This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Faithful in Ministry.
The great nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon once told of a woman, a member of his congregation, who lived in the poor house. Spurgeon went to visit her one day to give her some comfort. There in her room, he looked up on the wall and saw a framed piece of paper, a legal document. He went over and read it. It was a document transferring great wealth to this woman—but she did not know what it was.
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven, He left you an incredible giftedness. But it may be that you have not yet discovered what you have.
Have you left your spiritual gift unopened, and therefore unappreciated?
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Ephesians 4:7).
Did that include you? If you are a child of God, it did indeed.
To every one of us is given “grace”—the Greek word charis. The word charismatic has been corrupted, but it merely means a person who has been gifted by God’s grace.
What are spiritual gifts? They are God-given abilities for service and ministry. These special gifts come in various forms.
Spiritual gifts go beyond natural talent. You do not choose your God-given spiritual gifts any more than you can choose your God-given natural talents.
Spiritual gifts are from your ascended Lord Jesus.
Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8).
Satan had taken the world captive, but Jesus purchased our salvation and broke Satan’s back. Christ “led captivity captive.”
The spoils of His battle against Satan are given to us. Never despise or overlook your great gifts, because they are spiritual gifts from our conqueror, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God gave you spiritual gifts for you to use to bless the Church, not to bless you. They are to be used for the common good of God’s people.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12:6-8).
You will hear your name called in one or more of the different gifts.
Here are some things you can examine:
What do you enjoy doing? People who are using their gifts desire to use them. Whatever the action of each gift, they love it. They are disappointed if they cannot do it. What do you enjoy doing? What do you feel that you do well?
You will discover your gifts as you endeavor to use them, serving the needs of others. Other people will say, “You blessed me when you did that,” or, “You’ve given me such wisdom here,” or, “You have the ability to lead in this area.”
The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Study! No matter what your spiritual gifts are, they are like natural talents. You have them, but you have to develop them.
Your spiritual gifts must operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. Your gifts are supernatural and they operate with supernatural power.
Your gifts are significant as they relate to spiritual gifts in other people. You are part of the Body of Christ, and it is in the fellowship of the Church that you will discover your place.
What happens when all of us find our ministries?
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…(Ephesians 4:11-13).
The word perfect here does not mean sinless, but mature. When these gifts work together, the Body of Christ matures and becomes like our head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual maturity is godliness—Christlikeness.
You can be young only once, but you can be immature for a long time. Many churches have people who have been born again but cease to grow.
Spiritual gifts are not necessarily a mark of spiritual maturity. Samson was mightily gifted, but he was immature.
Time. You will not instantly be mature. There are no shortcuts. Remain steadfast, and you will grow.
Nourishment. This means Bible Study. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). Feed daily on the Word of God.
Exercise. “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14).
Whatever your age, no one is saved full grown. Thank God for baby Christians, but baby Christians have to grow up. Some stay in the maternity ward far too long.
Christians should become workers and warriors. When you begin to grow, you are no longer being served, but you are a servant, a worker, a warrior. Are you a threat to Satan’s kingdom? Does the Word of God abide in you?
How do you measure a ministry? Not by the size of the buildings, the offerings, or the Sunday School attendance.
Are you becoming more and more like Jesus? You can tell when the spiritual gifts are working in a church when the church becomes like the Lord Jesus Christ.
…That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting… (Ephesians 4:14).
False cults do not evangelize or win souls; they only corrupt and deceive people who are immature. But when the Body of Christ is healthy, when our God-given spiritual gifts are operating, we are not blown about by every wind of doctrine.
…But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ… (Ephesians 4:15).
If you speak the truth without love, that is brutality. If you speak in love without truth, that is hypocrisy. Immature people cannot blend the two.
…From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16).
A body works together because of the joints. That is the way God made the Body of Christ, the Church. Members of the Body have their individual, God-given ministries, and love is the synovial fluid that lubricates us to work in harmony.
Find what God wants you to do, and get busy doing it, in your local church, to the glory of God.
Ephesians 4:7-16; Romans 12:6-8; 1 Peter 2:2; Hebrews 5:14
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David…to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life (Luke 1:68-69, 74-75).
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality (Romans 12:10-13).
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13-14).
