Spiritual Gifts: What they are and How to use them.

Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 4:14)

Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Have you ever taken the time to discover them? If you know what they are, how are you developing them?

When Jesus became your Lord and savior, your body became the temple of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of God dwells in you. Sounds cool, right? But that is not the only great thing; he has also given you spiritual gifts according to the grace he has given us.

Now, these gifts are not meant to be used by believers for their own selfish interests. God, through his Spirit, has given us these gifts so that we can glorify his name. Not just that, but we are supposed to use these gifts to help others.

What are Spiritual Gifts?

Spiritual gifts are God-given abilities to do certain things. They are gifts God has specifically given to you so that you can use them to advance his kingdom on earth.

God gives each believer a gift as he sees fit.

The gifts of God help us to understand the nature of God. They also help us to understand the hidden things of God that can be revealed to his children.

3 Categories of Spiritual Gifts

There are very many spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible. We can find them in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Peter 4:10-11, Ephesians 4:11 and 1 Corinthians 12:7. To make it easy to understand these gifts, you can categorize them into three:

Ministry gifts
Motivational gifts
Manifestation gifts

Here is an infographic with all gifts and what category they belong to:

Note that some gifts are found in more than one category.

Now contrary to what some people will want you to believe, spiritual gifts are not for selected people in the body of Christ. Every Christian has been given a gift that they should use for the advancement of God’s kingdom. You only need to discover yours so that you can use it effectively.

But here is the thing: your spiritual gift will not be of great value to others if you cannot love them. We need to love one another earnestly as we use these gifts to build each other up.