Motivatioal Gifts: Prophetic Gifting
Every born-again believer desires to serve God and minister to others. When you are born-again, God endows you with one or more motivational gifts – just as when you were born into this world, you were born with a talent (one or more). God has given to each of us the ministry of reconciliation (to win the lost). One of the best ways to discover and use your motivational gift, is to find a place in the Body where you can win the lost and bless others with your giftings.

Discovering your gift
Once you discover your motivational gift, you will notice that you will gain a fresh zeal for God and you will function with maximum effectiveness and minimal weariness.

If you want to be fulfilled as a Christian,in your day to day life, you must find out where your gifting lies and pursue it. As you do this, you will grow to maturity. “For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” Mark 4:25.

Pursue your gift within the Body of Christ. God says, “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, to give a future and a hope” Jer 29:11. He has a plan for individuals, nations and the Body of Christ.

Developing your gift
You need to develop your motivational gift and ministry in harmony with God’s plan for your life. You have a unique place in the Body of Christ. People often ask, “In such a big church, where can I fit in? Surely they don’t need me.” But if one person is not fulfilling what God has endowed them with, they are depriving the rest of the Body, and the whole Body then lacks. Knowing what your motivational gift(s) are will stop you from moving into areas where you are not called  – in other words, you won’t move out of your God-given calling.

Understanding spiritual gifts
If each Christian properly understood his or her spiritual gift, it would not only motivate him/her to greater commitment and service, but would also bring a whole new excitement and synergy to the Body of Christ.

We all have a spiritual gift
When we were born physically, we possessed certain abilities. When we were born-again spiritually, we received certain spiritual abilities as members of the Body of Christ. “So we, being many, are one Body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…” Rom 12:5-6.

Joy comes in exercising our gift
The root word for ‘gift’ is Charisma. This comes from the word ‘char’ which means joy. ‘Charis’ is the word for grace which involves God giving us the desire, power and the gift to accomplish God’s Will (Phil 2:13). This is internal motivation.

Personal fulfilment is only possible by developing our gift
Each of us has a desire for meaningful achievement. The ultimate end of this is having a significant part to play. This divine programme is being carried through the Body of Christ by the proper functioning of each member’s gift(s). Don’t get lost in the crowd or overcome with feelings of insignificance. As you use your gift, you will find personal significance.

Each gift is designed to perfect the Body of Christ
Just as there are varying functions in the members of our body, so each Christian has a particular and necessary function in the Body of Christ. Failure to exercise our gift weakens the ministry of the Body of Christ (Rom 2:4-5). We all complement one another. We need to understand other people’s gifting and ministries. We sometimes tend to alienate others because we think that they should have the same gifting that we have. E.g. “She’s so unspiritual because she’s always talking about money and giving”.

If we are to concentrate on our gift as instructed in Romans 12, we must first understand what that gift is. Moreover, if we are to have harmony with others within the Body of Christ, we must understand what their particular functions are.

There are three distinct categories of gifts
It is important at this stage for us to distinguish between the different categories and types of gifts that God has placed in the Body of Christ. We must also not mistake the ‘gifts’ with the ‘fruit’ of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). When we are born-again and walk in the Spirit, then our spirit bears the fruit of our new life in Jesus Christ (John 15:1-8). There are three different groups of gifts given by the Godhead to the Body of Christ:
a)        Motivational Gifts (Rom 12:3-8)
b)        Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:8-10, 28)
c)        Five-fold Ministry Gifts (Eph 4:11)

The purpose of the gifts
Motivational gifts are given by God the Father to each individual Christian as His unique workmanship. These are seven basic motivations or inherent tendencies at work in all our lives. These gifts are prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, ruling and mercy.  Gifts of the Holy Spirit are God the Holy Spirit’s gifts which He distributes to believers as He wills for the work of ministering to people in need. These nine gifts include: a word of wisdom; a word of knowledge; discerning of spirits; faith; working of miracles; gifts of healings; prophecy; diverse kinds of tongues; and the interpretation of tongues.

The ministry gifts are the Ascension gifts of God the Son which He gave to the Church in His Resurrection. These gifts are the five-fold ministries: offices of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher. Christ gave these gifts that they may equip each member of His Body for practical service and ministry. These leaders are also essential in assuring that all the gifts and ministries are correctly applied in the Body of the Church. We will explore all these gifts in the next issue.

See next month’s issue for the follow-up article in the Motivational Gifts series.