Embracing the Gifts You DO Have

Today, another person took the spiritual gifts assessment. Her results?

Faith: 15
Hospitality: 15
Administration: 12
Exhortation: 12
Giving: 12
Mercy: 12
Intercession: 11
Artistic Expression: 10

An hour and six minutes later, she took it again.

 Her results?

Hospitality: 15
Faith: 14
Administration: 12
Artistic Expression: 10
Mercy: 10
Discernment: 9
Giving: 9
Intercession: 9

Of the top eight, seven are the SAME in both sets of results!

And, her non-gifts? Of the bottom six-scoring gifts, four are the SAME!

 Wisdom: 7
Knowledge: 6
Apostleship: 4
Craftsmanship: 4
Tongues: 3
Interpretation of Tongues: 3

Craftsmanship: 4
Shepherding: 4
Apostleship: 3
Prophecy: 3
Tongues: 0
Interpretation of Tongues: 0

 Yes, the assessment is human-created and therefore not perfect. But, it has been vetted over and over again by those who are familiar with gifts and their own gifts in particular. Nearly 6,000 individuals so far, and many, many churches. The impulse to deny your results is human, too. Sort of a so-much-easier-to-argue-with-the-results than to pause and ask in the moment: Lord, what would you have me know, learn, and embrace from this? Don’t spend time on the one of the eight that isn’t at the top of both lists, but prayerfully explore the seven (or three or four) that overlap. And, know which four (or five or six) are clearly not your gifts—even after you retook the assessment and were perhaps more aware of your responses.

Also, send the Spiritual Gifts Definitions PDF to three to six people who know you well—not people who only know you in one context—and ask them to

·         Read each definition.

·         Rate each one as to whether or not they think you truly have that gift (see you using it often), aren’t sure if you have that as a gift but perhaps see you developing that behavior as a spiritual discipline (likely not a gift, but an intentional practice for you), think you do not have that gift (warn them that this sort of feedback can be hard for you to hear but you need them to be completely honest).

·         Send you their feedback.

When you get their results, compare them with each other. Is there some unanimity about three to five gifts? In what ways do those gifts match the ones in the top tier of your results?

Consider this now a season where you will ask God regularly to show you where He is likely already using those top five spiritual gifts (those that overlap your results and are consistent with the input of observant others), how He might want to use those gifts through you in this season, and how to embrace them fully so that you can lean completely into His plan to use you to accomplish His work in His world.

If you don’t have one already, consider gathering together a small group of people (they might already be your friends but, perhaps, they could be people at your church or in your neighborhood who would be interested) and getting the God. Gifts. You.: Your Unique Calling and Design six-week workbook (each person needs their own copy). Do the deep dive together. Learn about God, His calling and purposing of each and every one of you, your gifts and theirs, and what that all means. Everything in the study is firmly rooted in Scripture—no made-up stuff here!

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 faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and executive leaders in a diversity of fields for over 35 years. She has spent the last 24 years serving as Catalyst for Equipping at her church.

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis. Close up of Vincent Van Gogh painting.

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