Ministry Gifts
GODSun Perspective on
Spirituality, Leadership and Business
October 2024 Vol 0924
Exploring the Interconnectedness of Spirituality, Leadership and Business
Last month I wrote about gifts and abilities and hopefully I was able to give you some insight on the importance of knowing what you have been gifted with. I dealt with the natural gifts last month and this month I am going to look at the ministry gifts. Before I do that I want to define what I mean by ministry gifts. A minister is someone who is employed in the execution of a purpose, according to The Oxford Concise Dictionary New Edition. This could be someone at the head of a government department or holding the office of the clergy or someone who is giving aid or service. This is where the term administration comes from and we recognize that there are administrations in every organization including the family. Therefore, ministry gifts are any abilities that can be used for giving aid or service.
In the church we identify ministry gifts as those that are given to build up the body of Christ and to carry out the work of Jesus Christ on the earth. If you have read any of my previous newsletters you know that I have stated that everyone born was placed here for a reason determined by Almighty God. Therefore, every person has been gifted to carry out the work of God on the earth. We have been gifted to build up humanity who God created in His image and whom he loves.
According to the bible (Romans 12: 4 – 8) ministry gifts fall under the following headings:
1. Practical service – helping out where ever and whenever it is needed
2. Teaching gifts
3. The ability and willingness to exhort or encourage people
4. Giving of your time and money
5. Leadership
6. Acts of mercy or showing kindness
7. Administration
In order for us to fulfill the plan that God has for us in this life we need to recognize where our gift lies. Is it in teaching, leadership, administration, giving, etc.? When you did your homework last month regarding what you were good at and what you enjoyed doing did any of them fall under the above headings? In Matthew 25: 14 – 30 Jesus gives a parable about talents and how an employer gave talents to his staff in accordance with their individual abilities. They did not all receive the same amount of talents because their master or employer knew what their abilities were. Then those that went out and used their talents developed more talents. In other words they increased their skills and abilities by using the ones that they had been given. In the bible the Greek meaning of the word ability is a) power, ability, physical or moral as residing in a person; b) power in action. God knows what our individual ability is because He fashioned and formed us in our mother’s womb. He put all the necessary material within us that would enable us to fulfill His plan and purpose for our lives and complete the work that He has ordained for us to do.
It is interesting to note that in the parable the ones who used their talents actually had a 100 % increase. The one with 5 developed 5 more the one with 10 developed 10 more. The only one who did not have success was the one who hid his talent and didn’t use it. If, for what ever reason, we deny or hide our talent it will be to our detriment since we will lose what we even had at the start. It is like music. If you have a natural skill but you don’t spend the time developing and using it, you lose even what you had. I think there is a spiritual law at play here but I am not talking about spiritual laws this month. Notice that every one had a choice to make regarding whether they would use their gift or not. They all held onto their gift until they had to give an account to their employer on what they had done with what was given to them. Using their gifts brought rewards and promotion. Not using their gift to produce growth and increase brought destruction.
The parable is just a story but all parables have a spiritual truth attached to them. The challenge that I think we have is that we struggle with recognizing our spirituality. We struggle recognizing that 1) we are spiritual beings having a natural or material experience and 2) that this material or natural world is not all that there is. Therefore, we don’t realize that what we do here will have a spiritual impact, which means it will have an eternal impact, which means that the spirit realm should be of greater importance and value in our lives. So, using what we have been gifted with will have eternal value for us. In the story Jesus talks about the servants who used and grew their talents and were rewarded by ruling and reigning with their master. Those servants were considered faithful because they recognized the responsibility that was given to them and wanted to show that the gifting was not given in vain.
I think most people believe that there is a heaven and most hope that they end up there. But according to scripture we will be doing work in heaven. It is not a matter of sitting on a cloud and being fed grapes by an angel. The skills and abilities that we have been given to develop on the earth will be the areas that God will use as we work with Him, side by side, as He fulfills His plans for the universe. Knowing what He has given to us and using them is vitally important for our eternal life that has been determined by Almighty God. He didn’t give out giftings and abilities willy nilly. He has a plan and a purpose and it is important that we work to figure out where we fit in His scheme and not just focus on our own plans. No matter how fearful we may be to step out and start using our natural abilities it is important that we do so. As we develop our talents our sphere of influence will increase and we will be able to have a greater impact in this world for good.
Blessings,
Sunday
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