Natural Gifts
GODSun Perspective on
Spirituality, Leadership and Business
September 2024 Vol 0824
Exploring the Interconnectedness of Spirituality, Leadership and Business
This month I am going to talk about gifts and abilities and hopefully give you some insight on the importance of knowing what you have been gifted with. You may be saying to yourself “I don’t have any gifts or abilities” and I would have to say that, that isn’t how God sees you. I have said this before and I will say it again. Everyone who has been birthed onto planet earth has been given gifts and abilities for specific reasons and it is vital that we determine what our giftings are and understand why we were given them. I want to open you up to the possibility that you have been equipped to accomplish a specific work for God. And as it has always been with God, we can choose to accept or reject the assignment that He has for us. That being said there are three types or categories of gifts that we can have:
1. Natural gifts
2. Ministry gifts
3. Spirit imparted gifts
The natural gifts are the talents or abilities that we are born with and they are God given. God fashioned us in our mother’s womb whether we believe that or not. According to Psalm 139: 13 – 15, 16; Is 44: 24, God is involved in our creation and development. Because we all have talents it is clear that no one is here by accident. God has put within every one of us the talents/gifts that we are going to need to do the works that He planned in advance that we are to do. Ps 139: 16 and Eph 2: 10. He, God, has a purpose for everyone of us and He would not create a plan for us and then not equip us to complete that work well.
In order to even start to do the work that He has planned for us to do we need to identify what gifts God has gifted us with. We may not like the abilities or gifts that God has given to us but He has given them to us for a reason. Our job is to identify the gift and then to figure out why we were given that gift. We are the ones who will determine what we are going to do with the gifts that He has given us. Are we going to hide them because they are not well received in our family, culture, etc. or are we going to embrace them and grow them. We will all be given the opportunity to choose whether we are going to use our abilities for good or for evil. We choose. God will never force us to be a force for good. Satan may manipulate us to be a force for evil but again that is our choice to submit to the manipulation. And the gifts of God are without repentance as it states in Romans 11: 29. So if you decide to use your abilities for evil God will not remove that ability from you. If you don’t know what your natural giftings are there are a couple of things you can do to identify them.
1. Ask yourself what are the things that you can do well without a great deal of effort. Look at every aspect of your life. The natural gifts of God are transferable. They can be used where ever we may be in what ever situation we find ourselves. Your gift could be speaking, writing, singing, playing an instrument, being observant, aware, creative in some way or another, problem solving, good with numbers, etc.
2. Then ask yourself what do you enjoy doing from that list. Which of those activities give you the greatest satisfaction when you do them? You’ve probably heard this question many times “what would you do even if you didn’t get paid to do it?” Which of those things that you listed gives you that much pleasure?
3. Once you have made up your list take it before the Lord in prayer and submit it to Him to get His take on your list. I have already spoken to you on how to listen to your inner man and get understanding. You need to go through the same process with this list that you have created.
Let me give you a couple of examples from the Bible to support what I am saying.
Isaiah 49: 1-2 Isaiah acknowledged that He had been called by God for a specific work before he was even born. That God had fashioned him and was using him as he chose and that God had brought him out and used him when the time was right. Isaiah was a great communicator.
Jeremiah 1: 4, 5, 10 Before he was formed in the womb God knew him, sanctified him, and consecrated him to be a prophet to the nations and to be over the nations and kingdoms to pluck up, tear down, build and plant, etc. His role was pretty active and aggressive on the earth for God.
Esther 4: 14 – to the end. Esther’s role was preordained even though it may not have seemed like it. What was the purpose of her beauty? Today we would probably say that she was trafficked, because of her beauty, to join a harem. Yet God knew what the future held for His chosen people Israel and the beauty that He had gifted her with enabled her to enter the political arena where she could use her other abilities, that had been overlooked, to problem solve and strategize. She was able to use the influence that she had gained, as a result of her beauty, to perform the will of God for His people. Then she accessed the courage and wisdom that was within her to complete the assignment with excellence. She could have said no to the assignment.
Judges 4: 4, 5 Deborah was a prophetess in Israel as well as a judge over Israel. Her natural ability of problem solving, observation, sense of justice being performed was used by God to bring about His plans for Israel. She had wisdom and the ability to plan and strategize to bring about positive results.
All of these people used their natural abilities to do the work that God put before them. In some cases it was not what they would have chosen for themselves to do but they did it anyway because it would give the best and greatest result for the many. They did not just focus on themselves and what was in it for them. They were connected to a bigger vision and they persevered in achieving it. True leadership at play. It is difficult to have a vision if you do not know what you are good at and what you can do.
The natural gifts that God has given us come with great responsibility and we will, one day, stand before the judge of the whole earth and give an account of what we have done with those gifts. Have we used them for good or for evil? And as we identify our natural gifts and submit them to God they will become much more impactful. And they can even be used in ministry giftings. Remember that God has a plan for our lives and our ability to receive that plan is based, in part, on our ability to recognize and acknowledge who we are, what we have been gifted with and what we can do. Our receiving is also based on our ability to understand the responsibility that is attached to our gifting and be willing to nurture and grow it. Then we need to choose to use our abilities for good and not for harm.
Sunday
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