Gifted on Purpose, for a Purpose — A Conversation About Spiritual Gifts | Bonus Episode

After 25 years of pastoral ministry, one question keeps coming up: Do I actually have a spiritual gift? And does it really matter for my everyday life?

In this special bonus episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson sits down with Paul Ryden from Global Book Network for a conversation about his book Gifted: On Purpose for a Purpose — a practical, accessible guide to understanding and activating your spiritual gifts where you live, learn, work, and play.

If the last few episodes walking through Ephesians 4 left you wondering what your specific gifts might be and how to actually use them, this conversation is for you. Matt breaks down the difference between talents and gifts, explains why so many believers take their gifts for granted without realizing that's exactly what a gift looks like, and unpacks some of the most misunderstood gifts — including the mercy gift, the teaching gift, and the ministerial gifts Paul lists in Ephesians 4.

The bottom line? God didn't give you the Holy Spirit so you could use your gifts for an hour on Sunday. He gifted you on purpose, for a purpose — and that purpose touches every area of your life.

In this conversation:

• The difference between a talent and a spiritual gift
• Why most believers already have a ministerial gift without knowing it
• What the mercy gift actually looks like — and why it's so misunderstood
• Why spiritual gifts are tools to be wielded, not collectibles to be admired
• How couples can use spiritual gifts to strengthen their marriages
• How to take the free spiritual gifts assessment at mattdawson.tv/yourspiritalgifts

📖 Referenced passages: Ephesians 4:7–16, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12

🔍 Keywords: spiritual gifts, Bible study podcast, Gifted on purpose for a purpose, Christian discipleship podcast, Set Free Stay Free, Matt Dawson, walking through the Bible, Scripture-first Bible study

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Set Free Stay Free Bible Study Podcast. This is a bonus issue today. We're taking a small break from the Ephesian study to share an interview that I did with Paul Ryan over my book Gifted on Purpose for Purpose about spiritual gifts. I hope you enjoy this interview today. Well, one of the reasons I wrote this book and continue to have conversations with people today is because after 25 years of being a pastor, spiritual gifts are a continual point of confusion for people, especially when it comes to the purpose in their life. What actual good does it do for me in this life right now to have spiritual gifts and how does it align with the purpose of my life? And so I had the opportunity to sit down with Paul Ryan and talk a little bit about my recent book, Gifted on Purpose for Purpose.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Describe the difference between a talent and a gift.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Oh, wow, that's a great first question. Um, yeah, I would say talents are things that everybody can have. We can, you know, uh people can be incredible basketball players, musicians. Uh, talents are things that I think God still designs uh and maybe places in people, but I think it's uh up to us to use those, right, to glorify God. But talents can be, you know, they're they're indiscriminatory. I think talents are given in such a way that um, you know, you don't have to be a Christian to have a talent.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Um in the in the context of gifts, I really do believe what we're talking about is that you're not just gifted in a talent, but you're actually given a spiritual gift by God, and the really cool stuff starts to happen because God is our designer, is that when your gifts actually combine with your talents, that you actually strengthen the gifts that God's given you and use your talents, man, that's just where the magic happens. I mean, that's just that's just where the magic happens. So the biggest way I've described it to people is hey, gifts are something really as a believer given to you and empowered in you by the Holy Spirit. Talents are things you can be born with, you can learn, right, you can strengthen, uh, and all those things.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

And what do you say to people who say, well, hey, I Matt, I don't have a spiritual gift?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Well, I think that goes back to kind of the reason I wrote the book. I think people um misunderstand what the things that they enjoy and the things that maybe as a Christian uh they take for granted that, oh, don't all Christians do this, don't all Christians care this way, don't all Christians give like this, don't all Christians do that. I think they take that for granted. And and and part of using um the the book is to help people understand there might actually be a gifting there that is a sort of an above and beyond, what we would call the fruit of the spirit, right? The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. I mean that's the that's what we call the all-skate. That's what everybody's called to do, right? Love one another. Um, but there are some gifts that you might have that when you begin to understand it, I think it begins to open up the door of a fulfillment in your life, which is why I talk about purpose, a fulfillment in your life that honestly I just don't think you can get when you're just thinking, well, I don't really have anything, I'm not anything special. I just I just don't believe that's true.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah, and I think too that people who uh who finally discover what their spiritual gift is, they find out that they really enjoy doing it almost to the point where they almost feel guilty, like this is too much fun. I shouldn't be having this much fun. Well, how do people find out what their spiritual gifts are? Because they're they're clearly marked, they're clearly written about in the New Testament, but sometimes people don't quite understand it.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, I mean, there are there are some tools. I created one on my website, which we could talk about later, but um, yeah, I created one on my website to just do an assessment, ask questions. Do you enjoy this? Do you what do you do here? What do you think about here? Um, I I think somebody explained it one time to me as a voicing. If you consider like voices in your head, not in a crazy way, but you know, voices in your head, uh, what kind of voicings do you have? And so when I talk to people, I'm like, you can read, you know, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, you can read where the gifts are sort of listed. Paul in Romans says, look, if you have the gift to encourage people, encourage them. If you have the gift to teach, teach well, lead well, right? Um, I think there are some people that go, they you can just read scripture and go, oh, I think the Holy Spirit can reveal. Yeah, that that feels a little bit like what I do and what I enjoy doing. But I think the assessments you can take, there's lots of great assessments out there. Again, I have one on my website. You can take those to help you narrow it down a little bit and get an idea of maybe a broad understanding of um, you know, the three different categories of gifts and the specific ones that maybe apply to you. Now, most people that take it will usually look at two or three of them, be like, ah, I don't know about that. And maybe sometimes reading the book will help you kind of connect the dots to the gifts that I'm I'm explaining, how they how they're used, and and then what that looks like for their life.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yeah, I think people sometimes mistakenly take Paul's words of saying, you know, desire all the gifts, to take that to mean I gotta have all of them. And then as a result of that, sometimes they'll, if you don't have a particular gift, that you're somehow a second class Christian or you're not fulfilling your potential, and that's just not true.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Correct. No, that's not true. And and sadly, churches tend to, I'm gonna broad broadly state this, Paul. Churches tend to live in two camps. Yeah, one is they hyper focus on a lot of the supernatural giftings, right? Tongues, prophecy, healing, those kinds of things. And or they are really quiet about it. And they don't really talk about this idea of being empowered by the Holy Spirit to live this out, not just in church. That's a huge, huge deal. Like it's not just for church that he empowers you, it's to it's where you live, it's where you work, it's where you play, it's in your relationships. Uh, but I think I'll give you one example, Paul. Like the gift of mercy, right? That is a really hard and misunderstood gift. But man, the gift of mercy is so powerful because the gift of mercy in people is to be able to walk alongside someone to carry their their burden or their pain or their struggle, but have it not break them. And that's really the difference between a mercy gift and empathy. We can be empathetic. That's right. Something can be happening in your life, and I can be like, oh, and I can start to feel that pain with you and feel what you're going through. That's empathy. I think people should have empathy, but a mercy gift, an actual mercy gift, if you've ever seen people that just seek these people out to unload their burdens, they can handle people's burdens without the burden crushing them. And they actually get joy and fulfillment from doing it. I mean, that's just one little gift, but it's a really misunderstood one. And when you start to connect the dots, it's like, wow, that's I mean, that's how God might be able to use me.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah, I I've heard it described as people who run to the messes, you know. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. That ain't me, but I mean there are some but that's what's true. But that's what I wanted to ask you too, is that that these are not just for professional Christians, these gifts of ministry, but the ministry is your entire life.

unknown 7:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yes. We have, if you understand, uh, and again, this goes back to the taking the gifts assessment of the profile. Um there are motivational gifts that God gives people to encourage and motivate others. There are ministerial gifts, right? Ephesians 4 says Jesus gave these gifts to the church, and you don't have to be a professional in the church to have these voicings and these gifts. Then you have these nine spiritual or what we call manifestation gifts, um, and all of them are used in concert with one another. And I think that again, that goes back to uh some of the misunderstandings is that people think again, most churches will try to tap your gift into, well, you would serve in children's ministry. That would be great. And you would, you would, you got the gift of helps. Why don't you help us set up and tear down events? And why don't you do this? And my thing is like, man, God didn't duck God did not, you know, die on the cross, raise to life, uh, give us the Holy Spirit, the power that raised Christ from the dead. He didn't give us the Holy Spirit to give us these gifts to use an hour on Sunday. Right? Like He that is for everything. Like, how do you use this at work? Paul, you're a you're a writer, you're a actor, you're a storyteller. Like there are ways in which God wants to use your encouraging gift or your Pastor Shepherd gift to connect. You have a teaching gift to connect the dots for people to take something complex and make it something simple to understand. And so you look at it and go, you're using that in your whole life. That's not just a church thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah, but it's so easy to feel inadequate, especially when you compare yourself to other people and think, wow, they kind of have the same gift I do, but they're using it so much better, you know. Yeah, and the comparison game is just brutal.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Well, and you know, when Paul gives, when he talks about the gifts, that's also, if people remember, that's also where he talked about the body.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

And he said, and he said things like, Don't, you know, so you're not a hand. The hand can't hand can't say to the eye, well, I don't need you. The foot can't say to the the you know, the leg, I don't you know, you know, it's like that's where you you're right. The comparison thing is such a trap. But when he gives that beautiful picture of the body and says, hey, we're all one body, right? Then we can begin to understand, okay, I'm not here to compare my my administrative gift to the gift of prophecy. I'm not here to compare my mercy gift to the gift of exhortation or encouragement because the pastor and he's just so able to do X, Y, Z. And you're like, no, no, no, that's not. Like the gift you've been given is to use again. I think the reason I put on purpose for a purpose is because I want people to understand both parts. You didn't get the gifts you were given happenstance. God wasn't just throwing out gifts and they landed on you at a whatever time. Like it's it's why it's designed on purpose for you, but it's also for the purpose of living the life he's called you to live. So if I can get those two things in people's hearts, man, it's it's a win.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I like how you put it too in the book. Uh gifts are not collectibles to be admired, but tools to be wielded. That's a that's a great way to put it. And that they're like muscles that have to be trained. I mean, it's one thing to have the gift, a gift, whatever it is, or multiple gifts, but then to use them. Like I sometimes feel like I've got a gift of this or that, but I'm just sitting there going, okay, well, I'll get around to using it eventually. Or I don't know how to get started. You know, I just don't have that gift of admin. It's a funny thing. You can have a gift of teaching, but not administration. And so I'm thinking, Oh, yeah, I'd love to teach, but how do I get going? You know, it's like one of those deals. Many books have been written about spiritual gifts. What makes this one different?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Uh, you know, I I I think that was the biggest thing for me is I first started it out as a workbook about 10 years ago, just for my church. It was really just for the church. I was teaching it, I was uh getting real life examples from people about putting it into practice and where they live, learn, work, and play. Um, and then when I decided I worked with a publisher and they wanted they and I I kind of was like, hey, I already have this work. I I really started to rewrite it and start making it more practical. I think the biggest thing about um a theological book about gifts is an understanding. When I and I have some of that, I primarily wanted it to be practical. Uh I have a whole section. Uh um the second section of the book talks about helps you give details to the gifts. The third section of the book is my the one I'm most proud of, which is to kind of dispel the myths around things, to help people understand how do you activate this as a mom? How do you activate this as a business leader? How do you activate this as a as a as a missionary or as somebody who's serving in local ministry? Like, how do you activate this in your relationship and your marriages? I I do premarital counseling for people, and one of the things I have them do as couples is do their spiritual gifts profile, and then I talk with them and say, okay, you're gonna be married for the rest of your life. Like you were just talking about your wife. It's just like, how are you gonna encourage one another? How are you guys gonna support one another in the way in which God has gifted each one of you um to do what God's called you to do and to live out that that purpose? So I I think for me, the book is I'm leaning hard on the on the practicality and the practice of actually putting it into work.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Yeah, I love how how you put questions at the end of each chapter too. Would this make a good book for group Bible study?

SPEAKER_00 12:59

But yeah, the one thing I love about it is it's really meant to go back to. So you can always go back to the section of of the way the gifts are explained. But I have a couple of groups that have gone through this and, like you said, have used each chapter of the beginning part as okay, let's work through it. Then they took the assessment as a group, and then they went to the last section and said, and basically spent a couple weeks, so really kind of six to eight weeks, kind of a group study. You could use this and be like, okay, how are we using this at work? How are we using this in our lives? How are we using this at church? How are we using this in our in our spiritual lives? Man, that's that's the goal.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Well, let's make sure people know how they can uh do the spiritual gift assessment. It's Matt Dawson T uh Matt Dawson.tv slash your spiritual gifts. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

That's it. Yeah, your spiritual gifts. Or they just go to mattdawson.tv. They can, I think it's the first thing on there. You can just say, I want I want to get my gifts assessment. You can go through that. That's free. Um, and once you do that, like you said, it'll it'll email uh a copy of the like the top five gifts to you. And uh and to me, that's just the beginning. That's just the little tip of the iceberg, right? Um, whether you and then you can read the book, you can begin to talk through with you of your church and talk with your pastors and your small groups and say, Hey, do you see this, you know, this gift of uh teaching? They may not be a teacher, but they have a gift of teaching, and and then you understand by reading the book that, well, I like to take complex things and break them down and explain them simply. It was one of the reasons Jesus was the greatest teacher uh in the world, right? Is because he took the complexity of God and delivered it in such a way that we could understand it. So you sit there and look at that teaching gift, you say, I may not be a teacher in school or at church, but you know, you might do this as a parent. You might do this in relationships, you might do this at work, you might be the person at work that when people are overwhelmed with something, they come to you and they're just like, Can you explain that a little better to me? And then you do. You explain it in such a way that people get it, and you're just like, man, and then you feel good about it because again, it it just aligns with the purpose uh that God has placed in you. So that's just the tip of the iceberg is to take the assessment.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Yeah, well, you obviously have the gift of teaching, not only because of what you do on Sunday mornings, but because when you've written this book, you've made it very readable, very practical, and I I treasure that practicality more than anything, like in small groups and stuff. Transparency, honesty, and practicality are things that I really, really uh value. And this book is very easy to read, and it's just uh a real blessing. So thank you, Matt. The game uh the book again is called Gifted on Purpose for Purpose. It's available on Amazon. Where else can they get it, Matt?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

They can get anywhere books you're sold. You know, if they don't have a copy, they'll order it for you. But I would say you can go to my website, you can go to Amazon, it's probably the easiest way. They have hardback, paperback, Kindle, and I am actually I'm about two months away from getting the audiobook out. So people who enjoy listening will be able to listen to the audiobook as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Hey Matt, thanks a million for being with us today. It was a real pleasure, and uh good good luck with the book. Hope it hope it uh does well. I'm sure it will.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Oh, thanks again, Paul. Well, thank you guys so much for listening and watching today. I hope you guys will continue to subscribe to this channel, engage with my content. I hope you appreciate the podcast, and we look forward to continuing to serving you, going from lazy faith to living hope here at Matt Dawson TV.