How Do I Figure Out What My Spiritual Gifts Are?
Q: How can a believer biblically discern their spiritual gifts without relying solely on personal feelings or what others tell them, and how can they avoid presumption or self-deception?
Passages on Spiritual Gifts:
Romans 12:6-8
1 Corinthians 12:1-31
1 Corinthians 14:1-40
Ephesians 4:11-16
1 Peter 4:10-11
A: I don’t know of any specific scriptural instruction on how a person can know whether they have a particular spiritual gift. People like to apply reason and rational thinking to this topic, saying, “If I’m gifted in something, then there should be some kind of blessing or some kind of fruitfulness in this area.” Look, there’s a joke among pastors and preachers about a guy who thinks he’s called to be a preacher. The problem is that nobody seems called to listen to him. Because nobody is called to listen to him, you need to question whether that guy is called as a preacher. Certainly, if you’re called as a preacher, there’s going to be somebody who’s called to listen to you. Again, that’s not something that the Scriptures specifically say, but it’s a rational application that we work out from the Scriptures by simply applying reason to it.
Here’s what I often tell people. If you wonder whether you’re gifted in a particular area, find a way to express that gift and see if there is a sense of blessing upon it. I’ll tell you how it was for me. I started teaching my first Bible studies when I was 16 years old, and I didn’t teach a youth group or a high school group, I taught a group of adults. Now, it’s not like they were very old. All these people were probably in their late 20s, and there weren’t very many of them; we were a group of six or seven people. I was a 16-year-old kid who was asked by his pastor, “Hey, do you want to teach this home Bible study?” I replied, “Okay, sure, I’ll teach the home Bible study.” I didn’t know enough to say no.
I just started putting into practice what I had seen modeled in my Calvary Chapel world: verse-by-verse exposition of the Bible. And look, when I taught those Bible studies at that little home fellowship, nothing dramatic happened. It’s not like it grew from six people to 60 people. I think it might have grown from six people to seven people, or maybe even eight. There was nothing dramatic about the growth. And yet, within the people who were part of the group, and within my own heart as well, we all had a sense that it was good, and that God was pleased with it. It’s not like it was the most amazing thing, or anything crazy happened, but we sensed that it was good, and God was pleased with it. I think we can look for that same kind of sense as we put ourselves out there and begin to operate in our giftings.
I can’t think of a specific verse in the Bible that gives what you’re looking for, that provides a guideline for how to recognize that you have the gift of teaching. But I think there are ways we can discern our gifts that fit in with what the Bible does say, such as by looking to see God’s blessing on it and by other people recognizing that gifting and calling in us. But I can’t think of a specific verse that teaches that. God bless you. I pray that God will help you to understand and walk in whatever way He has gifted you to contribute to God’s family.