In the last episode, we discussed the separate entities of your spiritual gifts, natural gifts, and calling. This week, I’ll take you on a deep-dive into Deborah’s story and show you exactly what happens when all three of those things collide. You’ll see how she plays a key role in the promised part of that Promise Land. (And, did you know: the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey isn’t just a metaphor?)

Grab your coffee, your Bible, and settle in. It’s time to gather gall.

Hi guys! Welcome back to the Dig Your Well Podcast, I’m Jane Johnson and I just want to say thank you so much for being here with me. My prayer for you from this episode is that you will say yes to God and step bravely into the unknown of what God has for you.

Side note: we had a friend back when we lived on Maui who could not stand when people would say “God showed up.” And once I heard that, I have never been able to un-hear it again because it insinuates the fact that God wasn’t there to begin with, and then, all of a sudden, He was there. So, ever since I heard that, I’ve stopped saying “God showed up.” So that is not something you’re going to hear me say – that God showed up, but I do pray that you can step into the unknown of what God has shown you today. I pray that He would show Himself to you today.

Don’t have time to listen to the epiosode? Here’s the bare-bones breakdown!

Natural Giftings

Natural giftings are are divine, God-given abilities or talents that benefit everyone around you (they differ from Spiritual Gifts because spiritual gifts are for the edification of the church). Natural giftings are the things that you are innately good at – the things that come naturally to you, the things that your brain does all on its own, completely by itself, so you might as well go out and do it or you won’t be able to stop thinking about it. That’s how I started my graphic design business – I actually failed out of the graphic design program in college, and I kept designing because my brain kept designing itself. The design gears did not stop turning, so I finally just embraced it and went after it. So that was my natural gifting because my brain was naturally inclined to work that way.

My favorite example of this is found in Exodus 31 when God pulls together all of the artisans – the metal-workers and jewelry-makers and craftsmen in both wood and weaving – to create the tabernacle. Now, this is a huge, tempting tangent for me that I don’t have time to go down in this episode, but if you want to dig more into this, you definitely want to check out my three-week in-depth Bible study called Be Thou My Vision that’s entirely dedicated to pressing into God and the calling He has placed on your life, and it’s all rooted in Exodus 31. So you can see the example of people walking out their natural giftings to be used by God for the tabernacle in Exodus 31.

Spiritual Giftings

Spiritual Giftings are divine gifts of ability that are powered by the manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the edification of and ministry to the church. These are the things that are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and also Ephesians 4 – gifts like words of wisdom, words of knowledge, the gift of faith, the gift of teaching or hospitality or evangelism or prophecy, all the things, you’re probably familiar with them, you get the idea. The very first time I experienced a spiritual gift in action was back in my 20s when I was at a retreat and a friend of mine was newly pregnant so she was not able to attend the retreat because she had two other young children at home and was newly pregnant with number three. So, while I was at that retreat, the theme was about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, and that was my first experience with the Holy Spirit and hearing about spiritual gifts. And then, I had a dream that my friend had miscarried her baby and when I woke up I was praying for her in the context the she had a miscarriage. So when we went home from the retreat and I called her and connected with her, she told me that she had lost the baby that weekend. And I told her that I had prayed her through it before I even knew about it. That’s an example of Words of Knowledge in action – knowing something that you couldn’t, shouldn’t otherwise possibly know that is divinely told to you by the Spirit of God for the edification of, encouragement of, help of believers and the people around you.

Now, again, I’m breaking these things down because you need to know both your spiritual and natural gifts to understand your calling. If you aren’t sure what your spiritual gifts are, here are a few good spiritual gifts tests to help you start figuring them out:

Gifts Test
Spiritual Gifts Test
Spiritual Gifts Survey

Callings

A lot of times, I think that, as Christians, we tend to use the words “gifting” and “calling” interchangeably, but they are two completely separate things. But in order to know one, you have to know the other. So, let’s break down a calling, which is the administration of your God-given gifts, talents, and abilities in the manner in which for which God has purposed for them to be used. Now, almost everywhere in the New Testament, the word “calling” is in the context of an invitation to embrace salvation. But, in Ephesians 4:1, it is translated as “vocation.” And I love this because, more than ever today, a ministry isn’t limited to the confines of a church. So many of us are using our businesses, careers, and even hobbies to minister to the people around us.

There are three things that I know to be true about callings:

1. Just because God calls you to something doesn’t mean it’s for today.
It doesn’t mean you need to leap out and go and do it right away, make it happen, OK? He could be telling you something that He’s calling you to that’s not going to happen for years down the road. OK? That’s number one.

2. They are most often spoken out loud.
From Adam in the book of Genesis all the way to John in Revelation, God audibly speaks the callings that are placed on the lives of His people in the Bible, whether it’s from His own mouth, the mouth of an angel, or through another believer – God speaks when He calls.

3. The confirmation of it will often only be seen in the fulfillment of it. And that makes it a little bit more tricky, because it takes a certain amount of faith to walk in the wait of it.

Want to listen to the full episode? You can find it here!

Thanks so much for listening!