Page 62 - Youth Discipleship Student Textbook

Faith – Faith is demonstrated by one who has a strong and unshakeable confidence in God, His Word,
His promises, and the power of prayer to demonstrate the power of God in lives.

Healing – Although God heals today, the ability of men to produce miraculous healings belonged to the
apostles as one of their “sign gifts.” Again, it was given to affirm that their message was from God.
Historically, this gift ceased with the completion of the canon Scripture.

Tongues – Tongues was the ability to speak a foreign language that was not previously known to the
speaker. It was demonstrated at Pentecost and those who heard tongues understood them in their own
language. This gift authenticated the speaker as a spokesman from God. Historically, tongues ceased
with the completion of the canon of Scripture. The gift of Interpretation of Tongues was given to a
person to understand the language being spoken and interpret the language into another known
language. It was not needed when tongues ceased.

Helps – Helps is closely related to the gift of mercy. Those with this gift are those who come to the aid
and render assistance to others with compassion and grace. The person with this gift has a unique
ability to identify those who are struggling with difficulties and to offer assistance from God’s Word that
can offer solutions.

So how can you determine which of the Gifts of the Spirit were given to you?

There is no magic formula or definitive test that can tell us exactly what our spiritual gifts are. The Holy
Spirit distributes the gifts as He determines (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). A common problem for Christians is
the temptation to get so caught up in our spiritual gift that we seek to serve God only in the area in
which we feel we have been gifted. That is not how the spiritual gifts work. God calls us to obediently
serve Him in all things. He will equip us with whatever gift or gifts we need to accomplish the task He
has called us to.

The best way to determine your spiritual gift is to give each one a shot. Teach a class and see what
happens. Ask your youth pastor if you can preach a sermon. Volunteer for a service project. Study the
list above and try each one as an opportunity for ministry to others. What will happen is that you will
receive confirmation from others that your ministry has been a special blessing to them. Other people
who see us serving the Lord can often identify a spiritual gift in use that we might take for granted or
not recognize. Sometimes other people will let you know what your gift is. And if you are not specially
gifted in an area, that will become obvious also.

Prayer is also important. The one person who knows exactly how we are spiritually gifted is the gift-giver
Himself—the Holy Spirit. We can ask God to show us how we are gifted in order to better use our
spiritual gifts for His glory.

Yes, God calls some to be teachers and gives them the gift of teaching. God calls some to be servants
and blesses them with the gift of helps. However, specifically knowing our spiritual gift does not excuse
us from serving God in areas outside our gifting. Is it beneficial to know what spiritual gift(s) God has
given us? Of course it is. Is it wrong to focus so much on spiritual gifts that we miss other opportunities
to serve God? Yes. If we are dedicated to being used by God, He will equip us with the spiritual gifts we
need.

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