The Ministry of Writing

Improve Your Writing With Your Spiritual Gift

October 3, 2015

If you are a born again follower of Christ then you have been given a spiritual gift or gifts. Scripture tells us that our gift is for building up the body of Christ. There is no doubt that ministering with our gifts gives God glory and enhances our witness.

The benefits of our gift — building up the body, glorifying God, and reaching the lost —probably steal lines from your personal writing mission statement. Those things are the reasons we write. They are our purpose. Therefore understanding our spiritual gift is essential to our ministry of writing.

There is a hiccup though.

Writing is not listed as a spiritual gift in the Bible.

So does that mean our writing is not important or a tool for ministry? NO WAY! We know better. I will only provide one example — the Bible was written, right? Definitely God has blessed you with a gift of writing, but I believe spiritual gifts should be understood that they are more about the message rather than the method.

Spiritual gift lists are found in Romans 12:1-8, 1 Corinthian 12:1-31, Ephesians 4:1-16, and 1 Peter 4:10-11. Read a complete list [here]. There are methods of ministry listed like preaching, service, encouragement, and others. But even with those the emphasis is on the thought process and the message. There are gifted writers throughout the spectrum of spiritual gifts. We are tempted to stop short of expressing our spiritual gift because we do not look past out writing, but it is our spiritual gift that shapes our writing. Writing is a tool to exercise that gift so it is important to know your area of gifting because out of that gift comes what you like to write, as well as the writing you despise.

We can find writers gifted with encouragement, preaching/prophecy, shepherding, encouragement, evangelism, mercy, teaching, and faith. And to find them we wouldn’t even need to receive the results of their spiritual gift inventory or receive special revelation from God to know their gift for their writing reveals it.

The writer gifted with encouragement (exhortation) writes positive, encouraging, and uplifting pieces.

The writer gifted with evangelism seeks to win souls with everything they write.

The writer gifted with shepherding will write with people at the center of their work, while the writer gifted with prophecy focuses on doctrinal truths and tends to be harsh towards their reader.

The writer gifted with teaching is always going to have a lesson in their books.

I’m sure you get the idea by now. Our spiritual gift is more about the message rather than method. Click To Tweet

Within the biblical teaching of spiritual gifts we are told that we are all parts of one body and  have different roles within that body. Therefore, we need to fulfill our role and support others in their roles.

Knowing your spiritual gift(s) can help you focus your strengths, but the greatest value is that it shows how we fit into the body. Through understanding our gift we can see our writing in the context of other authors. Along with providing us with strengths our divine gifts also have a negative side. I feel my gift is teaching. So my focus tends to be on discipleship and spiritual growth. So when I run across a writer who is always putting out peppy uplifting devotions — I get frustrated. I condemn them for presenting everything in rose-covered glasses, but I am sure when they read my work they complain that I am discouraging and negative. The reality is that we are on the same team. That writer has the gift of encouragement which the body of Christ needs and I am writing from a teaching prospective that the body of Christ also needs. There is a place for both of our writings. I have many times been blessed by a writer spiritually gifted with the gift of encouragement when I googled “encouragement for writers” or “encouragement for pastors”.

I have had writers who are gifted with evangelism criticize me because I don’t present salvation enough in my writings. On the other hand I feel they need to focus more on making disciples not just “soul-winning”. Again we are both on the same team just gifted differently, but both providing what the body needs.

Christian writer it is important to seek out your spiritual gift and to recognize gifts in others. We are all on the same team. Some are feet, some hands, some a nose, some an eye, and I guess someone has to be a butt.

Regardless of your role in the body improve your writing with your spiritual gift. Click To Tweet

 

For more information on recognizing your spiritual gift or taking a spiritual gift inventory check out my blog…www.graytotebox.com

 

You Might Also Like

  • Melanie Shull October 6, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    LOVE this post. Thank you for sharing and encouraging us to use our spiritual gifts through our natural gifts.

  • Marcie Bridges April 23, 2016 at 12:05 am

    So what would the writer with the spiritual gift of mercy write like? This is probably one of the least taught spiritual gifts. Or, where would one go to find information on it?

    Thanks,
    Marcie

    • Jake McCandless - The Ministry of Writing April 27, 2016 at 7:54 pm

      Marcie,
      I have worked with a lot of people with the gift of mercy and have seen it first hand play out in various ministry situations. I have not ran across any resource on gifts in regard to actual ministry mediums. Most resources just talk about the gift in general. I believe most who deal with spiritual gifting wouldn’t picture someone with the gift of mercy writing. So I don’t know where to refer you.

      Do you feel you have the gift of mercy? If so I think this is a very interesting thought to ponder and that will help you probably find your niche’.

      What do you write or want to write? Or what do you feel is needed to be put out there?

      I believe that my gifting is teaching & wisdom therefore I have focused my writing energy on works that would teach…With the gift of mercy it may be that you write about mercy, write for the purpose of helping someone, or expose great needs.

      I also believe in finding our gifts we also find areas of weakness – i have found those with the gift of mercy usually struggle with discouragement and struggle if they go without affirmation.

      I’d be curious to hear back from you.

      • Marcie Bridges March 2, 2017 at 10:05 am

        Hey Jake,

        I didn’t realize you had written me back and I’m just now finding your answer.

        Since I was about 13 years old I’ve taken quite a few spiritual gift tests at various churches and stages in my life and every single one of them show me as teacher, pastor and mercy. Never in the same order though. Sometimes mercy is at the top and sometimes one of the others but always those 3. But if I was to apply this to my writing, I would say mercy does pop out a lot. I write a lot out of compassion and empathy for others. I recently self-published a book of poetry, Broken and Spilled Out: an offering of poetry and prayers for the hurting soul. If that doesn’t shout mercy, I’m not sure what does.

        Thank you for the encouragement and the response,
        Marcie

    • Cherrilynn Bisbano - Write With You: Magazine and Article Writing April 28, 2016 at 7:09 am

      Marcie, I have the gift of Mercy and compassion. It is a gift filled with joy and despair. I cry for and with others. My heart breaks when someone is in blatant sin against God because they are missing out on the personal relationship with their Abba. I also have the gift of teaching. I teach on spiritual gifts and other topics. God has a specific message to convey through you. He will show you. I will pray for you. If you want to talk or correspond you can email me at godsfruit@juno.com. You may be surprised at how God will use your writing.

      • Marcie Bridges March 2, 2017 at 10:07 am

        Thank you so much Cherrilynn. I really appreciate that you took the time to respond. I would love to talk with you about this.

        Thank you for the offer,
        Marcie

        • Cherrilynn Bisbano - Associate Editor A3 March 2, 2017 at 5:52 pm

          Marcie, I would love to speak with you on this. Email me at godsfruit@juno.com. I have learned much about our gift.

  • Oluwaseun May 11, 2016 at 11:11 pm

    I have the gift of mercy and I think I have encouragement . I’ve been wondering for a while do they go hand in hand because for the ministry I want to do which is a girls ministry I feel like I need both. Also can you exhort out of feeling mercy and compassion for someone . Because at first I thought my gift was exhortation because when I saw someone in distress I would want to say something to show them I cared and understood what they were going through or just to help them but then for some weird reason I started focusing on the gift of mercy so much it was kind of just random and then I looked and I feel like I have the gift of mercy stronger than exhortation . What’s the difference between them ?

  • WillNNietzer September 12, 2016 at 1:28 pm

    Hello do you mind stating which blog platform you’re dealing with?
    I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m having a tough
    time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is mainly because your layout seems different then most blogs and
    I’m trying to find something completely unique.
    P.S Apologies for getting off-topic however i needed to ask!

    • Cherrilynn Bisbano - Write With You: Magazine and Article Writing September 12, 2016 at 5:26 pm

      Weuse WordPress