(upbeat music) - Welcome to Relevance for Today, a show where you will be encouraged, inspired, and fed through the Word of God. You will find relevant teachings, tips, discussions, interviews, and more for both believers and even non-believers who are considering salvation through Jesus Christ. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. (upbeat music) Hey, folks, Steve Lewis here. Once again, welcome to Relevance for Today. If you're watching the TV show, kingdomcommunity.tv or you're on Facebook or Instagram, hey, then thanks for tuning in or on YouTube. And if you're listening on Apple Podcast, make sure you leave us a rating. If you've listened to us before, I don't expect you, if you're new, to do a rating yet until you hear how I sound. But hey, we appreciate all of you tuning in. We're continuing on with kingdom purpose and potential. It's a four-part series and this is the last part of the series. So if you haven't listened to part one through three, please do me a favor and go ahead. I wanna encourage you to go and watch those first. So once again, in this important series, my goal is to uplift, motivate, encourage, and help give you some great starter information. So you can get on the right road and force pointing at me to find out more about your purpose and what your potential can be as a follower of Jesus Christ, amen. So purpose can be defined as, as I found on faithword.org was a good definition, purpose can be described as it declares why you exist. It captures the heart of why you are on this earth and why Jesus died for you and me. It defines your life, not in terms of what you think, but what God thinks. I like that, huh? And so it's not about what we think. It's about what God thinks. It anchors your life in the character and call of God. Beautiful. It clarifies the non-negotiables. It identifies what never changes about who you are, regardless of circumstances. Endless defined potential, once again, potential is what you can do but have not yet accomplished. Or Sandra Maria wrote in her blog, potential is that which has power or potency that can, but has not yet come into existence or in sight. It is unexposeability, reserved power, untapped strength, hidden talents, dormant gifts, and more. So you're ready? Hey, remember with these two words are things we all must learn about, especially as followers of Jesus Christ. Because knowing our kingdom purpose and our kingdom potential will truly change our lives in a mighty way. Yes. Okay, so that's the little opener that I've used for the first or for the entire series. But today I wanna share the actual list of gifts that I've been talking about with you and where they can be found in the Bible. Because once again, the most important part is getting into the word and staying there. It's about you getting into the word and doing your own studies just like the Bereans did. They got in the word and said, "Hey, you know what? "The Steve Lewis is talking all this stuff "about potential and purpose." And he's reading out of the word of God. But I wanna double check and make sure he knows what he's talking about. So I'm gonna dig in the word myself. And that's what it's all about, is to encourage you to get in and do your homework and do your research. So it's not about me trying to do it all for you. You get to eat some meat at home and dig into the word. Sound good? So this time I'll be sharing a brief definition as well of each to help point you in the right direction, which is awesome. And these are just a brief definition because you can actually look deeper, search deeper and find a deeper definition and take notes, especially as you learn what your gifts are. I encourage you to study those gifts, talk to your leaders or mentors, whatever you have as far as someone being in your life to help train you and equip you to be who God called you to be. Makes sense? All right, so the following is a list of spiritual gifts and the verse locations. I compiled this list of information from the Ministry Tools Resource Center online, which you can find at mintools.com. And I always believe in giving the resources that I'm using because it's important to do that. I'm not sitting back saying this to Steve Lewis Show and I'm coming up with all these ideas. Whenever I find resources, definitions and things of that nature, I gladly share those resources and give other people the credit form 'cause that's what it's all about, teamwork, dream work. Okay, so I wanna encourage you all to go over and check out this website because it's very educational. It's a very educational website. They have many great resources for training and equipping the saints. So really want you to, once again, head over to MINT-O-O-L-S dot com. Okay, so here's the list. So Romans 12 has listed exhortation, giving, leadership, mercy, prophecy, service and teaching. First Corinthians chapter 12 lists, administration, apostle, discernment, faith, healings, helps, knowledge, miracles, prophecy, teaching, tongues, tongues and interpretation and wisdom. And Ephesians 4 has listed apostle, evangelism, pastor, prophecy, teaching. And then there's some other verses, I don't have them listed, but as you're reading the word of God, you can also find other locations where there's the gift of celibacy, the gift of hospitality, gift of martyrdom, the gift of being a missionary, the gift of voluntary poverty. Okay, so now I wanna share with you a basic definition of the different spiritual gifts that are listed in the Bible. And I'm also gonna share more Bible verses with you. It'll be more specific on where they're located. And once again, I give full credit to Ministry Tools Resources Center website. So here we go, gift definitions. Get your pens and paper ready. So we have the gift of administration. Can be found in First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 28. And the definition, the basic definition, is to steer the body toward the accomplishment of God-given goals and directives by planning, organizing and supervising others. So there's many times in ministry where as you know, you'll have an administrator. And that's what they're good at. Some people just aren't good at administration. So there's certain people that have that gift that can go in there and help you plan, help you get organized, help supervise. And you recognize that in you, learn more about it, learn a healthy way to be an administrator, as well as an unhealthy way, 'cause there is an unhealthy way in many of these things where you can take it to the deep end without love. And remember, love is key in all these gifts. So keep that in mind. Okay, the next gift, the apostle, Ephesians 4, 11, and First Corinthians 12, 28. And the definition is to be sent forth to new frontiers with the gospel, providing leadership over churches, over church bodies and maintaining authority over spiritual matters pertaining to the church. It can even be regional. But that apostolic calling on a person, you'll know it, you'll see it. There'll be all over the world traveling. There'll be training and equipping the saints. There'll be training and equipping leaders. There'll be helping build churches, helping grow communities. You'll know them when you see them. Okay, so then we have the gift of celibacy. First Corinthians seven, seven and eight. And that's to voluntarily remain single without regret and with the ability to maintain controlled sexual impulses. So as to serve the Lord without distraction. So you'll see some of these people, they may be single, but they don't mind it. They're out serving. They're out walking in their gifts. And it's not just the gift of celibacy. They may also have the gift of evangelism or whatever gift it might be. And they're able to travel and do whatever they need to do. Just like Paul said, you know, for some, if you need to get married, get married, but for some it's better to stay single because they can devote more time to the Lord. So some people do have that gift. The gift of discernment, first Corinthians 12, 10. Definition, to clearly distinguish truth from error by judging whether the behavior or teaching is from God. Or from Satan, human error or human power. And you'll notice that in some people, they'll have that gift of discernment. Or you'll go into a place where you'll discern something's going on. You'll feel it. You'll just automatically feel it. Sometimes that'll happen with me. I'll look at Barb and I'll say it. I don't know Barb, but I just picked up a spirit of division in that person. Or you'll feel that void. Or someone will come to you with a message and you feel it all over you that that message is not from God. Or someone brings you a word from the Lord or whatever it may be, and you're standing there, or you're standing there, whatever it may be, and you can discern the environment. You can discern the words that are coming out of someone's mouth. You can discern, like there was an individual who I just didn't trust. And I felt it. I could feel it on this person. Every time I saw them, I just did not trust them. There was always this wall. There was always this stay away from that individual. That was the discernment gift. I could tell the truth in this guy that he was not good. And he ended up taking someone's life. And it was pretty sad. But anyway, let's continue on. The gift of evangelism, Ephesians 4.11, to be a messenger of the good news of the gospel, to be able to evangelize. So you'll have that gift and you'll see them. They'll go out, they'll share the word of God. They'll share the good news. Just as my pastors taught me as well, you share encouragement. You strengthen up the body of Christ. You don't just go in and share the gospel everywhere, but you also, if you have the mantle of the evangelist, you're actually equipping the saints within the body of Christ. You're going in and giving them a word of encouragement in due season and so forth. You're encouraging, you're strengthening. You're also training and equipping in those areas. Everybody doesn't have that gift. So that's one of those gifts where you have to be careful not to push everybody and say, hey, listen, we should all be out here doing this, this, this and this. You need to do it right now. You know what I mean? Someone may have that gift where they're supposed to be shown hospitality and taking care of the widows and the orphans and so forth. So learning all these gifts help you divide the waters and see, okay, according to God's word, this is where I should be standing. This is where I should be standing. This is where he should be standing. Or as you're learning about these gifts, one of the things that's really cool is, you're gonna learn to see who's out there in the congregation. So you'll be able to look out in the congregation. You'll see the evangelist. You'll see the exhorter. You'll see the encourager. You'll see the person who can discern. You'll see the person with the prophetic gift and so forth. So that's where that whole equipping and teaming up together is the body. People will be used according to their gifts in the right direction, the right location, purpose, potential, so forth. Okay, continuing on the gift of exhortation, Romans 12, eight, to come alongside of someone, the first person I think about is Barnabas, to come alongside of someone with words of encouragement, comfort, consolation and counsel to help them be all God wants them to be. And that's one of the gifts I do carry. I encourage other people. And I love that gift because it's not about me. It's about them. It puts the spotlight on them, helps them to step up and be who they're called to be. That's one reason why I do these shows. I love to exhort you all. I love to comfort, encourage, give you guys tools to help counsel you and help you to be all God wants you to be. Just like that said, you come alongside like Barnabas did Paul. Barnabas was an encourager. He came alongside Paul when the disciples looked at him and they were like, hey, he was known as Saul at that time. We don't trust Saul. There's no end to where we want to be around this guy. He was killing and pointing his finger at all the Christians and the whole nine yards. Barnabas came alongside and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, check it out. He truly is a follower of Jesus Christ now. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. He encouraged, he stood beside him, comfort him, consoled him and went from there. So that Saul, who was also known as Paul, could end up being all that God wanted him to be. That's exhortation. The gift of faith, 1 Corinthians 12, 8 through 10, to be firmly persuaded of God's power and promises to accomplish his will and purpose and to display such a confidence in him and his word that circumstances and obstacles do not shake that conviction. That is an amazing gift. I've seen people with that gift of faith where it's not just, hey, I believe I can get on here and do this. I have faith that if I build my studio, God's going to lead me or when I ran the food pantry. I did have to have a special faith when it came to run that food pantry because I couldn't do it without the Lord, period. I had to believe on things like forklifts and finances to come in and it came in. I stayed faithful. I stayed focused on what I was doing and God provided. But this type of faith, it's just like we were talking the other day in the men's meeting. There's a woman who will say, I'm going to the United States or I'm going where God's going to take me. I'm going to show up to the airport. God's going to provide the finances. She sits there, people come to her and talk to her. Next thing you know, she's got a plane ticket. She gets to where she needs to go based on true faith. It's going to happen. It's going to take place. You know what I mean? But that's the gift of faith and it can go deeper as you study. The gift of giving, Romans 12, 8, to share what material resources you have with liberty or liberality and cheerfulness without thought of return. There's people out there that we've all known, that we all know right now who have that gift to give. They will give the shirt off their back. It's nothing for them to write a thousand dollar check, two thousand, 30 thousand, whatever, that's their gift. And you'll know them by their fruit and you'll see them and you know them right in your congregations or in your regions. But that's a powerful gift as well. The gift of healings, 1 Corinthians 12, 9, 28 and 30 to be used as a means through which God makes people whole, either physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually. The gift of healing, their individuals out there who will be able to just walk up to someone, lay hands on them, boom. They'll have healing services and things like that. And it's powerful. They have that gift. The gift of helps, 1 Corinthians 12, 28, to render support or assistance to others in the body so as to free them up for ministry. The gifts of helps is a real thing. And there's many of you out there that help people and you love coming alongside and you love giving people rides to the hospital and you love doing all these different things for people and you're serving in a Christ-like way, you might have the gift of helps and you don't even think about it. And the last thing you're thinking about is getting anything in return. You're all about being a supportive person, being behind the scenes, helping set up, helping tear down, doing whatever. What do you need me to bake for the bake sale? What do you want me to do? I'll assist, I'll help, I'll help, whatever. You know, that's the cool part about the gifts of help. The gifts of hospitality, 1 Peter, 4, 9, 10, to warmly welcome people, even strangers into one's home or church as a means of serving those in need of food or lodging. The gift of hospitality, you can sniff it through people. I mean, you can see it on them. My wife has that gift as well as another friend of ours, Kristen Young. They have the gift of hospitality where they invite you over to eat and it's like a three-course meal, you know? Even if they serve pizza, you're eating pizza and then you're also getting a beautiful dessert and the tables laid out all nicely and everything set up beautifully and there's music playing in the background. It's amazing. And so that is the gift of hospitality. And when you have those type of people in your congregation, they're the type of people. They'll spearhead a meal, a dinner, a special guest is coming to speak. They'll help set things up and get things organized and prioritized, or if you, like I said, you go in their home, you're treated like royalty. It's like the red carpet being rolled out. That's the gift of hospitality. The gift of knowledge, 1 Corinthians 12, 8, to seek to learn as much about the Bible as possible through the gathering of much information and the analyzing of that data. So that's the gift of knowledge. As you've had guest speakers may come and they will open up this word of God and they will pull stuff out of the word of God that you never even saw until they teach you. And all of a sudden you're like, whoa, I never knew that's what that meant. Or I never saw that passage that way. And they connect the dots because they've been in the word and they have that gift to dig into the word and get that information and analyzing the data and so forth. Okay, the gift of leadership, Romans 12, 8, to stand before the people in such a way as to attend to the direction of the body with such care and diligence, so as to motivate others to get involved in the accomplishment of these goals. The gift of leadership is powerful. Like I said, you'll go into a place and people will recognize you. There's something about you that they just want to follow and learn from and let you lead. You know, a sample of that is Barb and I would show up to a meal and we're helping cook and prep the meals and we show up and we're not even in charge of the group. And the next thing you know, people come over to us and are asking, hey, Barb, so how should I do this or how should I do that? Or Steve, can you tell me how to do this and that? And before you know it, Barb and I answer a couple of questions and the next thing you know, Barb and I are thrusted into the leadership role to help organize that whole entire meal. And there's some people that are looking for that leader so they can follow and be a helps person. But the gift of leadership is really important. You'll see it in certain individuals. Some people will be putting leadership that just don't have that gift and you can tell by the way things go, whereas someone else might get put in that position and you'll follow them to the ends of the earth and beyond. They just have this, there's something about them. Well, that's that gift. The gift of martyrdom, 1 Corinthians 13, 3, to give over one's life, to suffer or to put to death for the cause of Christ. And that gift of martyrdom was in all the apostles. I mean, many disciples were murdered. They were martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ and they stood on that. And still to this day, people were being martyred. You might not hear about them, but they're being martyred in the name of Jesus Christ. They'll ask them to their face. Do you believe in Jesus Christ or do you denounce Jesus? And they'll say, I believe in Jesus Christ. And sadly, they'll be beheaded. They'll be killed right there in the streets. We just don't realize how good we have it, especially over here in America when we read about the gift of martyrdom, we think, does that even happen? Yes, it happens even to this day. So be praying for the martyrs. The gift of mercy, Romans 12, 8, to be sensitive toward those who are suffering, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally, so as to feel genuine sympathy with their misery, speaking words of compassion, but more so, caring for them with deeds of love to help alleviate their distress. The gift of mercy. You can't help but think of people like Mother Teresa, you know, binding up the brokenhearted, the wounded, loving on them, caring for them, bandaging them up, you know, that type of compassion, the gift of mercy. They'll go into the trenches to take care of the poor, the widow, the orphans, and so forth. Miracles, the gift of miracles, 1 Corinthians 12, 10, and 28, to be enabled by God to perform mighty deeds, which witnesses acknowledge to be a supernatural origin and means. The gift of miracles, you'll see it in the healings, signs and wonders, miraculous blessings happening. That's a gift, the gift, missionary gift, Ephesians 3, 6-8, to be able to minister in another culture. There's people, that's all they do is travel as missionaries. You know, they don't sit and go, "Oh, I can't believe I'm living in this tent "in 100 degree weather and there's flies everywhere. "They don't care. "They love it. "They will just travel 24 hours a day, "seven days a week, 365 days a year if they could, "and they just go and they share the love of Jesus Christ "to everyone they meet. "They learn different languages and so forth, "and it's a gift." The gift of pastorship, Ephesians 4, 11, to be responsible for spiritually caring for, protecting, guiding and feeding a group of believers entrusted to one's care. That's the pastor, okay, same thing. You gotta have a heart for being a pastor because you deal with a lot of life things. You know, we're dealing with people. So you have to learn to love them. You have to learn to protect them, to guide them, to feed them, to care for them, just like a shepherd cares for his sheep. The gift of prophecy, Romans 12, 6, 1 Corinthians 12, 10, and Ephesians 4, 11, to speak forth the message of God to his people. And of course, the gift of prophecy to edify the church. The gift of prophecy isn't so you can tear everybody down. The gift of prophecy is to speak and edify into people's lives what the Holy Spirit leads you to speak. The gift of service. It's almost like the gift of helps, the gift of service. Romans 12, 7, to identify undone tasks in God's work. However, menial, however small, and use available resources to get the job done. So it's almost like the gifts of help where you're serving. You're being that cog in the wheel that needs to be there to help get things taken care of. The gift of teaching, Romans 12, 7, 1 Corinthians 12, 28, Ephesians 4, 11, to instruct others in the Bible in a logical, systematic way so as to communicate pertinent information for true understanding and growth. The gift of teaching, we all need to be able to sit under some teachers who can teach us the word of God and truly know what they're talking about. And using the word of God, not just knowledge and head knowledge, but using the word of God to show us and teach us and train us so we can be who God called us to be. That's a gift. The gift of tongues, 1 Corinthians 12, 10, 14, 27 through 28 to speak in a language not previously learned so unbelievers can hear God's message in their own language or the body being edified. The gift of tongues, you'll see it in some services, you'll be sitting there, it won't be an interruption, it'll be all done in order. Someone will speak in tongues and then all of a sudden someone stands up and uses the next gift, which is the interpretation of tongues. 1 Corinthians 12, 10, 14, 27 and 28 to translate the message of someone who has spoken in tongues. So one person will give a tongue in an unknown language but it might be known to someone in the audience as well, but then some will give a, they'll speak in an unknown tongue and then someone else will stand up and all of a sudden interpret what was spoken and it's powerful. To see that and witness that in action, it's powerful, folks. It really is. And sometimes the messages are encouraging. Sometimes it's that little poker stick to say, hey, it's time for us to step up, it's time for us to get in the word, it's time for us to be who God called us to be, it's time for us to be the body of Christ. Step up, step up, step up, you know what I mean? The gift of voluntary poverty. 1 Corinthians 13, 3, to purposely live an impoverished lifestyle to serve and aid others with your material resources. So there's some people that do that, it's almost like the gift of giving except for they put themselves in a position based on that gift and they just serve others where they live in a poor community for that time in their ministry or whatever it may be, but the gift of voluntary poverty. And the gift of wisdom, 1 Corinthians 12, 8, to apply knowledge to life in such a way as to make spiritual truths quite relevant and practical and proper decision making and daily life situations. So you'll be sitting back saying, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. And all of a sudden some with a gift of wisdom and all these gifts from the Holy Spirit, the gift of wisdom, they come up and share something with you that just blows your mind because it's exactly what you needed to hear to help you solve whatever problem that may have been or they'll get up and share wisdom in an area that just changes the whole way that things were going. That's the gift of wisdom. So those are the gifts folks and as you can see, there are many gifts in the Word of God. So I hope you will take the time, grab a sheet of paper or even a journal and start doing your own personal study to find the answers you need as well as sit down with your pastors, your leaders, who your mentor, whoever it might be because when you find out who you really are, you find out your real purpose and potential, wow, look out. You can truly be who God called you to be. I can be who God called me to be. I can have a TV show reaching people around the world out of my basement, speaking to people in Pakistan and sharing the gospel and leading people to Christ through the Holy Spirit. You know what I mean? That's what it's about. And you'll feel it in your spirit, man, within you when you figure out what your purpose is. That's what I want for you. I want you to know your purpose, know your potential, know what gifts you have within you that are just sitting there waiting. Remember, Christmas time rolls around. Somebody gives you a gift. You don't just take the gift, still wrapped up and go, oh, thanks for the gift and throw it to the side. As soon as you get that gift, you're tearing it open. You want to see what it is. And then when you find out what it is, you want to use it. So why aren't we doing the same thing with our creator, our heavenly Father in heaven, through the Holy Spirit, gave us gifts to use for our purpose, for the world, to equip, to encourage, to strengthen the body of Christ and to bring non-believers into the kingdom of God. So why aren't we digging into those gifts? Make sense? So I want to encourage you, dig in, do your research, study God's Word, and learn who you are in Christ. Your life will never ever be the same. And so lastly, to wrap this important four-part series up, I want you to be sure to sit down with your spiritual leaders, your pastor, mentor, or whoever that might be, whoever you're accountable to, at your church, or your ministry, and discuss with them your thoughts, or even what you have learned, or think as your gift. We all are called as followers of Jesus Christ to do something in the kingdom of God. We weren't reborn in Jesus Christ just to show up on Sundays and spectate. We were called to participate and help each other, as well as impact the lives in our sphere of influence, your home, neighborhood, town, city, states, countries, continents, hey, potential. Sky's the limit and beyond, and so forth. The world needs you. You are more valuable to the kingdom of God than you can even imagine. And what a powerful thing it would be for you and this guy to learn who we are in Christ with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Knowing your kingdom purpose and kingdom potential benefits all of us, my friend, all of us. It's a win-win situation that affects everyone around you in more ways than one. And lastly, once again, my goal in sharing this information with you is to encourage and put a fire in you to make you want to dig deeper, to find out who you really are as a follower of Jesus Christ. I love you. I appreciate you all. Let's pray. So Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this four-part series. So Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this four-part series. My prayer is that there'll be some brothers and sisters in Christ out there that are going to hear these messages that are going to step up to the plate, that are going to learn their gifts, their callings, they're going to learn their purpose, they're going to find out about their potential, and they're going to step up and be who you call them to be. We cannot do this without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So Heavenly Father, I pray that they rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance, that they'll turn to your word, that they'll look in your word, that they'll research the verses that I shared, and that they'll step up and be who you call them to be. Lord, I thank you so much for all of my listeners and watchers out there. Pray a blessing over their lives. Keep them safe, Heavenly Father, as they step up to the plate. Send them the right people their way to help come alongside them, to be that encouragement they need, and to equip them and train them properly. I just thank you for all these things. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I pray these things. Amen. Hey, there you have it folks. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please do me a favor. If you know someone who needs this four-part series in their life, share it with them as well. Share it on your multimedia pages, Facebook, Instagram, wherever you might go, YouTube, wherever. Do me a favor, spread the word, share it out with everybody. Hey, I love you guys, I appreciate you so much. I hope you will grow from this series. Do me a favor, get in touch, let me know how your life is going. Let me know how this show helped you. Love and appreciate you all. Thanks for tuning in. Hey, God bless. Take care. Peace. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
