Your
Grace
Gifts
Being the Hands and Feet of Jesus
I came to know the Lord as a pre-teen, but I wasn't discipled in how to
be effective in the Body of Christ. Our church taught about spiritual gifts
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, but didn’t emphasize the importance of
discovering and using your spiritual gifts. I taught Sunday School, played
the piano, collected offerings, and told others about Jesus, but I was missing something.
During my teen and college years, I experienced a strong inner conviction over my own sin, and also in the lives of others who claimed to know
Christ. I began to discern attitudes, actions, and speech from Christians
that didn't match the fruit of the Spirit. At times, I was compelled to talk
with people about these things. I would ask other mature Christians if they
saw some of the same things I saw and was confused when they said,
“No, I don't.” Issues became very “black and white” to me. Ironically, I was
also told countless times about how encouraging I could be. It just didn't
make sense.
As a young wife, I became friends with a godly, mature woman who definitely had the gift of evangelism. She would often tell me how she loved
Jesus and wanted others to come to His saving knowledge. We would go
out to random spots to witness and, more often than not, someone would
trust Christ. Evangelism seemed effortless for her. God's words of salvation were always on her lips.
When I joined Calvary 15 years ago, I had become complacent with my
relationship with Christ and His Word. My joy and purpose of serving in
the church body had cooled. I hadn't been asking God for protection from
the darts Satan had been throwing. I was distant from other believers, not
really caring to get too involved in other’s lives. I took the spiritual gifts
inventory as part of the membership process. The test results didn't really
prove any big outcomes, apart from what I already had experienced.
I wrestled with God many nights over various sin issues that I had been
noticing in peoples' lives. The struggles had become so intense that I
asked some mature believers for counsel on what I was experiencing and
why. I prayed for relief, understanding, and protection. On an early Friday
morning in August 2013, after an especially difficult night of boldly talking
with God, He woke me up and sent me to research the gift of prophecy
and discernment.
One passage I discovered was I Corinthians 14, “Let love be your greatest aim; nevertheless, ask also for the special abilities that the Holy Spirit
gives, and especially the gift of prophecy, being able to preach the messages of God...one who preaches the messages of God, is helping others
to grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them.” I felt a second
spiritual awakening, as though I was staring at myself in God's mirror for
my life. Everything in that passage was who He had helped me become
as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). I spent the next few hours tracking
my years since receiving Christ as a pre-teen, seeing how God had already
been using the gift of discernment, even while I was unaware. I found ^\