When I was a kid, I used to love watching Captain Planet. “Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart! … By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!” As five kid heroes combined their environment-saving powers, Captain Planet would manifest and help them save the planet. I still have the theme song in my head. You?
When Jesus ascended back to heaven, He gave us Christians even more. He gave us gifts, not toys or tech, Jesus gave us His gifts, His giftings. His superpowers. We call them spiritual gifts.
What are your spiritual gifts? How do you determine them?
1) Ask Jesus. When determining anything, always start here. Prayer and the Bible. The passages in the Bible about gifts are Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:27-31a, 1 Peter 4:7-11 and Ephesians 4:7-12.
2) Ask your anointed moments. What are those? The times when you have really sensed God using you in significant ways. When you “felt the pleasure of God” like Olympian Eric Liddel would say. Did those moments flow from a particular gifting in use?
3) Ask your faith family. What do you Brothers and Sisters in Christ say about your gifting? What does your serving team at church say? What does your Christian bestie say?
This week, our small group enjoyed a tremendous discussion about one another’s gifts, affirming them together and encouraging one another onward with some brainstorming of how to fan them into flame in the church.
Captain Planet was fictional. Spiritual gifts from Jesus are not. You have a gift from Jesus. Deploy your Jesus gift and combine it with the gifts of others in the church family toward the glory of God and the health of the church.
Hear the full sermon on Ephesians 4:7-12.
Maturity in Church
