Most people view spiritual gifts as something like special abilities given to us by God that we are called to discover and exercise in the church. That view, sadly, doesn’t make much sense of all the biblical data on gifting. Rather, spiritual gifts are ministries or functions within the church, some of which might be considered special abilities. Paul, in speaking about gifts, is more concerned with every believer taking their part in building the community of faith than with special abilities per se. He talks about things like Apostleship or eldership being a gift, but he similarly talks about tongues and preaching as gifts too. not all these things can be described as “special abilities” but they can all be described as ministry functions that help to build the community of faith.

In another definition, John Piper says this:

[A] spiritual gift is an expression of faith that aims to strengthen faith… A spiritual gift is activated by faith and aims to produce more faith in another person. Or another way to put it would be this: a spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit to express our faith effectively for the upbuilding of another’s faith.

What is helpful about Piper’s definition is two things. First, it can apply to ministry functions like eldership or evangelism but it can equally apply to abilities that operate as ministry functions like administration or preaching. So, his definition helpfully takes in what a spiritual gift actually is: a matter of ministry function. But second, and perhaps even more helpfully, his definition kills off any wedge being driven between ‘natural talents’ and ‘spiritual gifts’. I may have natural speaking abilities but when I turn those to use in preaching and teaching for the sake of building up the body, my ability becomes a spiritual gift. Similarly, I may never have felt naturally inclined to evangelistic outreach but when I step out in faith and seek to speak to people about Jesus Christ and his gospel – expressing my faith in a bid to produce faith – I am exercising a spiritual gift. It is our spirit-empowered faith which leads to spirit-empowered works that aim at building the kingdom that make whatever we do to that end a spiritual gift.

Where, then, does that leave us when it comes to discovering our spiritual gifts? It bears saying, nobody in scripture is ever encouraged to discover their spiritual gifts nor to embark on some quest to find them. The spiritual gifts of God’s people are simply whatever they have been given to do for the furtherance of the kingdom in faith for the purpose of producing or increasing faith. If that is right, there are three main ways we are going to discover what our particular gifts happen to be.

First, whatever we are naturally good at might become a spiritual gift. If you are good at organisation and you begin to use those skills to serve the church in the hope that such organisation will serve the cause of the gospel – either by allowing ministry to function at all or by freeing up others from organisational skills to focus on Word-ministry or for a number of other reasons – that is one of your spiritual gifts. If you happen to be an accomplished musician and you use your musical ability to help the church sing theologically rich songs that engage their hearts with truths of scripture, that is likely to be one of your spiritual gifts. If you are good at welcoming people and helping them feel settled in church so that they can engage with all that goes on, that is likely to be one of your spiritual gifts. Whatever you are good at and are able to do with an intention to help build faith in others, that is probably one of your spiritual gifts.

Second, however, we must reckon with the fact that spiritual gifts are a) ministry functions primarily and b) not always something that come naturally to us. Paul makes a point of calling us to serve out of our weaknesses as well as from our natural abilities. So, whatever you’re good at that you can utilise to help build faith in others is probably among your spiritual gifts. However, whatever needs doing that you are able to get on and do in faith trusting that the Holy Spirit will help you do it – even if you don’t feel naturally capable of doing it – is also probably one of your spiritual gifts. You will discover your spiritual gifts by simply cracking on with whatever work there is to do in the church and making yourself available to fulfil whatever ministry functions are necessary in faith for the purposes of building faith in others trusting that the Spirit will empower you to do it even out of your natural weakness in it.

Third, we similarly have to reckon with the fact that most ministry functions in the church are actually commands of Christ for all believers. Evangelism is not something only for the paid evangelist to do (if you have one), but is something the whole church is called to do whether they feel naturally gifted or not. Building up the brethren is something everyone is called to do, not just the elders. Showing hospitality is not something only for the ministry pros but is something the whole church are to get on and do. All these things are often called ‘spiritual gifts’. That is frequently a precursor to somebody insisting that ‘I’m not gifted in that’ for which the subtext is, ‘I’m not doing that and if the Spirit hasn’t “gifted me” in it, I’m off the hook’. But ‘I’m not gifted’ is not a get-out-of-commands-free card. They are commands and instructions. We might call them gifts and suggest they are therefore only for the gifted; Jesus simply tells us to get on with them whether we feel gifted or not. Which means, you discover your spiritual gifts by getting on and obeying Jesus’ commands to do evangelism, discipleship, hospitality and all manner of works of service as he has told you to do without whining about ‘not feeling gifted’. And when you do them, you will discover these are your spiritual gifts God has given you to do.

So, to recap, a spiritual gift is anything you do from faith for the purposes of building faith in another person. It is any ministry function you might fulfil – however big or small – that operates out of faith in order to build faith in another. That means you discover your spiritual gifts by taking whatever you’re good at and using it to build faith in others, serving wherever there is need and doing so to build faith in others and simply obeying Jesus’ commands which aim at building faith in others. If you do these things, you will discover your spiritual gifts. If you do not do them, not only will you not find your spiritual gifts, you will discover that you are basically disobeying Jesus because almost all the things he commands us to do – with no get-outs and exceptions based on talents, feelings or perceptions about ourselves and our abilities – will pretty much cover off the call to act in faith and aim at building faith in others. Get on being faithful and you will be exercising your spiritual gifts; God guarantees it by his Spirit.