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 Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:07 pm
I was looking through some links to devotionals and I found one that hit home a bit about a mother talking to her two children whom are twins and even though they may be similar in many ways - God gives them different, unique gifts. http://blogs.christianpost.com/keys-for-kids/different-gifts-16922/I posted this because I remember there being times in my life - even times perhaps now in my adult life where I see someone is extremely good at something that I'm not and I will think, "Why can't I be good at that?" and I'll be dissatisfied with the gifts that I already have - it becomes an envy. I strive to learn how to be good at something that someone else is good at. This article just scratches the surface about gifts, because there are so many things about gifts. The Holy Spirit gives us these gifts. God does not give us gifts through the Holy Spirit without reason. God doesn't let us hopelessly try to fulfill the purpose He has for our lives without giving us the gifts that we need in order to do so. However, we cannot choose which gifts we are given - they are given to us according to how God see's fit. There are many gifts, the Gifts of the Spirit are: ~The word of wisdom through the Spirit ~The word of knowledge ~The gift of faith ~Gifts of healing ~The ability to work miracles ~Prophecy ~The ability to distinguish spirits ~Various kinds of tongues ~The ability to interpret an unknown tongue The Gifts of Ministry are: (The gifts of ministry or function are...) ~The apostle ~The prophet ~The evangelist ~The pastor ~The teacher ~The one who serves ~The exhorter ~The giver ~The leader ~The one who shows mercy ~The helper ~The administrator ~The preacher ~Other giftings (These lists I have pulled from a book called "Why Not Women?" considering that I saw it as a thorough, informative list. Perhaps next time I will see about diving deeper into the gifts because they are important and we each have them).
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 4:01 pm
This is a wonderful church topic. There are many times I wonder what my purpose is in life, and then it takes a few days, and I remember that God already told us what our purpose is, to minister to others and be a light in a broken world! and he gave us gifts to do so!
I'm really good at math and science (when I have a good teacher), and they're things that I really enjoy. I want to use my gifts to reach atheist scientists who have turned off the notion of a God because they're faced with evolution every day. I want to be a Christian scientist!
Another thing I've been thinking strongly about is being involved in ministry. I feel so passionate about Christ right now, and I have no idea why, I just want to be involved with other believers! I'm good at writing, and I believe God wants to use that as I work as a crew member for this guild smile
What're your gifts Aqua?
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 4:03 pm
And to everyone who reads this article, what're your gifts?
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:45 pm
x XBliss Wasnt EnoughX x This is a wonderful church topic. There are many times I wonder what my purpose is in life, and then it takes a few days, and I remember that God already told us what our purpose is, to minister to others and be a light in a broken world! and he gave us gifts to do so!
I'm really good at math and science (when I have a good teacher), and they're things that I really enjoy. I want to use my gifts to reach atheist scientists who have turned off the notion of a God because they're faced with evolution every day. I want to be a Christian scientist!
Another thing I've been thinking strongly about is being involved in ministry. I feel so passionate about Christ right now, and I have no idea why, I just want to be involved with other believers! I'm good at writing, and I believe God wants to use that as I work as a crew member for this guild smile
What're your gifts Aqua? At times, there will be things that we aren't good at that we can become good at, there's nothing wrong with that since there are things in life that will require some hard work. There are things I wish I had a gift for that I don't - some things can be learned, others cannot. I honestly don't know 100% sure what my gifts are in The Holy Spirit or in ministry. So I can't say for sure, and the Holy Spirit has dwelled in me as a believer, but it's been only within the past year that I actually invited The Holy Spirit to actively work in my life in order to do God's will. I am unsure what God's will for my life even is. I'm thinking in order to know for sure - it will take more action, like getting out there and witnessing to people or doing things that God delights in to know. I just don't alway ssee opportunities to witnessed or get involved with churches here since I haven't found one, but without that type of action - I may not know what my gifts are. I'd have to be more active with ministry to truly know. My gifts as far as being a human being like gifts of writing, singing, dancing, communicating, etc. etc. they all seem at a "satisfactory" level. The only ones that truly stand out may be my writing, but sometimes I'm not sure if my writing is better than I think it is or not as great as I believe it is razz but I know that writing is something I am good at - I'm good at recording events of what happened during a day. Although, I never understood how people can just sit down and write a book. If I ever even started writing a book, it'd probably be a bunch of short stories or something. I have a hard time making thoughts last like 200+ pages razz I also believe that I'm good at sign language - more at this point like signing English (signing words in order as to how they are spoken in English) because I taught myself to sign when I was younger because I had a deaf friend and it made things a bit easier. However, it's been a while and signed English is not the same as ASL - so I do want to learn ASL. For me, picking up signs isn't difficult so I've been considering how I can use that gift. The funny thing is, I had been thinking about it and on christianheadlines.com - I came across a website that said those whom are deaf don't often go to church because the services of ASL aren't available to them and that sounds like a section of ministry that needs some extra hands.
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 6:25 pm
I think that's awesome if you feel like God is tugging you in that direction. It'd be a great way for you to get involved in ministry like you've been craving. I think you should do it, if that's what you really feel like God's telling you to, if it's something you want to do, and if your husband is okay with it.
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Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:34 pm
I believe I have the gift of teaching and exhortation. I love to build people up and encourage them, and people say I'm good at explaining things and that I'm good with children. I didn't think that was the case until I started to really work in ministry.
A part of me does wish I had other gifts. I find myself thinking "wouldn't it be cool to have the gift of healing? or speaking in tongues?". Those are the mysterious gifts that I've always wondered about.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:28 am
x XBliss Wasnt EnoughX x I think that's awesome if you feel like God is tugging you in that direction. It'd be a great way for you to get involved in ministry like you've been craving. I think you should do it, if that's what you really feel like God's telling you to, if it's something you want to do, and if your husband is okay with it. Yes, it's definitely great to see when you have open doors in front of you. I've wanted to be so many things growing up - thinking of one thing, changing my mind, thinking of another thing, changing my mind again - going through this endless cycle all the way into college, with school counselors, etc. It feels embarrassed sometimes having school mates, friends, or family who know what they want to do as a career ask you, "So, what are you majoring in?"/"What is your dream job/career?"/"Oh! You're in college? What are you studying to be?" You know, it just...feels like at times my heart lies somewhere in ministry because other doors feel like they have been slammed shut. It's nice when I can walk through an open door or even approach that open door once in a while. Having shut doors feels frustrating, but it's probably God saying, "Hey, you're getting distracted!" or, "That's not your path." We definitely want to do ministry together one day. I want to make sure I'm doing it for the right reasons. The church I grew up in didn't approve of women serving in ministry because of their twisted doctrine. They don't believe in appointing "pastors" or "priests" because they say that no one man deserves to have that position in authority and should be equally divided among all men of the church (any man that is a member of the church can preach without any Bible schooling). They believe that pastors have a position of authority over God. They don't believe in Sunday School because it "separates the family unit" and "doesn't teach the Bible - it only teaches you how to pass kind notes to each other," but a lot of Sunday School teachers are female and that does eliminate an opportunity for women. There was a small youth group for a time, but it didn't last long and the leaders were all male members of the church. The women can prepare the communion bread and juice and set it out before the service starts, but they are not allowed to hand it out during service. So I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing for God and not because I don't want to rush in thinking, "I wasn't allowed to growing up so now I'm definitely going to do it!" I know that every Christian will have a ministry gift so ministry is good, just need to make sure how to go about ministry - what I'd do in ministry. Right now I do have ideas, but want to make sure it's what God has planned for me, and by that - I may need to go for it and see if the door remains open and keep praying about it. The decision must be made by a carefully through prayer and consulting God. We're not sure about planting a ministry here because of how people act towards each other as far as churches go. It's a big duty to take on, and it would mostly feel like a burden - especially since we don't like the area we even live in for many reasons and want to leave it (not only because of the churches or the people - but also many other reasons). I don't want to be like Moses running away from it all, thinking, "Aha! I left! My problems are behind me! I won't need to return!" Somehow, I feel that in someway, even if we move - that we will be back here years later for something such as this when we do have the funds. We also could use some space with this place - it's so spiritually draining that our souls feel so weary at times. We do want to change this town in some way for God's will, but also when we have the funds and if we moved elsewhere, the funds would come in and we could come back then and start something.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:37 am
Ohana_Okazaki I believe I have the gift of teaching and exhortation. I love to build people up and encourage them, and people say I'm good at explaining things and that I'm good with children. I didn't think that was the case until I started to really work in ministry. A part of me does wish I had other gifts. I find myself thinking "wouldn't it be cool to have the gift of healing? or speaking in tongues?". Those are the mysterious gifts that I've always wondered about. I noticed you said, "I didn't think that was the case until I started to really work in ministry." and at times - figuring out the gift must be the action to that lets us know for sure smile and it's good if we pay attention sometimes to what others say like if they say, "You're so good at..." and as humans, we sometimes shrug it off because we don't believe it, or don't see ourselves in that way. But I suppose when we're put in a situation, then we know. I've never actually seen a person use a gift of healing so I can't explain exactly about that one or how that would even work. I'm sure it could pair a lot with faith, too - perhaps praying for someone to heal and they heal. Perhaps a gift of healing can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes one gift can have a lot of sub-categories in how I think about it since God can give a person one gift, but their gift of teaching may be different from another person's gift of teaching if that makes sense. Speaking in tongues can probably mean being able to translate from a language whether the person knows it or not into another language to help others understand. It can also be speaking of an unknown tongue to mankind that is from God, and some people have the gift of being able to understand it, while to others it sounds like gibberish. I remember going on a trip and along the way, went to two amazing churches. In both places, I heard that unknown tongue and saw it being spoken - it sounded like pure gibberish to me (I didn't understand a word of it). Other people I'm sure can understand it, but I definitely couldn't. It's interesting, yet that unknown tongue that sounded as gibberish to me had a peace about it. I've seen someone lay hands on a person to pray and one person is speaking English and another is speaking in tongues - it's truly amazing to see and hear. At times, I wish I could understand that unknown tongue, but if I were meant to understand it - God would have given me the gift to understand it.
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Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:56 am
I have absolutely no idea what my gift is. I have been rather aimless unfortunately. I have prayed before about it but so far it seems I have no idea why I am here.
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Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:45 pm
Victoria Whitechapel I have absolutely no idea what my gift is. I have been rather aimless unfortunately. I have prayed before about it but so far it seems I have no idea why I am here. Prayer is a good step towards achieving that smile perhaps we can pray for each other about this in the prayer groups as well! biggrin Also, make sure you have invited The Holy Spirit into your life and that it is active within you - this will help and build your relationship with God every day ^_^ I also believe that people at times need to take action to find out their gifts, whether it's helping in ministry so they can know what it is that they are better at and identify their spiritual strengths. Without appropriate action, we may not know for sure. As Ohana mentioned before, sometimes people tell us, "Oh! You're so good at..." and as humans, we can shrug it off like, "Yeah, right...I'm not that good." but sometimes these people are identifying our strengths right before our eyes and guiding us along that path to knowing what our gift(s) are/is. I encourage you to keep praying about it as well as spend time reading God's word! (I also apologize for the late response).
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Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:52 pm
Aquatic_blue Victoria Whitechapel I have absolutely no idea what my gift is. I have been rather aimless unfortunately. I have prayed before about it but so far it seems I have no idea why I am here. Prayer is a good step towards achieving that smile perhaps we can pray for each other about this in the prayer groups as well! biggrin Also, make sure you have invited The Holy Spirit into your life and that it is active within you - this will help and build your relationship with God every day ^_^ I also believe that people at times need to take action to find out their gifts, whether it's helping in ministry so they can know what it is that they are better at and identify their spiritual strengths. Without appropriate action, we may not know for sure. As Ohana mentioned before, sometimes people tell us, "Oh! You're so good at..." and as humans, we can shrug it off like, "Yeah, right...I'm not that good." but sometimes these people are identifying our strengths right before our eyes and guiding us along that path to knowing what our gift(s) are/is. I encourage you to keep praying about it as well as spend time reading God's word! (I also apologize for the late response).
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