Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts… (1 Corinthians 14:1).
Christians should desire giftedness. Although any spiritual gift is useless unless it is practiced in love (1 Corinthians 13:1-2), Paul exhorts the saints to desire the spiritual gifts.
When was the last time you prayed for spiritual gifts? Spiritual gifts can only come from the Spirit, and so prayer is the best way to pursue them.
What are the spiritual gifts? Paul seems to scrupulously avoid compiling an exhaustive list, perhaps because then we would limit God in our prayers. But he does mention gifts of wisdom, faith, prophecy, teaching, miracles, healing, administration, and tongues/languages (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28). In Romans, he also mentions gifts of serving, exhorting, generosity, leadership, and mercy (Romans 12:6-8).
We are not our genes! Our soul is not made up of DNA.
The goal is not for us to come up with some test that determines what our spiritual gift is and then pigeonholes us into only serving in that capacity. In fact, each person will probably find that they have a diversity of gifts (1 Corinthians 12:6). Yet the single purpose for every spiritual gift is that others be built up (1 Corinthians 12:7).
Too often Christians accept the secular assumptions of our day, that we are limited by whatever DNA we were born with. But Paul reminds us that this is not true. We are not our genes! Our soul is not made up of DNA.
While we may be born with a certain personality or set of aptitudes, God can gift us with effectiveness in areas we perhaps never even thought possible.
It is not wrong to desire giftedness, for the glory of God; in fact, it is wrong not to.
God gifted young David as a warrior, Solomon with administrative wisdom, Joseph to discern dreams, Daniel to interpret prophecy, and Bezalel with the artistic craftsmanship to build the tabernacle. And God is still equipping his church by his Spirit today. It is not wrong to desire giftedness, for the glory of God; in fact, it is wrong not to.
Earnestly desire the spiritual gifts! The fact that spiritual gifts come from God does not mean that we don’t go to him and ask him for help, for strength, and for giftedness. In fact, the opposite is true: because spiritual gifts, like every good gift, can only come from God, running to him is our only option.