Understanding the Motivational Gifts – Part two – purpose and charateristics
This is part two of our teaching on “understanding the motivational gifts” as listed in Romans 12:6-8. These gifts are distributed to all believers, but each believer will have one dominant gift. When every believer uses their gift appropriately the church will then grow and remain healthy. That’s why it’s important for us to understand these gifts. Understanding – what they are, how they are different, and how they influence our individual personalities. When we do, we will better understand our purpose and it will help us to appreciate and get along with others better.
Understanding the Motivational Gifts
The 7 Motivational Gifts are prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, and mercy. God empowers believers with these motivational gifts to serve Him and to help meet the needs of others In this lesson we are going to explain the gift of encouraging, giving, leading, and mercy. At the end I will provide a link to a short online test you can take that will help identify which of these gifts is your dominant motivational gift. To read Part One CLICK HERE.
Encouraging
Characteristics
The person with the gift of encouraging has a divine ability to reassure, strengthen and affirm those around them. They help inspire and exhort others to do their best. Encouragers are very positive and are natural “cheerleaders” – motivating people to keep moving forward toward the goal. They are usually very friendly and get along with others easily. Encouragers are natural networkers and influencers. . They are motivated to to see people improve and succeed by following the truth of God’s Word.
Misunderstandings
The encouragers enthusiasm may appear to be unreal, unnecessary or overbearing. Their strong emphasis on specific steps may appear as if they over simplify the problems. Because they are so focused on sharing their solutions they can seem to be poor listeners.
Giving
Characteristics
Those with the motivational gift of giving have a divine ability give money, time, and resources to the work of the Lord with cheerfulness and liberality. They just LOVE to give and want to see the work of God go forward and succeed. Those with the gift of giving are excited by the prospect of blessing others; they desire to give quietly, in secret, but will also motivate others to give. The giver is very alert and sensative to people’s needs; they give cheerfully and always give the best that they can. A key principle for the giver is stewardship.
Misunderstandings
The desire to increase the effectiveness of a ministry by their gift may appear as an attempt to control the work or person. It may seem they are trying to gain respect and a place of leadership in the church. Their focus on giving may be misunderstood as only being interested in the temporal instead of the spiritual
Mercy
Characteristics
Those with the motivational gift of mercy have a special ability to minister cheerfully and appropriately to people who are suffering. They feel a genuine empathy and compassion for others who are going through difficulties and challenges in their life. We all are to be merciful, but those who have this as their dominate gift have a much stronger sense of compassion and a motivation to help individuals, who are hurting or in trouble. Those with the motivational gift of mercy are the “heart” of the body.
Misunderstandings
Their avoidance of firmness and confrontation may appear as weakness and indecisiveness. The sensitivity to words and actions which have caused hurts in a person’s life can be viewed as anBecause of their great compassion towards those who are in trouble it can appear they take take sin lightly.
Leading
Characteristics
The person with the gift of leading has the divine ability to understand what makes an organization function, and the special ability to plan, execute, and achieve procedures that increase the church’s organizational effectiveness. They help provide direction and move everyone toward achieving the goal or vision. Those who have the gift of leading help bring order by setting up systems, processes and structure. They see the big picture and are motivated to see the plans and purposes of God fulfilled.
Misunderstandings
The leaders ability to delegate may appear as being lazy. Because of their focus on completing the project at all cost they can seem callous and insensitive. It may seem as if the completion of the project is more important than how the people feel. They often appear to be rigid and inflexible.
Illustration Explaining How the Motivational Gifts Function
I believe the following story will help illustrate how the 7 motivational gifts function in real life and better understanding the motivational gifts:
Imagine seven people at the dinner table when someone accidentally spills a platter of spaghetti on one of the guest and makes a huge mess. Here is how each of those 7 people would respond in relationship to their 7 motivational gift.
The person with the motivational gift of prophecy would say, – “If you would of been more alert and careful this is wouldn’t have happened. Learn from this and don’t make the same mistake again” The motivation is to point out how they missed it and bring conviction of their wrong doing.
The one with the serving gift – would immediately jump up and begin cleaning up the mess. The motivation here is the heart to help meet the practical need.
The person with the teaching gift would use the event as a teaching moment and begin explaining why the accident happened and how it could be prevented in the future by simply know how to properly balance the weight. Explaining step by step how they should do it.
The one with the gift of encouragement would begin encouraging the person by exhorting them to keep trying and giving a practical way of how to do it the next time so as to avoid the mistake.
The person with the giving gift would say no problem I can buy another dish and buy another plate of spaghetti. They use their personal assets to meet the need.
The one with gift of Leading would immediately take charge and begin directing and organizing everything from clean up, to how to replace the food, and to bring peace to everyone and the situation.
The person with the mercy gift would respond by telling the person it’s okay. Don’t feel badly we all have done the same thing. Everything is going to be okay.
Motivational Gift Online Test
Now, remember all of the spiritual gifts are necessary for the proper functioning of the body of Christ. And most importantly, God wants us to exhibit the characteristics of each of the gifts. God has distributed these gift to each of us with one of them being our dominated motivational gift. Understanding the motivational gifts and which gift you have will help you fulfill your purpose and better understand what motivates others. Do you know which one is yours? You can discover you primary motivational gift and know how your rate with each gift. CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE TEST.