Spiritual Gifts: Finding Your Position on Team JesusSample

Serving Gifts 

The first category of serving gifts includes a lot of behind the scenes work in ministry that is focused on helping people in a variety of ways. Here are some descriptions and questions you can ask yourself to see if you have these gifts. They include: 

• Mercy: The gift of mercy is the capacity to feel and express unusual compassion, empathy, and sympathy for those in difficult or crisis situations and provide them with the necessary help and support to see them through tough times (Matt. 5:7; 9:13; 23:23; 19:14; Luke 8:40-56). 

Do you have this gift?:

Do you often think of ways to minister to those who are suffering and see people who are hurting but often overlooked? Do a lot of people choose you as their wise counsel or confidant to talk about issues in their life with you?

• Hospitality: Hospitality is the ability to welcome strangers and entertain guests, often in your home, with great joy and kindness so that they become friends. Hospitality is supposed to include one’s family (1 Tim. 5:8), friends (Prov. 27:10), Christians (Gal. 6:10), and strangers who may not be Christians (Lev. 19:34).  

Do you have this gift?:

Is your home the kind that most people feel comfortable in and can drop by to visit unannounced? 

Do you consider your home as a place of ministry for others and not just a retreat for you?

• Discernment: The spiritual gift of discernment is the ability to quickly perceive whether such things as people, events, or beliefs are from God or Satan (1 Corinthians 11:14–15; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Peter 2:1; 1 Timothy 1:3; 6:3).  

Do you have this gift?: 

Do you often make a swift evaluation of someone or something that was said that others did not see, but yet proved to be correct? 

Do people who are confused about a doctrine, leader, or teacher often ask you what your evaluation is to help them get clarity amidst confusion?  

• Helps/Service: The gift of helps/service is the ability to joyfully work alongside others and help them complete the task God has given them. People with this gift generally prefer to work behind the scenes. They also tend to find joy in helping alleviate the burdens and responsibilities of others. This gift is usually accompanied with an attitude of humility and sacrifice, as well as an ability to perceive the needs of others (Romans 12:7; 1 Corinthians 12:28). 

Do you have this gift?: 

Do you prefer to work in a supportive role rather than a leadership capacity? 

Do you not necessarily care what your role is as long as you are on a healthy team that is doing good ministry? 

• Administration: Administration is the God-given ability to give direction and make decisions on behalf of others that result in efficient operation and accomplishment of goals. Administration includes the ability to organize people, things, information, finances, etc. Often the mark of an administrator is the ability to accomplish things in a “fitting and orderly way” (1 Corinthians 14:40; Genesis 41; Exodus 18).

Do you have this gift?:

Do you like to see resources best stewarded so that things like money, facilities, time, and energy are utilized for the best return on investment? 

Do you become energized working on tasks and projects whereas that level of detail work overwhelms or exhausts other people you know? 

Giving: Giving is the ability to give money and other forms of wealth joyfully, wisely, and generously to meet the needs of others and help support ministries. The widow (Mark 12:42–43), Tabitha (Acts 9:36), Barnabas (Acts 4:34–37), and the Macedonian church (2 Cor. 8:1–2) all had this gift.

Do you have this gift?:

Do you find yourself looking for opportunities to give your money – even when no one asks?

When you get something (e.g. a home or vacation home, car, etc.) is your first instinct to think about people you could bless by sharing it with them? 

• Faith: Faith is the ability to envision what needs to be done and to trust God to accomplish it, even though it seems impossible to most people. These people are often visionaries who dream big dreams, pray big prayers, and attempt big things for Jesus. Examples include Paul (Acts 27:21–25), Stephen, who was “full of faith” (Acts 6:5), and Jesus’ mother, Mary, who trusted God to give her a child even though she was a virgin (Luke 1:26–38). Hebrews 11 also lists some Hall of Fame believers who had the gift of faith. 

Do you have this gift?:

Do you view obstacles as opportunities and trust God for the impossible? 

Do you find other believers coming to you for hope when they face a seemingly overwhelming trial or task? 

Do you tend to be less emotionally up and down than many people you know and more even keeled with a strong sense of God’s faithfulness?