Each Christian has a personality or
disposition colored by the specific [spiritual] gifts present and practiced.
The combination of gifts and their various manifestations determine how a
person acts in relation to self and others in the body of Christ. … Many
Christians, if not most, practice their gifts without being consciously aware
of them. Usually after two years of growth, serious converts to Christ find a
ministry consistent with their gifts -- without knowing it. I have heard many
persons tell how their work for Christ was joy-filled, but they didn’t know why
until they discovered that all along they were working out of their gifts.
A
70-year-old man gave an emotional testimony after a workshop where he
discovered one of his gifts. He said, “All my life I knew there was something I
really enjoyed doing for Christ and the church. But I’ve always had a tinge of
guilt, thinking that I was doing my thing for self-gratification. This morning,
while I was shaving and praying about the gifts, God revealed to me that what I
had been doing and enjoying all along was coming out of my gift. I got so
excited about it that I could hardly finish shaving without cutting myself.
I’ve been singing all day long. And to think that I have felt guilty over the
joy of doing what God wanted me to do!”
-- Charles V. Bryant in “Rediscovering
Our Spiritual Gifts: Building Up the Body of Christ Through the Gifts of the
Spirit”, Copyright © 1991 by Charles V. Bryant. All rights reserved. Used by
permission of Upper Room Books.
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