Jeremiah Tipton teaches three ways to find your spiritual gift: desire for it, recognition from others, and seeing it work in your life. He warns that people often miss their gifts by taking them for granted, and suggests a group exercise where members affirm each other's potential gifts.
How can you find out what your spiritual gift is? God has given every Christian a special ability. Here's how to find yours. Number 1, desire. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says, let love be your highest goal, but you should also desire the special abilities that the Spirit gives. There's nothing wrong with desiring a spiritual gift. Paul the Apostle encouraged believers to desire the spiritual gifts. Your desire for a particular gift could be a sign that God has given you that gift. In fact, think about it like this. If God gave you the desire, Then to ask for it would be according to his will. And if you ask anything according to his will, it's yours. Number 2, recognition. Proverbs 18:16 says, a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men. If you truly have a spiritual gift, you don't have to go around announcing it. It just shows. It makes room for you. It creates ministry opportunities naturally. A sign that you have a spiritual gift is that others notice the gift on your life. Now, this, of course, doesn't mean that others need to acknowledge a gift on your life in order for you to have it. It just means that what other believers see on you can help you discover your spiritual gift. So try this in a group of believers. Take turns encouraging each other. Go around the group encouraging each believer by speaking out loud what gifts you potentially see in each other. Now, this, of course, isn't the only means of discovering your gift, But you might be surprised at how harmoniously everyone discerns gifts in each other. Finally, number 3, function. 1 Corinthians 12:4 says, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. Now, this might be the most obvious, but it's also the clearest sign that you have a gift. You know you have a gift if you sense or see that gift in operation. Now, again, this might seem obvious, but you'd be amazed at how many people take their gifts for granted, while they're operating in their lives. Where they might just think they're really good at reading people, there could be a gift of prophecy. Where they might imagine that they just have favor, there could be a gift of miracles. Where they see only a positive attitude, there could be a gift of faith. Pay close attention to how God might be working in your life already, and you may see a spiritual gift, a gift that's been hidden all along. To learn more about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, get Holy Spirit: God Within You at EncounterTheSpirit.com.
