You are gifted

Welcome! I'm so glad to see you back in A Good Bible Study: StressLess.

We are discovering how to recuperate our spirits and today, recognize our gifts. We can't enjoy our lives, or help anyone else enjoy theirs, unless we are running on a full tank of Holy Spirit joy ourselves.

Read Romans 5:5 and write below what God pours into our hearts:
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Did you know you are gifted? It's true. May be you weren't in the "gifted program" in school, and may be no one ever patted you on the head and told you so, but I'm telling you now - and here is how I know. Read 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11

Spiritual gifts are given to each of us by God, in order to strengthen us and encourage us in our faith, as well as enable us to help one another.

What are all the spiritual gifts God gives believers through His Holy Spirit (by the way, we've all been given at least one)? Write them below. I've taken the notes from my Nelson NKJV Study Bible to explain further what these gifts are.

Now, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each of us for the profit (benefit) of all. We are given the Holy Spirit as believers and can manifest or show evidence of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, or be used by Him to help others.

And, prepare to be shocked (some of us): we are all given a spiritual prayer language by the Holy Spirit as well. We are instructed to pray often using this tongue as it is direct communication between our spirit and God, and the neat thing about it is, it keeps our minds out of our spirit's business.

I don't know about you, but I can start getting off on tangents when I pray, and I love that I can't understand or interfere with what my spirit prays in tongues. Sure it sounds strange at first, but I obey God and do it, because I know He knows my heart, and He makes it right, even if I do it wrong at first - so have courage, get off by yourself, and let yourself praise Him in the tongue only He understands!

If this is new to you, stop right now and read 1 Corinthians 14:1-25!

1. The Word of ______________ through the Spirit - practical application of knowledge. 
2. The Word of ______________ through the same Spirit - ability to teach knowledge or doctrine (beliefs) 
3.  ______________ by the same Spirit - the capacity to believe in God for extraordinary deeds.
4. Gifts of ___________ by the same Spirit - ability to heal in Jesus' name
5. The Working of ___________ - ability to perform miracles and wonders as did Moses and the prophets
6. ____________________ - ability to tell a new revelation from God or give a divine explanation of a previous revelation. Paul says that although we all speak in tongues to pray to God for our own needs, he wishes that we would all desire to have and use the gift of prophesy even more, because praying in tongues only helps ourselves, but prophecy (and also the public interpration of tongues) helps everyone else. This is going to be exciting or challenging for some of us but pray, and read the scripture and ask God to help you understand His Word.
7. Discerning of ____________ - being able to recognize the work of God versus demonic spirits in the church
8. Different kinds of __________ - probably to preach or speak in different human languages miraculously
9. Interpretation of ___________ -  ability to understand and translate spiritual tongues spoken in gathering of believers so all can benefit
10. This gift is not listed in the same verse, but in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 he finishes with saying the greatest gift of all is the ability to love. If we have Christ, we have the ability to love because He is love.

Notice the gifts are not given by "spirits" such as through "channeling" in which a person allows a spirit (always a demon whether the person wants to know that or not) to possess their body in order to give knowledge. Read verse 11 again.

"But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills." NKJV

We are also gifted with talents, interests and desires which we will cover in more detail tomorrow. For now, I invite you to pray about these gifts, and ask God to reveal which gifts you have been given to use for His glory.

Don't worry, we've all got at least one. Think about instances in which you seemed to suddenly know something that you didn't know before. May be you can quickly grasp a Scripture and explain it to others. Perhaps you are able to be faithful in any difficulty when others struggle over the slightest disappointment.

Have you ever prayed with someone, or touched them in prayer, and they were healed? Do you have a sense when someone is preaching whether it rings true to His Word, or seems more of a manipulation of Scripture to serve the speaker? Think about what comes easily to you, but not to others.

If you still can't see your gift (s), ask someone who not only knows you, but also is intimate with the Word of God and loves Him. Ask God to reveal your gift(s) and choose to believe that He will.

Let's pray for discernment of our gifts, now:

Lord, what a joy to know that You created each of us with not only a purpose, to be Your child and to be loved by You, but also a divine  purpose. We are gifted and special and useful! Open each eye Lord over the course of this day and the coming week to our gifts and how we can be of good use to Your kingdom, Your children. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Love, Karen

Photo by Salvatore Vuono, courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/