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Thoughts On...
How Personality Hinders
The Spiritual Gift of Prophecy
By Mary McSwain
Did you know your personality can hinder the effectiveness of your spiritual gifts?
Psychology calls these hindrances the weaknesses of your personality.
Galatians 5 calls them the desires of your flesh.
Those “desires of your flesh” can include the tendencies or “weaknesses” of your personality.
Our book calls them the Dark Sides of Your Personality.
How could your personality, desires, or dark sides affect your spiritual gifts?
Here’s an example. You have the Spiritual Gift of Prophecy and a desire to speak the truth of God’s word into the lives of others. You have a personality style that motivates you to maintain peace and harmony amongst others. Sometimes the truth you want to speak will disrupt the harmony you desire, and create conflict.
What I have found is a common reaction to people discovering their spiritual gifts through an inventory like ours is, interestingly, confusion and surprise. One helpful way to address this confusion is to bring them back to the questions they answered that resulted in their results. So, I asked him to read the questions that corresponded with the spiritual gift of Mercy.
In this situation, what is often a great strength of yours is hindering the use and effectiveness of your gift. You give into the desires of your flesh, to avoid conflict, and compromise on your conviction.
Rather than speaking the truth in love, you avoid speaking the truth for what you think is more loving, which is avoiding tension or conflict. Your strength in maintaining peace and harmony has become a weakness and a desire of your flesh, and it has hindered the effectiveness, even use, of your spiritual gift in that moment to speak the truth that a person or situation needed.
Paul describes the inner conflict going on here in Galatians 5:17,
“...the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other…”
In this moment, your flesh desires to maintain peace and is fearful of creating conflict. Meanwhile, the Spirit within you is prompting you to speak the truth.
How then do we battle these desires of our flesh and overcome the weaknesses, or dark sides, of our personalities?
Paul tells the Christian in Galatians 5:16 to “walk in step with the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
When you are in step with the Spirit, listening and obeying His promptings, you are the most effective version of yourself. That’s when your light shines brightest and your gifts are most effective.
This is when your personality, the specific ways God designed you, can enhance the effectiveness of your spiritual gift.
Your personality style is gentle and kind. You have both the desirability and capability to maintain peace and harmony amongst others. You choose to speak the truth in love, as we are commanded in Ephesians 4:15, and it is well received. You did not come across as critical or harsh, but genuine and gentle. Your personality influences your communication style, and the way you communicated truth in this situation did not create conflict, it maintained harmony.
This personality style is not the only one that could hinder or hurt the effectiveness of someone with the Spiritual Gift of Prophecy, however.
Perhaps you have a bold, confident, strong personality that isn’t afraid to speak the truth, regardless of the conflict that it could cause. If the Lord has laid something on your heart, and you are prompted to speak truth into someone’s life, you do it without hesitation.
At first glance, this seems like a great combination, a bold personality willing to speak bold truth. And in many cases, their confidence and willingness does enhance the expression of their gifting.
However, the impact or effectiveness of someone’s words is not just found in what they say, but also how they say it.
In Ephesians 4:15, we are called to not only speak the truth, but to “speak the truth in love.”
In Colossians 4:6, we are urged to ensure our conversations are “always gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
In Proverbs 15:1, we are reminded that, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Throughout Scripture, we are reminded of the importance of the words we speak, and how we speak them.
For the confident, blunt, bold personality, they may have no problem speaking the truth, but at times that truth may lack the love, gentleness, and grace it needs to be received by the receiver. Without that seasoning, their harsh words may stir up anger. Without that seasoning, their words may hurt more than they’ll help the person on the receiving end.
While gentleness may not be a natural tendency of their personality, it is a fruit of the Spirit, a reflection of Christ’s character, and a quality we are commanded to bear as Christians.
For this person, their quick confidence to speak the truth greatly enhances the demonstration of their Spiritual Gift of Prophecy. And when they are in step with the Spirit, and bearing the Fruits of the Spirits of love, gentleness, and kindness, their participation in the ministry of Christ through the expression of their Spiritual Gifts will become that much more impactful in the lives of those receiving their words.
Identify the desires of your flesh.
Understand the weaknesses of your personality.
And overcome them through awareness and truth.
When you do this, you will be the most effective version of yourself, the version God intended to shine through you.
How do you equip people in your church or your small group to discover their spiritual gifts?
Discover Your Spiritual Gifts is a new resource that helps people identify & understand their gifts with video teaching, online assessments, discussion guides, devotionals, and even a database to keep track of the gifts God is bringing to your church.
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