Continued from: Introduction Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. (1 Cor. 12:1 NIV) Sadly, it seems ignorance about spiritual gifts persists in our day. It is important to clarify some of the most debated aspects of the spiritual gifts.

• The spiritual gifts differ from natural talents (e.g., musical ability, creativity, athletic prowess, computer skills) in that one is given at new birth and the other is given at birth.
• Since no list of spiritual gifts in the New Testament seems altogether complete, compiling all of the lists together still may not result in a complete list (1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 12:28; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:11; and 1 Peter 4:11).
• We are each given different portions of a gift.
• We must be open to serving outside our area of gifting.
• God will also give us passions and opportunities in addition to natural talents and spiritual gifts.
• Discovering our gift(s) is related to assessing our desires, joy, and effectiveness.
• Every gift must be cultivated so that we are most effective in our ministry service.