Clumsiness is Not a Spiritual Gift
"I have the spiritual gift of clumsiness," that ten-year old bike rider could have said. As her mother will testify, her childhood and adolescence was filled with examples of running into things. Whether two-wheeling through the backyard on her super-speedy bike,
walking across her high school campus with a book in hand, or unfortunately, backing out of the high school parking lot the very day she got her license, trees, poles, and other vehicles didn't stand a chance.
But, there is no spiritual gift of clumsiness.
This topic of spiritual gifts has mystified, polarized, and even divided, the body of Christ over the centuries when people ask questions like:
- What are spiritual gifts?
- Are all the spiritual gifts for today?
- Are there more spiritual gifts than the ones listed in the Bible?
- Does everyone have a spiritual gift?
- Can you have more than one spiritual gift?
- Are there certain gifts for men, and certain gifts for women?
While I will fill you in on my views of all these questions at the end of this post, the only one I'm really going to hit is the first one.
What are spiritual gifts?
I love John Piper’s definition.
"Spiritual gifts are expressions of faith, to strengthen faith ... They are any ability the Spirit gives you to express your faith in order to strengthen another person."
Paul gives us several lists of spiritual gifts, and Peter gives us one as well. Check out these passages:
In these verses you can see lists of spiritual gifts, but you also see that the gifts are:
given by God,
empowered by the Spirit, and
specifically appointed for each believer.
Spiritual gifts may be natural abilities, talents, or even personality traits that preexist in a person, but when that person comes to Christ, those gifts are empowered by the Holy Spirit and take on a supernatural quality. Instead of being used to advance our own cause, we use them to glorify God and bless others, and we get overflowing joy.
Now about those other questions. I’m going to share my views with you, but they are my views. You check out the scriptures and come to your conclusions. In my opinion, these are important issues for each believer to wrestle with, but they are not worth dividing over.
Are all the spiritual gifts for today?
My view is yes, all the gifts are for today. From my Bible study, I don’t see a division between the supernatural gifts and the less supernatural ones. Honestly, I think they are all supernatural. Administration, hospitality, service empowered by the Holy Spirit is supernatural. However, it’s a gray area and not one worth dividing over.
Are there more spiritual gifts than the ones listed in the Bible?
Possibly. I don’t see Paul or Peter saying that these are all the gifts. I come back to John Piper’s definition.
Spiritual gifts are ... any ability the Spirit gives you to express your faith and strengthen another person.
Does every Christian have a spiritual gift?
Yes, yes, YES!
Can you have more than one spiritual gift?
What I’ve found is that each person has one really strong gift and a couple of supporting gifts.
Are there certain gifts for men, and certain gifts for women?
I don’t think so. I do ascribe to the view of men holding the office of elder in the local church, but this doesn’t limit women from expressing their gifts of leadership, pastoring, teaching, administration, discernment, etc. in ways that honor God, bless others, and bring them joy.
Now, it's time to hear from you.
Although I could have claimed the spiritual gift of clumsiness as a child and adolescent (and adult?), clumsiness, or criticism, or car-wrecking have no place on anyone's list of spiritual gifts. What self-deprecating labels do you need to throw off? What have you found helpful in this discussion of spiritual gifts? Now that I've shared "my views," I'd love to hear yours!
Let's get the discussion going.
This post is part 3B of a 13-part series, a Virtual Book Club in which we read and discuss the book S.H.A.P.E.: Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose in Life, by Eric Rees. In addition to my own study and experience, much of the material and many of the insights originate in this book. If you'd like to join us for the VBC, you can find more information in the following posts.
Welcome to S.H.A.P.E. You Are a Masterpiece with a Special Commission
I invite you to join me and my friends over the next few months as we work together to find and fulfill our unique purpose for life. It proves to be an exciting journey!
Over the next few days, join me back here for the following:
- Why are Spiritual Gifts Important?
- What are YOUR Spiritual Gifts?
- Using Your Spiritual Gifts
- Shoring Up Your Spiritual Gifts