Faith: Spiritual Gifts Definitions, Scriptures, and Ways to Serve

[If you have not already done so, please take a moment now to take this free spiritual gifts assessment. Once you have your results, come back to this and the corresponding 22 blog posts for a detailed description of each of the gifts, focusing on your own as well as becoming familiar with all of them so you can spot and call them out in others.]

 

Faith

Having the gift of Faith is having that extra measure of confidence in God and His promises, helping inspire others to greater belief. Those in the church with this gift live constantly in the knowledge that God works all things for their good and the good of others who are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).When others of us begin to doubt or flounder, these are the people who believe God is good, God is love, and God is fair, just, and merciful all the time. People with this gift obey God, take risks, and make sacrifices because they trust God completely.

 

Scriptures that reference Faith or show someone exhibiting this gift:

Matthew 8 (the centurion); Matthew 9 (2 blind men),Matthew 15 (Canaanite woman); Mark 2 (faith of friends); Romans 4 (Abraham); 1 Corinthians 12;1 Corinthians 13; Hebrews 11 (hall of faith).

 

Questions on the assessment that pertain to Faith:

  • I am more confident than most that God will keep his promises.

  • In the face of doubt or uncertainty, I persevere in doing the things God has called me to do.

  • In situations where others might doubt God, I do not.

 

Some words that describe people with this gift:

  • Confident

  • Believing

  • Optimistic

  • Hopeful

  • Secure

  • Conviction

 

Potential negatives to this gift:

  • Can lack empathy for those who doubt or whose faith is less strong.

  • Can cross the line into “testing God.”

  • Can wonder why others don’t act on God’s promises as quickly, completely, or in the same way as they do.

 

Some possible ways to serve using this gift:

  • Anywhere in the church or the community!!

  • Bible Study leader/helper

  • Elder/deacon/committee member

  • Youth ministry

  • Worship leader

  • Starter of new ministries

  • Missions team member

  • Adoptive parent/foster parent

  • Worker in a particularly secular environment

 

Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with hundreds of faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and executive leaders in a diversity of fields for four decades. She currently serves as Catalyst for Equipping and overseer of Local Missions at her church.

 

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis.

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