How do I identify my spiritual gift?

The best way is to find out what gifts the Lord has bestowed upon you, and what sphere He has given you to use them in. This, well considered with prayer, will help greatly. God's principle is, “If any man will do His will” (John 7:17); there must be first a willing mind (2 Cor.8:12). If the Lord sees you humbly taking up what is nearest your hand in dependence upon Him, He will show you if He would have you continue in it; or if not, He will certainly lead you into what He has ready for you. Study the parables of the talents and the pounds, and see what bearing they have on this subject—also Revelation 22:12.

But there is such a thing as spiritual power. An evangelist proves his gift by the conversion of souls so does a teacher by edifying exposition of scripture as an exhorter does by urging truth home. A pastor toils in love to the sheep and lambs of Christ, repressing the unruly, and encouraging the timid, and helping souls in general. There is no real difficulty, as a general rule, in discerning these gifts where they exist, any more than in forming a conviction as to converted and unconverted. Of course there may be mistakes in both respects; but God is faithful and knows how to correct where He is leaned on.

HOW ARE WE TO KNOW THESE GIFTS? for even the youthful gathering at Thessalonica was exhorted to "know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and esteem them very highly in love, for their works' sake" (1 Thess. 5:12-13). I reply by asking, how do you recognise a believer in Christ? Is it simply by what he says? No; there is divine intelligence given you, by which you discern Christ in him; so also, the spiritual will discern the gifts by their works; and esteem them for their works' sake.

If the individual be spiritual, he will be occupied with Christ and not with his gift, and thus commend himself to the godly; and so, if saints be walking "in the Spirit," they will see the gift in the individual, and will profit by it. I remember hearing a servant of God express the idea thus — "It will not be the blind leading the blind, — nor the seeing leading the blind, but the seeing leading the seeing." There are four evils on this score which prevail in the present day — (1) Unsent men assume the place of the Lord's servants; (2) Saints slavishly follow, and thus encourage them; (3) Saints, failing to recognise true gifts, are losers; and (4) Real gifts, discouraged by the ruinous aspect of things, hide themselves, and thus exhibit lack of confidence in the Lord.*

Is it asked how the reality of these gifts can be known? May there not be mistakes through vanity on the side of some claiming beyond their measure, or through the pride of those who disown and thwart what eclipses their self-importance? I answer that all that is good in divine things is by the Holy Spirit, by whom God decides for us these difficulties. Undoubtedly prejudices may hinder for a time; but those who know God can trust Him to make known how He would have us serve the Lord, or to whom we should look for loving succour in things too hard for us. Power of the Spirit in any way proves itself; especially where souls are habituated to test all by the word of God, as the Christian and church always should. Were there no such person as the Holy Ghost in the Christian and in the assembly, the difficulty would be insuperable; and the objection has weight in exact proportion to the objector's unbelief in the real presence and gracious guidance of the Spirit, alas! the characteristic sin of Christendom. But the Spirit is here to care for the saints of God, to draw them out in worship and to direct them in service. Does He fail in this? Never where faith is at work. That unbelief cannot see how these things can be, is but natural. It is His function to glorify the Lord in all, but especially as regards public testimony by those to whom He has given special gifts for the general good.

But as to the discernment of a ministerial gift for preaching or teaching, it is in general plain and simple. If a brother stand up to speak in the Christian assembly without a gift from God, he will soon and painfully find it out. If self-judging, he will learn much from his own conscience; but he may quite sufficiently soon hear from others that which will make him understand that he has not a gift in the judgment of his brethren. But where there is really a gift is it not possible that prejudice may act, and this be refused ? Certainly it may be so for a tin, e. Perhaps the speaker thinks too highly of his gift; perhaps be mistakes the character of it, and the right scene and time for its exercise; perhaps he is too exclusively occupied with his line of things, and too urgent or anxious to assert his gift. All this may be, often is, and always creates difficulty. But the truth remains that what is of God approves itself in the long run. My own experience, as far as my limited range of observation and knowledge goes, inclines me to think that the children of God are prone to make too much rather than too little of gift. In the present state of the church there is but a feeble development of gift, and this is felt the more in proportion to spiritual intelligence and a true position. Do you wish to know your place fairly and fully? Look in confidence to God and search the word of His grace. Many things there are to hinder and to draw away: partly the effect of education, partly the difficulty of finding an honest livelihood, especially if a man has been a professional preacher. If he abandons (not preaching but) that profession as an unscriptural innovation, he for the most part loses everything, even his bread, unless he have private means of his own. Hence it is that the inducements for such an one to remain where he is we enormous; the difficulties of coming out at the word of the Lord are incalculable. The power of God alone can accomplish the change and sustain the. soul in peace and praise, "steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

It is for each one to learn from the Lord by personal communion and experience what is his or her place in the Body of Christ and what work is to be performed as such.

Now we have, in the next place, service. Service to God is what, of course, is implied in what we have already had. Now this is made practical as service to our brother. "If we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God, whom we have not seen?" Our brother is thus the representative of God, of Him who is Father to us all; and the Church, as the body of Christ, of necessity means such a field of service. The apostle has not spoken of the Church, the epistle to the Romans does not enter upon this; but when we come to practice, the Church in fact exists, and it is the nearest thing to us that does exist. This, the apostle speaks of, therefore, at the very start, only he tells us that there is something we have to do in order to be fit for service in such a field as this. We must learn to esteem ourselves aright, "not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath given to each the measure of faith." Faith is not measured in the sense of its being so limited that it might possibly fail us for any work that is ours. Its limit is only found when we get outside our own sphere, and take up, perhaps, another's work. We shall not find faith for that. Thus we have to learn our capacity; but here again we cannot learn this by simply looking in upon ourselves. We cannot estimate our capacity until we have in measure proved it, and that is how God leads us on, not only making us know the qualification for what service He has made ours, but developing in us also the gift which He has given. Love, of necessity, sets us to work: it is the spirit of service. Love alone will prompt us, in view of needs we find, to do what we can to minister to them. Here, if it be love, we are safeguarded also, for love is the lowliest thing that can be. It "seeketh not its own," and thus pride and ambition are necessarily foreign to it; they are its contradiction, its opposite. But as we are brought into contact with the need around, and in love seek to do whatever lowly service God may give us, we find in practical working what God has indeed fitted us for, and only in such a way is knowledge truly acquired. It is noticeable, when we come to the Gentiles, how the apostle here puts together things that are clearly "gifts" in the way in which we ordinarily speak, — public gifts for the Church, — and things that are of the most private character. Prophecy comes first; then ministry; a large and general term used for it, which has been ecclesiastically narrowed into "deaconship;" then teaching, exhortation, but next, giving, and after that, ruling and showing mercy. It is as if the apostle foresaw the distinctions which have in fact come in, and that Christians would divide into different classes upon these points. In the first case even, there is a character of prophecy which applies to the whole Church. "Ye may all prophesy," says the apostle elsewhere, "one by one;" and he adds, "Covet to prophesy." Again, if we are not all teachers, we may all teach, according to our ability. Exhortation is necessarily a thing wide enough in character and all ought to find their place here also. In fact, there is never a limit to the use of anything we have, except that we do not go beyond the measure of spiritual ability. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." As already said, love and lowliness, — and the two go together, — will find their way everywhere without difficulty. To dwell upon ourselves is not the divine preparation. Love leads us out of ourselves and occupies us with others, while indeed we do learn practically, as already said, what God has qualified us for, but we learn it in the presence of others and with the necessary safeguards which practical experience furnishes for us.

But let us notice now, that in the order here, prophecy comes first. No doubt the apostle has in contemplation especially what was the gift so needed at that time, and which filled out divine revelation to its present fulness; but we are not surely to confine it to this. The first place in which we find it should make us realize the blessed position we have in Christianity as thus brought near to God, and with the most ample opportunity and encouragement in learning His mind. As the prophet said of old: "God will do nothing, but He will make it known to His servants the prophets." And now, His full mind being made known to us in Christ, the practical possession of this, and in such a way as that we shall have a word for every emergency that can arise, is open to us all. The exhortation here is that men prophesy "according to the proportion of faith," words which have been variously taken; but we can understand that faith is the whole matter here, and that for us the word of God furnishes with all that faith has to do with. It will ever be in entire dependence upon this, which, of necessity, therefore, tests all that can be called such.

There is no true Christian that has not something or other given him for service in the body, merely perhaps a little bit of wisdom. Everybody has got something for service to the body, as a hand or foot or eye; but not everybody a prominent gift as a pastor or evangelist. Everybody has got something according to the measure of what Christ has given him; and if he go beyond that measure, it will be mere human action or no good at all.

We have spoken already of the Spirit bestowing the gifts in a general way (verse 4). The apostle goes on to speak more fully in the seventh and the following verses of the manifestation of the Spirit: "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." What are we to understand by "the manifestation of the Spirit"? The manifestation is the act of making the presence of the Spirit plain and patent to others. What is hidden is certainly not manifest; and the Holy Spirit Himself is here in this world in an invisible form. The Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, was manifest in flesh; He was seen of angels, as well as men. He was an object of sight and hearing to the apostles and others. He was manifest in the world; but the Holy Spirit is not incarnate, and therefore His presence and His action are concealed for the most part. The manifestation of the Spirit is through the members of the body of Christ.

The fact whether this person has a gift or that person has a gift is known only to the Spirit, except when the Spirit manifests Himself in working through this person and that for the exercise of the gift. Hence the apostle speaks here of the "manifestation of the Spirit, which is given to every man to profit withal."

The gifts of the Lord are various and each believer has a gift of some kind and a function to perform as a particular member of the Body of Christ. "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (Eph. 4:7). These gifts may need to be discovered, stirred up, and developed by use, but they are there and are given for the help and blessing of all. When believers meet in the name of the Lord alone, recognizing the liberty of the Spirit to use whom He will, each believer is made to feel his responsibility to do his part in maintaining a testimony for the Lord, and so gifts and abilities are discovered, called into activity, and developed. Whereas, when one man is appointed to take over the entire responsibility of ministry, there is not this activity and development of all the gifts which may be present in the Assembly. The Scriptural path, then, for the Lord's people is for them to gather together around the Lord simply as Christians in dependence upon the Holy Spirit to use the gifts in their midst and to raise up others. He may also send some gifted servant of God to them on a visit, whoever and whenever He chooses, for their building up, for the preaching of the Gospel, or for any special spiritual help which may be needed.