Do You Have The Spiritual Gift of Mercy?

SPIRITUAL GIFT OF MERCY

Please read the following  Spiritual Gift of Mercy description and then rate yourself on a scale of 1 through 5 both in passion and experience. This is to help you from ignoring a gift God may have for you. For example, you may be high in passion in the gift of  “discernment” but as of yet God has not manifested Himself in that way to you. If all you rated was experience you may skip over this very important passion God has given you. Likewise, if you are deeply involved in “service” but are more pragmatic and less passionate about it you may be tempted to ignore developing the gift of service in the way God wants you to.

Rate Your Passion For This Gift

The first rating has to do with your passion for the gift. Are you really motivated to act this way? 1 means that you have no interest in or passion to use the gift. 5 means that the definition describes you very accurately, or that you do have a strong interest/passion in the ability.

Next Rate Your Experience With or Evidence For This Gift

The second rating has to do with your experience/evidence of the gift. Rate your experience with or evidence of the gift.

1 means that you have no experience with or evidence of the gift. 5 means that you have a lot of experience with or evidence of the gift.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS OF MERCY

In Romans 12:8 Paul writes, “if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully” (NIV).  In the Biblical language, mercy means to be led by God to be compassionate in your attitudes, words, and actions. It is more than sympathy, which is pity. It is love in action. This empathy stirs deep inside you and causes you to want to do something. You want to bring relief to the immediate needs that you are aware of. Mercy can be used in helping someone with physical, emotional, financial or spiritual situations.

Benefits
A church that is merciful can help meet serious needs in its own community. This can be complemented with needs-based evangelism. Mercy can also be an effective part of the ministry of the church to its own members. Mercy helps relate the love of God to those in and out of the church.

Pitfalls
Mercy can often give the impression that it is solving a problem when it may be only treating the immediate situation. By just alleviating the symptoms we could miss curing the person. We can “enable” people by constantly “rescuing” them. Mercy is desperately needed but we also need to strive for long-term solutions.
It is easy to get frustrated with those that don’t get involved or don’t see the problem. It is also possible to be hurt or angry if we are taken for granted or do not see change. A person with this gift can become over involved leading to burnout or too much time away from our family. It is also possible to become proud of our “mercy” and become pharisaical.

Ministry Opportunities
We can use this gift in visitation with the sick and elderly, prison ministry, homeless shelters, job placement programs and food pantries. We can be merciful by using our skills to enable organizations and committees to be merciful. We can be on boards, help fund raise, mentor, counsel and do many other needed volunteer tasks.

Further Training
You can learn more about being merciful through seminars, literature and volunteering with various agencies. You can go to college and study in the social services, psychology, ministry, health, medical and education. Any of these fields could allow you to have a career in a mercy ministry.
 

RATE YOURSELF ON THE GIFT OF MERCY

Passion
Using a  scale of  1 – 5, rate whether you have a passion for helping others.
(1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much so)

Passion Score ______

Experience/Evidence
Using a  scale of  1 – 5, rate whether you have had significant experience in helping others or evidence of the gift of helps.
(1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much so)

Experience/Evidence Score __

How to Rate Your Score
 To be more accurate on the Spiritual Gift you need to look both at your passion with the gift and the experience with or evidence of the gift. If your passion is 3 – 5 then it is high. If your passion is 1 – 2 then it is low. It is the same with the experience where you rate evidence of the gift in your life. Is the experience/evidence high (3 – 5) or is it low (1 – 2)?

Plot your scores on the grid
 Notice that Experience/Evidence is on the vertical axis and Passion is on the horizontal axis. So an Experience/Evidence score of  3 and a Passion score of 2 and would be in the number 2 quadrant.

Quadrants

Quadrant 1 = High Passion and High Experience/Evidence
A Spiritual Gift that is in this quadrant seems to be one that God has given you. You are passionate about the gift and have experience and evidence in your life that seems to confirm this. Continue to grow in this gift and use it for His glory.

Quadrant 2 = Low Passion and High Experience/Evidence
A Spiritual Gift in this quadrant may indicate that circumstances have called upon you to exhibit this skill or ministry in your life. For example you don’t have to have a high Passion to be merciful to those that are hungry around you. However, your church may have a large feeding program. Just because you are recruited and spend a lot of time doesn’t mean that you have the Gift of Mercy. Rather it simply could mean that you were obedient to God by helping with a need.

Quadrant 3 = High Passion and Low Experience/Evidence
Scoring in this quadrant is common among the Supernatural gifts. Healing, faith, miracles – you may feel really burdened in situations to pray for God’s intervention in mighty ways. You pray believing and trusting that God can and will act. If this is true then you must rate yourself high on Passion. However, though you are passionate in your praying for healing your experience may not be successful. You would rate your experience/evidence score low. However, this does not mean give up. It is just an indicator of your personal experience up to this moment in time. If God moves in your heart you deeply to pray for the supernatural let Him take care of the results. It is better to pray believing and not see the results you anticipated than to be disobedient and not pray. God has given you the gift, He will use it according to His will. Be faithful to the passion He has given you.

Quadrant 4 = Low Passion and Low Experience/Evidence
A score in this quadrant is usually a good indicator that God, up to this point in time, has not birthed in you this Spiritual Gift. This does not mean that in time God may call upon you to work in this area. God can give any gift at any time. He is sovereign.

Now that you have finished this self-assessment, how do you feel about your discovery? Were you surprised or did you find the answer that you expected?  Are you intimidated by the significance of the gift and what God may expect from you or are you confident that God has and will continue to use you in this way?
One way to confirm your findings is to ask those Godly people that know you well. Ask them to read the definitions of the gifts that you selected and confirm whether they see this same gift in your life or not. Ask them what they think you need to improve on. Ask them to pray for you that you may have understanding and wisdom in using these gifts.
Another way to grow in your gift is to report to the member of your pastoral staff at church that would be in charge of volunteers in the church. Share with them your discovery and ask them for materials to study and opportunities for service. Perhaps there is someone that they know that could mentor you in this gift.
Finally, seek out others in your church that have the same gift(s). Meet regularly as a group to learn, share stories and pray for each other. As a church, you function as a body of believers. You were given these gifts to help each other. There is no limit to what God could do as you and the others in your church are Spirit-led in the use of these gifts.

What are some ways that you can use your gifts? You can find out more about this in our workbook Wired For Ministry  CLICK HERE to preview Wired for Ministry.

Want to know more about Spiritual Gifts? CLICK HERE for a FREE Spiritual Gifts Survey

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