Natural Talents and Spiritual Gifts

Everyone has natural talents, gifts, endowments and abilities that are inherited and genetically encoded in their soul.  They come from God and everyone has many natural talents. It is an ability that comes naturally to a person without even practicing.

You may not think that you are particularly talented, but if you take a closer look you will discover that you have some natural abilities that you seem to have inherited. A person will tend to have an increased ability in that area (those areas) relative to their other skills, abilities and aptitudes.  You will also find that your natural talent is related to a combination of your temperament (inborn nature), personality traits(behavioral tendencies), motivation (what you are willing to do), aptitude (how well you do), and passion (how you feel and energize your talent).

Natural Talents differ from Spiritual Gifts (cf. 1 Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, Ephesians 4:10-12).  Consider the following:

• Talent is inherited and Spiritual Gifts are received by grace.
• Talent comes through the genes of natural inheritance and Spiritual Gifts come directly by the will of God.
• Talents is imparted at our natural birth and Spiritual Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit at the time of spiritual birth.
• Talents are natural and Spiritual Gifts are supernatural.
• Talents are possessed by everyone and Spiritual Gifts are possessed by those who are saved.
• Talents need to be developed and Spiritual Gifts need to be matured.
• Talents can be used strictly for enjoyment or earning and Spiritual Gifts are graces given for the purpose of serving others and building up the Church.

Everyone has natural talents to do work that serves community, but Christians have both natural talents as people in God’s image and spiritual gifts as new creatures in Christ.  According to His will, God God may use a talent spiritually to build up others or the church or He may choose not to.  This does not mean that we shouldn’t use our natural talents to serve, support the Church and honor God.   It does not even mean that unbelievers won’t have natural abilities of teaching, administration or giving or mercy for example.  It does mean that natural talents can be used for any purpose by any person, but spiritual gifts must be used for specific Kingdom purposes by Christians.  Christians are called to use both our natural talents and spiritual gifts and  in building up one another and in building the Kingdom of God.  The Holy Spirit uses spiritual gifts as a way to empower our individual talents, and supernatural abilities, for the ultimate purpose of glorifying God.