Youth Discipleship Two / Discipleship / Previous Lesson / Home / PDF
Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts and Abilities
Discipleship 2
Lesson 12Once you have been born again, you are a part of the body of Christ. Each part of the body has an important function. God has given you gifts, talents and abilities so that you can function in the body in a way that is beneficial to the whole body. What are your special gifts, talents and abilities? How can you discover them? We will explore these questions tonight.
God has a very special plan for your life. You may think you are able to come up with a greater plan. One than will make you more happy and fulfilled than the one God has for you, but that is impossible. He is God. He knows you better than you know yourself. Have you ever thought you wanted something until you got it, only to find it wasn't at all what you needed to be happy? We all have. You can trust God with your life. He loves us so very much and has marvelous things in store for us. We only have to submit our will to His, follow and obey Him. Then nothing will be impossible to us, and we will have the life we cannot even dream of much less accomplish on our own.
God is so wonderful that not only will He call us to do something for Him, but He will also cause us to deeply desire to do the things that He has called us to do. Then He will equip us with every gift, talent, and ability that we need in order to fulfill the call He has placed on our life. It may be in full time ministry or it may be in secular work. In either case God will use us powerfully for His glory if we will follow Him and allow Him to.
Our role in the body of Christ is to use the spiritual gifts, talents and abilities in the way God has called us to. To use them with faith and boldness and with love for God and man in complete obedience to God's Spirit and to His word. When we do this we will walk in incredible power and authority in Jesus' name.
How can we discover our gifts?
The very first thing we should do is pray and ask God to use us for His glory, we should ask for His gifts and ask Him to reveal to us how He wants to use us. He will!
Discovering the nine power spiritual gifts: The power gifts begin to operate after we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit chooses who and when He will use someone in these gifts. You may be used in one or all nine of these gifts. You may find God uses you in one or two more often than the others. We are instructed to desire to be used through these nine gifts so that the body of Christ can be built up strong. Love should always be our driving motive. We are never forced to use one of the gifts, but are given opportunity by God, we must step out by an act of our own faith when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.
We will know God is using us in these gifts whenever the Spirit of God moves over us to use them. You will feel His power come on you and you will know what to do. Remember, these gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. They work as God wants them to as opposed to the other gifts that we can use at our own will. The more we step out in faith and boldness to use a particular power gift as He moves upon us, the more He will use us in that way. The more we study God's word to learn about the gifts or hear teachings about them the easier it is to recognize when the Holy Spirit is moving upon us to exercise one of them. We will develop in the use of them with practice, faith, maturity and consecration to the Lord.
We also may know which of the power gifts God wants to use us in by what our hearts desire is. Do you deeply desire to prophecy? If you do, this probably is a hunger placed in your heart by God so that you will pray for this gift and press in to Him to be used in it. Do you have a deep desire to heal the sick? This probably means God is preparing your heart to operate in this gift. Because of our love for man, we all should pray for all the power gifts whenever we see a need for one. For example if there is a sick person present, ask God for the gift of healing. Because God uses you once in a particular gift does not mean you will always operate in that gift or that God will not use you in various others or even all of them. God has used me in eight of the nine gifts but I operate often in three of them. I personally believe God will use all of us in all nine of the gifts as needed, but will use each of us regularly for certain ones as the Holy Spirit chooses.
Discovering your talent or ability gifts: Evaluate yourself.What are you good at? God will give us abilities and they will surface. We will notice that we are good at certain things and other people may comment about things we are particularly good at. Pay attention to these things. Some talents or abilities are very supernatural. For example God giving someone that cannot read the ability to read in order for them to fulfill a calling to preach. Another example is that He gave certain men in the Bible special abilities to be craftsmen in order to build certain elements of the ark of the covenant and the temple. Finding what you are good at is a key to discovering your God given talents.
What are your passions? What do you love to do more than anything else. God will cause us both to want to do and to do His will. He has put that desire in your heart. Whatever you find yourself being passionate about, follow it. Pray and ask God to show you what He has for you and what steps you need to take to develop those gifts, talents and abilities.
What is the Holy Spirit witnessing to your spirit? God will witness with your spirit that you are gifted in certain areas.
What things do you feel compelled to learn? Maybe it is something you have no previous experience with, perhaps computers, television production, guitar, or sewing for examples. Question God if this is Him at work in you to prepare you for giftings and callings that He has for you.
We also will learn our talents through faithful service. As you, by faith; step out and find a way to serve God with whatever gifts He has given you, He will lead you and develop your gifts and move you step by step to His perfect plan for your life. Do what you know to do right now with what God has given you. He will not fail to lead you. We must be faithful to use our abilities in the small things, and then God will give us bigger and bigger roles and responsibilities. Use whatever gifts and talents you have to bring glory to God and to bless others and you will find that your own life will be blessed beyond measure.
Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your love, faith, and purity. Until I come, give your time and effort to the public reading of the Scriptures and to preaching and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift that is in you, which was given to you when the prophets spoke and the elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things and devote yourself to them, in order that your progress may be seen by all. Watch yourself and watch your teaching. Keep on doing these things, because if you do, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. (1 Timothy 4:12-16)
We will take a spiritual gifts testing tonight in order to help you recognize your areas of gifting. You should already have an idea about what gifts you have, but the test will help to confirm what you already believe.
Many web sites offer free on-line spiritual gifts testing. We will use the one below. Go to that site and click on spiritual gift test on the left hand side of the page. Once you are finished, print out your results to share and discuss with your classmates.
Answer each question as honestly as you can. Otherwise, your results will not be accurate. There is no right or wrong answer. If a question ask you about a particular thing and you have never done that before but the thought of doing it excites you, answer it as though you have done it before. The reason for this is that you are still young and your actual experiences are few but the desires in your heart will still point in the direction of your giftings and callings. Happy Testing!
Go to www.christianet.com
You have now completed 24 discipleship lessons! Congratulations! I hope that you are now in the habit of maintaining and feeding your spirit daily by reading your Bible and memorizing scriptures. I also pray that you are in a daily habit of fellowshipping with God through prayer and worship. I urge you to continue to grow in the Lord and to be a blessing to others. May God's richest blessing be upon your life as you continue forward in your Christian life.