How to Discover Your Primary Spiritual Gift

My dream and my goal is to help you discover your primary spiritual gift. Understanding your primary spiritual gift, and how it fits with the purpose God has for your life, is absolutely empowering, and can incredibly give you some focus to your life about what you really need to do.

I want to tell you what helped me the most in unwrapping my spiritual gift. Put another way: How to discover your spiritual gift. Here’s how I want to develop this.

First of all, I just want to give you some facts. And I want to walk through this very logically. Here are the facts – there are four major passages on spiritual gifts.

Then, what you’re going to see is, you’ve got to develop some sort of paradigm, or framework, to organize those in a way that makes sense. So, I want to give you a framework. It’s not from Mount Sinai, okay? But it’s a framework. It’s very helpful.

And then, I want to go through the description of what I’m going to call “the motivational,” or “the core gifts,” that I believe everyone in this room has at least one of the seven that I’ll describe. And we’re literally going to go through a process, where I will describe the gift, give you the characteristics, talk about some dangers, and have you say: “yes,” “no,” or “maybe.”

So, all I want to do is put you in a funnel, so that when you get to the end of this session, you may not say, “Oh, that’s the one,” but you’ll go from a general knowledge, maybe down to, “I think it’s probably one of these two.” So, are you ready? Let’s dig in together.

Let’s look at the framework. As you look at spiritual gifts, you study the New Testament, what you’re going to find, there are four basic passages: Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4.

And what I can tell you, if you look at those in columns, you can say, “Okay, Romans 12. Okay. Here are the gifts. There are seven gifts there.” Okay, you can move on. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, early part of the chapter, gifts are mentioned; how they’re used, later part of the chapter. Ephesians 4, you’re going to look at primary ministry – some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastor/teachers.

And then, 1 Peter 4, Peter actually gives you his paradigm. If he says, if you walked up to the apostle Peter and said, “Peter, what do you think about spiritual gifts?” he’d say, “Well I think there are two kinds: speaking gifts and serving gifts.” And then, he’s going to say, “Let him who speak, as it were the very words of God. And let him who serve, serve by the strength which God supplies.” And so, all I want you to know is that any study of spiritual gifts, you’re going to land in these four passages.

Now, here’s the question: How do you organize them? How do you look at them? Is it possible that God, for us, has taken these, and laid them out in a certain way that there’s a lens to look through, that can have it all fit together, that would make sense for us?

Now, I believe there is. And I think that paradigm, or that framework, is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 4 to 6. Notice what he says: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of workings, but the same God who works all of them in all men.”

Now, this is written to the church that seems to have, at least, more gifts operating than any other church, but also the church that seems to be more carnal, more confused, and misusing them. And so, it seems that God here, through the apostle Paul, is giving a framework about all these different gifts, and how they fit together.

You’ll notice that I put there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. And that word for gifts is charismata. That’s our general word. It means “a grace gift; something, an endowment, supernatural ability given from God.”

But then, he goes on to say, “There are different kinds of service” – also referring to spiritual gifts. And that’s our word diakonia. And the word deacon…it just means “a waiter of tables.” It has the idea of just “service.”

And then, the third word – it says there are different kinds of workings. That’s the idea – the Greek word is energematon. And I put that there, not necessarily to impress you – although I don’t pronounce them very well. But I put it there – can anyone see an English word that might come out of that? Energy.

And so, with the apostle Paul, when he wants to take a framework, he says there are certain, what I could call, “motivational gifts.” There are certain passions. There are certain drives. There are certain ones that every believer has, I will argue. And then, he’s going to say that every one of us will have one of them. And then, he’s going to say, but that one, strong, motivational drive will then be manifested in different arenas of service, or ministries. And then, as your motivational drive’s primary gift comes out in different ministries, then the effects, or the energy, or the manifestation of what the Spirit of God will do, will show up in the body of Christ in various ways.

Let me summarize it this way: There are three kinds of spiritual gifts. Every believer has one primary motivational gift. And by the way, this is not from Sinai. And here’s what I mean by that: I’ve read tons of books on spiritual gifts. I have studied them all. There are lots of people that have lots of good ideas about spiritual gifts. Okay? This is the paradigm that has helped me the most. Okay?

So, you need to do what those good Berean Christians do: Examine the Scriptures after you hear what I say. Look at these passages and say, Hmm, does this make sense? Does it line up with God’s Word? And spiritual gifts are not an area for disunity or argumentation. The whole goal is – what? Build each other up in love.

And so, what I want to say is, one, every believer has one primary motivational gift. And those are found in Romans 12, verses 6 through 8. And then, I’m going to argue that we’re to concentrate on discovering and developing this gift. The second thing that I’ll argue is that the motivational gift, out of Romans 12 – this driver ability – can express itself through a variety of ministry gifts. And we find the ministry gifts in Ephesians 4, and 1 Corinthians 12:28, and following. And third, when we exercise our motivational gift through our ministry gift, the Holy Spirit then determines what manifestation, or impact, the believer will receive.

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Romans chapter 12, and let me see if I can build my case. Romans chapter 12. We know, verse 1, you’re a living sacrifice, right? Verse 2: Don’t be conformed to this world, be transformed. Verse 3: Have an accurate view of yourself. And verses 4 and 5, that we’re an interdependent body, just like the physical body. And then, when he talks about unity and diversity, he says to us, “But we have different gifts according to the grace given us.” Can’t take any credit. It’s grace given us.

Then, notice this command: “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it into the proportion of his faith. If it’s in serving, let him serve. If it’s in teaching, let him teach. If it’s encouraging, let him encourage. If it’s in contributing to the needs of the saints, let him give generously. If it’s in leadership, let him govern diligently. If it’s in showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

Now, notice the little phrase “let him,” “let him,” “let him,” “let him.” You might put a little line under that in your Bible. Kenneth Wuest talks about this. He says, “It’s the locative of sphere, grammatically.” And what he means by that is that the idea is that the one with the gift, for example, of teaching, should remain within the exercise of the sphere of that gift.

Now, the reason I’m going to tell you that I think Romans 12 gives these timeless, motivational gifts is because, in Romans 12, you can go through the Bible, and I am commanded to obey all seven of those things. I’m commanded to do what? I’m commanded to serve. I’m commanded to exhort. I’m commanded to show mercy.

The second thing this is, every church – I don’t care the background of the church – every church needs those seven things happening. The other thing is, every single believer’s life – for you to grow to be a healthy, mature believer, all seven of those things need to occur in your life from other people: leadership, mercy, exhortation, teaching, prophesy.

And so, what Kenneth Wuest says, basically, is that out of need, out of commitment, out of servanthood, we will all exercise all seven of these things. But notice, he says, “Let him who is to teach, teach.” Put your focus on teaching. Meeting needs, be a servant. But when you ask: where do you put the lion’s share of your time? If it’s service, do it in serving. If it’s prophecy, do it to the proportion of your faith. If the primary is giving, then do it liberally. In other words, it basically says, whatever the primary motivation God has given you, maximize it; focus on it. That’s where to put your energy, and your strength.

Wuest goes on to say, “It’s a wise man who stays within the sphere of service for which God the Holy Spirit has fitted him, and does not invade some other field of service for which he is not fitted.” That doesn’t mean that we don’t serve other people and do all these things on occasion. But what it means, as you go through the pipeline of discovering God’s will, and His purpose for your life – and if you go back to Ephesians 2:10, there is a good work that God has prepared in advanced that I am to walk in.

Whatever that good work is, He has a primary motivational gift, a tool in me, to use to build the body of Christ. I need to figure out which one this is, so that I know whether it’s supposed to be leading, motivated by exhortation. Is it motivated by service? Or is it something else?

Now, the second thing: You’ll notice there, that, in Romans 12, you have prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy. But you’ll notice there’s another whole set. There are ministry gifts. These ministry gifts are areas of service. There are people that are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, a worker of miracles, someone who’s gifted in healing, helping, tongues, administration. And when you study those, what you find is, those are actual ministries. Those are actual services to people.

And the final category, the workings – 1 Corinthians 12:8 through 11. These are, literally, manifestations, or effects. When someone is motivated by a certain gift, and then, in this ministry, then what you see is, people get a word of wisdom, or a word of knowledge, or faith, or healing, or miracles, or prophecy, or discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues.

Now, just before some of you get a little uncomfortable, and wonder where we’re going in our next time together, I’m going to go through every single one of those gifts, and I’ll give you a definition, and I’ll give you some historical background, and we’ll look at them. Today, think: I want to get the big picture. I want to get the paradigm. Because here’s what happens: We study all these gifts. Now we have twenty-some things to choose from. We learn a little about them. We often even take a little test – and we took the test. Now, has that test made any big difference in what you’re doing in your life?

See, what I’m going to suggest is, if you understand there’s one primary motivation, and that one primary motivation will get expressed in multiple ministries, where the confusion happens is when you experience – the way you experience your giftedness is what I call the two “F”s: the fulfillment factor, and the fruitfulness factor. When you’re in your giftedness – if it’s in a ministry gift, there’s something that happens inside of you, a joy wells up, and it affects people’s lives positively. And so, often, we confuse our ministry gifts with our motivational gifts.

Okay. Enough talking. Are you ready? Let me paint a few pictures, give you three or four examples. And then, let’s get down to what you really want to look at, and that’s, Would you go through each of those motivational gifts, and describe them, and help me figure out which one of these might be mine?

Let me give you a couple examples. I work with a guy, and have worked with him for a number of years now. His name is Greg. His primary motivational gift is service. He is a servant. He loves to serve. In other words, what motivates him is, he sees needs, and he wants to serve. It can be with his hands. It can be in multiple ways.

But his ministry gifts are twofold. His ministry gifts are in the area of administration, and in the area of pastor/teacher. And so, Greg has this amazing desire, but his drive is always to serve, to serve, to help, to fix, to make things right, to care, to be behind the scenes, to go away from the limelight and to make everyone else work. In an organization, this guy comes in, and he’s like oil. I don’t care what’s going on in the organization, once he begins to work in the relationships, things just start working better. Because he has the ministry gift of administration.

But his motivation is not to be an administrator. See, what happens, he administrates so well, people keep trying to elevate him. And he was chief of staff. Well, then people want to make him – “Why don’t you be the chief operating office of this group over here, or this company over here?” And he goes, “That’s not what I’m made to do. I want to serve. I implement the vision of a visionary. I do it primarily through the gift of administration, the ministry there, and by pastoring and shepherding people.”

And because he understands that, when he does that, guess what happens. People get a word of knowledge: Oh, I’m in the wrong fit in my job. People get a word of wisdom: Oh, I guess the way I talk to other people in the organization is offending them, and that’s what the barrier is. People get healing as they understand what went wrong in a relationship. Do you see what I’m saying?

But see, what happens, though, is, if you confuse motivational gifts with ministry gifts, you can really go in directions – because everyone pulls you where they see you operating. But it may not be your primary motivation.

The second example I’ll give you is my wife: She has the gift of exhortation. We’ll learn what that is, but, at the essence, it’s the ability to come alongside people, and both comfort them, and bring wholeness, and challenge them to really walk with the Lord. Well, her ministry gifts are administration, teaching, and, actually, apostleship. She, over and over, finds herself – she wants to help people. And she’ll see something that needs to be done.

So, where we were, she started with a box of books – and apostleship is someone who likes to start and launch things. She’ll see a need. And she’ll do it out of encouraging people. So, she started with a box of books, and built a whole library. Why? To encourage people to learn how to walk with God, she developed, and recruited, and actually prayed in a team of about ten ladies to help her. And more counseling occurred in our library than any place else in the church.

How did she do that? Well, she had a ministry gift of administration to organize it. So, guess what everyone wants Theresa to do? They always want her to start new things, or be some admin. That’s not what she wants to do.

The other thing she always did is, she found the most hurting, lonely, unlovely people in any church we’ve ever been to – and she is drawn to them like a magnet. Because she sees the hope. And so, she ends up mentoring and counseling individual ladies. But when she does that, and teaches, it did really well when we had people.

So, we put it on the radio once. And then, we got all these requests – this church, this church, this church: “Will your wife come and speak?” “Come and speak.” “Come and speak.” “Come and speak.” It was great. She goes, “No.”

She understands she can, in the ministry gift of exhortation, teach, but her calling’s not to be a teacher. Her calling is to encourage people. And when she understood that, it gave her a grid to say “yes” to this, “no” to that.

Do you see how understanding your primary motivation can really shape what you do?

Okay, last example: My primary gift is prophecy. For years, probably the first fifteen, eighteen years, I thought it was leadership, because I always found myself in leadership areas. And to be a pastor, and if you’re going to grow something, you’ve got to learn. Now, part of my ministry gifts – you’ll notice it says “administration/leadership.” We’ll learn, later, that word, administration, it literally means “the one who steers the ship.” It’s providing big-picture direction. That’s one of my ministry gifts.

But because of my background is when someone said, “Would you like the gift of prophecy, or the gift of leadership?” I thought, Prophecy, man – that sounds like guys with long beards, out of touch, say wacky things, and you ought to shoot or stone if they don’t come out right. So, I want to be a leader. And I didn’t understand prophecy.

But what happened is, my ministry gifts are pastor/teacher, and my ministry gifts are administration in the leadership side of that. And then, I actually have ministry gifts in prophecy and evangelism. And so, I got confused.

My motivation – we’re going to look at it in a second. My motivation has always been a passion to see life change, and impact, and see people be convicted by God’s Word, and be really practical, and make a difference. When I see the state of the Church, and when the Church is unholy, I, literally, it’s one of the few things I cry about. I don’t know what it is. It’s inside me. It’s just inside me.

I long for the Church to be the Church. Why? Because God gifted me – the good works that I am to walk in, the purpose of my life is to be one of these broad-stroked, I’m going to do the background on the wall, so that God will take teams of people and come back and sketch. And then, individual lives to touch up.

But He’s called me to be a prophet, to take God’s Word, in a global way, to the world, to say, “The Church has got to be the Church. We have to have a high view of God. Pastors, we’ve got to walk with God. Christians, we’ve got to live like Christians.” Give me any text, and I’m going to tell you, those are my applications. It doesn’t matter where I preach. I’m going to challenge you, encourage you, beg you, plead with you, comfort you, do whatever I need to do, for you to step up to the plate, and be God’s man, or God’s woman. But now I know that.

So, here’s what you’ve got: a category of ministry gifts. You’ve got a category of motivational gifts, and then, effects, when those things happen. And so, what I see when I get to preach and teach. Or I was at Moody, and I had a chance to speak prophetically – not in telling the future, but, “This is the call of the Church.” I have never felt such joy.

And we got emails from people around the world who were listening on the Internet, and by way of the radio, because that’s just – that happens to be the brush God made me. It’s not better, it’s not worse, it’s not more important, not less important. It’s the divine endowment given to me. What’s yours?
You ready to really – you got your pencil out? Okay. Now we’re going to look through these gifts. We’re going to walk through, specifically, each one of these gifts, and here’s how we’re going to do it: I’m going to give you written definitions that you can see there. Then, I’m going to give you some quick characteristics. And by the way, don’t try and write these down. I’ll make you nuts. If you’re obsessive-compulsive just lean back.

And then, here’s what I want you to do: Underneath, in your notes, where it says “Prophecy,” I want you to write the words yes, no, maybe. And then, when I get done, just gut reaction, circle yes, no, or maybe. So, I’ll give you the definition, I’ll give you a few characteristics, and then, we’ll do a quick application.

Prophecy: motivational gift from Romans 12:6 to 8: “The divine enablement to proclaim God’s truth with power and clarity in a timely and culturally sensitive fashion for correction, repentance, or edification.” It’s the ability to reveal God’s Word accurately. One of the good tests is, people with this gift, often intuitively, ask about almost every situation, “What went wrong? What caused this?”

Characteristics: They tend to be persuasive speakers. They can read people. They often are opinionated, very black and white. They often like large groups, rather than one-on-one. People with this gift often – I’ve been with people that, you fill a stadium, and you feel like you’re their best friend. And you sit next to them on the airplane, and you say, “Hey, how you doing?” “Fine.” And you’re thinking, But I just had this warm, wonderful experience with fifty thousand people in the stadium. “How’s it going?” “Great.” I mean, there’s just something about some people with this gift is, they don’t necessarily like the one-on-one stuff.

Some of the dangers of this gift: They can have a tendency to be proud of their speaking ability, depending on the speaking ability, rather than on the power of the Holy Spirit. And people with prophetic gift who want to make it right can be insensitive to the feelings of other people. Okay, how about you? Yes? No? Maybe? Does that kind of describe you? Just take a quick shot in the dark. Don’t overanalyze it.

Gift number two is service. It’s the divine enablement to attach spiritual value to the accomplishment of physical tasks within the body of Christ. It’s the ability to demonstrate love by meeting practical needs that releases other Christians for direct spiritual ministry. The question these people intuitively ask, because of their gift, is, “What can I do to help? What can I do to help?” The gift word here is our word diakonia. It is translated “deacon.” It literally means “to serve,” or, “to wait on tables.”

Some characteristics of this person: Doesn’t need much public recognition. These people don’t seek the limelight. They’re content to work behind the scenes. They often like manual projects. Unusual ability to detect people’s personal needs.

Some of the dangers: They can be bitter when their deeds are not recognized. They don’t need a lot of limelight, but when they get none, it’s kind of like, “Hey, does anybody care?”

And by the way, these are the most neglected people in the body of Christ in the Church. These are the people that, I’ll tell you what, when you go to your church this weekend, you don’t see them, but they really make it happen. Someone got in early. Someone turned on the lights. Someone cleaned things. Someone folded the bulletin. Someone typed something. Someone’s watching the kids. Someone fixed the buses. Someone’s helping the single moms. Someone’s doing repairs at night. These are the kinds of people that where the Spirit of God – where the rubber meets the road – practically, in my mind, these are heroes. In fact, Paul says, the more unseemly, less-visible members we need to exalt. That’s this gift.

Yes? No? Maybe? Circle it, or just write that word.

The third motivational gift is teaching. It’s the divine enablement to understand and give detailed explanation of Biblical truth. It’s the ability to search out and validate truth that has been presented. People with this gift are asking the question, “What is truth? Where did you get that? Why?”

The classical Greek word here is “to impart information, in order to develop talent, and potential.” It’s the motivation and power to present, with clarity, the truth of God’s Word. People with the gift of teaching – few characteristics here. They love to do research. They love to study. And they like to study down to the minutia. Stuff that you and I think isn’t that important, it matters to them.

When you have the gift of teaching, very content, very doctrine oriented. You love to research. You love to study. These are the kinds of people, too, when someone teaches – if you have the gift of teaching, your lights are going off like crazy when I’m teaching. Ding. Ding. Is this true? What about this? Where did he get that? What about this? What about this? And you know, that word, I’ve heard it means – could mean this, and that word – I mean, it is like, “Where’s the research? Show me the meat. Show me where you got that.” That’s the gift of teaching.

The danger of this gift is to concentrate too much on content, to the exclusion of application. A danger is boasting or getting proud about their knowledge. Knowledge puffs up. Another danger is being inattentive to the response of students. Yes, no, or maybe? You got the gift of teaching? Could it be? Could that be your primary motivation?

Next is the motivational gift of exhortation. It’s the divine enablement, or power, to come alongside another in need of encouragement, to reassure, strengthen, affirm, and – notice – challenge those who are discouraged, or wavering in their faith. It’s the ability to stimulate the faith of others. People with this gift ask, “What must be done to fix this?” These are fix-it people. And then, next, “How can we move this person to wholeness?”

This person is called alongside other people. And the best way to get the definition of this, it’s interesting, because it’s like a coin with two sides. Their goal is to bring wholeness, and fix things. And, often, it’s comforting, loving, affirming. “Oh, you’ve been through –” They’re great counselors. “Oh, you’ve been through a hard time.”

But if the people don’t change, or if they’re messing around, they also – the flipside of that coin is not just all the comfort, it’s challenge. And they’ll get in your face and say, “You know something? We’ve been meeting for eleven weeks now. And you’ve been telling me, ‘I’m in a terrible marriage. I’m in a terrible marriage. I’m in a terrible marriage. I’m in a terrible marriage. I’m in a terrible marriage.’ I got the part about your terrible marriage. Now, you know what? We gave you some assignments. You did half of the first one. You did part of the second one. We prayed the last three, because you cried through those. Okay? If you want to have a session twelve, honey, you’d better get off your terrible marriage, and ask what God wants to do in you to make this marriage better, than what needs to happen in him. Do you understand?”

And people with the gift of exhortation will do that. They have a long fuse. They’re very loving. Very affirming. But their goal is to help you get whole. And if you don’t want to get whole, after a while, they’ll cut you loose. Characteristics of this person: They’re gifted in counseling. They see practical application from Scripture.

The dangers of this gift: They spend too much time with people who only want temporary solutions to their problems. See, they care so much, it’s like, maybe they should have said that at session six, instead of session eleven. “I’m in a terrible marriage.” Well, okay.

Another danger is, they can become discouraged from lack of results from people who they’re ministering to. These people, they’ve got to see people’s lives change. And if people lives don’t change, they get really discouraged. Like, What’s the deal? Am I doing something wrong?

So, how about you? Gift of exhortation? Are you motivated to ask, “Hey, how do I fix this? How do I bring this person to wholeness?” Yes, no, or maybe.

The next gift is the motivational gift of giving. This is the divine enablement to earn money, manage it well, and wisely contribute to the work of the Lord, with cheerfulness and liberality. It’s the ability to entrust personal assets to others for the furtherance of their ministry. People with this gift ask this question, “What can I give to meet the needs?

The characteristics: These people don’t like the limelight. These people like to give anonymously. These people like to have a single focus. These people want to know what the ROI is on their gift. “Hey, you know what I want to know? So, okay, I gave you a hundred thousand dollars to do this, and do this. Did this, this, this, and this happen? And if not, I’m going to give my gift, next week, somewhere else.”

These people hate high-pressure tactics. They smell manipulation in a New York minute. They can tell when people are trying to con them and put them on. And what they have is an ability to earn money, manage it wisely, and they see opportunities. And they see, You know what? With this much money, this is what could really happen. Those are the basic characteristics of someone with the gift of giving.

They do not have to be wealthy. Obviously this gift is operating in the third world. You can have the gift of giving in Haiti. And you may not have but two coconuts, but you’re willing to give one and a half of yours away.

The danger of this gift is, there can be a tendency to be proud of it, as is evidenced by, “This gift was given by Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so and So-and-so. And here’s the plaque. And…”

See, for every great gift, there’s always a danger. And there can be a danger that you want people to know what you gave. And in a nice sophisticated Christian way, you don’t want people to know too much, but you want them to know just enough. Not that you’re proud, but that you’re wonderful.

Another danger is overemphasizing material needs, to the exclusion of spiritual needs, and judging others, spiritually, by their bank account. See, again, you look at others through this lens. And it’s so easy for you to make money. It’s so easy for you to do stuff. It’s like, My lands, I mean, the guy’s got the gift of service, and he’s been working at that job for eleven years. I appreciate the guy. That’s the most beat-up, dumb truck. His kids are still riding in the back, and that’s dangerous. My lands, save so much. Start with tithing. Do this. Set aside some. Get yourself…get your finances in order! What’s wrong with you?

They just go nuts when they see financial mismanagement. Because, to them, it’s just so natural, how you ought to operate your life. How about you? Yes, no, or maybe?

The next motivational gift is that of leadership. It’s the divine enablement to, notice, see what needs to be done, set goals, and then attract, lead, and motivate people to accomplish the work of the ministry. It’s the ability to coordinate the activities of others for the achievement of common goals. People with this gift are asking, “What’s the goal? Where are you trying to go? What’s the target on the wall?” And the other thing they’re always asking, “What are the results? Okay, this activity, fine activity. You’re saying you’re doing this, doing this. Show me, what did you accomplish? What’s the goal?”

It’s interesting, in terms of definition. This is a person who gives vision and direction, can mobilize other people. It originally has the idea of someone who stands in front. It’s the ability to lead and delegate. They take charge. They enjoy responsibility. This is the guy that wants to take the shot, the last shot in the game. And if he misses, he misses. But he wants the ball in his hands.

When there’s a vacuum, and nothing’s happening, a person with the gift of leadership is just frustrated to death. It’s disorganized. It’s going nowhere. What they want to do is say, “Look, if no one else is going to do this, okay, look, I’ll tell you what. You seem to be good at this, good at this. Let’s come up with a plan. There’s a target on the wall. For the next six weeks, let’s go for it. Does everyone agree?” And everyone goes, “Oh, yeah. I don’t know why we didn’t know how to do that. It just makes sense.” And so, that’s what they are. They stand in front.

It’s a person who has the ability to see how things fit together, what needs to be done, how it can be accomplished. And they have a way of doing it, where people are attracted to them, and they see the big picture, and they mobilize people, and get them in their strengths.

The danger is, they can use people to achieve their goals. The danger is, they can get proud or pushy with the power that’s given to them. We’ve all been around leaders that know God, but we wish they knew Him a little better, and that they get a little grace with all that drive and intensity.

And sometimes, they forget the purpose of the project. It’s, “Got to get it done! Got to get it done! We’ve got to build this building, got to build this building, got to build this building, got to build this building! Come on, what’s wrong with you? You need to give more. Why aren’t you giving more? Come on, these contractor, hey! We’re already ten, twelve percent over budget. What’s wrong with this committee? You know, we start on time; we get this thing done.”

And someone says, “And why are we building this building?” “Because we’ve got to love people.” Huh. And maybe we ought to start in this committee. Okay. See, it’s just one of the dangers. How about you? Leadership. Yes, no, maybe?

The final one is the gift of mercy. It’s the divine enablement to minister cheerfully and appropriately to people who are suffering, or undeserving, and to spare them the punishment or the consequences they justly deserve. Isn’t this a wonderful gift?

These are those people that, you’ve blown it, and you’ve really blown it. And you can blame others, but it really is your fault. And something in them not only wants to help you, but they don’t want you to have to suffer the consequences that you really ought to get. Kind of like God, huh? It’s a gift of mercy. It’s a gift of wanting to withhold just consequences from those who deserve it. They’re always asking the question, “How can I make them feel better?” There’s a high identification with people’s hurts, and people’s needs, and what they’re going through.

The definition of this word – at the heart of it is an emotion that is aroused by the affliction or the needs of others that gets translated into action. There’s just something in the heart – this compassion, this sympathy and empathy – that wants to reach out and help people.

The characteristics: They are able to detect and discern people’s feelings. Have you ever been there? Where you’re with someone with the gift of mercy, and, actually, you’re talking, and you go through the meeting, and you think, Wow that was a good meeting. And you walk out, and you walk out with someone with the gift of mercy, and they say, “Hey man we really need to pray for that guy.” “Why? I thought it was a good meeting.” “You didn’t pick up on it?” “Pick up on what?” “Man his marriage is in trouble.” “What do you mean, his marriage is in trouble? We weren’t talking about marriage; we were trying to get a building built.” “Didn’t you pick up on the signals? He said this; he said that. When you asked about his family, quickly, when we went around and shared, his countenance fell.”

These people man, they’ve got this antenna. They’ve got this radar. And when there are needs, and when there are hurts, and when there’s – they pick up on it. And then, they’re drawn to it. And they want to help, and they want to care.

And the characteristics, here: Not only do they detect and are discerning, they’re very sensitive. They’re sensitive to the point of action. They want direct, personal ministry. The gift of mercy – they don’t want to delegate this. They are moved highly by the World Vision or the Food for the Hungry commercials. And they’re glad to give, but they want hands-on helping people with very specific needs.

The dangers here: They tend to have a hard time being firm when necessary. They look at life – especially in their parenting. You’ve got the gift of mercy – being a disciplinarian is pretty tough with the gift of mercy. Resentment for those who don’t have this gift.

People with the gift of mercy, and people with the gift of leadership, can have significant problems in the body of Christ. And God’s goal is that this person does this out of his grace, and this person does this out of his grace. And the leader becomes more merciful, and the merciful person learns to lead with clarity and direction and apply their gift much better.

They often are misunderstood by people of the opposite sex. If you have this gift, you’ve got to be careful. Because someone’s really hurting, and you’re a woman – or vice versa, man, woman – and you reach out to help them. And the guy or the gal goes, “Hey, he’s pretty cool.” “I think she’s coming on to me.” Or, “He’s coming on to me.” No, no. It has no – “I see your need. I see your pain.”

People often, with this gift, end up in very dysfunctional relationships. Because they’re trying to rescue people, and they get involved, emotionally, in helping people they shouldn’t be helping. What you need is to find another sister to help that gal, or a brother to help that brother on these kinds of issues. Yes, no, or maybe?

I believe that God has given everyone in this room one primary motivational gift. Which one of those seven did you most resonate with? Top one or two.

Because what I’m going to say to you is that you are a workmanship. You are a piece of art. God has given you gifts of different natures and hues that He wants to paint, out of His grace, into the lives of other people. And if you think you’re this, and God wants you to be this, not only are you frustrated, but think of what’s happening in the body of Christ, who needs your gift of leadership, or your gift of mercy, or your gift of exhortation.

And when you understand that there are primary motivations, and then that motivation will play out in different ministries, at different times, at different seasons in your development, and the development of the ministry that you’re called, then what we’ll learn is how you develop those ministry gifts, and how all those other manifestation gifts operate in the body of Christ. Because I’ll tell you what, God wants you to walk in the good works that He before ordained. And I’m going to tell you, when you do, you’ll get the double “F” in your life: unbelievable fulfillment, and unbelievable fruitfulness.

Did you get maybe just a tiny little inkling that we learned some things about God’s Word, but one guy in the room had a lot of fun? Because I just did what God made me to do. I’m not special. I’m not more important. I’m not more holy. I just understand this is what He made me to do. And my dream is that you’ll discover what He made you to do.