I don’t know many who have not studied some sort of personality trait profile, learning the different types of people to better understand how they think and function and how best to live, relate, and work with them. If you haven’t done so, I highly recommend it. The one I most recommend is Transformed Temperments by Tim LaHaye. He covers the temperaments under the influence of the flesh and under the influence of God’s Spirit.

In the same way that understanding our temperament can help us grow strong in our good traits and ability to function well, so does knowing our spiritual gifting. Knowing the spiritual gifts and how they function in the body helps us understand others better and know how to work with and encourage them. Discovering our own, like with the temperaments, helps us understand our good traits and reasoning, recognize areas of struggle that hinders the function of The Spirit in us, and thus, to function better in life.

The best spiritual gift teachings out there cover the gifts both as they function when the flesh is in control and under the controlling influence of The Spirit. This knowledge helps us recognize the gifts in others, especially in our children, so we can realize when the flesh is causing them to act out, and it helps us encourage their growth in following the Spirit.

I didn’t intend to write a devotional for this, but there you go. My life hinders a focus on writing these days, and it just kind of flows when writing happens. Let’s pray for self and each other to grow strong in our understanding of God’s gifting in us and to function at our best by the power of the Spirit.

We are the church. We are Christ’s body. Therefore we are to function out of our gifting wherever and whenever we find ourselves.