God has a destiny for you that is more wonderful than you can ever imagine. He wants your life to contribute to His larger plan of redemption for all of mankind. He wants your life to be exciting. Every day He wants you to experience another miracle, sign, or wonder, another increase in His anointing.
To that end, God has given you the skills, talents, and spiritual gifts you need to fulfill that destiny. But there is one thing you need to be aware of. You will not fully realize all He has for you until you align your life with His plan and put those gifts He has given you to use.
Most people, if they think about it for a moment, realize that they have natural gifts and talents that allow them to do certain things better than others. Athletes and musicians are a couple of good examples. These abilities are usually not hard to identify; you either excel at something or you don't. Many believers, though, are unaware that God has also placed spiritual gifts within them.
They are commonly called the "Motive Gifts" and they are listed in Romans 12:4-8: "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness."
One, or perhaps two, of these seven gifts will be dominant in every believer and will motivate their life in a particular direction by equipping them to excel and enjoy certain activities or vocations. Knowing how God has spiritually equipped you will tell you a lot about what God has planned for your life and will also be a strong indicator of where you'll be most successful in the job market.
Essentially, your most gut-level drive will be described by one of these gifts. As you read over the following characteristics of each gift and study the Bible's examples of individuals who exhibited that gift, you should find that one clearly describes you better than the rest.
Putting Your Gift to Work
Does discovering the fact that you have a teaching gift mean you're off the hook as far as giving is concerned? Does the news that you have a motive gift of prophecy mean you don't ever have to serve others? Of course not!
While one or two of these gifts will define the primary motivational drive in your life, please remember that we are each called by God to do all of these things give, exhort, serve, and teach as you have opportunity to do so. With all this in mind, it's easy to see how your motivational gifting has a big impact on your ability to perform at your job or in your church.
The person with a prophecy gift doesn't make for a good public relations person but an exhorter would do well in that area. A practical server wouldn't survive long as a company CEO nor will the guy with an organizational gift enjoy cleaning offices.
If you are not satisfied, happy, and successful at your job or even at what you are doing to serve in your church, it may be that the activities you are pursuing in life don't line up with your spiritual gifting.
You will be the most productive and satisfied as you work at something that takes full advantage of your particular gifts. I might add that your natural talents are going to compliment, not clash with, your spiritual gifting. If you are still unsure about how you are spiritually gifted, take a look at your natural abilities.
If you are good with your hands, practical service might be your motive gift. If you love to research and seek truth and then present it to others, it may well be that the teaching gift will enable you to perform well in your company's training department.
Again, knowing your spiritual gifting will do much to help you understand the will of God for your life. Then, when you factor in your natural talents and abilities, you should have a pretty good idea how God has prepared you vocationally and where He wants you to go with your life.
Unwrapping the Gift
Let's say that you now realize you are spiritually equipped to organize and rule. You have the drive, desire, and ability to reorganize your entire company. You even have a vision for how to do it. You know you should be running this company but you are in an entry-level position and management barely knows you exist.
You are asking yourself, "How do I unwrap this gift and make it work for me?" Look at Proverbs 28:20. "A faithful man shall abound with blessings." Faithfulness is the way promotion comes. Jesus said in the parable of the talents (Matt 25:21) that "he that is faithful over a few things will be made ruler over much."
Be faithful honest, loyal, diligent, consistent with the responsibilities you have and increase will come. Do not despise small beginnings but rather take to heart what Paul says about faithfulness in Col 3:22-24, "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."
No matter what you are asked to do or how you are treated, do your work as unto the Lord. That's how you get above and out from being beneath. God wants you to be the head and not the tail and faithfulness is how you get there. You should also train and educate yourself so when a door of opportunity is ready to be opened, you are naturally equipped to step through it. Your spiritual gifts and raw talent will get you started but it will be the development of those gifts and talents that will carry you to the finish.
Open the gifts God has given you by learning what they are. Start making plans to put them to use. Set some reasonable goals for promotion. Plan to increase in responsibility and authority in your sphere of influence by the use of your gifts. God doesn't equip you to do one thing and then call you to do something else.
If your effort in life isn't aligned with your God-given gifts, start seeking Him for what changes He would have you make. As you do, you'll begin enjoying the supernatural success the Lord wants you to experience. You'll find the satisfaction that comes from you knowing you've found your place in God's plan and are living it out to the fullest.
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Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
