SPIRITUAL GIFT OF GIVING
Please read the following Spiritual Gift of Giving 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 “healing” 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 GIFT OF GIVING
In Romans 12:8, it says, “ if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously” (NIV). In “Giving” means to impart, to give over, share, bestow, bring forth, commit, deliver or grant. As a spiritual gift, giving is more than just casually giving something to someone. It implies the giving of yourself with the gift. Like the pianist accompanies the soloist, the person with this gift enhances the giving. Together they are God’s melody to the person receiving. When you spend yourself on behalf of others, it can include giving of your time, abilities, knowledge, love and resources to the cause of Christ. Paul wrote to “give generously”. This implies both in content and cheerful attitude. When a person with this gift sees certain needs, God’s Spirit nudges them in a way that they feel compelled to give what is needed in the situation as an agent of God’s grace and mercy. When they give, the receiver ends up knowing that it is God who orchestrated the whole thing.
Benefits
This gift helps teach grace and encourages faith in God. Obedience to this gift allows God to bring about the resources to accomplish His will for the church.
Pitfalls
One pitfall would be to fall into the pharisaical trap of letting others know how generous you are, giving in to the temptations of praise and pride. Another pitfall is to become critical and judge those that do not participate in giving. Also, it is possible that we feel we need to earn God’s love or we may have a deep need for praise and recognition. If so, this could result in an inordinate amount of time or resources being given away, to the extent that we ignore our own family’s needs.
Ministry Opportunities
Often a person with this gift has expertise in money matters and can help with church finances. A person with the gift of giving often motivates others to give because of their example. A person with this gift should be aware of the plans of the church so they can be the best steward of what God has given them. Finally, this person can also be a mentor to other people with resources in the church.
Further Training
Passion
Using a scale of 1 – 5, rate whether you have a passion for giving and generosity.
(1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much so)
A person with this gift does not automatically get wisdom with it. There needs to be “due diligence” on prospective recipients of their generosity. The study of philanthropy and the many financial giving vehicles will help a person leverage their generosity better.
RATE YOURSELF ON THE GIFT OF GIVING
Passion Score ______
Experience/Evidence
Using a scale of 1 – 5, rate whether you have had significant testimony from others as evidence of the gift of giving and generosity.
(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 your 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
Using Your Spiritual Gifts 