Lesson #01

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Syllabus

February 12, 2010

Return to MOTIVATIONAL GIFT SYLLABUS

Bible Perspectives: Gifts of Motivation
Lesson #01
“Introduction”

• The Purpose of This Class:
• The purpose of this class is to discover the gift that God gave to each person in the class.
• Besides learning your own gift that motivates you to action for Christ, you will discover the strengths and weaknesses of each gift.
• This class is also helpful in discovering the motivational gift of someone very close to you like a husband, a wife, or a child.
• In this way, you come to a better understanding of that person:
• How he or she views the world.
• How you can encourage the strengths of that person’s gift.
• How you can give support for the weaknesses of that person’s gift.
• In discovering your personal gift of motivation, you will come to understand how you can best serve Christ in your Christian life.
• In the secular world and in the church.
• We will examine each gift as it is demonstrated in the Bible.
• In this way you will have at least one Biblical model for your gift.
• The Class Lesson:

• During the class time we will discuss each of the 7 gifts in detail, one each week.
• We will consider a description of each individual gift.
• We will examine how the gift is manifested in childhood.
• We will examine how that gift best serves Christ.
• We will examine the gift demonstrated through people in the Bible.
• After we have identified all the gifts, we will consider how and where to use your gift.
• The Homework:

• There is required homework in this class in the form of a test. This test will test you for each gift based on your childhood and your adult attitudes of the way you approach situations and problems in life.
• We will score the tests in class.
• The Class Requirements:

• Because this class will examine one gift each week, it is essential that the students attend all the classes, for the class that you miss may be the class concerning your gift.
• In order to score and evaluate all the tests to arrive at the highest level of probability that this is your gift, you need to be in each class. Missing a class lowers the level of the test scores and increases the chances of error.
• If a student misses more than one class, he or she is disqualified from the class.
• This class is a 10 week series of classes.
• Source Material:

• The majority of materials for this class come from: Discover Your God-given Gifts by Don and Katie Fortune.
• Introduction to the Motivational Gifts:

• Read Rom 12:1-8
• You are a special and unique creation of God. (Eph 2:10)
• You are individually different and made for a specific task. (1Cor 12:14-16)
• What is that task and how can you make your life more effective for Him? (Rom 12:1-5)
• All believers have been given a measure of faith when they are born again.
• We can make that measure of faith become stronger by using it in the same way that exercise makes a muscle in the body become stronger.
• God has given to all human beings, whether believer or non-believer, a gift that motivates him.
• To the believer, God has given him faith to use that gift for service to God.
• Your gift and the measure of faith. (Rom 12:3)

• “…as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

• The word, “dealt” in the Greek means = a part of the whole that has been divided.
• In other words, each person is only a part of the whole that has been divided. That tells us that we are not sufficient unto ourselves. We need other people. A church needs a variety of people to make it complete.
• Faith is the determining principle of our personality tendencies.
• In other words, we can have a tendency to do something for the Lord, but without faith we will not get out of our comfort zone and take a risk to do it.
• Because all people have a gift of motivation from God to use and to contribute to the body of Christ, we do not have a reason for pride. The gift and the faith to use that gift are given by God. We only cooperate in what God has already done.
• What is a motivational gift?

• Read 1Cor 12:5-7
• This scripture divides all the Biblical gifts for believers in three areas:
• =1= Diversities of spiritualities or gifts
• =2= Diversities of administrations or ministries
• =

3= Diversities of operations or motivations

• We can visualize it best if we put them in a table:

	#1 Spiritual Gifts (Supernatural)	#2 Administrations (Ministries)	#3 Operations (Motivations)
Greek Words	Pneumatika charismata	Diakonia	Energamata
Given by	The Holy Spirit to individual believers	Jesus Christ to the body of Christ	God, the Father to all humans
The Purpose	To fulfill a Spiritual Task	To fill positions of ministry in the body of Christ	To motivate a person to serve God effectively
The Duration of the Gift	Given at a specific point in time for a specific purpose. The gift is not continually resident in that person.	These are gifts of people that may or may not continue permanently in that position depending on the call of God.	These are continuously resident gifts for the life of the person.
Scriptural Location	1Cor 12:8-10	Eph 4:11	1Pet 4:10-11 Rom 12:6-8
The Gifts	=1= Word of Wisdom =2= Word of Knowledge =3= Faith =4= Gifts of healing =5= Working of Miracles =6= Prophecy =7= Discerning of Spirits =8= Diverse Tongues =9= Interpretation of Tongues	=1= Apostles =2= Prophets =3= Evangelists =4= Pastors =5= Teachers	Gifts of Speaking =1= Prophecy =2= Teaching =3= Exhortation Gifts of ministering =4= Serving =5= Contributing =6= Facilitating =7= Mercy
The believers’ Reaction	1Cor 12:31 All believers must desire these gifts.	2Tim 1:6 The people must stir up the gifts (the leaders) with encouragement to keep them on fire for the Lord.	Rom 12:1 All believers must present their bodies as a living sacrifice to be able to use these gifts.

• We are going to study only the third category of gifts in this class, the gifts of Operations or Motivations. The other two categories are included in the study of 1Corinthians.
• The Definition of a Motivational Gift
• This gift is the principal factor of motivation in our personalities that is the basis of our decisions, acts, and points of view.
• These gifts are the natural abilities with motivation that are given to people to serve God that result in exterior power.
• The warnings:
• The tests and discovery of your motivational gift is not a pigeon-hole approach into which everyone fits neatly. Remember that we are unique and individual.
• Discovering your motivational gift does not mean that you have an excuse to limit the things that you do for the Lord to the activities that pertain to your gift.
• The truths concerning motivational gifts:
• Everyone has only one gift.
• The gift is singular and not plural, even though many people think they observe from the tests that they have more than one gift. Out of pride, I have even had people say they have all the gifts. Sorry! God has given us one gift for life. We may have secondary tendencies, but there is only one gift in which we operate to the maximum.
• All the gifts glorify God. Therefore, one gift is not more important than another.
• Rom 12:3 tells us, “…to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly…”
• All the gifts are to be used to serve others, and in doing that, you are glorifying God.
• All the gifts require faith for maximum use.
• All the gifts are empowered by God.

• Motivational Gifts and the Body of Christ:

• “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”

(Rom 12:4-5)

• All the motivational gifts correspond to parts of the human body.

The Motivational Gifts	The part of the Human Body
Prophecy (Insight)	The eye of the body
Ministry (Serving)	The hands of the body
Teaching (Instruction)	The mind of the body
Exhortation (Encouragement)	The mouth of the body
Giving (Contributing)	The arms of the body
Ruling (Facilitating)	The shoulders of the body
Mercy (Empathy)	The heart of the body

• The Manifestation of the Gifts:

• One motivational gift is placed in each person by God, the Father, at conception. Therefore it is possible to see the gifts in operation in childhood. That gift does not change through all the different stages of life.
• As we discuss each gift, I will give you characteristics to look for in your own childhood. These manifestations are important and should be carefully considered, because sometimes situations in life pollute the gift so that it becomes more difficult to recognize in adulthood.
• Our motivational gift colors all we see and how we view life. It is as though we each wear a pair of glasses of different colors. The color of the lens determines how we view the world, how we respond to life, how we make decisions, what motivates us, and what gives us the most satisfaction.

• Homework

• During the week begin to pray that God will reveal to you through this class the motivational gift that He has given to you so that you can serve God more effectively.
• Take the following test.
• Do not spend much time filling out the sheet because usually your first response is the most accurate.
• = First you should read through each statement before marking any of them. These are seven indispensible needs that God wants to fulfill in the body of Christ.
• = Out of the list, pick which one of the seven statements you feel is the most important and the most interesting to you.
• =

Place the number 1 in the left column next to that most important statement.

• = Review the remaining statements and place a number 2 in the left column next to the second most important statement.
• = Continue reviewing the remaining statements in the list, selecting the third most important, marking with a 3, then selecting the fourth, marking it with a 4, then selecting the fifth most important, marking it with a 5, the sixth most important, marking it with a 6 and finally the least important and marking it with a 7.
• = Re-check your numbers to make sure that you have not duplicated any numbers. You should have only one #1, one #2, one #3, etc.
• = Leave the right column blank. You will fill that column in the next class.
• = Bring your test to the next class.

	God wants us to know how to enter into life abundantly and show forth the life of Christ in all that we do.
	God wants us to face up to the truth about ourselves and understand the reality of what we are doing.
	God wants us to understand sound doctrine and be properly taught in the truth of the Word of God.
	God wants us to pitch in and get the job done and meet the practical needs as they arise in the body of Christ.
	God wants us to organize our efforts so we don’t waste valuable talents and manpower and lose sight of the real goals.
	God wants us to be loved and encouraged so that we do not get hurt and give up serving Him.
	God wants us to have sufficient assets to make sure the job gets done and we do not fail in His work.