Improve Your Writing With Your Spiritual Gift

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. Share on X

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. Share on X

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