Retaking the Spiritual Gifts Assessment—or Not!

Of the nearly 10,000 who have taken the free online spiritual gifts assessment in recent years, it’s rare that someone retakes it immediately or soon after getting their first results. As referenced in prior posts on this subject, the re-taking is likely due to a variety of things: perhaps a disagreement with the results; maybe a misunderstanding of the holy definitions of some of the gifts; sometimes a disappointment at a gift the taker felt was missing; or it could be that, since each of the questions disappears from your device’s screen as soon as you give it your reply, the taker felt he/she had spontaneously answered in a way that they wanted to get a re-do. In any case, consistently, when I see these dual-test-takers’ results within a short time frame, it confirms that the assessment is still tracking—even when people may be changing their replies to try to get different results. As is often the case with tests, your first answer is perhaps your truest one.

 

Take the case of a recent gifts assessment re-taker. His/her results the first time looked as follows [top gift mix in bold and underlined; low non-gifts in bold italics]:

 

Exhortation: 11

Mercy: 11

Discernment: 7

Wisdom: 7

Faith: 6

Knowledge: 6

Teaching: 6

Craftsmanship: 5

Hospitality: 5

Leadership: 5

Prophecy: 5

Administration: 4

Apostleship: 4

Artistic Expression: 4

Evangelism: 4

Intercession: 4

Helps: 3

Shepherding: 3

Healing: 3

Miraculous Powers: 3

Giving: 2

Tongues: 1

Interpretation of Tongues: 1

 

His/her second set of results were:

 

Mercy: 11

Exhortation: 10

Discernment: 7

Knowledge: 7

Faith: 6

Leadership: 6

Evangelism: 5

Helps: 5

Hospitality: 5

Intercession: 5

Teaching: 5

Wisdom: 5

Apostleship: 4

Artistic Expression: 4

Craftsmanship: 4

Giving: 4

Shepherding: 4

Miraculous Powers: 4

Administration: 3

Prophecy: 3

Healing: 3

Tongues: 0

Interpretation of Tongues: 0

 

The top set of gifts from both lists is nearly identical: Exhortation, Mercy, Discernment, Faith, and Knowledge. The low non-gifts are also quite similar: Shepherding, Healing, Miraculous Powers, Giving, Tongues, and Interpretation of Tongues. Retaking the assessment didn’t change things much. Where there is any confusion or inconsistency, check with others who know you best. They can usually help you see your list of gifts more clearly.

 

Your spiritual gifts are the ones that the Lord Himself has chosen and purposed to give to you in this season. You can be thrilled, surprised, disappointed, confused…and I encourage you to take all that to God in conversation (prayer) as you seek to explore how He wishes you to use these gifts for His glory and the benefit of others.

 

And, your actual scores—the 11’s and the 2’s, the 7’s and the 0’s—are not to be compared with those of another. Sometimes you are taking this assessment with others in your church or small group and another person has high scores of 15’s and 14’s. That’s irrelevant for you. You are looking only at your numbers and determining which are your highest and lowest…and then applauding those with gifts you don’t have while developing and using your own faithfully.

 

It IS often a good idea to retake the assessment every five years or so…especially if/when you have had a major life change. It is not uncommon for your gifts to reorder and/or to find that a new one has appeared or moved closer to the top. It is also most common that most of your top gifts remain the same over time. Seek the Lord for clarity after reading your new (or same) results.

 

  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 Davis