Are You Using Your Spiritual Gifts or Letting Them Collect Dust?
By Pastor Ben Workentine, Discipleship Pastor at St. Mark Ministries
She had grown up in the Dust Bowl, a time in U.S. history when giant windstorms swept the fertile topsoil of the Midwest out to sea – the Pacific Ocean, to be exact. She had grown up in the Great Depression. So when her husband died after a car accident, leaving her to raise two boys by herself, she knew what to do.
She was in charge of taking care of the farm. So she found a neighbor, a family friend, and leased the land to him. The arrangement was simple. In exchange for him using the land, he would give her a percentage of the harvest. It was enough for her and her two young boys to live on for the next year. But when that farmer left the crops in the field through the first snow, the crop was ruined, the harvest gone, her income disappeared.
But still she knew what to do. Not because she knew how to raise two boys by herself. Not because she knew how to farm. She didn’t even know how to hire somebody very well! But she knew who to go to: The God who had sustained her for all these years before and would sustain her even through this.
So she prayed the kind of courageous, bold prayers that you only pray when your back is up against the wall. The kind of prayers that remind God of every one of his promises and hold him to them. She knew what to do because she had the extraordinary gift of faith.
That is just one of four spiritual gifts that we’re going to be taking a close look at today.
Throughout this series, we’ve been exploring the library of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to his people for his people. Some of those gifts come with a title – pastor, teacher, evangelist. Some of the gifts are an attitude; we heard a lot about those last week – encouragement, generosity, leadership. It’s that second half of the library that we’re going to be expanding this week as we read 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (NIV).
While I’m including the whole section, here, so that you have the full context, I encourage you to continue to tune into this series because some of these gifts – tongues, healing, miracles – we’re going to be looking at in the next couple of weeks. This week, we’re focusing on the first half of the paragraph.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (NIV) reads: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”
Your Spiritual Gifts Make All the Difference in the World
Now, if we wanted to, we could just spend time on 1 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV). There’s so much there, but we want to get to some of these gifts. So, I’ll do a cursory overview to help you notice three things:
- You Have Gifts: Verse 7 talks about these gifts being given to each one – which means the question is not whether you have gifts; it’s what gifts you have. If you’ve been baptized, if the Holy Spirit has put faith in your heart, if you believe Jesus is who he says he is, then you have gifts.
- Your Gifts Must be Used: As diverse as they are, those gifts all serve, one purpose. Again, verse 7 says, “It is for the manifestation of the spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)). It’s the way that the Holy Spirit shines through you. The Holy Spirit shines a bright light in those gifts to make dark places light. Which means not only do you have gifts, but you have no choice but to use those gifts. If you’re going to shove them, diminish them, ignore them, that’s like putting a lid on a light bulb.
- Your Gifts Are for Others: The third thing that comes out loud and clear in verse 7 is that these gifts are given for the common good. In other words, your spiritual gift might make you a better business owner or teacher or student or whatever your occupation may be, but that’s not the point. Those are secondary benefits. The primary reason that you have spiritual gifts isn’t just for you, but it’s for the people sitting around you; for the common good. Maybe you’ve caught on to that. It’s a theme that we’ve been seeing throughout this entire series.
Whatever the gift may be, however much of it or little you have of it – that gift, even if it is small in the hands of a big God, can make all the difference in the world. With that in mind, let’s dig into these gifts.
Spiritual Gifts of Wisdom and Knowledge
The first set of gifts that this passage describes is the message of wisdom and the message of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (NIV)).
Those gifts are one coin, two sides.
The Gift of Wisdom
This is the ability to see to the heart of something, to know what’s really going on. Wisdom isn’t distracted by the red herrings or the shiny objects, but it sees right to the heart of a situation or a person.
Not only is it able to see, but it also applies the Word of God right to the heart. That’s a message of wisdom.
The Gift of Knowledge
This is the gift of being able to see connections in the Bible, to know the Bible, to be in the scriptures. It’s the ability to listen to or read something somebody says about the Bible or even about the view of life, and be able to say, “That’s not quite right. That’s not exactly how God puts it.”
Maybe it’s just an error, a misspeak. Maybe it’s a falsehood. The message of knowledge sees that, because this gift thinks and talks accurately and precisely about the matters of God.
Spiritual Gifts of Faith and Mercy
The next “two sides, one coin” is put like this in 1 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV): “Faith by the same spirit.”
Now obviously, this isn’t talking about saving faith that’s given to every believer, not just to some. It’s not talking about that faith that recognizes Jesus as true God and true man; the one that trusts him as the only one who can make peace between God and humanity. That saving faith is put this way in Hebrews 11:1 (NIV), where the author says, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Saving faith is given to every believer. This gift that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) is only given to some. This is a special measure, a special expression of faith.
I think of a snowbird congregation in Florida. A snowbird congregation is the kind that expands in the winter as people flee cold weather like we’ll find here in Green Bay. Maybe some of you are soon headed to a snowbird congregation. It expands in the winter, but then it contracts in the summer as people flee heat and humidity and come back north.
That church went through the same cycle every year. As attendance contracted, it also meant that giving went down. The budget got really tight, and every year the congregation would worry, “Will we be able to pay our bills, pay the pastor, do ministry?” It got so bad some years that the pastor had to forego his paycheck for a number of weeks until the snowbirds started coming back.
In the midst of all that worry, inevitably the congregation would gather together in a meeting and they’d brainstorm, try to think of how they were going to make ends meet until one man – every year it was the same man – stood up. His name was Bill.
Bill would go through a list of ways that God had been faithful to each of them individually. Then he’d go through another list of how God had been faithful to them as a congregation, not just for years, but for decades. He’d end his list with one simple question: “What’s changed? If God has been faithful for so long, what’s different about this year?” He’d sit down, and the congregation would make it through.
Today, they’ve gotten to the point that the congregation has now planted a new church in a nearby community so that more people might hear about Jesus. These ar dominoes that fell because Bill had the gift of faith.
Maybe you know somebody like that. Somebody who can weather the worst that life could throw at them. They’ve lost a child, lost someone to suicide. Maybe they’ve endured serial infidelity or personal financial catastrophe – and still they praise, they worship, they gather in a place like this and sing just as loud, if not louder, than everybody around them. They sing with a tear in their eye.
See, faith doesn’t mean that they’re not angry. They don’t doubt. They don’t have questions. But the spiritual gift of faith means that in the face of anger, doubt, and questions, they still worship.
Maybe that’s you.
Or maybe you look at a gift like faith and you’re like, “That’s not me. Not only can I not endure the hard stuff, I fold like a chair at the easy stuff.”
I want to encourage you, amidst all this talk of spiritual gift,s not to lose sight of the fact that there are also things called spiritual disciplines. Just because you may not have the spiritual gift of faith doesn’t mean that God doesn’t call you to obedience, to faithfulness in the hard times. Maybe you don’t have the spiritual gift of knowledge. That doesn’t mean God hasn’t called you to the spiritual discipline of getting into your Bible and knowing it the best that you can.
Spiritual gifts flow supernaturally. Spiritual disciplines take time, energy, and work.
Maybe it’s another coin that doesn’t show up in 1 Corinthians 12, but is as important as anything else.
But let’s go back to our coin.
One side is faith, and the other side doesn’t actually show up in 1 Corinthians 12. It shows up in the passage that we read last week, Romans 12:8 (NIV). We find it outlined this way: “If your gift is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”
Mercy and faith often come together. They are both the outcome of enduring difficult things. Often, mercy is different because mercy looks like seeing the broken, the lonely, the weak, the sick, and loving them. Mercy is content to sit next to a hospital bed, holding a hand and singing a song.
I see many of you putting on display the spiritual gift of mercy as you sit compassionately with desperate moms who walk through the doors at Bay Area Life Center. I see you put on display the gift of mercy as you visit family members, friends, maybe fellow partners in the hospital or the nursing home, bringing companionship, word from God, maybe even the Lord’s Supper. I see it on display in some of you as your heart beats to remind those who are incarcerated behind bars that while they are physically limited, they are spiritually free.
Jesus himself describes profoundly what the gift of mercy looks like in Matthew 25:35-36 (NIV): “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
The gift of mercy is an important gift, a big gift. And it points to a big God, a good God.
What is the Greatest Gift?
I hope you’re starting to see why it’s important that we would want to connect ourselves with this Jesus, to follow him. It’s because he chooses to give gifts that have the power to make all the difference in the world.
He chooses to give gifts that can change the trajectory of life, that can bring light into a dark place. This is how big and good our God is.
For all the diversity of our gifts, they all trace their root back to one gift: The gift God gives of his one and only son. God from eternity past to eternity future, who broke into time and lived exactly the same way you would live if you had lived 20 centuries ago – except that he was without sin, not even a speck of sin. And in that way, lived the life you could only dream of.
But for all his perfection, he chose to be counted among the criminals, among the sinners. He gave his life in exchange for yours. Then three days after he breathed his last, he walked out of the grave. Forty days after that, he went into heaven, and he sat down on the throne of the universe. He makes a promise to come back to take you to be with him so that he can give you the gift of an eternal home with him.
As if this laundry list of gifts were not enough, now he comes and he gives individual gifts to each one of you, each one of us! These are the expressions of an amazing God who gives you gifts. Some for you, yes. But all of them for everyone else.
How do We Use Our Spiritual Gifts?
So, what are you going to do with the gifts? This sounds like a great conversation to have with someone, after reading this.
Can I prime the pump for you? Get the conversation started because these gifts were never meant to collect dust. They were meant to get worn out with use.
So where do you start? Let me make three suggestions, and I’m going to rank them from safest to most dangerous.
- Start a conversation around gifts. It can be with a Christian, a non-Christian, a longtime friend, or a brand new acquaintance. You’d be amazed at how well the conversation goes when you ask, “What are you good at? What do you like doing?” Then, as they tell you, get curious, listen, ask questions: “When did you see that gift first come out? What impact does it have on the people around you? You sound like that really energizes you. Tell me more about that.”
If the conversation is with a Jesus follower, you’re going to see how the Holy Spirit has put something into them that spills out and is a blessing to the people around them. Something that makes all the difference in the world.
- Practice your gift. Just because the Holy Spirit has put a gift in your life doesn’t mean it’s fully formed. You can invest in it. Steward it. Care for it. Let it grow.
But here’s why that’s risky. To invest in the gifts you have means letting go of the dream of having someone else’s gift. There might be somebody you know, and you say, “Man, I wish I was more like that. I wish I had your gift.” If you invest in yours, you’re going to have to die to that. You just won’t be able to invest in them all. But by dying to your desires, Jesus promises that you’ll start to live in the way that he has gifted, the way that he’s designed you.It’s risky, but it’s worth it.
- Pray that the Holy Spirit would show you your gifts. This is the most dangerous option, the one that you shouldn’t take lightly. Here’s what I mean by dangerous: Have you ever prayed for more patience? I see a few of you have been foolish enough to do that. Because here’s how it works. God doesn’t show up with an Amazon box saying, “Here’s more patience. It’s neatly wrapped just for you. All you have to do is open it.” No, he gives you opportunities to be patient, to practice patience, and probably more opportunities than you had bargained for.
The same is going to be true of your spiritual gifts. Pray, “Holy Spirit, show me the gifts that you’ve given me.” If your gift is the gift of showing mercy, it probably means that God is going to surround you with people who need nothing from you other than your mercy. If your gift is the gift of faith, and you pray, “Holy Spirit, show me my gifts,” it probably means he’s going to throw the worst life can throw at you, because if he doesn’t, you’ll never know that you have the gift of faith.
So, be careful. Pray that prayer only after you’ve counted the cost. It’s worth it. It’s absolutely worth it. But it is dangerous. I pray that we have the courage to pray it.
Will You Let Your Gifts Just Sit on a Shelf?
Let’s continue our story from the beginning. Bertha didn’t know what to do. Yet, somehow, miraculously, by the gift of God, she raised two young boys to be men of God. She figured out a way to pay for their high school, college, and for one of them, seminary.
This was a day when college was not the default, and in a place where two young, strong men could make all the difference in the world on a farm. She figured out how to get them to the places where they needed to be, not where she wanted them to be.
Of course, she still has hard days. Even to this day, some 50 years later, she still struggles. The anniversary of her marriage, her wedding, and the anniversary of when she lost her husband are days of deep sorrow and lament. But even on those days, she knows what to do. She worships a God who has been faithful to her for the better part of a century. It’s not going to change now.
God has been faithful to you. He’s been near you. Even when he seems far away, he’s been right up close.
He’s given you incredible gifts – some of them, you have yet to discover. What will you do with them? Let them sit on a shelf? I hope not. Because those gifts have the power to make all the difference in the world.
Little gifts, big God, incredible eternal difference.
Faith, mercy, knowledge, wisdom – these are all gifts God gives as he demonstrates his power as he works through humble hearts and helping hands.
May those gifts be found richly among us, too.
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Do you doubt that God has given you spiritual gifts? Or do you wonder what they are? Time of Grace created this study, available on the YouVersion Bible app, to tackle these exact topics.