Many people hear the word disciple and think it means only follower. But genuine discipleship is a state of being. This suggests more than studying and applying a list of individual attributes. Disciples live so that the characteristics of Christ are woven into the fiber of their beings, as into a spiritual tapestry. (Robert D. Hales, Becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ, April 2017 General Conference)
What are the elements of our spiritual tapestry? Spiritual gifts?
How would I find out what my spiritual gifts are?
Article of Faith 7 lists tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues
D&C 46:13-26 lists at least a dozen
Moroni 10:9-16 lists 9 spiritual gifts
I’m not confident that all the spiritual gifts are listed in those three passages. There are many more to be found in the scriptures.
Moroni 10:8
8 And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them.
Some of us are familiar with the Gallup Strengths Finder test or the Clifton Strengths test.
This test is an online personality-assessment tool that focuses on 34 themes that make up the user’s personality.
The results of the test are intended to help individuals understand their unique strengths and how they can use them to achieve their goals and improve their performance.
The test identifies 34 themes, divided into 4 categories:
Strategic thinking: Analytical, Context, Futuristic, Ideation, Input, Intellection, Learner, Strategic;
Relationship building: Adaptability, Connectedness, Developer, Empathy, Harmony, Includer, Individualization, Positivity, Relator;
Influencing: Activator, Command, Communication, Competition, Maximizer, Self-assurance, Significance, Woo;
Executing: Achiever, Arranger, Belief, Consistency, Deliberative, Discipline, Focus, Responsibility, Restorative.
I have found it interesting that many (and perhaps all) of these strengths can be easily mapped to spiritual gifts found in the scriptures. So, I’m left to wonder how many spiritual gifts are there?
For a second, let’s just assume that there are 34 spiritual gifts.
How many possible combinations of these 34 gifts could there be? It is simply 34! or about 2.95 x 10 to the 38th power.
How big of a number is that? Astronomy.com estimates that there are 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. That is only 2 x 10 to the 23rd power.
Maybe next time we are tempted to compare our spiritual tapestry to another persons, we will remember that our spiritual tapestry of gifts is as different as our DNA. There are over 70 trillion combinations of human DNA. (7 x 10 to the 14th power)
D&C 46:11-12
11 For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.
12 To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.
Perhaps the challenge is to live so that the spiritual gifts we are given are woven into a tapestry that builds our discipleship.
Elder Hales concludes with this statement.
Brothers and sisters, now more than ever, we cannot be a “part-time disciple”! We cannot be a disciple on just one point of doctrine or another. The constellation of characteristics that result from faith in Christ—including the ones we have talked about today—are all necessary to our standing strong in these last days. As we earnestly strive to be true disciples of Jesus Christ, these characteristics will be interwoven, added upon, and interactively strengthened in us.