The gift of Exhortation

Primary Text: Romans 12:8

The gift of Exhortation is the ability to appropriately communicate words of encouragement, challenge or rebuke in the body of Christ.

Before we move on, let’s be sure that everybody has understood this gift clearly.  There are three types or aspects of Exhortation:

1. Encouraging others is the most dominant, the most common manifestation of this gift. See Acts 14:21-23.
2. Challenging others is the second most common manifestation of this gift, see 1 Timothy 4:13-16.
3. Rebuking others is the least common manifestation of this gift, and is to be used very sparingly. Most often, we can accomplish the best results by encouraging and challenging people to do what is right, rather by rebuking them for what is wrong. See Acts 5 for the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

The purpose of the gift is to bring health and wholeness to the body of Christ through well chosen and anointed words.

Back in centuries past, it was not unusual for a sermon to have two parts that were delivered by two different people. First, the lesson from the Word would be given by a preacher who would preach for an hour or two, and then the Exhortation would be delivered by another, encouraging, challenging and rebuking for another hour or so…

Cautions about this gift:

• Being anything less than 100% sincerity when encouraging.

•Rebuking without love.

•Getting over-loaded with people demands.

Evidence that you might have this gift:

• Encouraging others come easily to you and you enjoy it.

• You are not fearful to rebuke if necessary.

•You have good self image and are generally a confident person.

• You are able to motivate others; one-on-one, in small groups or in larger groups.

•You have good people skills.

The gift of Teaching

Primary Text: Romans 12:7 (Acts 18:24-28 provides a great illustration of it)

The gift of Teaching is the ability to employ a logical and systematic approach to biblical study in preparation for clearly communicating practical truth to the body of Christ; its purpose is to strengthen the faith of the body of Christ and to help equip the body for mature Christian living.

Cautions for the gift include:

• You may get “lost” in the details of study and become sidetracked from the ultimate purpose      of the study.

•Placing too much emphasis in the “glory” of being up in front.

• Developing an attitude of spiritual superiority towards people who don’t understand the Bible as well as you do.

Evidence that you may have this gift:

•You enjoy teaching groups of people to understand God’s Word.

•You get a great sense of joy and satisfaction when people you have taught grow in their spiritual maturity.

•You are organized in your thinking and approach to God’s Word.

• Others listen to and enjoy your teaching of the Bible.

Having this gift does not mean that you are an effective communicator or public speaker, and not everyone with this gift will be a good “classroom” teacher. Many with this gift are great writers but poor speakers, others assist the one who goes “up front.” It might just be that you have this gift, but still need to acquire the skills of a public speaker. In addition, this is one of the gifts that takes time and often, training to develop, and certainly is one that requires a high degree of maturity before it can be effectively used to build up the Body.