Seeking Spiritual Gifts

There is an interesting set of passages in Romans 13 regarding spiritual gifts. These are all ways of helping others, and they seem to develop in people over time, unlike typological personality traits which are more set in stone.

However they are all things that certain types often acquire more naturally and easily than others. An intuitive person has more natural tendancy to prophesy, and a logical person often has more ability to teach things. A sensing person has more immediate inclination towards helping others, and a feeling person is often inclined to build up and motivate (exhort) people to do better.

Everyone has some amount of each typological trait, with two of them being stronger and more important to them. Thus, the gifts are possible for everyone to learn, but not everyone has developed them all to the same extent or in the same direction.

A lack of mercifulness is not a good thing, neither is a lack of willingness to help others. A lack of ability to teach truth, or to discern the hidden meanings of things is not good either. No one should settle for a lack of any of these. We need to expand and grow in areas of weakness, not ignore or rationalize them away. I’m not saying you need to be an expert in them, but you should strive for a reasonable ability in each of them.

We all have chances to learn and grow, and we should recieve each of these gifts in a manner that enhances and works together with the way we are constructed as individuals. If I become more of a server or administrator, it won’t be because my sensing side ascended in preference order, or changed direction. It will be because my God-given type of personality really does have the capacity for them.

SP Everyone has some gifts
IR  : personality traits can predispose : not limited by p-type
IT Not a competition
UA  : gifts from God : all are ways of helping others
LG Developing more
IF  : divine guidance is part of the process : some come more easily
TS