Spiritual Gifts: What God's Given You Is Meant to Be Given Away
1. God Gives Gifts (He Chooses What, Not You)
Your spiritual gift isn't something you picked or earned. God has sovereignly chosen what gift to give you—and He did it on purpose. According to 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit "apportions to each one individually as he wills." That means you have something specific that God wanted you to have.
You don't get to decide what your gift is based on what you're comfortable with or what looks impressive. You also don't get to opt out of a gift because it scares you or you've seen it misused. God's decision stands. Your job is to discover it and step into it.
2. All Gifts Are Available to All of Us
Don't fall into the trap of thinking some gifts are only for "professional Christians" or that certain gifts aren't "real" because you've had bad experiences with them. The Scripture is clear: all the gifts—including prophecy, healing, tongues, deliverance—are available for the whole church to desire and operate in.
Your past bad experience with a gift doesn't change what the Bible says about it. Don't let someone else's poor use of a gift convince you to build your theology around their mistake. Build your theology on Scripture, then live your life based on what's actually true.
3. Love Is the Engine Behind Everything
You can have every spiritual gift imaginable, but if love isn't driving you, it's all worthless noise. Paul is brutally honest: "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong." Gifts without love? Useless. Worse than useless.
Before you use your gift, check your heart. Are you using it to build someone else up? To move them toward Jesus? To serve them? Or are you using it for recognition, control, or to prove something about yourself? If it's the latter, you're missing the whole point.
4. Gifts Come in Two Types (But Both Point Away From You)
Every spiritual gift falls into one of two categories: speaking gifts (speaking God's truth) or serving gifts (serving with God's strength). Notice what Peter emphasizes: "Whoever speaks, let them speak as one who speaks the very words of God. Whoever serves, let them serve with the strength God provides."
You're not the star. You're the vessel. Whether you're up front teaching or behind the scenes serving, the point isn't you being impressive—it's God being glorified and people being transformed. That actually takes the pressure off. You're just showing up and letting Him work through you.
5. Your Gifts Are God's Strategy for Growing the Church
Spiritual gifts aren't a nice spiritual accessory. They're God's actual ministry strategy. According to Ephesians 4, He gives gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. When everyone uses their gifts, the whole church grows up in maturity.
When you don't use your gift, the church is literally less mature than God intends. That 16% of people serving at The Bridge? That means 84% of us aren't actively participating in God's strategy to build up our community. That's not okay. We need you. Not eventually. Now.
6. Gifts Are Meant to Be Grown In (Practice Makes Mature)
You don't wake up fully skilled in your spiritual gift. You grow in it. Romans 12 tells us to "use our gifts well" and "use them in full faith"—implying there's an immature way to use them and a mature way. The more you practice, the better you get.
Don't wait until you feel confident or fully equipped. Step out in faith now. Try serving. Try speaking truth. Try encouraging. Watch what God does. Adjust. Learn. Grow. Your gift gets sharper as you actually use it.
7. You Matter to This Body (Seriously)
God arranged you here. If you're at The Bridge and you've put your faith in Jesus, it's not an accident. "God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose." You're here on purpose for a purpose.
You're not a number. You're not just filling a seat. You're an essential part of the body. Without your gifts, we're incomplete. Without you stepping up, someone else has to carry what God designed you to carry. And that's not fair to them—and it's not fair to you, because you're missing out on the life God designed you to live.
So What? (Why This Actually Matters)
Three things need to sink in:
1. You have gifts, given by God, for the sake of the church. Not for you. For them. This reframes everything.
2. Your gifts are meant to be used and grown in. They don't stay dormant. They get sharper, deeper, more effective as you practice them.
3. All gifts are meant to be motivated by love and for building up the body. The moment your gift stops being about loving people toward Jesus and starts being about you, you've lost the plot.
Now What? (Time to Actually Do Something)
Here's the invitation:
Desire the Gifts
Don't settle for one or two. Ask God for more. If you have the gift of encouragement, pray that God would also stir up the gift of prophecy—to speak God's truth at the moment people need to hear it most. If you're generous, ask Him to develop your gift of discernment. God is a generous God. He wants to expand how He can use you.
Use the Gifts for Others
Not for you. For them. Stop asking, "What gift do I have?" and start asking, "What gift has God given me to give away?" Shift your entire framework. Every gift exists to bless someone else and point them to Jesus.
Step Into Something This Week
Fill out that volunteer application. Join a serving team. You don't have to know your exact gift—just start practicing.
If you're hesitant: Maybe you think you don't have what it takes. But gifts aren't about what you're naturally good at—they're about what God wants to empower through you. So try anyway.
If you've been burned before: I get it. You've seen gifts misused. But don't let bad practice ruin good theology. The answer isn't to avoid the gifts—it's to use them rightly, motivated by love, for the building up of others.
Start Here
You might not know your exact gift yet. That's okay. Here's what you do: **Practice the gifts and watch where God brings about spiritual fruit.** Try serving. Try encouraging. Try speaking truth. Try leading. Try helping. Watch what happens. That's how you discover what God's empowered you to do.
The Foundation of It All
None of this is possible without what Jesus accomplished. His body broken. His blood shed. His resurrection power making us new. That's the foundation. That's why we gather at the table—to remember that everything we have, every gift we've been given, flows from His grace.
So this week: Identify one gift you sense God might have given you. Take one step to practice it. And watch what God does.
Because you matter. Your gifts matter. And the church needs what only you can give.
