Skip to content How to Develop Your Spiritual Gift for Kingdom Impact - Part 2 May 27 · 25 min ...more
How to Develop Your Spiritual Gift for Kingdom Impact - Part 2
May 27, 2026 · 25 min
Chip continues this message on developing and deploying your spiritual gifts.
Series You Were Made For More May 27, 2026 · 25 min · You Were Made For More
Chip continues this message on developing and deploying your spiritual gifts. ...more Show the full description Show less Chip continues this message on developing and deploying your spiritual gifts.
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Chip Ingram is an American Christian pastor, author, and teacher. He is the founder, teaching pastor and CEO of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry.
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Defining Key Spiritual Gifts 0:11 Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.0:14 In our last broadcast, we began a journey, a very specific journey to itemize and clarify the meaning of each spiritual gift in the New Testament. Today, my prayer is you're gonna hear a gift0:26 described and realize, bang, that's me. So stay with me.0:31 Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. In our series called You Were Made for More, Chip has explained that you are made to walk in good works. God God prepared in advance for you, and that includes specific0:43 spiritual gifts he deposited in you. Now to help you do that, today we're walking through the full list of New Testament ministry gifts and gaining a practical action plan for how to discover, develop, and0:55 deploy your own. If you've missed any part of our study so far, just go online to living on the edge dot org. Well, now here's Chip Ingram with today's message.1:06 To develop your gifts, it demands a basic understanding of the New Testament gifts. What I wanna do is I wanna, as best I can, give you a quick snapshot of these because1:18 what will happen, I'm praying that even in this room, the spirit of God, as you begin to narrow down your motivational gift to maybe the top 2, then you'll begin to see as I describe some of these, maybe this is an arena1:30 for my ministry gift. Maybe this is why these certain effects happen. So with that, are you ready? Apostleship. Definition. It's the divine enablement to start churches or1:42 other ministries and oversee their development. It's the ability to minister cross culturally with the goal of planning churches. Do you resonate with that? Could that be 1 of your ministry gifts? The second gift here1:54 is prophecy, the divine enablement to proclaim God's truth with power and clarity in a timely and culturally sensitive fashion. Notice the focus. For correction, repentance, or edification,2:06 it's the ability to reveal God's word accurately. Evangelism is the third gift. It's the ability to be an unusually effective instrument in leading unbelievers to a saving knowledge of Christ.2:18 Some with this gift are most effective in personal evangelism, while others are more used by God in group evangelism or cross cultural evangelism. Notice as we move2:29 on, next gift is pastor teacher. It's the only dual gift in the New Testament. Pastor teacher is a person with this spiritual gift has the ability to lead, nourish, protect and personally care for the needs of2:41 a flock of believers. And by the way, this is not gender specific. You know, the spiritual gifts See, we have gotten so used to the office of pastor, we think of the pastor as a role or office. This is a gift. The gift2:53 of teaching. The divine enablement to understand and give detailed explanation of biblical truth. It's the ability to search out and validate truth which has been presented. Notice healing. First Corinthians 12 9, 28 and3:04 then 30. It's the ability to serve as a human instrument through which God cures illnesses and restores health. The possessor of this gift is not the source, but the vessel who can heal only those3:16 diseases the Lord chooses to heal. I mean, we all know there's times where people are healed and times when they're not. This spiritual gift should not be confused with signs and wonders performed by Jesus and the3:26 apostles, and it should not be discredited because of the abuses of grandstanding and faith healers. Administration slash leadership. This word, different from the word in leadership, appears only3:38 once in the new testament and is used outside of scripture for the helmsman who steers a ship to its destination. This suggests that the spiritual gift of administration is the ability to steer a church3:50 or Christian organization toward the fulfillment of its goals by managing its affairs and implementing necessary plans. The the gift of wisdom is the ability to apply the principles of God's word4:02 in a practical way to specific situations and then to recommend the best course of action at the best time. The exercise of this gift skillfully distills insight and discernment into4:14 excellent advice. As a young pastor, there was a guy named Bill Carter. And, he traveled a lot and had the gift of teaching. I learned probably more from him than I did in any seminary class. And4:26 and often I would come with just my Have you ever felt like your life is like a ball of twine that's gotten just totally all messed up, and no matter what you do, you just can't unwind it? I would take my ball of twine4:37 issues, and I would bring them to Bill. And I would just lay out all this junk, and I don't know what to do, and I know part of my attitude, and maybe it's the season, and I, you know, whine whine whine moan moan moan4:48 moan. It was a godly older man, and he said, Chip, it would seem to me and he would just open the word and say, You know there's a timeless principle here. And then he would describe it. And5:00 then little by little, about 45 minutes later, he'd taken my ball of string and he would deliver 6 pieces of string nicely laid out about what to do, why to do it, God's character, issues in5:12 my life, how to respond, and it was just like And, Professor, as we call him, is 81 years old, and so I said, Professor, do you have plans for breakfast? He said, No. I said, Could could I eat with you? He said,5:24 Well sure. And so we made a time, and and so we ate breakfast and he's a very direct guy so we did a little small talk for about 45 seconds. And, and then I basically, I thought of, you know, how many5:36 times will I get this? And I laid out, Here's my season of marriage and grown kids and this is different and I know these are my insecurities and you know me for 25 years and blah. And here's this other really big issue5:46 that I don't know what to do with. And man, I'll tell you what, then I eat my eggs. And I came back and told Teresa what he shared about how you love grown kids and in law issues and what happens in your5:58 fifties and what happens in your sixties and what you need to do now so you finish well. And Teresa said, Chip you better go write that down. And so I did. It's the gift of wisdom. Knowledge,Gifts of Knowledge, Faith, and Discernment 6:10 the ability to discover and analyze and systemize truth for the benefit of others. Just amazing knowledge. With this gift 1 speaks with understanding and penetration. But the word of knowledge can also6:22 involve supernatural perception and discernment for the purpose of ministering to others. This is when God reveals something to someone that they couldn't know in a natural way. And by the way, this is 1 of the most6:33 abused gifts in the body of Christ. You know, turn on the TV and you'll see how not to do this. But Peter, right? Ananias and Sapphira come up. Peter doesn't know anything and he says, Hey, we6:45 sold the, you know, the field for this amount of money. And and Peter goes, Ananias, why have you conspired to lie to the Holy Spirit? He knew exactly what was happening. He knew his6:57 heart. He knew the situation. Well, how? He got a word of knowledge. God sometimes, to prepare you for ministry, may give you insight into things that you couldn't know. This is it's7:09 Now, okay. I'm going to go out on a little limb here. Some of you need to either relax and some of you don't get too excited, depending on your background. Alright? But, you know, this is really abused when people7:21 get all this, God revealed that you're supposed to divorce your wife, take this job, do this, do that. You know what? If God wants to speak to you, he probably will call you on your phone instead of on someone else's.7:33 And when it's used in these vague, I know somewhere, somehow, someone, someday in some part of America has this issue, and God's healing it right now. I mean, I'm looking at that and7:44 going, Hello. But, you know, sometimes we throw out the baby with the bathwater. What if God needs to prepare you for ministry? It doesn't violate scripture. It equips you to do what7:56 God wants you to do. And I I think this is kind of rare. I I don't understand this gift. By the way, a lot of these gifts, I don't understand. I mean, I'm giving you my best explanation. Some of them are just a mystery.8:06 But I can tell you before I ever heard anything about gifts, I was a a Christian about 3 years old in the Lord. And I'm down on spring break my senior year, went down with a couple buddies. And since I was a believer,8:18 I just played outdoor basketball every day and really thought I had a good time and went to Florida to do it, and then jumped in the water. And then, we spent some time I remember being on the beach, completely clear,8:28 just reading my bible. The sun's going down. And I don't know about you, but I wish that every time I prayed I had this sweet intimate times with God, but I don't. But that was 1 of those times where it was just like I8:38 could reach out and touch God and the ocean was there and the sun coming down and I was a growing Christian. I just sensed and felt his presence. And in the far, far distance, just I looked like a little stick man. He8:49 was really far away. A guy was walking down the beach. And this thought comes this clear in my mind. The guy walking towards you is a homosexual. He's going to come and sit down. I want you to tell him about me. Me. And8:59 I'm thinking, did I have enchiladas last night? I mean, what's going on here? I'm thinking, well, I'm, you know, this I'm making stuff up in my mind. And so, you know, I keep reading my bible. He gets closer and closer,9:11 and I look up at him again. The guy walking up here is a homosexual. He's in desperate need. I want you to tell him about my love. Now by the way, this has happened to me very rarely. I'm just telling you, I don't know9:23 why or how Long story short, the guy walks, walks, walks. He gets right to the edge. I'm thinking, Keep going. You know? Keep going. And think about 30 years ago.9:34 And this guy turns and walks up, and I'm going, You've got to be kidding me. And then he sits down, and you can tell his eyes are all red. And God prepared me. And he said,9:46 You know, I just broke up with my life partner, and I noticed you had a Bible here, and, I just need somebody to talk to. And 45 minutes later we both prayed, and he received the Lord as a9:58 savior. All I'm saying is, I know I don't know how God works all this, but it's not for show. It's not to impress people. It's not to say all the mystical stuff is really way out there. Has that happened a lot to me10:10 since? Not a whole lot. Now and then, I get a prompting. You know? Have you ever been driving? And, you know, just a couple, 3, 4 weeks ago I had a prompting. There was a guy in the rain walking. And you know, in our day10:21 and age, you think, I don't know if I want to pick up this guy. He's probably an ax murderer or something, you know? And, you know, I drive by him and I get the strong prompting, picking up and taking where he needs to10:28 go. And I'm thinking, you know, I've got a wife, I've got kids. Ingram, slain side of the road, not really good. You know, and I, you know, and I get to the next exit, pick him up. Okay. So I get to the exit, turn10:39 around, go back, pull in front of him and he was a guy from a totally different world and background than mine and, and I said, Do you need a ride? And he looked at me like, Are you some weird guy that's going to kill10:49 me? You know? And he got in and I took him and I'd love to say, Well, he prayed You know, all I did is I thank God I did a good work that God prepared me for. He didn't pray to receive Christ. He didn't say, Oh Jesus is10:59 the answer to all my world. I just got to love him in the name of Jesus. And, you know, there happened to be a bible there and I was listening to something that I needed to listen to and he got to hear 5 or 10 minutes of11:09 it. But a word of knowledge may be something God does now and then, but you always check it with scripture. But I would say if you ever get what I call a good nudge, a nudge to love someone, care, be11:21 sacrificial, something that lifts someone up and doesn't bring attention to yourself, something that means a sacrifice, Christ's name is honored, it's probably not from you. That's a probably good test that's probably11:32 from the Lord.11:35 You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and part 2 of our message is coming up next. Remember, the place to go for all of these daily messages is over on our website, living on the edge11:47 dot org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library along with even more content like Chip's free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip11:58 Ingram app absolutely free through any app store on your smart device. Now let's get back to today's message from Chip Ingram.12:06 A gift of faith. The ability to have a vision for what God wants done and to believe confidently that will be accomplished in spite of circumstances and appearance to the contrary. The gift of faith transforms vision12:17 into reality. But by the way, notice in those 3 columns, when someone teaches or preaches motivationally here out of a ministry gift, it could be pastor, teacher or prophet, as people are listening often,12:29 then the gift of faith, bang, oh, I get it. There's a lady listening on the radio. She was listening. And at the very end we prayed, You need to believe God. God is sovereign. God is big. You need to believe him. And12:40 it's a long story. Her name is Brooke. She brought not only her brother, her husband, her sister-in-law, all these witnesses. And she said, Nothing's ever happened like this. I was listening to you on the radio and at12:51 the very end it was on prayer and you said, You need to believe God. You need to ask him and believe that the God is not the God of the past, that he answers prayer, great ones today. And she taught about this long13:02 illness and she could only take about 6 breaths and they couldn't find a cure and she had to quit her job as she was home and going, you know, couldn't even get up and move around and she said, I heard that and it was13:14 like God gave me faith to believe. I prayed, I went to the doctor the next day, all my symptoms were gone. Now are we in a healing ministry? Are you kidding me? How that happened? I don't have a clue. It's a13:25 manifestation. See, when you are using your motivational gift in the ministry he's called you to, when you minister someone will get a word of wisdom. This is what to do. Or knowledge about, oh, you mean you're supposed13:37 to give the first portion of your money to God? I didn't know that. And get your priorities aligned? Yeah. Or someone gets a word of knowledge. This is what I want you to do. Or someone gets, like in this case, a13:46 manifestation. She was healed. Can't God do whatever? See, I think when we've studied all these gifts, we divide camps. This group believes these are this way. This group believes these are that way. This group gets over13:58 enamored with these and I think we missed the point. I think you have a grace gift and I think you're a paintbrush in the hand of God. And I think you focus on on the left column. What are you motivated to14:09 do? And then you discern the outlets of the ministry and you leave the right column up to how God wants to work. Gift of faith. Distinguishing of spirits or discernment, first Corinthians 12 10. It's the ability to14:21 discern the spirit of truth and the spirit of air. With this gift 1 may distinguish reality versus counterfeits, the divine versus the demonic, and true versus false teaching, in some cases, spiritual14:33 versus carnal motives. God, as you soak your mind in the scripture, as you're doing what he wants you to do, will give some people ability to discern. When you're in a group and need to make big decisions, for a14:44 ministry, for a board, for a church, for a family, you want this gift in the room. Discernment. Is this from God? And these people, I mean, you know, you've had it. Have you ever had that little, everything14:56 seems right, but you had that little something down deep in your gut that, you know, there's some something smells here but I can't put my finger on it? And then you find out later it really stunk and you cannot put your15:07 finger on it, you can put your whole hand on it? Often that may be God teaching you or wanting to find, hey, there's some discernment here. Check that out. Check that out. Here the gift of tongues, it's the ability to15:18 receive and impart spiritual message in a language the recipient has never learned. For other members of the body to be, to be edified, this message must be interpreted either by the recipient or by another15:30 person with the gift of interpretation. Now this is 1 that could take people lots of directions. The word tongues, glossolalia, it's used also as a dialect in Acts 2. It is a known language. You know, French,15:42 Swahili, some known language. The second thing is is that, much of the teaching and the confusion about tongues is taking tongues, this gift, and then mixing it with spiritual growth or holiness or15:53 spiritual power. What I can tell you is, the gift of tongues is a known language. The gift of tongues doesn't have anything to do with spiritual growth or sanctification. It is a gift of a speaking a language you've16:05 never known. And of course then the gift of interpretation is someone is speaking French or Swahili and for some reason, God is going to supernaturally intervene and give you understanding to translate a language that16:16 you haven't known. Now, can God do this? Has it happened in new tribe missions and some other situations? Sure. Did he do it in the early church as a sign for unbelievers? There's a whole teaching on tongues. Our purpose16:27 is let's define what they are. With that, are you ready? Take a deep breath. I did talk fast. If you're going to develop your spiritual gift, 1, you've got to getDeveloping and Deploying Your Gifts 16:38 clear, really clear about the paradigm and how it works. Second, you need to understand, I think a quick definition, and hopefully, you know, there's more material and a16:50 lot that can go under that, but I wanted to give you a quick snapshot of each gift so you could at least say, You know what? Now I can do a little more research on my own. But the third thing we need to do to17:02 develop your spiritual gift, it demands you exercise them by involvement. And let me give you 4 areas of involvement and then we'll really develop these as we continue. First of all, involvement in17:14 people's lives and needs. Spiritual gifts are about loving people. You have to get involved in people's lives. What's that mean? It means ministry. And even if you're not sure, even if you don't know, you don't have to17:25 sign up for like 5 years or like until Jesus comes back. Go to your church or find a ministry and say, you know something? I'm not sure what my gifts are, but I'll give you 3 months in this area. At the end of 3 months,17:35 I'm going to pray, evaluate and then I you need to know I have permission to step out of that ministry. But you you you you gotta get involved in people's lives and needs. The second level of involvement is a small group17:46 community. A small group community. You know, authentic relationships. The gifts are what? They're designed so that the presence of Christ and the power of Christ and the love of17:58 Christ that resides in you through your gift and through the Spirit as he works through the word in you touches other people. That can happen if your Christian experience is, Yeah, I go to church on18:10 Sunday. I sit in row 73. I listen to that guy. He's really good. Listen, listen, listen. Sing, sing, sing. Leave, leave, leave. Then I come back next week. Listen, listen, listen. Sing, sing, sing. Leave, leave, leave.18:21 You know, I just don't understand why I don't have joy in my life. I just don't understand why God isn't using me. You have to be in some community where people know you, you know them, You18:32 understand 1 another. You share hearts. You're vulnerable increasingly. Or you know what? You'll never know. The people that will recognize your gift will be people who love you, who see you in the context of community18:44 and ministry. The third level of involvement is ongoing training and education. Think of a gift as like a muscle. God gives you the gift of the muscle, but there's little muscles, medium sized muscles18:56 and big muscles. And like any gift, like a muscle, how does a muscle get stronger and better? By practice. So you need to have ongoing training and ongoing education.19:08 Time, practice, maturity, feedback, training. Now I mean, if you have the gift of teaching, you know how you develop it? You teach, you read, you study. I've gone for years, I'm almost never19:20 in my car where I'm not listening some time in the week to teaching tapes of great teachers that have profoundly impacted my life. And the first thing as I'm in my car, it's like, wow. God, how do you want me to respond?19:30 And then the next is, What makes this guy so good? What is it about how he shares or what he shares or his preparation or his vulnerability or how he delivers it? God, I want to get better. And the only way I'm going to19:42 develop my gift is I want to learn from other people. And so you dig in and you figure out, you read books, you go to training, you do whatever it takes because your gift is serious19:54 business, right? It is to God. It is to the church. Final thing is regular risk taking opportunities. You can look at all these charts.20:06 You can go for coffee and say to others, you know, I think mine is either probably teaching or exhortation, but I'm not really not sure. Why don't we sit around and talk over coffee about what we might be someday,20:15 somehow, someway? I'll tell you what. After you see what we see, you just got to flat jump in the water and say, I don't know what gift for sure I have. I've20:26 done some study, but I'm gonna jump in the water of life and people and need and ministry, and I'm scared to death. Oh God, help me. And just start loving people. And20:38 start doing what you feel most passionate about doing. And I'm gonna tell you something. You'll not only get wet, you'll get strong. You'll have joy. People will get loved. And I mean,20:50 you will no longer be 1 of those Christians who sit, sit, sing, sing, leave, leave. You will be a paintbrush in the hand of the master, dipping into the21:02 multicolors of grace. And in your spiritual lineage, you see people's lives. This is the before. This is the after. And you will be a part of God's extreme makeover. And I'm telling21:14 you, there's not enough letters behind your name. There's not enough zeros at the end of your portfolio that can ever match the joy and the fulfillment that comes with doing what God21:26 made you to do. To walk in the good works that he preordained just for you.21:34 You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and a message titled how to develop your spiritual gift for kingdom impact. Chip closed today with a clear action plan. Commit, pray,21:46 study, get counsel, test the waters, examine fulfillment, and watch for God's evident blessing. That's clearly not a passive list. Instead, it's an invitation to jump in. The people21:58 who discover the double f, fulfillment, and fruitfulness, are the ones who stopped waiting for the perfect moment and started moving now. A great first step in doing that is taking our free online assessment22:10 called The Real You, a biblically grounded tool that helps you understand how God has uniquely wired you, your personality, your strengths, your spiritual design. Take it free by going22:21 to the real you dot org. And we wanna say a genuine thank you to everyone who supports this ministry. Every broadcast, every free resource, every message that reaches someone at just22:33 the right moment, it's made possible by people who believe this work matters. If God has used this teaching in your life, we encourage you to start giving today to help it reach someone else. You can easily22:45 make your donation online at living on the edge dot org or call us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3. You can also write to us at Living on the Edge, PO22:57 box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 3 0 0 2 4. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Living on the Edge podcast or check out the full length versions of every23:09 message on the Chip Ingram sermon podcast. Either way, we hope you'll like and share these messages with friends and family. Well, now here's Chip.23:18 You can become an expert on each of the spiritual gifts, know what they mean, give a definition, and absolutely nothing will happen unless you jump into the deep end and begin23:30 to test the waters. In other words, you don't have to know for sure what your spiritual gift or gifts are, but they don't do anything unless you start to use them, unless you test them out.23:42 And I would remind you and remind me, your spiritual gift to serve, to love, to care, to exhort, to call, to pray, to give, to lead, all those things can happen in23:54 your neighborhood with believers and unbelievers. All those things can happen in a small group, and it may be harder, but through Zoom. What I want you to know is the real issue is24:06 are you willing to take some time to explore what are my gifts? And then are you willing to say, okay, Lord. If it's exhortation, then I guess you want me to encourage people. I'm gonna call 3 people today.24:18 Or if it's service, I'm gonna go door to door to 3 of my neighbors that I don't know that well and say, I'm going to the grocery store. What could I get for you? Here's the deal. The Holy Spirit will show24:30 you what to do. Here's my admonition. Jump in. Do something today. You'll be glad you24:36 did. Spiritual gift abuse is real. And next time, Chip Ingram lays out the warning sign so you can recognize it, avoid it, and keep your gifts operating in the grace God intended.24:47 I'm Dave Drewey, and we'll see you back here next time for Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.In this video 0:00 Defining Key Spiritual Gifts6:10 Gifts of Knowledge, Faith, and Discernment16:36 Developing and Deploying Your GiftsComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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