How do I know my spiritual gift?

This week, I have the blessing of preaching the portion of 1 Corinthians where Paul lays down some gifts that the Spirit gives His people for His work in His church. One of the challenges of this section of the letter is the reality that Paul never defines or describes what each of the gifts listed are. Paul never explains what the gift of wisdom or miracles or prophecy actually is. This means for the church today our focus must not be on the details of the gift itself, but on the use of the gift to build up the local church and drive the common good of the local body. This is Paul's point in this section of the letter and it must be our point also in preaching this section of the letter. Yes, we can read through other sections of Paul's writing and look in a deeper way at the book of Acts to see how the gifts were used. But the local church must not get so hung up on the details of the gift, but keep the focus on the use of the gift for the common good and building up the local body, the gift is present in. This begs the question to every believer, "how am I using my gift to build up my church family"? Before we answer that question it is helpful to know what our gift from the Spirit actually is. Remember the Bible is not exhaustive of all of the spiritual gifts that are given, the Bible, especially 1 Corinthians, are only a sampling of some of the gifts the Spirit can give to His children. 

Here are three questions that will help each of us discover and then use our gift from the Spirit. 

1)What do I love? 

If you have a passion or love for something or someone in particular, God has given you a driving force to serve and love Him. To love a group of people, a particular activity of the church, or a certain ministry, is a sign the Spirit wants you to get involved with said love. If you love something God loves, in a deeper, sacrificial, and truthful way, that is a sign for your gifted area. 

2)What am I good at?

God has created each one of us with abilities, talents, and skills. The Spirit in many ways will use the way God designed us and created us for a deeper more special and graceful way to use said skill or talents in the church. If we are good at something that many others are not, it could be a serious sign for where our spiritual gift lays. 

3)How can I build up my church for the common good?

If we can see clearly that there is an area that our local faith family is missing something or has a hole, we should get involved and see if we love it and are good at it. If we notice an opportunity for the building up of our church for good, God has probably given us a clear vision for a place we can serve and serve to discover whether we are gifted by the Spirit to be in that area. We can't know our gift by not doing anything. It is only through serving and building up our church, that we will truly discover what our spiritual gift is.