By Felix Ngunjiri Gichuri

Each One of us Has a Gift Given to us by God

King Solomon said in the book of Proverbs 18:16 [KJV] that “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.” Each one born into this world has a special gift from God to enable the person to serve God and humanity. A gift never leaves a person. That gift will make room for you, attracting people to you so as to access the gift and setting a table for you with great men. David, even when in the valley of the shadow of death sang to God, saying, “Lord, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5 [ESV2011]) The gift you have draws people to you. That is why when you have a gift, people come to you, follow you, like you, book appointments with you, pay your services and bills because your gift is making room for you. The gift or talent that God has given you will make you stand before great audiences and before kings.

Because you were born with a gift for serving God and humanity, that gift will remain unutilized in your mind and in your life for the rest of your life until you discover it and launch it to the world. There is an idea that you have that can benefit the society and glorify God, a product you can make with your hands that will excite the market and create a huge demand for it, a solution for a problem bedeviling the society, a song you can craft to glorify God, a book that you can author to express an idea whose time has come, a painting that you can produce that can attract art buyers attention or an inspiring sermon that God has put in your heart that can save the lost. Sometimes shedding off your shyness before a multitude of people or in a church can unlock your oratory skills and abilities and a great preacher and public speaker will be born that day.

God’s Gift is Greater than Talent

God’s gift is greater than talent. Talent is man’s ability to do easily what ordinary people find difficult to do. It is God’s anointing upon a believer. God anoints a believer by pouring Himself all over them, smearing Himself all over the person including you and rubbing Himself in your flesh so that you have the anointing in you. When you have the anointing in you, then you have the Anointed One in you. God sent His anointing to us so that if we believe in His Anointing, we shall we shall see the glory of God in our midst. Jesus Christ is actually the Anointed One. Christ is the Messiah which means the Anointed One. Messiah also means His Anointing. When we have Christ in us, we should confess Him (by saying “Christ in you, the hope of glory” —Colossians 1:27), meaning “The Anointed One in me, my hope of glory of God in me” so that we have all the anointing in us that we need to glorify God among the people around us. God is promising us in Hebrews 1:9 that “If we love righteousness (God will make us righteous by making us right with Him when we place our faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Romans 3:2) and hate iniquity or sin, God will anoint us with the oil of gladness above our fellows.” (Heb. 1:9) Halleluiah. Glory be to God. Glory to the one in the highest.

God Can Reveal to You the Gift He Gave You

To discover your area of gifting, follow your interests, talents and inclinations with the help of the word of God and pray to God to reveal it to you.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 says that “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”

Romans 12:6-8 says that “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.”

1 Peter 4:10-11 says that “Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace. Anyone who speaks should speak words from God. Anyone who serves should serve with the strength God gives so that in everything God will be praised through Jesus Christ. Power and glory belong to him forever and ever. Amen.” Romans 12:11 says that “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.”

You will never get God’s gift until you try it out, speak it out, meditate upon it daily, and dare to launch it. Our Heavenly Father knows our divine potentials. He knows our future, our abilities, our talents and our gifts and He is wondering when we shall ask Him to reveal them to us.

Ask God for Your Gift and You Shall be Given

God is forever saying that “Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not.” (Jer 33:3 [KJV])

“But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” (1Cor 2:9 [KJV])

Reach out to God and He will open the door to your gift if only you believe in Him and in what you are asking Him to give you. “Jesus said, “For this reason I tell you, when you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you shall have it. Whatever you ask you will be given, if only you believe.” (Mark 11:24)

How to Identify Whether a Gift is From God

What is God’s gift? “Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change.” (James 1:17 [NET2]) All God’s gracious gifts given to them who believe are irrevocable. These gifts are the gift of salvation and receiving eternal life (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 6:23), gift of healing (Mark 16:18), (1 Cor. 12:9,12:28), the gift of prophecy (Rom. 12:6) and the gift of ministering and teaching (Rom. 12:7). Paul exhorts you to “Neglect not the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the elders in your church” (1Tim 4:14 [KJV]). That gift in you is the anointing of God upon you which is the power of God on your flesh enabling you to do things which you would not normally be able to do. When God decides from heaven to anoint you to serve Him, He will lift you up from the dunghill so that you dine with kings. “Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised! The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!” (Ps 113:2-9 [ESV2011]) When God decided to anoint a teenager by the name David after noting that the boy was God fearing, He ordered through prophet Samuel for the boy to be fetched from where he was looking after his father’s sheep. “After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, “The LORD hasn’t chosen any of these.” Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have? ” “There is still the youngest,” he answered, “but right now he’s tending the sheep.” Samuel told Jesse, “Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.” So Jesse sent for him. He had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance. Then the LORD said, “Anoint him, for he is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD took control of David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the LORD had left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the LORD began to torment him, so Saul’s servants said to him, “You see that an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command your servants here in your presence to look for someone who knows how to play the lyre. Whenever the evil spirit from God troubles you, that person can play the lyre, and you will feel better.” Then Saul commanded his servants, “Find me someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the young men answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is also a valiant man, a warrior, eloquent, handsome, and the LORD is with him.” Then Saul dispatched messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and one young goat and sent them by his son David to Saul. When David came to Saul and entered his service, Saul admired him greatly, and David became his armor-bearer. Then Saul sent word to Jesse: “Let David remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” Whenever the spirit from God troubled Saul, David would pick up his lyre and play, and Saul would then be relieved, feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.” (1Sam 16:10-23 [HCSB])

Every Gift Is Supposed to Glorify God

Each one of us was created with a gift, a talent, a special ability and all these gifts are distributed by God to all liberally to whoever asks according to the task He has that will benefit and build the church. Every gift is God-given, God-breathed, divinely inspired to glorify God.

Remember to serve the Lord with your talents and use them for His glory. Colossians 3:23-24 says that “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” He gives some the gift of wisdom (greater than that of King Solomon) or knowledge greater than that of the authors of the Bible.

God can give you the gift of faith that is greater than that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  King Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to “fall down and worship the image which I have made; and you do well: but if ye worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:14-18)

God’s plan for giving of gifts to us is not for us to enjoy them but to glorify God and serve Him and serve others. Are you using the gift you have to get rich quickly, amass wealth and even try to own the earth when those around you are dying of poverty, ignorance and disease? “For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life?” (Matt 16:26 [NET2]) Do not hide the knowledge and talent and skill that you have to benefit only you and your family but “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify  your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

The Best Gift is the One That You Can Share by Preaching Christ to the Nations

God can give you the gift of healing by anointing you with the Holy Spirit and with power so that you go out and heal the sick and all who are oppressed by the devil. He will do it to you in the same manner “He anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)

God can give you the gift of working miracles if only you believe in the miracle worker Jesus Christ Himself who is our Lord and Saviour when you preach Him to the lost and the dying. Jesus told His disciples that “these signs and miracles shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and the sick shall recover.” (Mark 16:17) Philip decided to preach Christ to the people of the nations: the Samaritans. “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and them that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” (Acts 8:5-8) God was so impressed with Philip’s zeal to preach Christ to the nations that God gave him an airborne lift from Gaza desert to Azotus after Philip preached Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch. “And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.’ And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and evangelizing all the towns until he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:37-40) The Ethiopian definitely took the gospel to Africa. Other gifts Paul taught the Corinthians include prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues.” (1 Cor. 12:8-10) 

Amen.