–<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t know which spiritual gifts you possess? Start here<\/a> to learn more about the various gifts and techniques the Bible describes to discover your own gifting.<\/em><\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at Queen Esther in the Book of Esther.<\/a> Esther was beautiful\u2014so much so that she won a competition to become the wife of King Xerxes. But King Xerxes didn\u2019t know she was Jewish. That wasn\u2019t a problem until the evil nobleman Haman decided he wanted Esther\u2019s cousin and spiritual mentor, Mordecai, dead. Haman decided the best way to make this happen was to convince the king to order the mass genocide of all Jews in the kingdom.<\/p>\n Mordecai, the man God used to prepare and lead Esther in her extraordinary endeavors, heard of this order and reached out to Esther for help.<\/p>\n Using his spiritual gifts of exhortation and wisdom, Mordecai lead Esther in discovering her own spiritual gifts and helped her put them to good use for God\u2019s people. Thanks to his God-given spiritual gifts, he convinced Esther to go to God with her request for wisdom in approaching the king.<\/p>\n Although Esther knew she risked death for being a Jew and for approaching the king without permission (a big no-no at the time) she asked for God\u2019s help through fasting and prayer and requested Mordecai\u2019s help through intercessory prayer and fasting (when someone\u2014or a group of people\u2014prays and\/or fasts on another\u2019s behalf).<\/p>\n Esther bravely approached King Xerxes, inviting him and Haman to a special dinner. At this dinner she asked them to attend another dinner the next day, and at that dinner, she revealed her Jewish heritage, imploring the king to stop Haman\u2019s evil orders. When the king learned of the truth and then suspected Haman of assaulting his wife, he made orders to have Haman killed \u00a0and signed a decree that protected the Jewish population.<\/p>\n God gave Esther the spiritual gifts of wisdom and discernment so that she would know how to approach the king and convince him to stop the mass killings. And because her spiritual gifts were put to excellent use and she trusted in God\u2019s instruction, she was successful in her mission to save the Jews from Haman\u2019s plot\u2014making Esther an extraordinary person!<\/p>\n Knowing and using your own spiritual gifts does not necessarily mean God will ask you to save thousands of people\u2014although, let\u2019s not rule that out! It is important to understand that God has uniquely gifted and placed you for your own mission to help the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Want to know what all of the biblical spiritual gifts are, and what they mean? See this blog here<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n From The One Year Adventure with the God of Your Story<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1\u00a0Corinthians, Paul answered a question about spiritual gifts:<\/p>\n There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 1\u00a0Corinthians 12:4-6<\/a><\/p>\n Paul then outlined the ways in which God bestows different gifts on different people. These gifts are to be used to serve the greater whole: \u201cThe human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ\u201d (1\u00a0Corinthians 12:12<\/a>).<\/p>\n Paul explained that all believers collectively make up the body of Christ. Each part of this body is irreplaceable. No part can say to another part that it is not needed because this is false. Each part is needed and necessary, and when one part hurts, the rest hurt as well.\u201c<\/p>\n So you see: You, and your spiritual gifts, are needed\u2014in fact, they are essential\u2014within your church and your mission.<\/p>\n When using your spiritual gifts for the good of the church, God gives you extraordinary ability. You will find you are blessed with the skills to complete your tasks and have a joy and energy while performing them that cannot be recreated through other means.<\/p>\n And when everyone in the church uses their spiritual gifts, it moves the Kingdom. God designed each and every one of us individually, giving us various gifts and abilities, so that we might harmoniously work together. He wants to use our individual strengths to bring about great works for Him.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we could truly absorb the reality of Paul\u2019s teaching, we would find that it gives us the incredible freedom of being ourselves. We don\u2019t have to compare gifts or status in God\u2019s Kingdom. We are exactly who God created us to be. We\u2019re supposed to be ourselves rather than wishing we could live someone else\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Live into this today. Every time you catch yourself comparing, stop and remember that you are already irreplaceable. Every time you feel a twitch of envy at another\u2019s gifting, stop and remember that you are uniquely gifted and your life is deeply needed. God is the source of all our gifting, and every bit of it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Recommended reading:<\/p>\n The Bible is a beautiful and divinely inspired book. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible tells the cohesive story of God\u2019s unwillingness to be left out of the human story\u2014your story. In this One Year devotional, join founder and voice of the Daily Audio Bible, Brian Hardin, on a journey to read it in its entirety.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Corinth, a diverse, cosmopolitan city sitting at a strategic center of commerce for both Greece and the wider Roman Empire, was known for its decadence and wealth. In his commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians, Chuck Swindoll explores how Paul took the Corinthian church to task for taking on the character of the city instead of the character of Christ. As Chuck shows, the message of Paul to the Corinthians is greatly needed by the Church today.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n You\u2019ve heard about spiritual gifts and perhaps even discovered which spiritual gifts God has given you. But do you know why they are important? Or how they make you an extraordinary person? – Don\u2019t know which spiritual gifts you possess? Start here to learn more about the various gifts and techniques the Bible describes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[11,192,58,108,7,102,101],"tags":[104,19,310,109,226,105,103,106],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1693,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions\/1693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/10\/SG-God-Belongs-Tee.jpg\" "\\"A")
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<\/a>The One Year Adventure With The God of Your Story<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n![\"Front](\"https:\/\/files.tyndale.com\/thpdata\/images--covers\/HiResJPG\/978-1-4143-9371-1.jpg?width=250\" "\\"Front")
<\/a>Insights on 1 & 2 Corinthians, Swindoll\u2019s Living Insights New Testament Commentary<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nFor even more books on identifying and using your spiritual gifts, see the selection from Tyndale House Publishers<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"