“The Holy Spirit is Not a Tool to Exact or Leverage…”--Spiritual Gifts FAQs

“The Holy Spirit is Not a Tool to Exact or Leverage…”

 

[Note: This is part of an ongoing conversation with a thoughtful leader in a client church who participated in the two-part Your Unique Design spiritual gifts classes with other leaders.]

 

His comments:

As [our church leadership cohort] debriefed our [recent Your Unique Design] spiritual gifts session and continued musing on how to practice, encourage, and look for spiritual gifts:

·         We made the connection that the Holy Spirit is not a tool to exact or leverage for the sake of the church, even amongst His gifting. And "gifts-based" ministry, too, can be a fantastic tool but not so much that the system or process itself becomes more important than allowing the Holy Spirit to be present.

·         Like the Enneagram, the greatest motive is love, so not helpful to "label" or box people into "you have THIS gift". Encourage without the need to simplify things into boxes, but to help with self-reflection and growth.

·         Some gifts are perhaps more prone to burnout than others (when we were talking about Helps, Administration, etc.) As you so rightly pointed out, sometimes the environment around the expression of these gifts is different than the environment around the expression of other gifts.

 

My responses:

You are correct in that we need to be aware of the temptation to use the Spirit (or the gift/s) as some sort of instrument of leverage. I suspect that’s why Paul’s “tirade” to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 12-14 has 1 Corinthians 13 smack in the middle. So much of those three chapters (not written as chapters…) contains warnings against misuse of gifts with the ultimate misuse being that of gift application without love.

 

And, yes, I think pigeonholing people into “you are only this gift” is also a temptation we need to actively work against. God is constantly at work in and through us, and the expression of a gift can change as well as the mix and/or order of gifts we have. In addition, it’s useful to practice spiritual disciplines (not to check a box, but to open space for the Lord to speak and us to receive His presence in new ways)—so there may be times when we are challenged to operate outside our giftedness as a way to grow.

 

In addition, yes, I believe part of the role of leaders, shepherds, exhorters, and those with wisdom, discernment, prophecy (and others, too) is to help those who carry the gifts that are more prone to boundary-less-ness (Helps, Hospitality, Mercy, Administration…) to gently warn against exhaustion and fatigue in the expression of those gifts, while alleviating their misplaced guilt over setting limits. At the same time, we all need to guard against minimizing any gifts, especially those that seem (to us) less flashy.

 

 

 

Important resources:

 

 

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, DIOS. DONES. TÚ.: Tu llamado y diseño único (Spanish Edition), 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 at her church.

 

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis. 

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Shirley Giles Davisgifts and the Holy Spirit, gifts used in love, 1 Corinthians 13, your unique design class guide, your unique design, gifts-based ministry, gifts prone to burnout, 1 Corinthians 12-14, expression of gifts, expression of spiritual gifts, growing in our spiritual gifts, understanding gifts, understanding spiritual gifts, role of church leaders, five-fold ministry, God. Gifts. You.