The gift of Missionary
Primary Text: This gift is inferred in Acts 8:4; 13:2-3; 22:21; Romans 10:15
The gift of Missionary is the ability to minister effectively in cultures other than your own. The purpose of this gift is to advance the Great Commission on a worldwide basis.
Not all missionaries have this gift; that is just a fact. If you stop and think about it, why should anyone in a different culture listen to you? You look different, your dress differently, your frames of reference when you try to communicate are incomprehensible, you may not even speak the language… and you’re pushing a “foreign religion.” From a communication perspective, everything is stacked against you.
Yet in spite of all of this, there are those certain missionaries through whom God does things that are nothing short of amazing. That is the gift in action.
Cautions about the gift include:
• Being caught up in the glamour of world travel.
•Approaching world missions work as an escape from a lack of fruit in the local church.
• Placing foreign missions work at a higher priority than any other efforts of the local church.
Evidence that you might have the gift might be:
•You adapt well to other cultures.
•Foreign languages come easy to you.
•You are generally flexible by nature.
•You are committed to evangelism.
The gift of Prophecy
Primary Text: 1 Corinthians 12:10; see also 14:1-4; Acts 2:37-40; Acts 7 and 26.
The gift of Prophecy is the ability to boldly declare the truth of God, regardless of the consequences, calling people to righteous living. The purpose of the gift is to deliver the truth of God with divine insight and authority in order that people repent of sin and live for God.
There are so many misconceptions within the community of believers about prophecy and the role of a prophet, both in Bible days and in the here and now. We often seem to think that Biblical prophets were sent by God to tell the future, yet that is simply not the case and that attitude has led to so much division and confusion. The prophets of the Old Testament were men who brought a message from God to His people, and for the most part it was a message of warning. Sometimes there was some part of the message that dealt with future events, but if you look carefully, most of these were messages of coming judgment if the warnings were not heeded, sometimes God’s judgment was already assured, and still others it was about the hope that was to come in Christ, but it was never just so you’ll know the future.
Common attitudes in the church about the concept of prophet in the church today are wide and varied. Many, if not most, would say that there are no prophets in the church age, and in the sense of an Old Testament prophet, I would agree… but keep in mind that a prophet is someone who delivers a message from God, and in that sense a preacher who is faithfully preaching the Word of God is delivering his message.
Yet not all preachers have this gift, in fact not many do. When I preach, I do so with boldness and confidence and why shouldn’t I? after all my confidence is in the Word not myself. Sometimes I might influence someone’s thinking when I preach… but I don’t have this gift. I have a friend who does, and when he presents the truth to someone about sin in their lives, and attitudes and behaviors frequently change right then and there. I can imitate him, but I don’t get that result at all; he has the gift of prophet, I have the gift of teaching. For him it’s about sin, for me it’s always about teaching. He is a pain in the neck sometimes… but God uses him in cases I can’t reach… and vice versa: Church is a team sport!
Cautions about the gift:
•Confusing your own self-righteousness with declaring God’s message.
• Relating to people as groups rather than as individuals.
• Relating to people too harshly.
• Lacking in flexibility.
•Focusing more on law than on grace.
Evidence that you have this gift might be…
A bold sense of confidence in speaking for God.
A hatred for sin.
•A passionate reliance on the Word of God.
•A desire to see lives changed as a result of hearing God’s truth.
• You possess the gift of Discernment.
Life Project Blog 
The church I was in had a study on spiritual gifts that went on for several months. While the literature was good, the teaching only focused on the “glamour” gifts such as: prayer, preaching, giving, and helps (as the literature defined them)–gifts that could be used for how their ministry functioned. Most of these were weaker gifts in my case and the teaching was that we should all have these gifts or focus on developing them specifically if not. The test that came with the literature showed my highest were knowledge, wisdom, discernment, and prophecy–none of which were focused on much during the months of this class.
I’m grateful that you are going over these in greater detail. I’m especially seeing some of the pitfalls of these gifts in myself you’ve discussed so far and can be more alert in not allowing myself to stray there. It seems God has been working some of these cautions out of me. Some I’m still struggling through. With prophecy: Relating to people too harshly & Lacking in flexibility. I’ve noticed even these becoming less potent over time though. Like you mentioned in another post, it often takes God humbling me to be more responsible in using these gifts.
Hang in there John what you describe is really quite normal. With time, growth, experience and maturity all of us, whatever our gifts may be, find that we are able to use them to His glory without creating too much collateral damage in the process… even one who has the spirit of a prophet! 🙂
As to your first point, regrettably what you describe is also common, and at least in my humble view, misses the mark.
Missionary is the Latin word equivalent to the Greek word Apostle. They have the same meaning.
Wonderful point, thanks for sharing it!
You’re being ironic but my comment has to do with your different description, in two different posts, of the gifts of the missionaries and the gifts of the apostles.
Ironic? not really. Two contexts, and two very similar but different applications, or so it seems to me 🙂