

Our talents, on the other hand, are things we are good at or do naturally. They are also God-given, but they don’t necessarily express themselves in ministry. As an example, some people are naturally mechanical, or are good cooks or are well organized.

Such gifts CAN be transformed into spiritual gifts as the Holy Spirit directs but are not necessarily so from the beginning. An example of this might be when a good cook uses his or her talent as the gift of hospitality in the church. Or when a school teacher volunteers to lead a Sunday School class.

The distinction is drawn that we are born (physically) with certain talents. At our baptism, or rebirth, the Holy Spirit gives us our spiritual gift(s). We use the former in our daily life and are so recognized. We apply the latter in building up the body of Christ, and God gets all the glory.

Finally, fruits of the spirit are resultant behavioral attributes like “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc…” (Galations 5:22,23) that are exhibited when we are properly using our gifts of the spirit for the common good in the body of Christ.

Click here if you’d like to take an online “test” to help determine your own spiritual gift(s). You’ll find it to be very encouraging.