Welcome back and happy Saturday! I hope your weekend is going well so far, as we continue our FAQ’s about spiritual gifts; here are the next two questions…

What is the difference between spiritual gifts and natural talents?

To begin with, there are many wonderfully talented and gifted people who are not believers.  Atheists and Satanists have talents, maybe even monkeys have them.  In short, there are many wonderfully talented and gifted people who do not acknowledge God… but Christians have spiritual gifts.

Christians have spiritual gifts and possibly many natural talents as well, but we need to be clear on the difference between the two.  You may have heard people say that they have the gift of working with children, or loving people, or art or working with computers, but make no mistake, these are natural talents and not spiritual gifts.  On the other hand, a person might combine a talent with a spiritual gift with a great result for God.  For instance, you might combine the gift of helps with a talent for working with computers, or  the gift of mercy with a talent for counseling, or the gift of administration with a talent for financial management.  There are any number of talents that can be combined with a gift, and as things progress it may be hard to tell where one starts and the other leaves off. This is no problem as long as the ministry comes primarily from the gift and not the talent. The key thing to keep in mind is that the verse about the common good must always apply, for a ministry is not about building up the individual, but about building up the body of Christ.

Here are some facts about natural talents and spiritual gifts:

What is the difference between the fruit of the spirit and spiritual gifts?

To review the fruit of the spirit, here is a listing of them as found in Galatians 5:

Although it may not be likely that any of us will manifest all nine of these at all times, any Christian can manifest any or all of these fruit of the spirit as they mature in their faith.  If a person isn’t showing any of them, they are having serious spiritual problems! Consider these differences:

To sum it up, the fruit of the spirit are signs of spiritual maturity and are attributes of a person’s character, while spiritual gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are attributes of ministry.

I’ve made a list of 17 questions I’ve been asked frequently, and we’ve now covered 9 of them, so there’s 8 more to go, and then we’ll get into the heart of the matter. Oh, there is one more question that I’ve never been asked, but I would bet that almost everyone has it in their mind, but don’t ask because they’re too polite… and that is the Bonus Question I’ll cover this afternoon. Wanna know what it is?

Well, you’ll need to come back this afternoon!