7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
The third speaking gift is encouraging. The New Testament sometimes calls it
exhorting.Someone who can go and fill another believer with strength, courage, and joy, so that when you have talked to that person, you feel better for it. Someone who is sensitive to the emotional needs of others. Someone who can read the signals, and can say,This person does not want to talk to me now,ordoes not want to talk to me at all,ordoes not want to talk about this.Some people are blind to these signals. They are not encouragers. But the encourager is sensitive, able to understand other people and their concerns, and able to find the right words to help. Some of the shyest and quietest of God’s people are superb encouragers. They just know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.The rest of us are clumsy. We say the wrong thing; we say it in the wrong way; we say it at the wrong time; or we do not say what we should say. But there are people, who are gifted by God. You love to meet these people because you feel the better for having met them. They are not flattering you; they are not pouring syrup all over you. But somehow they are able to bring the best out of people; when they are weak, to strengthen them; when they are discouraged, to cheer them up; when they are sorrowful, to bring them joy; when they are in a crisis, to support them, to fill them with new courage and vision.
I love this word
encouraging.That is why it is so much different from so much that is called counselling today. For so much worldly counselling seems to me to promote self pity and self absorption and the victim mentality. They encourage people to keep looking in,Poor me!But the exhorter, the encourager, sets people on their feet, and enables them to grow in godliness and usefulness. It is vitally needed in today’s world. It is vitally needed in the church.There is so much in the church that can be discouraging. People say things which takes the heart out of us. It leaves us weak. It drains away all our energy and enthusiasm. We feel that our spirit has been upbraided and ruffled. Then there are others whose words and presence are a benediction.
Might you have the gift of encouragement? Ask yourself that. Could you be a Barnabas? Could you go to others in the church and say, My ministry is to help them? “My ministry is not to tear them down, finding fault with them, or attack them. My ministry is Christ’s ministry to build them up.”1
Edward Donnelly
11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.