“its my gift”

 

What an incredible week this past week around the table in our TruthAtWork roundtable advisory boards.  One of the things we long to have is a sense of community for which this weeks’ meetings continued to exemplify.  Additionally, Colossians 2:2-3 NIV was brought to mind today as a reminder:

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Yes, as one who leads in TruthAtWork, as well as other similar environments, I can clearly attest that I relate to these words in Paul’s writing and claim them as my goal as well.

One of the topics we discussed this month related to “anointed” versus “appointed”.  One of the things I have a heart and passion for is aiding people in the identification of their gifts and using them to live out a purposeful or “anointed” calling.  Many times, we don’t go through a process of evaluation of “gifts” and “anointing”  thus finding ourselves “appointing” ourselves and others we lead in a direction that isn’t necessarily in alignment with God’s agenda for our lives.  Also, while it can be, an “anointed” calling doesn’t have to be a particular “vocation”; yet, can be fulfilled through various “vocations”.  Much can be discussed on this topic, but for today I want to focus on the aspects of “gifts”. In our roundtable, one member had a pretty good description of walking in our anointed calling as he stated something along the lines of “we’re all given gifts and when we’re acting in accordance with these gifts, I believe we’re likely fulfilling our anointed calling.”  While there maybe a few things we could add to this, my focus is on the lack of understanding I see in the “C” church regarding people’s spiritual gifts.  I’m constantly finding people who are “appointed” or “appointing” others in areas totally out of alignment with their gifts.

For example, we might see someone with the gift of “evangelism” who is very outgoing and often out in front of the group and “appoint” them to a leadership role only to find they can’t focus long enough in an area to lead a group of follows.  Or, flip this same example by seeing someone with the gift of leadership and we’re expecting them to go out and raise up new followers daily.  They likely are going to be less successful in this area as they don’t share the passion of an “evangalest” in going out and promoting.  Now, I’m using the context of “follower” relating directly to the church; however, you could also substitute clients, customer, etc. when applying the principle to business.

A quick Google search will reveal several free spiritual gifts assessment tools.  I’ve personally taken several and found most to come back with similar results.  One particular one I might offer is: SpirtualGiftsTest.com.  In my particular case, my assessments always return the gifts of Administration and Wisdom as my top two gifts.  While definitions very a bit, here is a description for these I personally relate.

Administration is a gift that provides insight into other people’s spiritual gifts as well as natural talent, which allows for placing people who want to minister in a particular way together with those who need just this ministry.

Wisdom is special illumination that enables one in a specific instance to grasp divine insight regarding a fact, situation, or context. This gift is useful in directing the Body in what to do next; in making God’s will known.

So, using the combination of the two what I fine most fulfillment in is aiding people in the identification of their own gifting and natural talents, uniting them with others having commentary gifts and talents, and working with these people to provide insight on a God inspired vision and strategy which their personally “anointed” to go after.  Keeping in mind in all this we’re talking in terms of the “C” church in which we’re all in ministry to some degree and not just one’s local church body.

In my particular case, I have lacked with some degree finding the right evangelist to partner.  It’s times when I must serve in this evangelistic type role that I am personally drained.  While God doesn’t promise easy, I might encourage you that if you’re being “drained” in a particular area, it likely isn’t your area of gifting.  I work extremely hard in the areas of Administration and Wisdom with various challenges; however, it rarely drains me when I’m performing in these areas of gifting.  By contract, it actually encourages and inspires me for which I believe our TruthAtWork roundtables were an example this week.

Hope this encourages you to dig in a bit and let me know if I can help…”it’s my gift!”