Gift, Giftings, And The Expression of Gifts
Everyone of us have received a gift, or more, according to God’s perception of our abilities. To some, He gave five, some two, and some one, according to our abilities. However, to whom much is given, so much more is expected, and to the one who doesn’t have will it be taken and given to the one who has.
The gifts you have wasn’t given for you; it was given to others, through you. In other words, You carry what God wanted others to have.
Not expressing your gifts denies many their blessings, and you'll be queried on how you used your gifts when the time comes.
When expressing your gifts, you should do it from a place of gratitude for stewardship and not from a place of fear.
A steward oversees what belongs to another, carries authority to manage what has been entrusted, and is responsible—he or she will give an account to the owner, God.
Fear cripples. It disguises itself in many ways, some of which are perfectionism, comparison, validation seeking, self-degradation, and laziness.
You give the excuse of perfection when you're afraid to express your gifting because you compare it with what others are doing with their own gifts, so you degrade your gifts and your self. Other times, you're lazy in expressing your gifts because you did not get the validation you were expecting.
Also, the excuse, "I'm busy. I've been busy. And all its variations".
Personally, it's the worst thing I hate to hear from anyone, especially from someone I'm expecting results from. Busyness is a very silly excuse (for lack of a better way to express myself now), it gives the feeling that you're doing a lot whereas you aren't. When you use the busy excuse my default response is to ask you if I'm jobless. This is not coming out the way it is in my head, perhaps I'll come back and explain later but let me use an example to tie everything together.
We have goals and anchors in the Bookclub for the year, big goals that I know I can't achieve alone even if I try. This is the third month and we've not reached concrete milestone on many of them. The common excuse the administration gives is busyness, not to spite them, because the excuse is valid and I understand how tight their schedule is.
However, this is my concern...
These big goals are for our members and reaching them by the end of the year will transform their lives in an exponential manner, it'll even change the trajectory of their lives and shape their future.
However, if the administration becomes so busy with their individual lives and fail to express their various gifts of leadership in different areas to achieving these goals this year, we'll delay the destinies of our members, many of which would have grown exponentially if we didn't embrace the excuse.
Do you see how deadly it is?
So it is for you when you fail to express your gifts, you delay the destinies of many who are tied to your gifts.
Since I understood this, I've never inhibited the expressions of my giftings in any way, I do it shamelessly. I write as I get unction, call as I'm led, encourage as inspired, and lead as commanded even if I'm drowning and dying. Because I do not know who is meant to be blessed with the expressions at the time.
We're designed to be vessels not containers!
Again, we're gifted differently so we can compliment each other.
It’s simple but quite revealing, when you consider your own body. Think about it; our fingers can do things our nose cannot do. Our nose can do things our ears cannot do. Our ears can do things our stomach cannot do. Our stomach can do things our liver cannot do, and the list goes on.
We, too, are one body and members individually. And that’s why each of us must accept and embrace our unique giftings.
Finally, happy and blessed is the person who knows their gifts and operates in them. Miserable and stressed is the person who tries to operate in someone else’s gifts. We'll meet again, soon.
To your success, Onaopemipo!
See more of my works at onaopemipo.com