Gifts from God

My friend Samantha and I were talking over upscale martinis the other night when I told her about something I have discovered about myself in the past couple of years: I pick up on vibes other people give out.  I still say I am a poor judge of character, but I can sense the atmosphere of people when I’m around them.  I know how people view me and I can usually tell if they’re being sincere.  It’s weird, I am not psychic, I cannot tell the future.  Just the present.  Most of the time I ignore it: sometimes I will meet someone and just not like them; I will have no reasons to back up my dislike.  And sometimes, their true colors are revealed (a cheater, a fake, etc.)

It came to a culmination some years ago when I sensed something was going on between 2 people of my acquaintance.  I saw them standing next to each other for a split second in time — they were standing much too close for 2 people who were married to other people.  They’re having an affair, I thought. I had no tangible proof and I was by no means going to confront them, it was just a weird vibe.  I let it go.  Several months later, I find that my suspicions were confirmed. How…odd.  Things like that happen and I wonder.  Same thing happened with my friend’s girlfriend.  I didn’t like her and I didn’t know why.  She was kind, beautiful, and made my guy friend so happy.  I figured I was just jealous because she seemed to have it all and I was single at the time and not happy about it.  Soon after that, she left my guy friend for a co-worker in the meanest way possible.

Samantha said, “Oh!  You have the spiritual gift of discernment!”  The what?  I looked it up and this is what a website said:

Discernment / Distinguishing of Spirits – The special ability God gives to some to know with assurance whether certain behavior or teaching is from God, Satan, human error, or human power.

The divine enablement to distinguish between truth and error, to discern the spirits, differentiating between good and evil, right and wrong.

People with this gift:
– distinguish truth from error, right from wrong, pure motives from impure
– identify deception in others with accuracy and appropriateness
– determine whether a word attributed to God is authentic
– recognize inconsistencies in a teaching, prophetic message, or interpretation
– are able to sense the presence of evil.

Meh.  Some of it sounds like me, some of it no.  I don’t have much practice with “sensing the presence of evil.”  I’m not sure if my definition is the same as what it says here.  I dated Lys — no discernment there!  Maybe it’s because I was too immature to recognize it?

Curiosity took over and so I took a quiz (You can take it too. Scroll to the bottom to start.)

My top 5 results:

Faith
Poverty
Wisdom
Exhortation
Encourage

I also accidentally took the youth quiz and got these results:

Faith
Giving
Writing
Discernment
Hospitality

I feel I better relate to the youth quiz.  I feel I do not have the gifts of poverty, wisdom, exhortation, or encouragement; I do feel I have more of a giving, writing, discernment, hospitality persona.  I was equally surprised to find that faith topped both lists.  I never saw myself as someone who has rock solid faith, but the more I thought about it, my actions and thought patterns do reflect someone with that gift.  Here is what they say about the spiritual gift of faith:

Faith – The special conviction God gives to some to be firmly persuaded of God’s power and promises to accomplish His will and purpose and to display such a confidence in Him and His Word that circumstances and obstacles do not shake that conviction.

The divine enablement to act on God’s promises with confidence and unwavering belief in God’s ability to fulfill his purposes.

People with this gift:
– believe the promises of God and inspire others to do the same
– act in complete confidence of God’s ability to overcome obstacles
– demonstrate an attitude of trust in God’s will and his promises
– advance the cause of Christ because they go forward when others will not
– ask God for what is needed and trust him for his provision.

I find all of this fascinating.  When I was saved at 16, I found my spiritual gift to be “service.”  Now, 14 years later, I’ve matured in Christ and as a person, I wonder if those gifts change as we change? I  am who I am at the core, but more fine-tuned now.

I plan to pray and research a bit more about this, so that the Lord can reveal more about all this.

Conversely, my  lowest ranking gifts are 100% correct:

Celibacy
Music
Speaking/Understanding Tongues
Craftsmanship
Pastor
Prophecy

What’s your spiritual gift?