Day 22: Vision part Deaux... what's in the toolbox?

What's in the Toolbox?

As I mentioned in my previous blog on day 21, my former pastor Rodney H challenged me  to develop my vision statement. The first step down that path was to look in my "toolbox" to see what tools I had available to accomplish whatever it is that God has me on this mudball called earth to do. Doesn't it make sense that the God of this universe would supply me with what I needed to do whatever it is He wants me to do? What are the tools that God gave me? For me there were three things:

1. Spiritual Gifts  - those special abilities given to each Christian by our Creator to accomplish His will through us.

2. Abilities and aptitudes... beyond those specific spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible, the tendencies, temperament and abilities of an individual. How do you respond to different situations? What skills do you possess? Carpentry? Music? Art? Engineering?

3. Circumstances... look around you. Where do you always seem to find yourself? Look at relationships - what kind of people seem to gravitate towards you? Where are you living?


The rest of this blog post will deal with item #1 - Spiritual Gifts.

The Bible tells us that God distributes gifts to all of us - look in 1 Cor 12,13 and 14 for the discussion Paul the Apostle is having with the Corinthian church. Not everyone gets the same gift(s), because not everyone is called to do and be the same thing. Now - lots of folks weird out a bit when you start a conversation like this, and somebody almost always bring up the subject of speaking in tongues. They will have a problem with it, because it does indeed seem a bit weird. And based on that, they throw out the baby with the bathwater, as the saying goes, and (many times) dismiss the topic of the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians altogether. For the sake of brevity, let's blow right past that one - and save it for another conversation at another time. It doesn't figure into my story, anyway, and I have no energy to enter into that conversation right now. I believe every gift from our God listed in Pauls' letter to the Corinthian church is valid and has its place in the Church. Remind me later to perhaps address the topic of tongues in another blog.

There are tests that have been written that ask a battery of questions that, when analyzed, give an accurate description about which gift(s) are at work in a believer. Just Google "spiritual gifts test" and look into what you find. Answer the questions and look at the results.

I took a Spiritual Gifts test after I had the conversation with Rodney. I had also taken several of these throughout the years and the results have always been very consistent.  I would recommend that you take several  spiritual gifts tests over time. For me, these top three gifts have always shown up when I take these tests... Teaching, Administration and Prophecy.

1. Teaching - an innate ability to communicate difficult topics is a manner that is clear and understandable.

2. Administration - the ability to bring order out of chaos, to schedule and, well... administrate. (I know it is bad form to use a word in a definition of the same word, but well - there is no real special extra spiritual definition for this word, as it is what it is). Not everybody has this gift, though many could use it, methinks.

3. Prophecy - one of the weird ones that folks tend to get all wrong, or get bent out of shape over. This gift isn't about telling the future - it's about speaking God's mind in a situation. It's all about knowing God's Word to the extent that when confronting a situation or person you can begin a sentence by saying "Thus says the Lord..." and then say what God says. It's not about foretelling as much as it is about "forth-telling".

The first time I took a Spiritual Gifts test and these results showed up, I jumped up and down... God wants me to be a preacher!!!! These three gifts are a pretty typical set of spiritual gifts that you would expect a pastor to possess, and I suspect that most pastors do indeed have these gifts operational in their lives.

However, knowing what the tools are in your toolbox and knowing what to build with them are two different things. Anybody who knows me knows I am NOT a preacher. What happened? Did I miss the boat when I pursued a career as a United States Navy sailor followed by another career as an IT engineer followed by a career as a musician?

First - God made it abundantly clear to me years ago that my becoming a pastor or even a worship pastor was totally out of the picture. I will you that story sometime. Suffice it to say, God spoke with a very loud and unmistakeable voice back in 1985 (or so). Second -  He has also made it abundantly clear that I am doing EXACTLY what He wants me to do now - be a music teacher. Hmmmmm.

The Spiritual gifts I possess as a Christian are indeed part of the puzzle, but they by no means tell the whole story. They are the tools in my toolbox that I  use every day as I pursue the fulfillment of the vision God has put in front of me.

In the next two blogs I will bring in the other two items that God used to help me craft my vision statement - my aptitudes, abilities and temperament and my circumstances.

I am such a tease... I know. But it is late and I must toddle off to the land of nod.
Blessings!
mr G