Discovering Our Gifts and Value to God

The Paul Cardall Podcast

On the 67th podcast episode, Paul Cardall shares 9 ideas on how we can discover or re-discover our gifts, particularly our non-so-obvious gifts. Knowing our gifts shapes our life's purpose. From asking others to let you know, looking for gifts in adversity, praying for help to recognize our gifts, and more. Overall, our gifts were give to help others. This helps us experience greater joy in our lives.

Discover your gifts: It seems everybody always says, “If you only knew how great you are.” Well, the truth is, sometimes you just don’t know how great you are. When we don’t feel like the smartest, the nicest, the best looking, the funniest, or the most talented, our self-assurance seems to disappear.

But think about this: if we look out into the vast cosmos and see the constellation of stars with all its mystery our minds are expanded. I drove my daughter into a desert free from man-made lights so we could see the brilliance of each star. As a 10 year old, she recognized and pointed out to me various constellations. As she looked up in wonder I noticed her eyes reflected the light of the stars.

Each star, like every type of flower has its purpose. We give red roses as a symbol of romance, yellow for friendship, pink for appreciation, lavender roses for love at first sight. Flowers, like stars, are part of the same family. Each has its purpose.

As I think about the vast cosmos, solar systems, all the stars and the variety of roses and every other creation, I’m humbled by what God has organized. God’s majesty is everywhere. God’s creation surrounds us. And yet, at the heart of creation, and according to the Bible, each of us, particularly you are His greatest creation. So great that He gave us a Savior to redeem us so that who you are, who your neighbor is, who I am, can fulfill our destiny.

Each of us was created by God. We are unique and diverse like roses and stars, but what separates us from those incredible creations, is that we are God’s children. God made you. God made you unique. As such, the Lord of all things has given us unique gifts and talents to help us fulfill our divine potential. As we discover these gifts, we are reminded of our divine worth as His children, and we are able to draw closer to Him and help others do the same.

As I’ve traveled performing my music or speaking to an audience, many of you come up to me and say, “I have no talent” or “God has given me any special gifts.” And yet, those who tell me this are some of the most faithful, humble, wonderful people I’ve met. Their devotion to their faith humbles me.

And so, for any of you who don’t know or believe you have talent and gifts let me give you 9 ideas to help you to discover your gifts, or at the very least help you discover or re-discover your not-so-obvious gifts. Now, grab a pen or pencil, or open your notes on your smart phones, and write these down. I will also put them in the podcast notes.

While you’re getting your tools to write this down, I want to thank Justina Lichner for this information that I agree will help you. Ok. You got your notes open?

Just a reminder, please subscribe to this podcast. If there is someone who needs this message today—email them and share this podcast.

1. Ask others to let you know.
   Sometimes we don’t see in ourselves what others can see in us. Ask a friend, relative, or someone close to you at work or church to write you a note about a gift or talent they see in you.
2. Look for gifts in adversity.
   During hard times we can choose between letting our best qualities or our worst qualities come out. When times are tough, focus on discovering and using your best qualities and gifts.
3. Pray for the help to recognize your gifts.
   Our Father in Heaven knows our divine potential. If we have a difficult time seeing that in ourselves, He can help. You can pray for help to recognize your gifts.
4. Don’t be afraid to branch out.
   Do we only develop the gifts that we already know we have because we’re too afraid to do something we haven’t done before? Now’s the time to try something new and discover unknown gifts.
5. Search the word of God.
   God helps us discover and develop our gifts through clues found in His word—usually through invitations to act. For example, the 4th chapter of James says: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister or judges his brother or sister, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge” (James 4:11). What gifts could you develop from this invitation? The gift of speaking kind words, the gift to calm others, the gift of restraint, and more. And that’s just from one verse!
6. Look outside yourself.
   Sometimes our best qualities come out when we’re not focusing on ourselves but focusing instead on how we can work with and help others. When we do that, we’ll see that we have many Christlike gifts.
7. Think about people you look up to.
   Who are some of your role models? You can make a list of all of the gifts your role models have and, instead of focusing on which gifts you don’t have in common, celebrate discovering the ones you do.
8. Reflect on your family.
   What gifts do you have that your siblings, parents, or grandparents have too? Go further! Research family history, discover stories, and identify even more gifts you share with your family.
9. Pray or Receive a Prayer Blessing
   Your prayer could ask God about gifts you have and should develop, and that prayer could also point you to the path that will lead to the discovery of other new gifts and talents. Or ask someone to pray over you. Think about what they said.

Now, if we know our gifts how can we help others discover their gifts. We can often see things in people they don’t see in themselves.

For example, my wife has the gift of discipline… She has spent years in the gym taking care of the physical body or temple God has given her that houses her spirit. She takes this so seriously that with exercise, she also focuses on what is taken into her body. We talked years ago about how she doesn’t want to vandalize or damage the gift of having a physical body. So with the gift of discipline she chooses foods that will heal and repair the body. She also focuses what she puts on her body. Are their products with toxic chemicals damaging the temple she’s been given. And so you see, she has a gift of discipline, a gift for understanding how to take care of the body, and the gift to teach and share with others what she has learned.

I’ll share with you another example of a gift I had no idea about. I don’t believer this gift shows up all the time or can I access this gift without the circumstances being right. The famous scripture were two or three are gathered in my name, so will I be also. One of the men in my small mens group that meets every Tuesday in a roundtable discussion, after reading the word of God, shared some personal struggles. Though he didn’t go into detail, I was moved and looked at one of our leaders, who parenthetically has the gift to remember everyone’s names, even the new people, well I looked at him and he knew. We needed to pray over this brother. We gathered, laid hands on him, and a few different men led the prayer. I felt impressed to also bless him. I couldn’t remember what I said… But this morning, that same leader said, “Last week what you did was a gift. You knew what to say that gave our brother confidence in God so God can work in him.” The gift to listen, the gift of understanding, the gift to know someone needs our prayers, and the gift to be vulnerable enough to communicate what we feel God wants to implore into the heart of the one seeking divine guidance. The gift of fellowshipping, ministering, or simply being a friend without an agenda are the great gifts we can do…

Help Others Discover Their Gifts

We see things in others that they may not be able to see in themselves. This week, share those things with a friend or family member. Here are some questions to ask yourself that can help you discover the gifts of others.

1. What is something they’ve done to help you?
2. What do you like about them?
3. What are they good at?
4. What are they trying to get better at?

There is NOBODY like you… YOU are a child of God, never forget it. The Creator of the Vast Cosmos is real. He loves you. He is not only award of you, but cares for you. We can go to him in prayer, and how great is that. Think about it—we can talk to God and share with God our hopes, fears, dreams, things we are grateful for and things we need help overcoming… You know years and years ago, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The ability for someone to communicate their love from thousands of miles away is a miracle. The ability to not only call on a man made device, or a cell phone, and talk to someone we love and to hear them say, “I love you, I miss you, I’m can’t wait to be with…” We’ve been able to get within our control the elements and through technology talk to loved ones across the globe. With technology, and invisible air waves, control over the elements, we can bring into our living room, Presidents, Kings, and all kinds of unimaginable things… If we can do this—I have no doubt the creator, whose children we are, deserves the credit because God has created each of us unique and given to us divine gifts. The gift of knowledge often goes to our head—so let’s not forget that without our creator we wouldn’t exist. And because of our creator and the various gifts he shares with us, our life has purpose. And that purpose is to love whoever God puts into our lives. And as we love, we are loved also.

ABOUT THE HOST PAUL CARDALL

Official Website - http://www.paulcardall.com

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/paulcardallmusic

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/cardall

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LISTEN TO HIS MUSIC

APPLE MUSIC - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/paul-cardall/4312819

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Paul Cardall is an artist who has given a new meaning to the phrase, a change of heart and how he used this radical change to take his music to an unexpected place. Despite being born with a potentially life-threatening heart defect Paul Cardall has become a world recognized pianist. He is even endorsed by Steinway & Sons as one of the finest pianist of our time.

A Dove award winner for his Christmas album, Paul’s recordings have debuted on 11 No. 1 Billboard charts along with 46 other chart debuts. His music has 25 million monthly listeners with more than 3 billion lifetime streams and is often categorized as Classical, Christian, and Holiday. Although most of albums are instrumental, Paul has songs that feature Grammy winning gospel legend CeCe Winans, Matt Hammitt (Sanctus Real), Kristin Chenoweth, Country duo Thompson Square, David Archuleta, Tyler Glenn (Neon Trees), Audrey Assad, Steven Sharp Nelson (The Piano Guys), and more.

Paul has performed for audiences worldwide including the White House. Forbes, American Songwriter, Jesus Calling, Lifestyles Television, Mix Magazine, and countless other media outlets have share his remarkable journey of receiving a life changing heart transplant and using music as a tool to help God heal spiritual, mental, and emotional hearts.

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