“To each [believer] is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” That’s 1 Corinthians 12:7. I can say that I don’t think I had spiritual gifts until I was baptized in the Spirit. I know I was baptized in the Spirit because as I was singing a worship song, I started speaking in tongues. No one laid hands on me. No one had prayed for me. I had asked the Lord, “Teach me how to pray, and let me speak in tongues.” I didn’t know anything about spiritual gifts or manifestations growing up Presbyterian.

People are often very confused about their spiritual gifts. People don’t know what they are. If you have a gift, it just comes naturally. You don’t have to take a test to find it. Also, a spiritual gift would start the day you receive the Spirit and not be something you naturally always had.

I have a natural gift of outlining. I enjoy it and am good at it. It comes easily to me. I made my first outline at ten and came to Christ at ten. I don’t know that there is a connection. I couldn’t tell you the timing of those things.

When I was baptized in the Spirit, within twenty-four hours a friend pointed out how I could turn anything into a spiritual lesson. I have churned out a couple thousand of devotional lessons in the less than five years that I’ve been working on these. It just comes easily to me, and I have it in me to want to do it.

I wrote my first devotional lesson in college, but back then I had no audience to read it. The Lord has His ways and timing to bring us into His purposes for us.

I have tried speaking and leading Bible studies, but that has never developed into anything. My writing is what the Lord blesses. I see and hear the feedback and the results of it. God speaks to people through my writing.

Since I know that’s how He is using me right now, I don’t seek other ministry. I don’t want to fill my time with stuff I could do, when there is something I should do. Don’t replace the best with the good.

Your gift, what comes easily to you, is not given for you to elevate yourself. It’s for the good of the Body of Christ. It’s for you to serve others with. Always recognize your reliance on God. He gave the gift. It’s Him giving you the ability, whether from birth or rebirth. Don’t receive the glory due to God alone!