The other night at church we were looking at Spiritual gifts. I have known of Spiritual gifts for quite a while. I went through a phase where I was fascinated by the idea of them. This idea of having something similar to a superpower but for God kinda. By that statement you can see that I was obviously approaching this aspect of faith maybe from the wrong angle. But I have come to realize a few things now. Some Spiritual gifts are a bit hard to swallow. To me there are more gifts than just what is written in the Bible. I have witnessed it. I believe there are at least 27 gifts. They are:
Prophecy
Service
Teaching
Exhortation
Giving
Leadership
Mercy
Wisdom
Knowledge
Faith
Healing
Miracles
Discerning of Spirits
Tongues
Interpretation
Apostle
Helps
Administration
Evangelist
Pastor
Celibacy
Voluntary Poverty
Martyrdom
Hospitality
Missionary
Intercession
Exorcism
(If you want to know what some of these gifts actually are just ask me)
Some may disagree with a few of these gifts or all of the ones that were not pulled directly from the Bible and that is ok. I have seen many of these gifts played out in front of me and some were quite scary. It is not the point of this blog to talk about gifts I was just using it to lead into something. But first I just want to add that in some Pentecostal churches they say you do not have the Holy Spirit in you until you are able to speak in tongues. Yes every denomination has their right to tradition but I do not agree with this requirement. We are all part of the body and we all have different parts to play and things just wouldn't work if everyone in the body was a hand. Or a foot. or an eyebrow. If we are to be blessed with gifts we should not expect to all get the same. Why would God do that? To me that would seem not to serve Him best. All the different parts working together, that sounds better. But anyway, to my point. There were three areas that we were asked to choose between to put ourselves in.
Community Building
Leadership
Evidences of God's Power
I felt weird being faced with these three choices. I wasn't sure where I fit. Community building I could fit into because unless you're a complete shut-in you interact with your community all the time. From my time studying counseling, 'you cannot not communicate'. So hmm, maybe. Evidence of God's power. Ok, this one I guess most people could fit into as well because everyday God works through us to do things. But wait, what is the word 'evidence' meaning? How could a gift of art be different to a gift of say being a faithful person? I've had to put aside my disagreement with the wording of the group and believe that they were meaning things like being artistic or physically freaky or good with electronics. So yeah I believe I have some talents. I can be creative, I can play sport, I can be funny on rare occasions...not really but please let me dream. Ok so this is a maybe as well. Leadership is self explanatory. You have the ability to guide others in a direction hopefully benefiting them. I really don't know about this one. Then how come the one that I feel the least confident about was the one I chose to stand up for? Why did I choose leadership? It's funny, I couldn't help feeling very conscious of what the other people in the church were feeling seeing me standing there. What do I do in the church? What character traits do I show that screams leadership? I barely know what I'm talking about most of the time. But even though I see very little leadership in me, I stood. That was what my legs chose to kick into gear for. It has left me puzzled.
So I have felt this calling to study Theology. Don't know why but during my trip away my passion for attending ACU disappeared and this new idea burned inside me. What am I wanting to do with my life? For some insane reason, even though I feel I suck at getting my point across, I'm not very good at articulating my words, it scares me witless, I think I can lead if is what God wants me to do. Now I know that sounds weird 'I want to lead', possible me trying to seek some sort of self satisfaction out of it or something, but as I just said, it scares me witless. Every time I have had to do something in front of people I get so nervous. I would really rather not be there! Those of you who have known me for a while will know that every time I get up in front of people it is guaranteed that my voice will crack. Ben C. especially knows this. Ok, so what do I do now? Do I step out in faith and try to do something? Do I even want to? People don't just want to lead, they have a passion for something and it flows out of them and people follow them for that. I could just be really confused or something.
This was a weird blog. But anyway, I am hopefully off to Theological college next year as i said. My passion is there, I love my faith. What do I do with it?
This may be why I stood.
About Me
- Kiffa
- If humour was measured by businesses I would be working in an abattoir. My favorite quote is: Chelsey: We should go to Australia! Marya: ROADTRIP!
4 comments:
Spiritual gifts woo! As you know, you spoke to me about some of these last year I think, and I was pretty not interested. Several reasons, one of which is that I just have had no exposure, or more likely, no idea that they were happening around me.
I don't know what exhortation and intercession are. Explanations please?
With those groups, the truth is you don't just fit into one group. I think most people understood that. They are all inter-connected. Maybe you stood because it's what you most want to grow in? Who knows why we stand? I stood during leadership too, but maybe with all the leadership things that have been drummed into me over the years, it's time for me to stand for something else? Not to say I'm an accomplished or great leader. But maybe I need to grow in something else more.
I laughed at the voice cracking. Though just because you were squeaky when you said it, doesn't take away that a lot of the stuff you said was good. That's more to do with confidence than leadership. I probably know more fictional leaders than real ones, but think of how many of them have doubted themselves? Sometimes the ones that people look up to the most are the ones that doubt themselves the most.
On a ... lighter note. Have you seen where the supposed link to your blog off Meagan's blog goes to? Everytime I click it, I think "Wow. Chris deleted all his old stuff and wrote about Asberger's." And then I scroll down and it says, "My name is Chris and I live in Scotland", and I can't stop myself laughing.
The end. Peace.
Yay, someone left a comment!...or actually visited...hmm.
But what you said makes good sense, thankyou.
ok, so you wanted to know about a couple of Spiritual gifts.
Exhortation: The special ability God gives to someone to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement and counsel to people in such a way that they feel helped and healed. (Its a weird gift i spose, something that we all have done at some point, but i think the gift part of it is in someone being good at it consistently or something)
Intercession: The special ability God gives someone to pray for extended periods of time on a regular basis and see frequent and specific answers to their prayers to a degree much greater than which is expected from the average Christian.
I do admit that Spiritual gifts are a little weird and like the two above are not easily swallowed as gifts but anyway. Hope that cleared things up. Don't forget to keep reading, more stuff coming!
p.s. Hope you liked the new setup of the blog...i do.
oh yeah, Meagan's blog...funny stuff. Just so you know though...that is me. I am in Scotland right now. Why do you think it takes me so long to get to church!
hehe.
So in my theology degree experience so far I've found its very interesting, but very heavy. I've come up with so many questions, and some of them doubts and coming around full circle and it's only my first quarter. I think you will have fun though. You could be a great theologian.
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