In many cases, having a gift is not the problem. It is not a problem because of three facts:
- Everybody has a gift. There is nobody on the face of the earth who is not endowed with one gift or the other. This gift is wrapped in talent, passion, temperament, experience, training and anointing. Your gift is your primary tool for influence and significance in the world.
- Every gift is from God. The gift you have is a divine endowment. While we may refine it through our experience or education, we must always recognize that every good and perfect gift is from above. It is God who gives us every gift we need in life.
- Every gift is for a purpose. Your gift is in you for a particular purpose. Until you discover the purpose of your gift, you will not place a premium on it. Make sure that for every gift you have, you understand the reason for which it is there.
When you discover your gift, you have to make it useful. You have to make it count, not only for you but for the world also. Let’s consider six steps involved in making your gift useful.
- Embrace your gift: I often come across people who know their gift but have not fully accepted that gift. Some look down on their gift. They rather wished they were gifted in another area. You cannot effectively use a gift you have not accepted as yours. If you accept a gift, you take ownership of it and you begin to unwrap it and use it.
- Engage your gift: When you take ownership of a gift, you must make it fit for use. Every gift comes as crude and thus unpolished. Our first job, after accepting it is to polish it. Invest a lot of time, knowledge and practice into your gift. The person who sells chocolate receives greater compensation than the one who sells raw cocoa beans. A proper gift is one that has been worked on. Until we work on the gift we have, we cannot use it meaningfully.
- Exercise your gift: A gift must be used. Until it is used, its potential cannot be realized. Anytime you put your gift to use, you are releasing its potential. One of the fascinating things I see people do is to complain about a particular situation when they have a gift that can resolve the situation if they put the gift to use. Every problem in the world can be solved by the use of a gift. Use your gift to solve the problem it was created to solve.
- Express your gift: It is not strange to see others use their gifts brilliantly and admire them for that. What is strange is when we attempt to mimic those people. We fail to realize that when we also use our gifts with brilliance, others will admire us too. The best thing to do is to allow the gift to come out in its authentic form. Just because you admire how somebody expresses their gift does not mean yours should come out the same way. You must be comfortable with your gift. You must have confidence in what God has given you. By all means, admire others, celebrate others, learn from others but never lose your authenticity.
- Expand your gift: When you master your gift, you can adapt it and use it in multiple ways for the benefit of different facets of society. For example, I am gifted in the area of communicating through writing. In the course of my writing career, I realized that I could build capacity to speak on the things I write about. By growing that capacity, I have become a motivational speaker, corporate trainer and preacher as well. I have been able to expand this gift to the area of broadcasting.
- Extend the glory: God is the source of your gift. He is the enabler of your gift. He is the one who works in you both to will and to do. Thus, the credit for any success chalked by the user of the gift belongs to God. Never glorify yourself when you achieve something with your gift. If you try to steal God’s glory, you will be guilty of treason and your works will not stand the test of time; because the consequence of treason is death.
How you use your gift is so vital to your happiness and influence in life. Embrace it, engage it, exercise it, express it, expand it and extend its glory.
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By: Terry Mante
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