How do you discover your God-given gifts? Four top tips
At NextGen North 2023, Adam Young, associate minister at All Saints' Church in North Ferriby near Hull, explored the theme ‘Gifted for God’s Glory’. He shared some really helpful principles for discerning how God might use and the gifts he gives us in his global plan.
This blog post is one of two based on his talk. (Catch part 2 here)
In well-known words in Romans 12, the apostle Paul writes:
‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.’ (12:1)
He goes on to explain that part of this is discerning our gifts:
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
(12:3-8)
Four things to remember about exploring our gifts:
1. Don’t do it alone
We don’t shut ourselves away in our room to work out what our gifts are. Paul reminds us that ‘we, though many, are one body in Christ.’ In Corinthians Paul would speak about how the eye can’t say to the hand or the feet to the head ‘I don’t need you.’ We must explore together what our gifts are. Who could you ask to help you on this journey?
2. They are gifts
They are not something you made happen. They are something God gifted you in, gave you passion for, strengthened your learning and growing in, there is no room to boast here about greatness or skill, not really, because they are all gifts. Gifts are something you don’t earn, you don’t even deserve, and you cannot pay for. That’s why they are gifts of “grace.”
3. There are more gifts than you think
What do we think of when we think of spiritual gifts? Speaking in tongues? Prophecy? Discernment? Judging between spirits? All valid spiritual gifts—but why don’t we think of service, why don’t we think of teaching, or encouraging and building up—exhorting—others? Why don’t we think about contributing financially because we are skilled enough to earn much and thus have much to share? Why don’t we think of simple acts of loving and mercy and kindness and the willingness? How about the gift the administration mentioned in 1 Corinthians? As a minister I can tell you — I do not have the gift of admin and without a gifted administrator the ministry of my church would be greatly impaired!
4. Use them in humility
Remember your gifts are from God and we depend on one another. The foot cannot say to the head “I don’t need you” – trust me I’ve wrecked my ankle doing long runs too many times to count because my foot and head decided to ignore each other! In 1 Corinthians, building on this idea, Paul even says “the part of the body that seem weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty… God has so composed the body giving greater honour to the part that lacked it.”
No gift or talent or desire to serve in an area is too small or insignificant to not be of high value in the Kingdom and able to be used as part of our worship and offering our lives as a living sacrifice.
Use it!
One of my hobbies is Warhammer. Painting tiny figures is a pretty useless life skill, but through it I have built so many bridges to genuine friendships with non-Christians.
What in your life do you enjoy, yet do not use because you don’t think God values it or can use it? It is a ridiculous thing when you consider that it is a gift to you personally from the Creator of the whole universe!
I have a few cherished gifts I have framed:
a guitar pick from the Japanese heavy metal band Dir En Grey
an original manuscript of one of Spurgeon’s sermons with his handwriting on it
my army commissioning scroll from the late Queen Elizabeth
If we cherish these kinds of gifts, how much more should we cherish a gift from God?
To think about:
How can we discern our talents and gifts, and how should and can church community be involved in this?
How has God used your interests and hobbies to open doors for serving others and glorifying God—what might you have to do to “go through those doors” more going ahead?
What’s next?
Explore these questions together with trusted friends at your church
Wanting to explore how God might use you in his global mission? Head to the events page to find out more about your nearest NextGen event to meet like minded people.
Explore our ‘Next Steps’ page