An Overview of Spiritual Gifts
compiled by Natalie Nyquist
"I have discovered the secret of the Spirit-controlled temperament. The key is spending quality personal time with the Lord and receiving help from Him on a regular basis."
-Joyce Meyer
"A spiritual gift, quite simply, is a God-given ability for service," said Dr. Charles C. Ryrie. In Dr. Paul Nyquist's conference on spiritual gifts, he showed that every Christian has at least one spiritual gift (1 Peter 4:10; 1 Cor. 12:11). The gifts are given to build up the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:12), and the purpose of these gifts is the edification of others, with a context of unity and love as the controlling attitude (1 Cor. 13).
W e get basically all of our knowledge on spiritual gifts from the following passages: Romans 12, 1 Peter 4, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. But it is difficult to give a Biblical example of someone who possessed a specific gift because such is not stated directly in Scripture. Sometimes personality types can be assumed, but spiritual gifts are much different. Supernatural giftings are different from personality types, and are much less easily identified.
An Exciting Discovery
By Rebecca Darting
I have the privilege, along with my mom and brother, to be a part of a spiritual gifts discovery ministry in my church. This has been very exciting. To see people begin to discover how God has made them and what His plans are for them is totally energizing. I think that spiritual gifts help answer one of the major questions we human beings ask: "Who am I?" It is so hard to find our identity in today's world. But when we study spiritual gifts, we begin to recognize first of all that our identity springs out of God's work in our lives. It isn't something we can work up ourselves. Spiritual gifts awaken us to the fact that we have a significant part in the greatest thing going on the planet—the Church of Jesus Christ. God has a specific assignment for us based on the gifting He has given us.
The program we use pairs spiritual gifts with passion. Spiritual gifts tell us what we are going to do and passion tells us where we are going to do it. Passion can also be described as a call or a vision. For example, Paul had more of a passion for the Gentiles, while Peter had more of a passion for the Jewish people. Both had the gift of apostleship, but both channeled it into different areas.
When I went through the Network course, which our church uses, the thing that struck me was that service for God could be fun! It didn't have to be something grievously hard. I began to stop trying to be something I was not and started operating in the gifts God already had given me. As I did, I found that God increased the gifts He had given me. And He honed them.
What we learn through spiritual gifts, as my pastors have taught me so well, is that every believer is a "minister." The service of the church is not pastor's work, but the work of individual members, working together for the good of the Body. What an exciting thing to be a part of!
Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts
By Gretchen Louise Glaser
In Don and Katie Fortune's book, Discover Your God-Given Gifts (which I highly recommend!), they outline three categories of gifts.
1. The Manifestation Gifts (1 Corinthians 12) are the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit through the believer, such as healing and tongues. (Many believe these gifts have ceased.)
2. The Ministry Gifts (Ephesians 4:11-13) are the Lord's gifts of people : apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These gifts are not titles, but functions. They could be called the "equipping" gifts.
3. The Motivational Gifts (Romans 12:6-8) are the gifts we possess that God has made a part of us, to be used for the benefit of others and for His glory. They are grace gifts, for we do not deserve them; but God has given them to us for a purpose, and we are not to neglect the gift that is within us (1 Timothy 4:14). The seven Motivational gifts are the ones we are focusing on in this article. They can be defined as follows.
Perceiver
A Perceiver is one who clearly perceives character, and sees issues as right or wrong, black and white. She hates evil, grieving deeply over the sins of others. She has few close friendships (as she tends to be outspoken and judgmental). She has strong opinions and standards, desiring to be obedient to God at all costs.
The Perceiver needs to remember to praise progress. Learning to tolerate opinions and views different from her own is a life-long process.
Server
The Server is one who loves to serve others—a "doer." She easily recognizes practical needs, has a high energy level, is a detail person, and very hospitalized. She is more interested in others needs than her own, and has a hard time saying no when asked to help. She can't stand clutter and is a perfectionist. She needs to feel appreciated.
The Server needs to learn to accept being served by others, and must remember to put her own family's needs first. She also tends to interfere in her eagerness to help.
Teacher
The Teacher is one who loves to search out and validate truth—a "researcher"—presenting truth in a logical, systematic way. She emphasizes facts and words, and has most likely developed a large vocabulary. She is self-disciplined and emotionally self-controlled, and has strong convictions (based on facts), and only a select circle of friends.
The Teacher is slow to accept other's viewpoints, and has to guard against legalism and pride in her intellectual ability.
Exhorter
The Exhorter is one who loves to encourage others, an extremely positive and accepting person. She loves practical application and counseling, and focuses on people and developing personal ministries. She is fluent in communication and views trials as opportunities for growth. She is a peacemaker, finishes what she starts, and expects a lot of herself.
The Exhorter must be careful not to interrupt others in her eagerness, nor to take Scripture out of context to illustrate a point. She tends to be outspokenly opinionated and over self-confident.
Giver
The Giver is one who loves to give time, talent, energy, and means—the "contributor." She loves to give without the recipient knowing about it, and is delighted when her gift is an answer to prayer. She gives over and above the tithe, and likes to get a good value for her money.
The Giver must fight against the tendency to try to control how her contributions are used, and against pressuring others to give. It is also easy for her to spoil her loved ones, and use financial giving to get out of other responsibilities.
Administrator
The Administrator is one who loves to organize, lead, direct, and facilitate. She will assume responsibility if need be, loves working on long-range goals, and is very visionary. She likes to delegate and wants to see things accomplished quickly, but does not enjoy routine tasks. She constantly writes notes to herself. :-)
The Administrator must learn not to become frustrated when others do not share her goals, and must not "use" people to accomplish things. She also tends to neglect home responsibilities for her current "job."
Compassion
The Compassion person is one who shows lots of love to others. She looks for good in people, and is attracted to those who are hurting. She is a peacemaker, thoughtfully puts others ahead of herself, and doesn't like to hurt others. She trusts everyone, is ruled by her heart (not her head), avoids conflict, and crusades for causes.
The Compassionate girl tends to be indecisive, and easily hurt by others. She also must guard very closely against her affectionate nature being misinterpreted by young men.
Most likely you are strong in one or two of the gifts, with hints of a few others. But as you can see, each gifting has its strengths and weaknesses—and all together, we can do a great work as the body of Christ.
Notes from Dr. Paul Nyquist's Conference on Spiritual Gifts
compiled by Natalie Nyquist
The New Testament word for spiritual gifts is charisma or charismata . Charis means grace, so a spiritual gift is a grace gift or a grace oriented gift. This word occurs seventeen times in the New Testament. “A spiritual gift, quite simply, is a God-given ability for service.” (Ryrie) Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift. (1 Peter 4:10; 1 Cor. 12:11) The gifts are given to build up the Body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:12) The purpose of these gifts is the edification of others, with a context o f unity and love as the controlling attitude (1 Cor. 13). Opinions vary as to how many gifts there actually are, but there are 19 different gifts listed in the Bible. There may be more than that, but, speaking conservatively, there are at least 19. The list is as follows: Administration, Apostleship, Discernment, Wisdom, Tongues, Teaching, Faith, Exhortation, Evangelism, Giving, Healing, Hospitality, Pastoring, Prophecy, Interpretation of Tongues, Miracles, Knowledge, Mercy, and Leadership. Some of these may be similar, but if you study them carefully you will find that they are all distinctly different gifts.
Basically, we get all of our knowledge on spiritual gifts from the following passages. Read them for more information: Romans 12, 1 Peter 4, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4.
There are many ways spiritual gifts have been categorized. Below are a few of the most widely-accepted.
Permanent versus temporary: This distinguishes between those that were temporary for the establishing of the early church, and those that are still given today.
Motivational, Ministering, and Manifestation: This seems to be one of the most common classifications. A teacher who did not think this the most practical suggested that the categories are too general. After all, aren't all the gifts designed to minister? And what exactly is a motivational gift? Some speak of spiritual gifts as a sort of “gift mix” you can have, such as you can possess a unique personality or learning style mix. But I think spiritual gifts are on a different plane than the rest of these, as this is something given by the Holy Spirit for use in serving the Body in specific ways. It is also difficult to give a Biblical example of someone who possessed a specific gift because such is not stated directly in Scripture. Sometimes personality types could perhaps be assumed, but spiritual gifts are much different. Supernatural giftings are different than personality types, which are much more easily identified. Whereas a friend may be able to tell you your personality type, I do not believe the same is true in spiritual gifts.
I prefer the categorization of Leading (Pastoring, Teaching, Administration, Leadership etc.), Serving (Hospitality, Mercy, Giving, etc.), and Miraculous (Miracles, Tongues, Healing, etc.).