What’s Your Superpower?

If you could choose a superpower, which one would it be? When asked this question as an icebreaker, I’ve heard some people say they’d love to fly; others say they would choose mindreading. Some would love to be invisible.

But for the believer in Jesus, the idea of having superpowers isn’t a fantasy.

It is the reality of being indwelled by God Himself, the source of actual and real supernatural power. And He gives gifts, spiritual gifts, that consist of supernatural enabling. We find the spiritual gifts in four places in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4.

Consider these spiritual gifts—superpowers, if you will—given by the Holy Spirit to allow His people to minister to others:

Teaching — The supernatural ability to explain clearly and apply effectively the truth of the Word of God.

Pastor/Teacher — One who is supernaturally equipped to shepherd and feed the flock of God with the result of their growth and maturity.

Evangelism — The supernatural capacity to present the gospel message with exceptional clarity and an overwhelming burden for those who don’t know Christ.

Word of Knowledge — The supernatural ability to receive information and truth directly from God without natural means. To know without knowing how you know.

Word of Wisdom — The supernatural ability to have insight concerning God’s perspective and relay this insight succinctly to others. “Deep insight with handles.”

Faith — The supernatural ability to believe God for the impossible.

Exhortation (Encouragement) — The supernatural ability to come alongside and help others by comforting, encouraging, challenging, and rebuking.

Showing Mercy — The supernatural ability to minister compassionately and cheerfully to those who are difficult to minister to.

Giving — The supernatural ability to give of one’s material goods to the work of the Lord consistently, generously, sacrificially, with wisdom and cheerfulness.

Leadership/Administration — The supernatural ability to organize and lead projects while handling people tactfully and providing the vision to keep them at the task.

Service — The supernatural ability to serve faithfully and joyfully behind the scenes, in practical ways, in long—term commitments to service.

Helps — The supernatural ability to minister joyfully to God’s people in short—term service with flexibility and sensitivity to what needs to be done.

Discernment of Spirits — A supernatural ability to distinguish between the spirit of truth and spirit of error, between holiness and evil. Can instantly sniff out when someone’s a phony or lying.

My husband and I created a list of diagnostic questions to help people find their superpowers, which you can find here: www.probe.org/how-do-you-determine-your-spiritual-gift/

Flying and mind-reading aren’t on our list, but you might find your superpower here!

This blog post originally appeared at blogs.bible.org/engage/sue_bohlin/whats_your_superpower on Apr. 4, 2017.


“What’s My Purpose in Life?”

A dear younger friend of mine recently posted this question on a forum:

“Do you feel that you have a great mission or purpose in life?

“I do feel like I’m made for something more than this, but whatever it is I can’t reach it, or find out what it is. I do feel as though I have a great purpose or mission in life—I’m sure I do!!! Why can I just not figure it out?

“Was I born in the wrong time? My roommate says that I’m like a young person who thinks they were meant for more. She says hardly anyone here has a great life of purpose and I just have to accept reality. 99% of the people are just normal people—that there are not that many characters, priests, prophets, or heroes.

“Does everyone go through life never figuring out what their great purpose is? There has to be a purpose beyond just surviving. Roommate says that my problem is that I think I’m born to be a superstar, a saint or a hero. She thinks I’m just unrealistic, and what I expect from and of myself is unrealistic. I think she’s a pessimist. I want to do something big. I don’t want a mediocre life.”

Similar to C.S. Lewis’ argument that our longings correspond to God’s plan for the fulfillment of those longings (such as experiencing hunger because food exists for us to eat, and experiencing fatigue because there is such a thing as sleep), I think my friend’s longing for the something bigger and something more, her disdain for a mediocre life, is indeed shaped by God’s call to love and serve Him in large and glorious ways. But we may have been waylaid by the “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” gospel, since many 20th-century Westerners seem to have directed their focus to finding out this wonderful plan rather than on God Himself.

I don’t see anywhere in scripture where we are called to find our purpose in life. I think God just wants us to obey what He’s already given us. When we do a search for the phrases “God’s will” or “will of God” in the Bible, we know for sure God wants us to do things like give thanks in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18), be sanctified and avoid sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3), silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good (1 Peter 2:15), and sometimes, suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong (1 Peter 3:17).

All the “one anothers” in the Bible are commands, so those are God’s will as well. So our purpose in life is to please Him through obedience, which should grow out of our awareness that He loves us and made us for Himself.

Because we are made in the image of God, our purpose in life is to put Him on display. We—our bodies, our minds, our humor, our gifts and talents—are a display case for the glory of God. I think the specifics of how we go about that don’t matter as much as we seem to think they do. Desiring to be truthful and transparent in serving as display cases for the treasure within matters more, I believe.

According to John 15, it is the Lord’s pleasure—and thus His purpose for us—that we bear much (as opposed to some or more) fruit in us. That means Christlikeness; that means the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control (Galatians 5:22). So whether we are engaged in paid work or evangelizing on street corners, changing diapers or driving in traffic, putting Jesus on display is the most important thing. To do that, we need to continually immerse ourselves in His presence and His word, and hang around His people who are also immersing themselves in His presence and His word.

Right along with spiritual fruit is the topic of spiritual gifts. Finding God’s personal purpose for us will involve discovering which of the spiritual gifts He has given each one of us, and using them to build up the body of Christ and bless others. (They are found in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4.)

And finally, 2 Corinthians 2 offers a delightful word picture of Christ-followers serving as “a sweet aroma of Christ to God” the Father, as well as bringing the fragrance of knowing Christ to people who are either being saved or perishing. That, too, is part of our purpose in life. I think that if we focus on what God has already told us pleases Him, obeying the commands He has already given His children, we’ll get to the point of looking in the rear-view mirror of life and discovering, “Oh, that was my personal purpose! Cool!”

 

This blog post originally appeared at blogs.bible.org/whats-my-purpose-in-life on Aug. 14, 2012.


Blowing Past Greatness

I recently went to a wedding of some friends in Fort Worth. The pianist was a good looking young man who provided lovely music as we came into the church, and accompanied the vocalists during the ceremony. At the end of the wedding, as people got up to leave the sanctuary to get to the reception, he played an incredible piece that was ignored by everyone around me. Only a very small handful of us knew that he had recently earned his masters in piano performance from Julliard, and is a concert pianist of the highest caliber. But as an unknown friend of the groom, he was playing in a nondescript church in Fort Worth, Texas, and hundreds of people blew right past the greatness of what he was doing to get to iced tea and punch and cheese and crackers and cake that wouldn’t be cut for another hour.

It reminded me of a similar story that received much more attention. Three years ago, the Washington Post arranged for Joshua Bell, arguably the best violist in the world, to stand in a Metro station playing a priceless Stradivarius for 45 minutes. The point of the experiment was to see if people would recognize greatness, or hurry right past yet another “street musician.”

They didn’t.

Over a thousand people hurried past this master musician as if he weren’t there at all. Seven stood for any length of time to listen and watch. The Post article says,

“A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an internationally acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bell had filled the house at Boston’s stately Symphony Hall, where merely pretty good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so respectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence between movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work.” (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)

Watch the Post’s YouTube video:

A senior curator at the National Gallery offers an interesting perspective on why Joshua Bell’s genius went ignored: if you were to take a piece of great art out of its “this is significant” frame and hang it in a restaurant instead of a museum, all the cues that announce “This is extraordinary; pay attention!” aren’t there.

I think we may be just like those Washington commuters, oblivious to evidences around us of genius, of gifting, of extraordinary, supernatural touches of grace—because the cues aren’t there. God doesn’t give us nametags—frames around the art, if you will—that proclaim:

•  World class teacher
•  A meal as finely cooked and presented as the best restaurants offer
•  Best-ever school crossing guard
•  Excellent factory worker
•  Supernaturally cheerful and faithful mail delivery person
•  Soul-shaping youth pastor
•  Greatness in mothering

What greatness in others might you be blowing right by today, unless you ask for God to open your eyes to see it?

This blog post originally appeared at blogs.bible.org/engage/sue_bohlin/blowing_past_greatness on July 20, 2010.


“How Do You Determine Your Spiritual Gift?”

How do people determine their spiritual gift? Is it through prayer? Or does the Lord reveal it to them in some way?

There are several ways. Praying for guidance about your spiritual gift(s) is the first step, certainly. Also important is educating yourself to find out what the gifts are and what they look like in operation. And ask the people around you what they think your gifts are, if the people around you know anything about spiritual gifts! (They are found in 1 Corinthians 12:7, 11; Romans 12:4-8; Ephesians 4:7; and 1 Peter 4:10.)

I have discovered that when you’re operating in an area of supernatural gifting, it’s like getting on the moving sidewalks at airports—you can get where you’re going twice as fast as the people walking next to you who aren’t on the people mover, and there’s energy and power and a spring in your step. It’s FUN! When you’re using your spiritual gifts, you are aware of operating in God’s power and strength instead of your own. . . and the Spirit-led response is humility instead of pride.

After studying spiritual gifts, my husband Ray and I compiled a spiritual gifts inventory that some have found helpful. I hope you do too. (These are limited to the ministry gifts and do not include the foundational gifts of apostleship or prophet, nor the sign gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings or miracles.)

Spiritual Gifts Evaluation

TeachingThe supernatural ability to explain clearly and apply effectively the truth of the Word of God.

• Do you love the Body of Christ and desire that others know more about Scripture and how to apply it?
• Do you love studying the Word of God?
• Do you have a passion for sharing the insights and principles you have learned from the Word?
• Do you find it a challenge to make complicated truths simple and understandable?

Pastor/TeacherOne who is supernaturally equipped to shepherd and feed the flock of God with the result of their growth and maturity.

• Do you deeply love the people of God?
• Do you feel a yearning to model the principles of Scripture and mentor others so that they can follow Christ also?
• Do you feel God’s calling to shepherd His people, tenderly nurturing and nourishing them?

EvangelismThe supernatural capacity to present the gospel message with exceptional clarity and an overwhelming burden for those who don’t know Christ.

• Do you find yourself in situations where the topics of Christ and salvation come up?
• Do you gravitate toward relationships with non-Christians?
• When others hear you explain the gospel, do they respond by trusting Christ?
• Do you have a passion for the lost?

Word of KnowledgeThe supernatural ability to receive information and truth directly from God without natural means. To know without knowing how you know.

• Do you find yourself “knowing” something you did not learn, and unable to explain how you know it?
• If you feel that God has given you a message to give to another Christian, is it confirmed by that person’s response as truly coming from God?

Word of WisdomThe supernatural ability to have insight concerning God’s perspective and relay this insight succinctly to others. “Deep insight with handles.”

• Do you experience flashes of insight on spiritual things, unusual in their clarity?
• Are you able to express this wisdom in ways that minister to people?
• Do you recognize wisdom in others when you hear it?
• Do people consider you unusually wise, and trust your judgment?
• Do you find yourself being quoted, and you recognize the quote as “a God thing”?

FaithThe supernatural ability to believe God for the impossible.

• When diverging roads appear before you, are you able to see God’s path based on His word, in a way that others miss?
• Do you depend on God’s resources and guidance to an unusual degree?
• Are you able to firmly claim God’s presence in the midst of chaos?
• When God answers your prayers, is your response one of calm satisfaction rather than wonderment?

Exhortation (Encouragement)The supernatural ability to come alongside and help others by comforting, encouraging, challenging, and rebuking.

• Are you especially sensitive to people?
• When you encourage someone, do they respond with grateful appreciation?
• Is the timing of your encouragings usually “perfect”?
• When you challenge or rebuke another believer, is it well received?

Showing MercyThe supernatural ability to minister compassionately and cheerfully to those who are difficult to minister to.

• Do you have the ability to sense when a person is in need, even before they tell you?
• Are you drawn to people with emotional or physical pain, and to those society considers “unlovely”?
• Do you have an intuitive sense of when to be quiet and when to speak, or what to say and what not to say?
• Do people seek you out when they’re hurting? Do they enjoy having you around?

GivingThe supernatural ability to give of one’s material goods to the work of the Lord consistently, generously, sacrificially, with wisdom and cheerfulness.

• Are you enthusiastic when presented with an opportunity to give money to meet a need?
• Are you constantly looking for ways to give?
• Do you enjoy giving privately or anonymously?
• Do you REALLY think of money as God’s, not yours?

Leadership/AdministrationThe supernatural ability to organize and lead projects while handling people tactfully and providing the vision to keep them at the task.

• Do you enjoy taking a disorganized situation and straightening it out?
• Are you able to motivate others to complete the project? Do people respond when you step in to give leadership?
• Do you enjoy planning and completing projects?
• Do you enjoy sorting out details, or do they frustrate you?

ServiceThe supernatural ability to serve faithfully and joyfully behind the scenes, in practical ways, in long-term commitments to service.

• Do you willingly volunteer to help with details?
• Do you prefer to work behind the scenes?
• Do you gain a sense of satisfaction when others succeed as a result of your behind-the-scenes work?
• Is faithfulness over the long term important to you?

HelpsThe supernatural ability to minister joyfully to God’s people in short-term service with flexibility and sensitivity to what needs to be done.

• Are you sensitive to specific and immediate needs?
• Are you flexible?
• Would you rather meet a one-time need than commit yourself to long-term service?

Discernment of SpiritsA supernatural ability to distinguish between the spirit of truth and spirit of error, between holiness and evil. Can instantly sniff out when someone’s a phony or lying.

• Do you have an internal alarm that goes off when you encounter something phony or evil?
• Even when you’re the only one who senses something wrong, is your “intuition” eventually validated?
• Do you (and others) consider yourself a good judge of character?

Hope this helps!

Sue Bohlin
Probe Ministries


“Is There a Spiritual Gift of Intercession?”

I’m confused about intercession. Is there a gift of intercession as well as it being a discipline? Some people certainly pray more often than others and some love doing it, yet there are those who don’t love it but get woken in the middle of the night to pray for hours anyway.

I also look at people sometimes and really want to pray for them, right then and there. I don’t because I’m a bit too scared to walk up to someone and say “I so want to pray for you” and I’m not really sure what I’d be praying about. I find this both amusing and confusing. Do you have any light to shed?

 

As far as I know, there is no “gift” of intercession, although people with the spiritual gift of faith (1 Corinthians 12:9) usually have a (super)natural affinity for praying for others. Whether we love doing it or not has nothing to do with whether God is using us as channels of His power.

One of my dear friends is a pastor. One weekend afternoon he was feeling rather “prickly and grumpy,” to quote him, when he got a call from one of his congregants asking him to come to the hospital and pray for their daughter. She was supposed to have surgery but an infection had invaded her body and they couldn’t do it until the infection was cleared up and her fever went down. Bob knew in his spirit that if he prayed for her, she would be healed, but he reeaaaalllllllly didn’t want to go. He went anyway, just as prickly and grumpy as you please, laid his hands on the girl, and asked God to get rid of the infection so they could go ahead with the surgery. He left to go back home, and as he walked in the door, the phone was ringing; her temp was normal. That fast. He says it was quite humbling that God wanted to use him, as fleshly and uncooperative as he was feeling, but the issue wasn’t the attitude of the channel, but the divine power that flowed through it.

When you get an impression in your spirit that you should/want to pray for someone, please give yourself permission to trust the Lord’s leading on that. (And I would ask, are you being impressed to pray for them just internally, or does He want you to bless them by praying out loud? Consider that having someone pray for you out loud is an intense blessing for most people, and if you don’t follow through, you may be depriving them of a blessing God wants to give them through you!)

What you’re dealing with is discomfort over operating in the supernatural, and the more times you overcome your reticence, the easier it will become to follow through on His leading. You can go up to someone and say, “Excuse me, I know this may sound crazy, but I think the Lord wants me to pray for you right now. May I have your permission?” A number of years ago I decided I wanted to be the kind of person who would stop in the middle of a sidewalk and pray for someone right then and there if it was the right thing to do, but it was unfamiliar territory to me. So I told myself, “I need to get over the discomfort of the unfamiliar, and then it will be familiar, and it will feel natural, and that’s where I want to live! Where praying out loud at the drop of a hat feels natural and comfortable. So I will push past the discomfort to get to the place I want to be.” It worked.

I heard a great story at one of the Exodus conferences. (Exodus International used to be the umbrella organization over many ministries that deal with the homosexuality issue; I serve with one.) Andy Comiskey, a former homosexual struggler (to whom God has brought great healing) and his wife were in New York on an anniversary trip. They took a walk to Greenwich Village and ended up in a park across the street from Stonewall, the bar where the gay rights movement was launched in 1969. It was a gay park, and they sensed a lot of demonic oppression in that place. Andy said, “Enough! We need to take authority right now!” and invited Jesus to be Lord of that park. He prayed, “Your kingdom come, Lord!” and so the two of them kept their eyes peeled for what God was going to do. They saw a lady who looked oppressed to them, so they walked up to her and Andy said, “Excuse me, but my wife and I are Christians, and we believe God wants us to pray for you. Would that be OK? If it isn’t, we’ll just pray for you as we leave.” The lady’s eyes filled with tears and she said, “This morning I prayed and said, ‘God, if You’re real, show me.’”

If you get the urge to pray for someone and don’t know what to pray for, I would 1) trust that if you obey His prompting, God will impress you with what to pray for if He wants you to pray something specific, and 2) ask the Father to bless that person with His love and the awareness of His presence and His pleasure in them as a person He made in His image and sent Jesus to die for. Ask Him for His peace and a lingering sense of blessing on the person throughout the day. No matter what the person’s issue is, you can bless them in Jesus’ name and it is a REAL THING you are giving them! I would also suggest that you dive deep into God’s word to grow your familiarity with, and make a list of, His promises and truths that you can feel confident praying because He has already revealed it as His will. (One of my favorites is from Ephesians 3:18, that the person will have power “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” for them.)

Hope this helps!

Sue Bohlin
Probe Ministries

© 2005 Probe Ministries


“What is the Spiritual Gift of Discernment?”

I was reading some of Probe’s responses to e-mails and came across a message which touched on discernment as a spiritual gift (“Do You Know Why My Dreams Come True?”). Over the years I have noticed that I often get what I classify as a “gut reaction” to people, particularly in Christian settings. I seem to detect, almost immediately, whether a person is sincere or a phony. Amazingly, I am almost always correct in my initial reaction, though it sometimes takes years before that reaction is confirmed. However, rather than attribute such feelings to the Holy Spirit, I have always seen them as a prideful or fleshly response to some subconscious cue I get from the other person’s behavior. Could you elaborate on discernment as a spiritual gift? What exactly is it, how does it work and what is its purpose? And, most importantly, how can one determine whether they, in fact, have such a gift? Scripture references would be helpful.

I’m delighted to hear from you! I thank the Lord every time I hear a believer recognizes they have the gift of discernment because the body of Christ desperately needs this “early warning system.” Unfortunately, it’s been my experience that many people dismiss any spiritual gifts they can’t understand or grasp naturalistically–in other words, that are so supernatural in origin and manifestation they can’t be explained any other way. So we lose out BIG when they are not encouraged or exercised.

The gift of discernment (1 Cor. 12:10) is a supernatural ability to distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, between holiness and evil.

Just as counterfeit money experts can quickly distinguish phony money from the real thing, those with the gift of discernment can distinguish holy and unholy spirits and discern truth from lies. A person with this gift can spot a phony before others do. It’s been my experience that they can also tell when someone is lying. When you ask them, “But how do you KNOW?” they just shrug and say, “I just know. I don’t know how I know, it’s just there in my spirit.” Proof that it’s the Holy Spirit’s empowering is given when they are continuously validated in their assessment.

This is NOT the same thing as a “psychic ability.” Deut. 18:10-14 sternly forbids any involvement with spiritism. Only believers in Jesus Christ have this supernatural ability from the Holy Spirit.

1 Tim. 4:1 says that in latter days, deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons will come, so the important role of the gift of discernment is to identify those spirits and doctrines.

A discerning spirit tests the spirits with this rule of scripture:
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” (1 John 4:2,3)

Leslie B. Flynn writes in his book 19 Gifts of the Spirit, “Any relegating of Jesus Christ to an inferior spot less than the incarnate Son of God, the crucified and resurrected Savior, means that spirit is not of God.”

This is helpful to know when we are analyzing and evaluating things we hear and see in the spiritual domain (for example, when watching Oprah’s New Age friends on her show). But just as important, though, is the exercise of this gift in our everyday lives. Those who have the gift of discernment have told me it’s like an internal alarm bell going off. Some examples:

• Our church used to be located on a busy street where panhandlers often came by with a sob story about needing cash for their babies in the hospital or some other pretense. One of the people who worked in the office had the gift of discernment and, after spending just a couple of moments talking to these people, she could tell which ones really needed help and which ones were looking for money for booze. (If they were truly in need, there really would be a baby in the hospital, for example.)

• A friend took her 4-year-old son to see an art exhibit adjacent to art museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. The moment they entered the exhibits tent, her son stopped dead in his tracks. “Mommy, we can’t go in there. This place is bad.” Teri sensed the exact same presence of evil. They never saw a single piece of art before turning around and leaving. It turned out to be sponsored by a cult. Both mother and son later realized they have the gift of discernment.

• My husband Ray met a popular evangelical preacher at a dinner, but had a profoundly uncomfortable reaction to the man. (The word “slimeball” kept coming to mind.) There was no apparent reason, but it was a gut response. To be honest, this was before I realized he had the gift of discernment, and I dismissed his reaction as a critical spirit. The man was later removed from his pulpit for his unrepentant adulterous lifestyle.

We have found these questions helpful in determining if one has this gift:

• Do you have an internal alarm that goes off when you encounter something phony or evil?
• Even when you’re the only one who senses something wrong, is your “intuition” eventually validated?
• Do you (and others) consider yourself a good judge of character?

I hope this helps!

Sue Bohlin

© 2001 Probe Ministries