Discover How God Wired You

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The On-Target Institute presents a teaching from the Men On-Target small group curriculum. Now with today's session, On-Target Founder Vince Dacchioli. Hello men, how you doing? Welcome to our Men On-Target Module 3, session number 17. Now in this session today, we're going to be starting what is going to become about three or four weeks on answering the question, how and why God made me.

This is a very, very important series that we're about to enter into. I also want to remind you how important it is for you to go to the website at otm.co, that's otm.co, and download the handout materials that are available there for you. So here we go. Session 17, How Am I Wired? Part 1.

Let's revisit for a moment what we began with many weeks ago in unpacking our three unalterable facts. You may recall fact number one is that God knows us and created us for a special purpose. Fact number two is that God has also equipped us with special gifts toward the satisfaction of that purpose. In fact number three is that God wants us to simply discover what His purpose for our life really is. Now let's drill down on the how question by looking a little bit at our gifts.

In the Bible, there are several areas that refer to gifts. The fact that we're covering here is that God has equipped us with special gifts, but there can be a lot of confusion about gifts. So let's look at them for a little bit. In Romans 12, 4 to 6, it says this, For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then your prophecy in accordance with your faith. Now let's look at these gifts in a little deeper way. Later we're going to be directing you to a natural gift test that we want you to take prior to our next session, but we'll get more into that as we progress here. Let's look at some commands about the gifts. There are lots of them throughout the Bible.

In 1 Corinthians 12, 31, it says to covet earnestly spiritual gifts. In Corinthians 14, 1, it says desire spiritual gifts. In 2 Timothy 1, 6, stir up your gifts. It goes on in Hebrews 5, 14, exercise your gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12, 1, it says be not ignorant of your gifts.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, 20, it says despise not, neglect not in 1 Timothy 4, 14. And then it says in 1 Peter 4, 10, I love this, each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. Now, let's look at what I believe are three distinct categories of gifts that are outlined in the Bible. The first category are what are often referred to as spiritual or power gifts. They're found in 1 Corinthians 12, 8 to 10.

There are many who believe that these gifts were given by the Holy Spirit for power and manifestation of miracles and all of that to the body. These are the gifts that can become very controversial in the body of Christ. There are some people who believe these gifts died out at some particular point in time and they're no longer needed. There are others who believe that no, these gifts are still operational today. So there's some controversy over these gifts.

I want to make it clear to you that these are not the gifts that we're referring to when we talk about our gifts. So you could take a big theological breath here and be relieved. The second area of gifts that are referred to are ministry or service gifts. Many people believe these are given by the Son Himself for ministry and service within the body. These are found in Ephesians 4, 11, and 12 and in 1 Corinthians 12, 28 again.

These tend to be a little controversial and I want to remind you these are also not the gifts that we're referring to. We're referring to the personal gifts that are found in Romans 12, 1 to 8. There are many people who say this is given by the Father Himself and this represents kind of your spiritual DNA. Let me just go through them very quickly. Here is a list of those gifts.

Perceiver, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving, administration, and mercy. Perceiver, oftentimes referred to as prophetic, but in this context, in the Romans context, it doesn't mean prophetic in the sense of foretelling. It means a perceptive person, someone who can distill a lot of different pieces of information and really cut to the chase. Ministry, often referred to as the gift of help, teaching, exhorting, often referred to as encourager, giving, administration, sometimes referred to as leadership, and mercy. In the Bible, these are often referred to as the seven, and of course, the number seven indicates completeness or wholeness, the seven charismata, motivational, or personal gifts.

Proverbs, it says in Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. I don't know how you were raised, but I was not raised in a way to where my mom and dad studied me, determined how I was wired uniquely and trained me up in that way. That's literally what that verse means. It does not mean something as generic as just training up a child in a good way. It is trying to communicate the idea that as parents, we are to study our children and train them and encourage them up in the way that God built them.

In their natural tendencies, which are found, of course, as we better understand how God has wired us in these areas. Now, the two critical questions, how do I discover how I am wired? And number two, how do I discover God's purpose for my life? In this first area, how do I discover how I'm wired? Let me just close this session by giving you some ideas.

There are several ways you can begin to do that. We're going to close with directing you to the natural gift test. That's a big one. But the first thing you can do is start praying. Lord, you know how you wired me.

Lord, help me understand. How did you make me uniquely? I don't know anybody that wouldn't want God to answer that question. And then go on a treasure hunt. Go on a treasure hunt and begin to discover how God wired you.

There are lots of ways you can do that. You can begin by talking to your wife and your kids and your family, coworkers, your boss. Let me just tell you my story. Here's something I did many, many years ago. I decided I wanted to discover how I was wired uniquely.

So I set out, made a list of a bunch of people to talk to. I started out with my wife and my kids, and I went to them and I said, when you look at me, what do you see? Well, you better be prepared for the answer to that question if you're actually going to do that. My kids kind of got on my case and said, Dad, you just always psychoanalyze us. I was going to classes and taking these behavioral science courses.

I'd come home and practice it on my kids, and I was a blind spot. I didn't know that I was doing that, but they told me, and I would have never got that information had I not asked. I talked to my wife and got input from her. I talked to my CEO that I worked for at work. By the way, don't just talk to your safe Christian friends.

If all you go to are your safe Christian friends, you'll have a very warped sense of who you are. God can speak through anybody. My boss gave me a lot of insight. I went to my pastor, and I want to share with you what he said. Pastor Jack Hayford was my pastor back in those days.

I'll never forget the day I sat down with him, and I said, Pastor Jack, when you look at me, what do you see? He picked up a pepper shaker and he's up the table, and he says, you see this? He says, this is product. I said, okay. He says, you like product, okay?

You know why you like product? I said, no, why? He says, because you know how to buy the raw material. You know how to put it together, assemble it. You know how to package it.

You know how to advertise it and market it. You know how to price it. You can control product. And already I'm thinking, whoa, I'm not sure I'm going to like this evaluation, you know? And then he picks up the salt shaker, and he says, you see this?

I said, yeah. He said, this is salt. You don't like salt. He says, you know why? I said, no, why?

He says, because salt represents fruit, and you don't like fruit. Why is that? Because kind of fruit grows the way it wants to grow. You can't control fruit. He began to describe the unbelievable characteristics of fruit compared to product in ways that I had never heard before.

But the idea here was you really can't control fruit. And then he's talking and he's going on. He says, I see you as a tiger becoming a lion. And I said, okay, okay, okay. Time out.

Give me the zoological implications of that one. Now, you've got to remember, this is the man who wrote the song Majesty, which went all over the world, incredible worship song. He began to describe the majestic nature of a lion, and the differences between a tiger and a lion. A tiger is a skillful hunter, but they hunt by themselves. Lions are in families.

They're kind of in packs. And Jesus is not referred to as the tiger of Judah, but the lion of Judah. It was amazing. And he was recognizing a transition that had to happen in me to rely a lot less on vents and a lot more on the Holy Spirit in my life. It was a feedback I would have never gotten before had I not asked the question.

Some verses, for those God foreknew Romans 8.29, he also predestined to become conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Philippians 1.6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until Christ Jesus. Now, I want to direct you to the website. You need to go there and you need to click on the natural gift test. You'll see a link to go there.

Go to the gift test. You're going to have directions on how to take it. You need to answer all of the questions on a scale of zero to five. This is not like me or always like me and it will actually produce a report that you can bring back with you to our next session. Please do that.

It will take about 15 minutes. Quickly as we close, life implication, not knowing how I am wired can hinder my understanding of God's purpose for my life. And then life application, your discussion questions for today. What do you think are your natural gifts? Number one, what do you think?

Maybe you've already taken a test. And number two, what do you believe those who know you would say about you? Now, I want you to drill down on those questions. Be sure and take the gift test before you come to our next session. And I pray that God blesses you in your discussion time and in the information he's going to reveal to you as we move forward.

So guys, listen, we love you and until next time, don't forget about it.