God revealed to me the photo above.

The photo was an outgrowth of meditation before God. I was frustrated about God giving me a passion for Spiritual Gifts and allowing me to participate in a church that operated in a Spiritual Gift Model for five years. Yet, few others have experienced anything like that. I asked God to show me how to communicate what is going on in our churches to spur church leaders to see that all churches can be vibrant and God glorifying to the church body and the community around the church.

This vision has four observations.  

  1. Two of many Bible verses. These are foundational in understanding Spiritual Gift Doctrine.
  2. Note all the unopened packages in each of the pews of this church. They are the people in every church —The people that God gifts to the local church to do the will of God in that church and community. Because the church does not help those people Discover their Spiritual DNA, they remain unopened and untapped. The proof? Ninety-five percent of churches are under 500 people in attendance, while millions are do not attend church and remain unreached.
  3. Two boxes are open – The Spiritual Gift of Giving, shown with a wad of cash, and the Spiritual Gift of Craftsmanship, offered with tools. Most church leaders know people in their church who give extraordinarily and those who jump at the chance to build and construct items church leaders need or want.
  4. The unopened gifts represent the other 21 Spiritual Gifts. Most churches don’t take the time to help their people Discover their Spiritual Gifts. Some churches offer 50-, 75-, or 100-question tests to determine what a person’s Spiritual Gift may be. Those tests do not look at their God-given Passion or God-given Relational Style. Passion indicates where God wants them to serve. Style provides how they will do it when they get there.
    1. The question-only tests do not cross-check against what other people that know you think.
    2. The question-only tests do not compare your Gift questionnaire with the Gift definitions of thousands of others who know they have that Gift.

Use the two additional methods, and you can prove you probably have one substantial Gift and two others that are part of your Gift basket.

Next up: The Spiritual Gift Evolution:

People with a Gift in 3 Scenarios