God’s Spiritual Gifts: How to Embrace Yours
DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I make a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.
During your self-love journey, it is important to learn about and discover God’s spiritual gifts that have been given to you and play a part in the calling of your life.
As you read you will learn about what spiritual gifts are, the different types of gifts, and how to embrace the specific gifts that God has given you after you have received salvation.
What Are Spiritual Gifts?
God’s spiritual gifts are given to every believer when they receive the gift of salvation. (1 Corinthians 12) These gifts are given to believers to spread the gospel, serve the Body of Christ, guide the church, and be an example of God’s love for every person. They are freely given to us, not something we can earn. (Romans 12:3-8)
God’s spiritual gifts should not be confused with talents and strengths. Talents are specific abilities that can be developed over time through hard work and practice. Strengths are certain abilities in your life that come easy to you and take little effort on your part.
Spiritual gifts on the other hand are given by God for His purpose and cannot be earned. You cannot develop a gift that you have not been given.
Relationship with God is the only way to discover and develop the gifts that He has put in you. Although you may have the same spiritual gifts as another person, they will manifest in your lives differently because you have a different assignment.
The gifts that God gives us are perfect for the plan that He has for our lives and to make Himself known to others through us.
No person has all of the spiritual gifts because as God’s children we should be living and operating in a community with one another. Just like our physical body has different parts that all have a specific role, the Body of Christ all have different gifts that work together. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
Your gifts will become clear as you continue to grow in your relationship with God and you start to understand the plan He has for your life.
As your gifts become more clear to you, it is important that you embrace your own gifts and not be envious of the gifts God has given to others. Your gifts are specific to you and your calling.
God’s Spiritual Gifts
The spiritual gifts are found in three passages: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 28-30, and Ephesians 4:11. I have included a list of the spiritual gifts. Click the link here for the description of each gift.
- Apostle
- Prophet
- Evangelist
- Pastor/Shepherd
- Teacher
- Helper
- Wisdom
- Knowledge
- Faith
- Healing
- Miracles
- Prophecy
- Discernment
- Speaking in different tongues
- Interpretation of tongues
- Prophecy
- Serving
- Exhortation
- Giving
- Leadership
- Mercy
Click here to take the Spiritual Gifts test.
How to Embrace Your Spiritual Gifts
God has created you fearfully and wonderfully and has put gifts in you to glorify Him. When you begin to recognize and embrace your spiritual gifts you will gain a deeper understanding of who you are and the reason you were created. You start to make sense of different facets of who you are.
The first step to embracing your spiritual gifts is to take a spiritual gift test to see what gifts you have been given. Remember to answer the questions honestly as they relate to you and not how you want the answer to be. If you don’t answer these questions correctly, you won’t be getting the most genuine results.
There are a ton of different tests out there and you may notice that different tests give you different results. The tests are just a guide to your results, but God is the one who gives you the results so consult with Him after you finish the test.
Also, remember that you have been given multiple gifts. Some are just more present than others and it may also depend on the season that you are in.
You may be surprised at your results and find that you have a gift that you don’t necessarily identify with. This does not mean that the results are incorrect it just may be that you have not acknowledged that part of yourself yet.
Once you get your results read through the description of each gift. Take a look at the top 3 or 4 gifts and see if you can make any connections with them.
What I mean by this is to see how those gifts flow together in any sort of way. When I have taken these spiritual gifts tests I notice that in some way each gift is connected to different facets of myself.
Just to clarify, your gifts are not meant to be used in the church, but they should be used in the world. Your gifts are for your family, your community, your workplace, and everywhere else you go your gifts should go with you.
Write out each of your gifts and a brief description of each gift. Then reflect on how this gift currently manifests in your life. In what areas do you notice you operate in this gift?
Check out these great notebooks and pens that I use for taking notes.
Spend some time in prayer talking to God about the different gifts He has given you and ask Him how wants you to use them.
