What Are Spiritual Gifts?

In this episode, Chad and Keith discuss spiritual gifts: what they are, what they aren't, and how they allow us to live freely into the unique giftiings the Lord has given us.

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Intro (Keith): Welcome to the Kanakuk Institute Podcast, where we continue to equip leaders with Biblical Skills for a lifetime of ministry.

Chad (00:13): Welcome back into the Kanakuk Institute Podcast. Keith Chancey and Chad Hampsch with you as always. Keith, excited, we’re going to start a new series on Spiritual Gifts. Talk to us a little bit about why this is important for us to talk about.

Keith (00:30): You know, Chad, what’s really good about understanding your spiritual gift, and I love that Paul, you know, gave us understanding in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians, he really helps us understand that we all have gifts. The problem with understanding gifts is that we usually compare ourselves and I want what you have and you want what I have, and so the disunity that happens is really real. And Paul talks in Philippians 2, he talks about that we need to be in unity with one another. So, as I look at this opportunity for us to kind of help everybody out there in the listening audience, you know, you’re going to continue to compare yourself with other people until you have your walk with Christ established. And so, I get really excited about just first and foremost just talking about, you know, how can you as a believer out there be secure in who you are, because until you’re secure in who you are in your gift, you’re never going to really impact the world the way you were intended to, because you’re always going to be going, “I want to one-up that person. I want to be better than that person.” You’re going to be saying, “Well wasn’t that a good talk that I gave, that I was really good when I gave my talk.” And you’re going to be comparing yourself that you gave as good of a talk as Francis Chan. And then you’re never going to feel good enough because you’re going to be going, “Well if I was just like him, or if I was like this person that gave that message, I would be good.” And so arriving at a place that you want to be, comparing yourself to another person is not where we want to be. But you want to be only compared to who God made you to be.

Chad (02:04): Yeah, so you mentioned a key word there, I think, you talked about the word security. So let’s talk about what a secure person in Christ looks like, because I think, I think we can bypass that a little bit, but what does it mean for someone to actually be, like, secure and confident, not necessarily in their gifting, Keith, but just security, like, how do I know I’m on the firm rock, and not on the sandy beach.

Keith (02:29): You know, as I’ve thought about that there for myself, you know, happiness cannot just be me focusing on myself, because so much of my joy comes from, you know, I watched the Kansas City Chief football game last night and they won, yay! But if they lose, all of a sudden, I have a totally different emotion. That my world begins to revolve around, you know, football games, friendships being asked to dinner, that everything about my life is about pleasing others and being pleased by how the world goes. Rather than going, “You know what? My security is only in Christ.” And that I’m not asking what you can do for me, but what can I do for you? And so, when I am pleasing to the Lord, I’m no longer trying to get everybody to please my, but I’m trying to please others. Let me give you an example. I’ll never forget football, you know, in college, and I had a really good game, caught a couple of passes that were really good yardage gainers and my yards per catch were really good and I’m thinking, “man, I’m pretty special.” And I just kind of woke up to the reality. Everything in my life is about my yardage, my catch, did I score a touchdown, what is my ranking, am I first, second, third in the conference, how am I doing in the national view of that. And if you’re not careful, what happens is everything about your life is looking to statistics and that validates you, and yet that’s so fleeting.

Chad (04:05): Yeah, and really you’re saying, “My value is defined by others.” Because if you’re faster than Jason, or if you’re faster than Chad, or whoever it might be, then all of a sudden, your value is, you’re the top dog because you had three more yards.

(04:20): That’s right. And so that pleasing others mentality can really get you into a trap, because what we begin to do is we begin to strive to earn acceptance, and in that acceptance, we begin to go, I’m either not good enough, which throws you into a tizzy, which you begin to become discouraged, doubtful, depressed, and all those ugly words, because I’m not good enough. Rather than going, “You know what? It has nothing to do with my value of that, of being good enough, because in Christ, I am good enough.” He says in Psalm 139, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God. The hands of God made me. They made me exactly who I am, whole, and with the freckles of my face, the hair that I have, the body that I have.” I’m not as tall as you, Chad, and if I’m not careful, I’ll start going, “Man, I wish I was 6’2”, I’m only 5’9”.” All of a sudden your whole identity is absorbed in striving to look like somebody. “I want to wear your clothes, you’ve got a nice shirt on today, your haircut, boy I like that.” And all of a sudden everything about me is about looks, identity, is about the things that I wear, the money that I have, the car that I drive. And so everything is about stuff.

Chad (05:31): Yeah, and then our security ends up being tied in all these other things instead of, really, knowing who God is, and that being the firm foundation of, like, I’m secure. Like, my relationship with Christ is secure. I really don’t care, and I don’t mean this the wrong way, but I don’t really care what people think because I mostly care about what God thinks about me, and that goes back to what we talked about last time about being in right relationship with God and confession and those kinds of things. I think the other thing we need to understand when we talk about spiritual gifts is, a spiritual gift is not your enneagram. It’s not your personality type. It’s not your strengthfinders. A spiritual gift is a unique outpouring of the Spirit. As Romans 12, each one has been given with accordance of the measure that God has granted. That, Keith, you have been given a very unique spiritual gift. Jason has been given a very unique spiritual gift for the purpose of the Church. Talk about that a little bit.

Keith (06:30): Well, and let me just clarify something that’s really good. You know, we just talked about when we are pleasing others, we’re not pleasing God. Because we’re trying to be accepted by others. There’s an element there that we struggle with first is pleasing others. And secondly, is trust. And if I don’t have a trust in who God is, I’m never going to be the man that God made me to be. And so trust is a big issue. You know, proverbs 3:5-6 says trust in the Lord with all your heart. Not some, but all. And when I do that, when I trust in the Lord with all my heart. I’m different, because I go, ‘I’m not partially in. I’m all in.” And when I’m all in, I now am seeking the will of God, and I now accept the gift that he’s given to me, that I’m no longer trying to please you by being a good athlete, but I’m pleasing you because I love God. 

Chad (07:24): And there’s a security. And you can see it, when you see somebody that is secure in Christ. It’s clear as day. Like, you can go, that person is not concerned with what the world thinks about them. And it’s wonderful, and there’s actually something we as people admire when we see that in someone is we go, “Man, you can just tell that person is at peace with who they are.”

Keith (07:50): And you see the brightness in their eyes, you see the smile that they have. It’s a swag. They’ve got a spiritual swag, and it’s not because they’re better than people. It’s because they’re confident and trust in who God is. What a great picture for us to be able to look at that and go, “You know,” I really look at that and go, “By grace,” Ephesians 2:8,9, and 10, “I have been saved, through faith, that my faith is what saved me.” But my faith in Jesus Christ alone, for what he did. I wasn’t saved by what any, I did. But what he did.

Chad (08:23): Yeah, your security is in Him, not in your…

Keith (08:27): Exactly, and so I understand salvation. It all goes back to my view of salvation. For by grace I’ve been saved through faith, not of myself, it’s a gift of God, not a result of works that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand. So my good works are a result, not of me wanting to work for my salvation, but because I am saved, I want to work for him. So that’s James 2, it really helps us to understand, and then we go, “Wow, Chad that takes all the pressure off me, because that means I can work within my gift.”

Chad (09:03): Yeah, you’re just operating off of what the Holy Spirit is already doing inside of you.

Keith (09:05): He gave me something. The greatest thing I got, yes. I’ll never forget Cameron saying one day, he said, “Dad, thank you so much for that you gave me your gift of being fast.” I said, “Dude,” I said, “That was given a long time ago, the thing that.” I said, “I’m just thankful that my genetics did that, but if being fast is your security, I’ve done you an injustice.” And he goes, “Man, thanks Dad.” And we talked about that. Because, I didn’t want him to get his identity in that he's fast, a football player, a track runner, and all of those things. However, that is what people look at, and they go, “Man, he’s an awesome kid.” But what makes someone awesome is not their abilities, it’s their heart. And when you accept the gift that God gave to you, you’re going to be so much different.

Chad (09:58): Let’s circle back because I want to make sure we got the part where people understand the difference between a Spiritual gift, and maybe their personality. So let’s say me and you have the same spiritual gift, but we have very different personalities, and I think people can often get in their minds like, “This is a personality thing,” or, you know, but Spiritual gifts come from people that are saved that have the Holy Spirit and it is a unique outpouring in them by God, for the work of God, specifically in the church. Just unpack that so we’re, I want to make sure everybody’s just abundantly clear that this is not your enneagram, this is not your, you know, your personality type.

Keith (10:40): Well, when Jesus died and he resurrected, we see the gospels, immediately we go forth to the book of Acts, and we see that now, Jesus now has died, he’s resurrected, they’ve seen him, he’s appeared to one, he’s appeared to a few, then he’s appeared to over 500. And he’s now left us something, and what he leaves us is the Holy Spirit. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem Judea, Samaria, and in the outermost parts of the world. So, God left us something that’s far bigger than us. He left us with the Holy Spirit. So we have something in us that transforms us. It’s his gift to us. One it’s the gift of salvation. Now, as a result of that gift, I now move, I’m convicted, that’s the Holy Spirit, I now move, the Spirit convicts me when I lust, I go, “I need to ask God to forgive me.” That’s different than the gift that he gave to me as the gift of exhortation, the gift of service, the gift of mercy, those two, they’re very very powerful things. One is the gift that God gave to me, that’s the assurance of who he is, and he left me with a reminder of that, and that’s the Holy Spirit within me. Now, in his gift, that’s what makes me and you different. Even though we may have the same gift, we’re going to be different within the uniqueness of the way that we perform that gift because of the way that God made your.

Chad (12:15): Wiring.

Keith (12:16): Wiring, yeah. I may be high strung, you may not be as high strung as me, so mine’s going to come across a lot different. But the function is glorifying to God, and it’s security, and it’s trust that God gave to me this that I can now no longer operate out of pleasing others, but because God has made me a certain way, I now can please God, which pleases others.

Chad (012:40): That’s good. And I just think that’s so important, because I think people can get really side tracked. There’s so many great tools out there and I’m not knocking strengthfinders, or enneagram. Those are great tools, but they’re not the same as understanding how God has uniquely given you the Spirit in a sense of using it for a spiritual gift. So, we’re going to walk through a series here, and we’re going to walk through, maybe, one or two spiritual gifts at a time as we walk through the series, but we just wanted to give you kind of a framework for what the spiritual gifts are and why they’re important. So, Keith, will you just, maybe don’t explain them yet, we’ll get there, but will you just tell us what the primary spiritual gifts we’re going to focus on are?

Keith (13:20): Well, you know, Chad great. We’re going to look at nine primary gifts that we were given. You know, I’m just going to kind of, not in any order, but I’m just going to talk about, you know, evangelism, is a gift, prophecy is a gift, teaching, exhortation, shepherding, serving, mercy, giving, administration, these are gifts that God gave to us. Now there’s a whole lot more that are there, but these are going to be the primary gifts that we are including in the way that we live our life today. 

Chad (13:57): We’re going to hone in on them.

Keith (13:59): They’re what’s going to go with you to the workforce when you go to work. If you understand your gift, you’re going to be a better employee. If you understand your gift, you’re going to be a better daddy, a better husband. You’re going to be a better friend. You’re going to be a better everything, because your security is going to be in who God is. You’re going to have a confidence, and a swag, because of what God has done for you. Your identity is going to be in Christ, you’re going to realize that you were created in Christ Jesus for good works, and you’re going to know, your confidence is going to be about Jesus, and you’re going to quit comparing yourself to the world. And so, we’re going to have a lot of fun with this.

Chad (14:38): Yeah, this is going to be really good. And what our hopes is is that you hear us walk through the scriptures about these particular spiritual gifts, that maybe something will just stir in your mind, your heart, and go, “Man, I don’t know if I’m actually maximizing my gift for gospel service.” And that you would be challenged, be encouraged to plug back in and go, “Man, I do have the gift of exhortation. How am I using that at my church?” And that you would be driven and motivated to do that. So, we’re excited to.. this is going to be awesome. So, this is an intro to our series on spiritual gifts, and we’ll be walking through that over the next several weeks, so we’re excited to connect with you on that. If you need anything or prayer for anything, don’t hesitate to reach out, keith@kanakukinstitute.com or chad@kanakukinstitute.com, we love y’all and we can’t wait to connect.

Keith (15:29): Have a great day, God bless.