How to discover your Spiritual Gift
“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1:22-23
We started last week a series of messages: The active body of Christ. These series are teachings about the the body of Christ that is the Church.
We learned that the church is described as Jesus’ body; Jesus is the head, and we are the members.
We are His hands, His feet, his mouth, but are you available to be used?
Are you willing to let Jesus be manifested in your body? His desires, His needs?
Here am I lord, use me! My hands are yours, my feet are your feet.
God put you here (church) to serve Him, not to come to a service on Sundays. The service really starts when you leave this service.
Unfortunately many Christians often tell Jesus what they are going to do and what they want to do.
I don’t want to go to church today, I don’t like to be with my brothers, I don’t like prayer meetings, I don’t like Cell Meetings, I’m too busy to serve God, I don’t forgive because I was hurt, I was never loved, I was never served, I just like going to Sunday Services.
No, He wants to do something through you.
Loyalty to Jesus is loyalty to what Jesus loves.
You cannot be loyal to Jesus without being loyal to His church.
Everybody is somebody in The Body of Christ and you need to offer yourself to God as well as to the Church.
So when we are born again, when we are baptised we are put into the body of Christ , there we receive spiritual gifts.
HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFT – ROMANS 12:1-8
“We all have different gifts. Each gift came because of the grace God gave us.”
Romans 12:6
Every believer has at least one spiritual gift. We each have different gifts.
No one has all of the gifts.
God has wrapped these gifts within us, and we need to unwrap our spiritual gifts.
A spiritual gift is not a natural talent.
A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability.
It may be related to a natural talent, but it goes beyond natural talents.
A spiritual gift is a grace gift. Rm 2:6
We are gifted because God has gifted us
God has gifted each of us.
At the judgment day , we will each give an account of what we did with our spiritual gift; our stewardship of that gift.
It is vital that we discover our gift and learn what that gift is.
Romans 12 will help us learn how to unwrap our spiritual gift.
A SACRIFICIAL PRESENTATION (Romans 12:1)
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1
The apostle Paul is writing by divine inspiration.
To “urge” someone means to plead with that person.
Since Paul is writing for God Himself, it is almost as if God is pleading with us.
Consecration is not giving anything back to God; it is taking our hands off of that which already belongs to God.
We are not our own; we are bought with a price and are to be a living sacrifice.
What does it mean to be a living sacrifice?
It is different from any animal sacrifice in the Old Testament.
Because in the Old Testament the animal didn’t volunteer to be sacrificed.
We are to volunteer; we need to present ourselves.
We are to present all that we are and all that we hope to be to God: all of our hopes, plans, goals, possessions.
Let me ask you a question; have you ever really said that to God?
“God, I am here. You can have all there is of me. I present myself, and I present myself as a sacrifice. That means I am expendable. All of my plans, all of my goals, all of my possessions, I sacrifice them, Lord, to Your blood.”
Sacrifices in the Old Testament were burned; they were consumed.
We can never truly worship God until we are consumed by the fire of The Holy Spirit.
Many Christians are afraid of what God might ask them to do if they fully present themselves to Him as a living sacrifice.
God loves us; there is no reason to fear.
A SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION (Romans 12:2)
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2
The word “transformation” in the Greek is related to the word “metamorphosis.”
The word “metamorphosis” means a change of form.
When we present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, we will go through a metamorphosis. An example of metamorphosis is the caterpillar.
A caterpillar goes into a cocoon and goes through a metamorphosis, and that ugly, worm-like creature that goes into the cocoon comes out a beautiful, glorious butterfly.
Why? It has gone through a metamorphosis, which literally means a change of form. Are you a Caterpillar or a Butterfly?
And when you present yourself this way to God, my friend, you’re going to have a metamorphosis.
When we are saved by Jesus Christ, our inner nature is Jesus.
When we present ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him, a spiritual transformation takes
place where the Jesus hidden in us becomes the Jesus revealed in us.
This divine change gives us the mind of Christ. We are renewed in the spirit of our mind
We will never really understand our spiritual gift without the renewing of our minds.
Unless we present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, our minds will not be renewed and we will not know what our spiritual gift is.
We should never be afraid of the will of God. It’s the highest, happiest and best place for us.
A SHARED PARTICIPATION (Romans 12:4-5)
When we present ourselves to the Lord Jesus, we are also presenting ourselves to one another.
The church is His body. The church is not an organisation, the church is the active body of Christ.
The church is a body with Jesus Christ as the head, and we are members in that body. A body cannot be divided, but rather all members of the body work together in unity.
If you have relationship problems with part of the body it means you are too alive and you need to sacrifice yourself! There is arrogance , pride and unforgiveness inside of you.
It is arrogance and pride that divides us; it is the Holy Spirit of God that unites us. when we find our gift, there’s to be this shared participation.
People’s gifts are not as obvious as you might think. I mean, what’s really obvious about me now standing in front of you might be my voice and my mind… You are not thinking about my kidneys right now, right?
You’re not thinking, wow, his kidneys are really functioning well this morning.
But if my kidneys weren’t functioning, I wouldn’t be up here preaching.
If we do not fulfil the purpose God has for us within the body of Christ, then we are harmful and might hurt others in the body.
You see, look, there are people who are doing things in our churches right now that you’re not aware of, but there is a shared participation, and each gift is given to perfect the body of Christ.
And if you are not fulfilling your part, I don’t care who you are, you might be a member of a church, if you are not fulfilling the purpose for which God put you in the body, you are harmful and hurtful to the body.
Each member of the church should be an active member.
Romans 12: 3 – 8 – The Gifts
3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;
7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;
8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”
Romans 12:3-8
When we present ourselves to Him and He renews our mind, then we find ourselves operating in the body.
No one has all of the gifts; everyone has at least one of the gifts, and we are dependent on one another.
God made us different so that He might make us one.
We will find our gift as we get busy within the body.
God gave a measure of faith to everyone.
We need to take the faith we have and the gift we have and put them to work.
Romans 12:6-8 lists seven spiritual gifts and also there is another list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12
Now go back up to verse 2. Look at it, again, Romans 12 verse 2
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2
There will be a settled confirmation. You will prove what is that good, perfect, and acceptable will of God.
You will prove it in your own heart. You will have this confirmation and you will say, “Yes, that is my spiritual gift.”
When you accept yourself, be yourself, and give yourself to God’s work, then you are blessed, God is glorified, and the church is strengthened.
What would happen if you presented yourself as sacrifice, and had a spiritual transformation.
“Lord, what do You want me to do?
Now you know what the problem is with many of us?
We are not an active member of the Body, many people are doing what they want to do.
You need to offer yourself as sacrifice!
May God bless you