Many of my teammates, myself included, have been trying to figure out what our spiritual gifts are. Each month on the race, we partner with different ministries. This ministry may be doing something we are passionate about, but it also may be something we have no interest in. If we know which spiritual gifts God has given to us and the purpose we are supposed to fulfill, it wouldn’t matter what the ministry is, we would be able to find a way to use those gifts within that ministry in a way that brings us and the people we are serving joy.
I decided to lead a Beauty for Ashes team time to help us understand our identity in Christ, our spiritual gifts, and the purpose God has given us to fulfill with those gifts.
In order to understand our spiritual gifts and purpose, we have to know our identity in Jesus. God’s thoughts toward us are precious, and yet many of us often struggle to think a handful of good thoughts about ourselves. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us that “we have the mind of Christ;” therefore, our thoughts should be more in line with His thoughts. So why do so many of us struggle with understanding and believing our identity?
1 Peter 5:8 tells us that our enemy is actively looking to devour us. If he can convince us that we are not who God has said we are, he has successfully silenced us. Picture this. You are standing in a glass bubble. You can’t see anything on the outside and no one can see the inside. Everything is perfect in your bubble because nothing and no one can harm you. But what if the glass were to break? Everything from the outside would rush into your perfect bubble, filling it with things that aren’t supposed to be there. This is how Satan works. He is constantly tapping the glass, filling our minds with lies, trying to ruin the perfect bubble God has given to us. When we have the slightest bit of doubt, fear, or condemnation against ourselves, it forms a small crack because our thoughts are not aligned with God’s. Satan looks for that tiny crack in the shield that God surrounds us with and finds a way to make that crack bigger and bigger until it creates a space or breaks entirely for him to come sweeping in.
Colossians 3:3 tells us that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God.”If our minds are aligned with God and we look to him for answers and our identity, we can stay in our perfect bubble hidden from Satan. We cannot look to the world, to other people, or even to ourselves to find the answer. God is the answer. When we seek Him, we find who we truly are.
I asked my teammates to write down a list of current lies that they currently believe about themselves. Then I had everyone read the identity cards (see below) and find a scripture that cancels out the lies they believed. We then crossed out the lies and wrote the relevant scripture over it.
Before doing this activity, I prayed over all the identity cards and asked God to assign one to each of my teammates. I wrote these on an index card and also why God gave me that specific identity for each of them. I gave these index cards to my teammates and gave them a few minutes to read over them. I asked if these lined up with what God had just revealed to them through the activity, and almost everyone had shared that they had or revealed something new to them. It’s amazing what God will tell you when you just listen to him.
So now that we know our identities in God what’s our purpose? I used the story of Esther as an example. Esther was an orphan who was chosen to be a queen, but had to hide her identity and change her name in the process because she was a Jew. When a new law was put into place that was going to kill the Jews, she had to risk her life to go before the King. Because her community built her up and gave her the courage to go before the King, she saved the Jews and herself that day. But ultimately it was because she used the voice that God gave her to serve out her purpose. He raised a simple Jewish orphan girl to be queen, and gave her a voice to deliver a nation.
God gave each of us a specific purpose. We may believe that we are just orphans, but as children of God, we are part of His family and the ministry of his kingdom. There is only one of YOU, which means only you can fulfill that purpose. Only you! Trust God and the community that he has surrounded you with. There is power when we come together in unity to seek the Lord and achieve our goals and dreams!
I had everyone spend an hour praying and thinking about what each of their teammates spiritual gifts are and what how they are supposed to use those gifts to fulfill their purpose. They then wrote it down on an index card with a scripture passage to empower their teammates more. I collected all of the index cards at the end and placed them in an envelope for each person to have.
When you are struggling with your identity and your purpose in this life, turn to God. Typically the things you think you aren’t good at or strong enough to do, you will succeed most at. Satan is trying to keep you from succeeding by filling your mind with doubt, fear, and condemnation because he knows what God has created you for. Don’t let him win!
