Ep 36: Are You Using Your Spiritual Gifts the Way God Intended? The Love Test (1 Corinthians 12:31)

What if the thing you’re extraordinarily good at is producing results….but isn’t actually being expressed the way God wills? In the last few episodes, we’ve been talking about identifying our gifts and then looking beyond identification to formation. Because while a gift can be highly developed, that doesn’t mean it’s rightly directed.  You can build a career with it, make money with it, help people with it, receive praise for it, and become known for it. None of those outcomes, by themselves, tell us whether the gift is being divinely directed. So in this episode, I’m taking us into 1 Corinthians 12:31 through 13:12 and putting a familiar passage back into the conversation Paul was actually having about gifts. At the end of chapter 12, after talking about spiritual gifts and the body of Christ, Paul says he will show us a “still more excellent way.” Then he begins chapter 13 by describing extraordinary giftedness: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, radical generosity. His conclusion is striking. Without agape love, those expressions become noise, nothing, or gain us nothing. That gives us a different way to evaluate our gifts. Instead of asking only, “Am I good at this?”  We can also ask: What is driving the way I use it? Is the good of God and the person in front of me directing its expression? Or has my gift become a way to be right, needed, admired, safe, successful, in control, or indispensable? Then I walk through all seven motivational gifts and show how each can remain recognizable (and even effective) while being expressed without love. In this episode, we talk about: Why 1 Corinthians 13 belongs inside Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts Why effectiveness is not enough to tell us whether a gift is divinely directed Agape as willing the genuine good of another in alignment with God The difference between a developed gift and a divinely directed gift How the Judge gift can become harshness—or become diminished by fear of being judged How the Professor gift can prioritize information and accuracy over serving the person in front of us How the Coach gift can make transformation or the outcome more important than the person How the CEO gift can turn people—and ourselves—into assets for a vision How the Consoler gift can move from mercy into rescuing, depletion, bitterness, or withdrawal How the Steward gift can use giving, resources, or usefulness for influence, leverage, control, or approval How the Builder gift can turn service into indispensability Why resentment can reveal that we have been giving with an expectation of receiving something back How 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 can become a reflection tool for how we treat others—and ourselves Why our gifts and knowledge remain partial even when we are mature and highly developed One of the most important distinctions in this episode is between fruit and results. A distorted gift can still get results, and I know this because I’ve lived it.  I could express my gifts in ways that worked for a while, yet the fruit eventually rotted…and the way I had to use myself to keep producing those results left me exhausted and depleted. Paul gives us somewhere else to look. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not seek its own interests. It rejoices with truth. It does not keep a record. It moves with humility. So we can ask those questions of the way we teach, lead, coach, discern, console, give, manage, and serve.  Then we can turn the same passage toward ourselves: Do I receive God as patient and kind toward me? Do I lead myself with patience and kindness? Do I keep a running record and use it to grade my worth? This isn’t a scorecard. It’s an invitation to notice where formation is needed and turn back toward God. A question to carry with you from this week’s episode: Is the way you are showing up in your gifts increasingly resembling Christ? Grow In Your Gifts™ Grow In Your Gifts is a seven-week formation experience where we’ll identify your motivational gifts and then go much deeper into how they have been developed, diminished, distorted, and divinely directed. We’ll look at how all seven gifts are ordered, what your primary motivation actually is, and how to steward your gifts with greater joy and better internal and external fruit. Learn more and join at www.regulatedroots.com/giyg Connect with Dr. Lee, TLC, & the High Responsibility Humans™ Community: Discover your Primary Motivational Gift: www.growinyourgifts.com Join Our High Responsibility Humans Community: https://regulatedroots.com/hrh Explore our Agency services: regulatedroots.com/agency Follow on TikTok: @leechelseacordell Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Lee Cordell