If you have completed the exercises I’ve given you and taken the test, you are ready for this last step; ah yes, another little exercise.

Before I get into it, a short word…

I am going to assume that you are already active in your church and its ministries; who knows? Maybe you are the preacher! If this is true, that you are already active in Christian service, then you may have noticed that in many of the gift descriptions, under evidence, there is something that might say “people ask you to…” This is important, because if you are already serving actively, the people you are serving with already have a fair idea what your gifts are, even if they don’t know much of anything about spiritual gifts. Active and mature Christians can often discern the difference between natural talent and a gift… again, even if they don’t know anything about spiritual gifts as such, for they can tell that when a gifted person is serving within their gifted area, there is just something “different” about them. So, where I am going with this is simply that you might talk to the people you are serving with to see if they might be able to help you confirm your gift. You might also direct them to this study…

OK, here we go on the last exercise:

Step one: Jot down your primary spiritual gifts from the test results; list up to five if applicable.

Step two: Below the list, write out your ministry passion assessment from the last exercise (in the previous post)

Step three: Below that, write the four words you selected in our first exercise about your personality.

(Yep, that’s why I asked you to jot this stuff down!)

Step four: Circle the item below that best represents where you are right now in your spiritual growth; please be honest with yourself on this!

New or young Christian

Regardless of how long you’ve been a Christian, you are still learning the basics of Christianity.

Consistent/Growing Christian

You know the basics of the Bible and God’s will for your life, and you are consistent in your walk with God.

Guiding/Discipling Christian

You have progressed beyond the basics to guiding and discipling other Christians who are younger in their faith

Christian Leader

You are influencing other Christians in a positive way to make a contribution to the overall mission of the church.

Consider these carefully because they are vital, and most people are not quite as spiritually mature as they think they are… or that they say they are. If you have teenagers, you have probably noticed that the ones who are most often claiming to be the most mature are really the least mature! This is important because if you should have gifts like teaching, leadership, wisdom, prophet  and discernment, but you are not yet disciplining, I can almost guarantee that you will fall victim to most of the cautions I listed about those gifts if you jump into those roles too soon; they take time to develop.

Step five: How much time do you have for Christian service?

Step six: Now go back and look at what you have compiled in this exercise. Are your gifts and your personality and you passions in sync? If so, then you should get serving! If there are some conflicts, please consider the following points:

1. The test was made by humans who are not perfect; nothing devised by humans is perfect and maybe you should discount that result.
2. If your gift is teaching, but being in front of a group results in paralyzing fear for you, then maybe blogging is your best teaching medium right now. Or, it could also be that your time for teaching has not yet come, and that God will open the right doors for you down the road when you are ready.

What usually happens right about now, if you’ve done everything I’ve suggested, is that in one or more areas, you will come to understand why things have taken place in your life; maybe a light bulb comes on in your head. You will quite possibly gain a new confidence in one or more areas and better see how and where you fit into the body of Christ.

For most people, confirmation of a spiritual gift, any spiritual gift, is not a weight of obligation, but more of an empowerment and liberation to be free to serve God in the manner in which He intended for you, a manner that brings amazing satisfaction and joy into your life. It also will usually reveal why you serve in one area and why somebody else serves in another way, and to recognize that one is not better than the other, but that all areas of service are equally amazing and equally important in our mission of building the body of Christ together, as a team, and for His glory.

Tomorrow, I will have some final observations on spiritual gifts, including a little more on how to put them to work in our lives. See you then!