Romans 12:6-8

Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Now, Paul mentions seven Spiritual gifts: prophesy, service, teaching, exhorting, giving, leadership and mercy. We know from other parts of the Bible that this list isn’t complete, its just a good sampling of the variety of gifts that Christians may have.

I wanted to say the gift of “prophesy” is actually what we would call “preaching” today. It is when God gives someone the ability to speak His truth to others. It doesn’t always mean that they will be talking about the future. We do know that all of God’s prophesy that is important for living a good life has already been given to us in the Bible. There are, however, some immediate future events that God will give to his preachers as we see being done in the book of Acts.

Notice how every gift comes along with an “exhortation” to use the gift properly. Evidently, even Spiritual gifts can be abused. I believe that we see a lot of that in church groups today.

Notice the importance given to our attitudes and making sure that they reflect the fruit of the Spirit. This ties back to verse one again and reminds us to depend on the life of Jesus in order for us to use our gifts properly. When we find ourselves preaching beyond our proportion of faith, or failing to give ourselves to service, or stop dedicating ourselves to our teaching or exhorting; if we find ourselves not giving with liberality, or diligently leading, or having mercy with cheerfulness, we should make sure that we are still “presenting our bodies” as mentioned in verse one. This is our true service and He will make sure that our attitudes are right as Jesus lives His life through us. After all, it is Jesus’ life that makes it all possible. God wants us to keep depending on Him.