How can I know what my spiritual gift is?

By presenting your body a living sacrifice unto God, and allowing Him to use you in service for Him, you will begin to see what your gift is. Note that your goal should not be so much to determine what your gift is, but rather to be used by the Lord. Before the apostle Paul mentions gifts in Romans 12, he beseeches believers by the mercies of God to present their bodies a living sacrifice unto God (Romans 12:1). This is an act of our will, based upon the knowledge of God's love and mercies to us. The greater the realization of His love, the greater our surrender to His will for our lives will be. Issac Watts expresses this so beautifully in his hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross":

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."

To present our bodies a living sacrifice to God means that we make ourselves available to Him. Isaiah is a good example of being available for the Lord's use. When the Lord asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah answers without hesitation, "Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). The apostle Paul expresses the same thing differently. In the overwhelming sense of God's grace to him, the chief of sinners, Paul says, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6).

When Paul's question becomes the prayer of our heart and the goal of our life, several things will begin to take place in our lives. These are a few of them:

• We will become increasingly concerned with the spiritual needs of others.
• We will, with the Lord's help, begin to meet some of these various needs.
• We will recognize certain areas in which the Lord seems to be using us. This may be confirmed to us by blessing and encouragement from godly believers.
• We will have an inward peace and joy in the Lord.

In connection with the use of our gift, it is important to notice that service for the Lord usually begins right in the place where we are—in the home, neighborhood, school, at work, or in the assembly. That's where we will find the needs and that's where the Lord will use and develop our gift. Later on the Lord may lead some to travel to other places as evangelists, pastors, or teachers but home is where the Lord would have us begin. When the man who came to Jesus in the Gospel of Mark wanted to go with Jesus, Jesus told him, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee" (Mark 5:10).