Our first year on the field we established a rhythm of monthly team fellowships. At these fellowship times that Steven and I led, we ate together, worshipped together, and did a quick Bible study. Usually people stuck around afterwards to play board games. Seems simple enough, right?

Except that everybody had a problem with team fellowship. Some didn’t like the food. Some didn’t want to do Bible study. Some wanted more Bible study. Others said – why are we playing games when people are dying without the gospel?! Some didn’t like the game choices. With a team of 13 all storming and adjusting to a new context, there was always someone unhappy. It was frustrating that such a simple thing meant to help our team bond and fellowship was such a source of conflict and disagreement.

Fast forward 5 years to our last team retreat before we expanded into 3 teams and moved to different locations. Every part of this retreat was delegated and divvied up among the team members. Some led worship, and others facilitated prayer times. Our “fun” teammates coordinated a kickball tournament and a coffee tasting activity. Some teammates gifted at administration helped coordinate all the logistics, our teaching-gifted teammates led Bible study parts, and other shepherding-gifted teammates facilitated a time for celebration and remembrance. Steven and I kept the part that we were good at – vision casting for the future – but almost every other part of the retreat was owned and executed by our other teammates. It’s one of our most memorable, enjoyable, and fun times that we’ve had with our team. We left feeling renewed and refocused on the vision. What changed?

I believe that one of the significant reasons for the change in this team retreat, and in the thriving and multiplication of our team, was the valuing and empowering of each person’s spiritual gifts to edify the body. By delegating each part of the retreat to those that were gifted to lead it, each person had more ownership and had the opportunity to exercise their gifts. Steven and I are not fun, we can’t lead worship, we’re bad at logistics, and we’re bad at celebration. Our other teammates are not just good at these things, but gifted by the Spirit to serve others in these ways. And in seeing all the parts of the body use their gifts, our team was able to look more like the body of Christ.

Why Spiritual Gifts Matter on Teams

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul lays out some foundational truths about spiritual gifts and how we are to view the giftings in both ourselves and other people. Despite a variety of giftings, believers are one in Christ and are part of one body made of many parts. Contrary to our instincts, diversity of giftings in the body of Christ should lend itself to greater unity and mutual love and concern for one another! And when we display this type of unity on our teams, we present a powerful witness and example of Christ to the world.

Later in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul instructs the early church to seek or to “…try to excel in [spiritual gifts] that build up the church.” For many goers, moving overseas means surrendering many of the spiritual inputs that we consistently used to rely on. Our teams often become our greatest venue for spiritual development and community, and may even become the closest expression we have for church. If gifts are for the edification of the body (Ephesians 4:12-13) and Paul encourages us to seek gifts that build up the church, which is the body of Christ, then we should regularly be using our gifts in our team life.

Using Spiritual Gifts for Team Life

In the last post, Steven already mentioned how different giftings serve and supplement one another in the work of ministry and pioneering. Similarly, when spiritual gifts are turned toward edifying the body, team life can become a source of vibrant community, encouragement, and development.  

Here are some examples of different ways spiritual gifts can be harnessed on a team: 

• Helps and hospitality – A common experience for all goers is tiredness or weariness. We can often feel physically, mentally, and spiritually drained as we pour out for the people we are trying to serve. While our teammates with service oriented giftings like helps or hospitality may not be “front of room” types of people, they are supernaturally able to sense who is discouraged or is feeling need, and meet that need. Those gifted in hospitality have the unique ability to create a space where all feel welcomed, rested, and served. 
  
  I am not gifted in these types of service oriented giftings. On our team, we regularly hosted team fellowships, events, meetings, and gatherings. It feels silly to say that these were some of the times I felt most anxious or drained. Was everyone enjoying themselves? Is the house clean enough? Will I have energy to clean afterwards? But by God’s grace, many of our teammates were gifted these ways. Without being asked, they would come early and stay late to help with cleaning. On hard days, they would ask the incredibly loving question of, “is there anything I can do for you?” And then follow through on what I said! Those with hospitality giftings would take ownership in hosting, leading games, welcoming guests, creating festive settings for holidays, and coordinating logistics. 
  
• Shepherding / Encouragement – Ministry overseas is often compared to a crucible – hurts, suffering, crises, failure, and discouragement create a constant pressure that bears down on a goer. In this type of environment, wounds can fester and turn into bitterness, crises can turn into long-term trauma, temptation toward sin increases, and it can feel very easy to give up. Shepherds are drawn to people who are hurting and long to see the people of God cared for, restored, and healed. Encouragers, similarly, find joy in speaking uplifting words and truths to help others grow and to keep going in the work. They help those in the crucible of overseas missions find 1 Peter 1:7 type success, the testing and refining of their faith that is revealed to be more precious than gold. Roles that a shepherd or encourager can take include facilitating personal development plans, transition or term debriefing, providing care for teammates, consulting with team leaders about the needs on the team, or (if trained) counseling. 

• Administration / Government – Administrative types excel in things like project and systems management and often serve as foils to open-ended idealists. They are the ones asking, “how are we going to get this done?” Those with administrative giftings are able to understand and manage details, often freeing up leaders from having to think about these things.
  
  Though we can do them, working on logistics and details are not mine or Steven’s strength. Before launching, we invited a couple to join our team specifically for the sake of helping carry the administrative and logistical load. In watching them work, I quickly realized that the power of the Holy Spirit can turn administrative tasks into as supernatural a work as miracles or healings. In their first year on the field, this couple had identified and secured health insurance for our entire team (and later, the organization!) and created and managed our visa platform! They uniquely sharpened Steven and myself, helping us to clarify our often abstract ideas and put things into writing for the benefit of current and future teammates, other workers, and national partners.

• Teaching, Knowledge, Wisdom, Exhortation – Sanctification and growing in holiness is a lifelong process. Those with teaching gifts are able to explain, instruct, and expose biblical truth in understandable ways for other believers. Similarly, the Holy Spirit moves through those gifted in knowledge, wisdom, and exhortation to be able to speak His heart towards certain people at specific times. Teammates with these giftings can be called upon to help develop and instruct other members of the team through things like leading Bible studies, discussions on topics pertaining to ministry, or facilitating worship and prayer times that create space for hearing the Holy Spirit.

Teaming is a Means of Grace

“Accept every humiliation, look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes you, as a means of grace to humble you. Use every opportunity of humbling yourself before your fellow-man as a help to remain humble before God. It is by the mighty strengthening of His Holy Spirit that God reveals Christ fully in you.”

Andrew Murray, Humility

There is a reason that almost every passage on spiritual gifts is accompanied by instruction towards love and unity. Learning to work with and live in community with people who are different from us is difficult! In our flesh, we like to be right. Our different giftings will cause us to perceive the same situation from completely different perspectives. A shepherd gifted person might view an evangelist as flighty and inconsistent with new believers. A prophetic leader might prioritize speaking truth over caring for the heart. And yet, the picture of 1 Corinthians 12 is that this one body NEEDS all the parts. 

Spiritual gifts are gifts given and allotted by the Holy Spirit. They are gifts that we did not earn. Instead of fixating on differences, we are commanded to be humble and realize what we don’t have so that we can appreciate others with the giftings that we lack. Andrew Murray, in his book Humility, teaches that we should see other believers, especially the ones that vex us, as a means of grace to grow in our character. In this type of community, we are developed into Christ-likeness. This friction with our teammates develops humility, servant-heartedness, and surrender. And as we grow in Christ-like character, we are able to persevere in the work and bear fruit of the spirit along with ministry fruit!

Implications for Leaders

For leaders, knowing about spiritual gifts is critically important not just for yourself but also for those that you lead. 

Many times as leaders we fall into the trap of thinking that we need to carry everything ourselves. We need to lead the ministry, lead and develop a team, solve every conflict, handle every administrative task, and interact with organizational responsibilities. All the while maintaining our own personal abiding, rhythms, and responsibilities to family and friends. Being the answer to everything is a dangerous rut to fall into, and often speeds leaders along a path to burnout. 

Instead of doing it all, we recommend leading out of your giftings while proactively building a team around you, along with structures and rhythms, to supplement your weaknesses. As a leader you will still need a base level of competency in your weaknesses, but having a team with complementary gifts means that you won’t have to forever lead out of your weaknesses alone.

Recruit the Gifts That You Need

Knowledge of our own spiritual gifts helps us understand what kind of leader we are. For example, I am gifted in evangelism and prophecy. The strengths I bring into a team are a focus on the lost and in offering feedback and development to teammates. However, what I lack is shepherding and administrative giftings. With that knowledge in hand, I can keep my mind focused on finding shepherds and administrators while recruiting. For some reason, in our initial team of 13, not a single person had a shepherd gifting! And we saw that while our team excelled in strategy and personal development, we needed help in areas of healing from trauma, debriefing, and care. In those cases, we looked for outside sources – counselors, mentors from our church at home, and professionals – who could help supplement the lack. 

A simple grid you can use is from Ephesians 4:11:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

Ephesians 4:11

Generally, leaders in the apostolic / prophetic / evangelist camp will tend to be more outward and ministry-focused. Shepherds and teachers conversely will focus more on inward care and development. As you consider your own giftings and leadership style, where do you feel like you need help? What kind of co-leader, subteam leader, or teammate could you recruit to balance out your own giftings?

Honor All the Parts

For those of us who have more visible spiritual gifts that seem more applicable for direct ministry work, it can be tempting to judge or disparage lesser seen giftings. Gifts like helps, hospitality, giving, shepherding, and administration are often most comfortably utilized behind the scenes as supportive roles. Although people with these types of giftings are not “flashy”, the Bible has a special word about them. 

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor…

1 Corinthians 12:21-23

Paul calls these types of people indispensable to the body and deserving of even greater honor! If not for the faithful servant-types on our teams, our team would never have been able to become a safe space where true and authentic community could form. They set an example of selflessness that is truly Christlike and something to be emulated by all.

As much as you can, cultivate a heart and a team culture that proactively celebrates these humble servants. Speak well of their deeds to others on the team, have celebrations to thank them for their unique contributions, and create space for their voices and perspectives.

Developing Your Team

As you recruit people with different types of spiritual gifts onto your team, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your team is suddenly rounded out. Spiritual gifts are not static things. We are encouraged to practice our giftings and develop them. As leaders, one of our main jobs is to develop the people on our team, both in character and skill. Here are some suggestions for ways you can start developing your team in spiritual gifts.

• Create Opportunities for Exploration – Many of our teammates may have landed on the field without explicit knowledge of or confidence in their spiritual gifts. While assessments can be helpful, teammates may lack the experience in ministry to really answer assessment questions with confidence. After language learning and acculturation, create opportunities for your teammates to explore different types of ministry activities and debrief them regularly. This debrief could include reporting on outward disciple-making ministry, but also potentially about roles within the team. What activities did you most enjoy? Where did you feel energized? Where did you feel discouraged? What is something you uniquely could contribute to the team?
  
  As your teammates dip their toes into these opportunities, it may become obvious what they feel supernaturally empowered to do and where they begin to see supernatural fruitfulness.

• Create Personal Development Plans – As your teammates begin to identify and practice their spiritual gifts, help them to form development plans that will help them to grow in their gifts. The goal is to create a consistent habit or practice that can be tracked over time, and to introduce helpful resources. What are Bible passages, books, mentors with the same gifting, podcasts, etc. that can be used to help supplement your teammate’s growth? We go more into detail on how to create personal development plans here.

• Develop Roles – Finally, we found that our teammates most thrived when they were able to work out of their giftings in the ministry. A task that one person finds taxing might be another teammate’s greatest joy to do! As much as you can, without sacrificing what is necessary for each person to do for the team to effectively pursue its ministry vision, try to work with your teammate to create a job description that fits them and the needs of the ministry best.
  
  In order to figure out everyone’s ideal roles, we had our team run through an activity. Every teammate wrote down on post-it notes every task they did in their role. After writing everything down, we then asked them to categorize each activity/task into “I love to do this”, “I could take it or leave it”, and “I would rather not do this”. Then we compared notes and, for areas where it made sense, divided up responsibilities based on who had giftings for those tasks.
  
  Obviously, some things like maintaining communication with your supporters or language study cannot be passed off, but it can be revealing to see where you can build more synergy on your team according to giftings! For example, leaders on our team tended to dislike logistical work or hosting, and this responsibility was easily given to those who were more service or administrative oriented.
  
  This activity also helped us understand where we could team up people with different giftings. Evangelists struggled with followup and deep discipleship of new believers, while those with more teaching bent were drawn to those types of tasks. Naturally, it made sense to pair them up to have the people-gatherer and the deep relationship builder work together!

Perseverance is a Team Game

Teams can be a pain. And so, the Holy Spirit, out of His great mercy and love, gives us supernaturally empowered spiritual gifts not just to accelerate the ministry, but to edify and strengthen our teams. And these teams are where we can find the deep community, mutual sharpening and development, and encouragement we so desperately need in a ministry so far from home.

In the ten years that our team has existed, we have been afflicted and tested by sicknesses, criticisms, conflicts, and seemingly unending crises. And yet, most of our original teammates have remained on the field and are still faithfully pursuing the vision. People have asked us – why do you think so many of your team are still on the field? The first answer is purely because of God’s grace to sustain us. But the second reason might just be that having a strong community that loves each other and has each other’s back in any situation could be the critical component that has kept most of us on the field. Perseverance can be a team game, where we help one another as different parts of the same body to complete the vision that God has given to us!

Reflection Questions

• How are you feeling about team life? Why? 
• What do you hope team life on your team could look like? What needs to happen to reach that ideal? 
• How do your spiritual gifts affect how you lead your team? 
• Are you seeing teammates contribute their spiritual gifts to team life? Why or why not?  
• What are the spiritual gifts of those you lead? Where do they need to be developed in their giftings? Are they in a role that activates and allows them to live out of their giftings?

This is one of the lessons that God has impressed on our hearts over the last decade of ministry on the field. Scripture tells us that apart from abiding in Christ we can do nothing, but our pride, our selves still default to being self-dependent in trying to achieve success in ministry. For some reason, we think that our intelligence, hard work, strategies, and skills can make a dent in winning entire people groups that have been resistant to the gospel for 2000 years. It’s ludicrous!

The nature of the work of disciple-making and church planting among the unreached is spiritual! Meaning, it is not a physical or mental problem – for people to turn from darkness into light, for the Enemy to be pushed back, for believers to obey the Great Commission – it requires the Holy Spirit to move! We cannot do a supernatural, spiritual work without supernatural, spiritual power. The good news is that we have been promised and given this power!

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Acts 1:8

How much clearer can it be? Now the question is – will we by faith receive this power? Do we know how to receive this power?

In this series of posts, we’re going to address what we’ve learned about spiritual gifts and missions – on missions teams, in missions work, and an overview of the term ‘apostolic.’ It’s a critical topic that we feel many cross-cultural workers are under-experienced in, especially when  they come from theologically conservative backgrounds. But it’s one of the questions that comes up the most when cross-cultural workers come to the field because of the prevalence of the spiritual world in different cultures and the necessity for guidance and empowerment from the Holy Spirit in an impossibly difficult work.

Our posts on spiritual warfare address why cross-cultural workers can be generally unaware of spiritual realities. Spiritual realities for goers can cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare, and listening prayer.

What Are Spiritual Gifts?

Type in ‘spiritual gifts’ in google and you’ll be inundated with spiritual gifts inventories and articles breaking down each gift. It’s almost too much information! The blog posts we’re writing aren’t trying to be an exhaustive study around spiritual gifts but more so how spiritual gifts are applied in the missions field and on missions teams. However, we’ll give a quick definition and some key points so that we can be clear about what we mean for the sake of application.

“A spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church.” – Wayne Grudem

Our best suggestion in understanding spiritual gifts is to study what the Word says about gifts as there are several key passages about them! I think we can get overly fixated on ‘what is my gift,’ which is important, but miss the general purpose and essence of why gifts are given. Here are some of the key passages concerning gifts, and at the bottom of the post we’ll give a few resources that have been helpful to us in understanding gifts.

• 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14.
• Romans 12:3-8
• 1 Peter 4:7-11
• Ephesians 4:11-16
• 1 Timothy 4:14-16
• 2 Timothy 1:6-7
• Exodus 31:1-11
• Acts 2:1-21
• Acts 6:1-7
• Hebrews 2:4
• Matthew 25:14-30

From our study of these passages and in practical usage, here’s what we would conclude about spiritual gifts:

1. Every believer is given at least one gift from the Holy Spirit, but you can have more than one.

Paul says explicitly in 1 Corinthians 12:7 that each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. This means that our question is not, “do we have a gift?” But, “what gift have I been given and how should I use it?”

A gift has been given explicitly by the Holy Spirit to you! We can and should desire other gifts (1 Cor. 13:31) but it’s also critical for us to be content with the gift we’ve been given because it means the Spirit has good works prepared for us to do with that gift! It means that He has a vital role for you in the body of Christ to play. Don’t ignore the gifts you have been given!

In terms of having more than one, even in Paul’s breakdown of tongues and prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14, he basically admits to having at least both of those gifts. Robert Clinton concludes that leaders in particular are given a cluster of giftings, where a core leadership gift is supported by other supplementary gifts (e.g. a faith gifting to accompany a missionary gifting, or an exhortation gifting to support a prophetic gift). One of our mentors, Char, also notes that gifts can potentially change according to the season of life or ministry assignment that you are in, and the Holy Spirit equips you for those new works appropriately.

2. We know we are operating in our giftings when we sense supernatural empowerment and see supernatural fruitfulness.

We learned this key point from Matt Carter’s sermon on 1 Corinthians 12. He shares his own story about how he identified that his spiritual gift was prophecy exercised through preaching. For him, most ministry activities were draining, but his first time preaching he felt empowered and energized. Not only that, people were impacted by his preaching and there were supernatural results.

We’ve seen these two aspects of supernatural empowerment and supernatural fruitfulness affirmed over and over again in our own discovery of our gifts and helping others to find their gifts. Some people describe the empowerment aspect almost like an ‘out-of-body’ experience, where the Spirit is the one speaking, moving, acting through them and they are simply being used by him.

For me, I started to discover that I had a teaching / training gift in college. Soon after I started following Jesus, I began to volunteer at our old church’s youth group. I had just learned about Inductive Bible Study and how the Word had so much to offer when we are willing to dig deep and learn. I would facilitate a Saturday night IBS with a bunch of high schoolers that would go for 2+ hours. If you’ve ever been in youth ministry, you’ll know that getting the attention of high schoolers is like herding cats. Their attention span, even before iPhones, usually lasted about 20 seconds.

But the Spirit impacted our time in such a way that we had all these easily distracted teenagers deeply studying the Word, with earnestness, curiosity, and passion. It would get to the point where their parents would be there to pick them up and they would shoo them away or ask for more time so they could get to the end of the Bible study for that day. For me, I would receive so much energy and excitement, and as a person who normally wasn’t great at public speaking, I would feel the Spirit give me not only the words but the passion and wisdom to say the right things in the right moment.

I started to say yes to more opportunities to teach and train, and ended up leading our campus ministry’s weekly large group gathering of 300 students during my senior year, which required giving some kind of teaching at least 2 out of every 4 weeks. I repeatedly saw a pattern of the Holy Spirit empowering me with the right words, energy, and authority during opportunities to speak, and by God’s grace, saw the supernatural fruit of people being impacted by the things the Spirit was speaking through me. That has continued even to our time on the field, even being empowered to teach and train in another language! My Thai language ability is 10 times worse when I’m in normal conversation compared to when I train, which is normally the opposite for most people. That is undoubtedly the Holy Spirit!

3. Spiritual gifts are not to be used for personal pride, but to serve others in a spirit of unity.

Repeatedly throughout these passages about gifts, there is an emphasis on humility, serving, and unity in one body. It’s like the writers know there is a potential for the Enemy and our pride to twist this wonderful gift from the Holy Spirit into opportunities for comparison and dissension. Any usage of a spiritual gift that results in pride, comparison, and dissension is a misuse of that gift, and achieves the very opposite of what the Spirit intended in giving it to you.

Any usage of a spiritual gift that results in pride, comparison, and dissension is a misuse of that gift, and achieves the very opposite of what the Spirit intended in giving it to you.

The point of this post is that the gifts given by the Spirit are wonderful and should be used with joy. But there’s a dangerous line when we start to be identified by our gifts instead of identifying with Christ. On his teaching about gifts, Paul emphasizes unity in the body of Christ and then inserts a teaching on love right in the middle with 1 Corinthians 13. We often use this at weddings because it sounds good, but it’s a teaching given in the context of unity in the body among diversity in the gifts. In some ways, it’s the litmus test of if we are using the gift correctly: patiently, kindly, not envying or boasting, not arrogant or rude, not insisting on its own way, not irritable or resentful.

When we say, I have a certain gift and therefore shouldn’t waste my time on menial serving tasks, we’ve missed the point.

When we say, our doctrine and beliefs about how we should use the gifts is different from that group so we can no longer fellowship or work together, we’ve missed the point.

Whenever we are elevating our gifts and our preference over the oneness we have in Jesus, over unity in the body, over love that serves others – we’ve missed the point.

If we are approaching the gifts appropriately, it should create immense humility in us. Firstly, because the gift is not your own – it’s literally given by the Holy Spirit! When you’re using your gifts, God is the one to be glorified, not us! And secondly, knowing that we have a gift but not all the gifts means that we need other members in the body. If the church is working correctly, all the different members of the body should be operating in their gifts together to make the body grow!

…from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Ephesians 4:16

4. The purpose of the gifts is for the edification of the church and expansion of the Kingdom.

Lastly, the second litmus test of our usage of the gifts is whether or not it’s being used for others. The gifts were not given to edify ourselves, but to “strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Cor. 14:12), for “the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7), for “building up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12), and “to be witnesses… to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

We are given so much by Jesus for our own growth and edification. We are given the free gift of salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, we are given the Spirit to be comforter and helper, we are given the Word to guide our steps into daily obedience, we are given the community of believers to receive encouragement and love. But the gifts are not given for our own growth or desires. The gifts are given to be others-focused.

It can be exciting and make us feel special that we’ve been chosen specially to be given a gift! And we should joyfully receive it and be thankful to use it! But Paul gives a warning in 1 Corinthians 14 against using the gift to “build up” ourselves. He specifically calls out tongues, that it needs to be paired with interpretation so that it is beneficial for others around them. Not coincidentally, tongues remains one of the more controversial gifts in the current day.

Use your gift to serve others in the church or to bring others into the Kingdom!

Application

Now we have some clarity around spiritual gifts – you have at least one, it is accompanied with supernatural empowerment and fruitfulness, it is not for pride but for serving in unity, and gifts are meant to edify the church or expand the Kingdom. What next?

Gifts need to be identified, practiced, and developed.

Identify your Gifting

The first step in identifying is knowing what the gifts are. Study the passages in the list above! Certain resources can give you an idea of what a certain gift looks like – we recommend Robert Clinton’s resource “Understanding our Giftedness Set.” Inventories and surveys like this can help but only as a way to understand what you’ve experienced in ministry that you’ve already done.

Secondly, serve in a lot of different types of ministries! Whether at your local church, on a disciple-making team, or on a field missions team, volunteer and initiate to serve in multiple ways. As you try different things, be on the lookout for where you feel supernatural empowerment and see supernatural fruitfulness. Do ministry in team and community so that others can give you feedback about where they see your gift!

Lastly, identify by praying, asking, and listening to the Holy Spirit! If the Spirit is the one who has given you the gift, he can most surely tell you what gift you have and how to use it. Ask others to pray for you to receive gifts and help you discern! We see in the New Testament that the laying on of hands leads to imparting the Spirit and gifts (2 Tim. 1:6), and we’ve also had people pray over us to awaken certain gifts!

Practice your Gifting

Now that you know what your gift is – practice by using it! Paul encourages Timothy repeatedly to “fan into flame the gift of God” (2 Tim. 1:6), and to “not neglect the gift that you have” but to practice, immerse himself in it, and see progress in it (1 Tim. 4:14-15).

One disclaimer is that receiving a gift is not an excuse to disobey other parts of the Bible. Too often we hear “I don’t have an evangelism gifting’ as a reason to not share the gospel. This should go without saying but practicing your gifting can never supersede obedience to the Word and to the Spirit. That’s just our pride making an excuse.

Develop your Gifting

Develop your gifts through practice, but also by learning more specifically about them. Study the Word concerning specific gifts, and look for examples of people in Scripture with those giftings. Find and read books about these giftings. Find mentors that have those giftings and ask about their story and experience.

Often we see people begin with somewhat of an immature usage of their gifting, and over time as they gain experience and knowledge, they’re able to use their gifts more proficiently. For example a young prophet could see someone living in unbelief and desire to call them back towards the Lord but may be overly blunt and lack the wisdom for how to do it tactfully and graciously. A young apostolic might be sensing God call them towards a big vision and starting something new, but trample over everyone else on the way towards that new thing in a posture of judgment and criticism. More than developing the practical skill of your gift, the focus should be on the development of our Christ-like character and humility in using our gifts.

As a general guideline, we’ve heard that developing your gift can be a lifelong endeavor. In your 20s and 30s as you try lots of different ministries, you begin to identify your gifting. In your 30s and 40s you’ve learned what your gift is and begin to practice and use it more. And in your later life you become more proficient with your gift, and ideally, can align your ministry and leadership role primarily with your gifting and experience.

Conclusion

Now that we have a better idea of what spiritual gifts are, and how to identify, practice, and develop them, our next posts will address how these play out on the mission field and on missions teams. Below are some questions for personal reflection and some resources we’ve found to be helpful on the topic of spiritual gifts.

There’s plenty of reasons to learn and use your gifts. Beyond the fact that the Holy Spirit has specially given you one, and that Scripture repeatedly tells us not to be ignorant about our gifts or to neglect them, we’ve found that using our gifts results in our joy! There’s something amazing about being used uniquely by the Spirit, to experience that supernatural empowerment and to see supernatural fruitfulness. It is God being pleased to use us! It’s like trying out a bunch of different sports or extracurriculars as a kid and struggling and failing in them over and over again. And then, all of a sudden, you pick up the violin or dive into the pool or throw a football for the first time and it feels natural. Like you were born to do that thing. Don’t miss out on what He has uniquely created and designed you to do!

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

Questions For Reflection

1. Do you have personal or theological barriers that keep you from studying or embracing spiritual gifts? 
2. Have you identified your gifting? If not yet, what steps can you take towards identifying your gift?
3. If you have identified your gifting, how can you grow and develop in the usage of your gifting? How can you create more opportunities to practice and work out of your gifting in your ministry? 
4. Have you observed any aspects of pride, comparison, or dissension emerge in the usage of your gifting? Why do you think that is? Are there certain situations, people, or contexts that trigger and bring out pride? If yes, then repent and surrender these things to God.  
5. How can you create a culture and space for your teammates to grow and develop in their giftings?

Additional Resources

• Unlocking Our Giftedness is Robert Clinton’s booklet on spiritual gifts detailing how leaders can develop in their giftedness and help develop others. Understanding Your Giftedness Set is a spiritual gifts assessment that goes with the booklet.

• Systematic Theology (chapter 52-53) by Wayne Grudem – an overview of spiritual gifts and addresses continuationism v. cessationism
• Get in the Fight! – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12 by Matt Carter

Guest Contributor: Steve Dekkers

For cross-cultural workers, the sentence “I don’t know what to do!” can come up every hour! Away from familiar resources, cultural understandings, and support structures, serving in ministry overseas is a challenge and an opportunity to depend on God. Learning to hear God’s voice is a critical component for thriving and in pioneering ministry. However, many of us feel under-experienced or confused with the topic of listening prayer.

Our guest contributor Steve Dekkers is a missions mobilizer and trainer based in Texas, who is someone we (Steven and Jenn) have greatly benefitted from in learning about prayer and the Holy Spirit. These posts are adapted from a training that Steve has given on listening prayer that is our favorite!

These posts on listening prayer will provide some biblical foundations around the topic of listening prayer, give some different activities to engage in listening, and help you know how to discern God’s voice in your listening.

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Disclaimers

First, I want to start with a disclaimer that there are many different theologies, church backgrounds, and personal experiences. Listening prayer might be a topic that is familiar for some or can range from confusing to unsettling for others. This post is simply an introduction, so my encouragement is to keep pressing in and learning and following up as the Lord leads. Curiosity about this topic has helped drive many people to learn more about listening prayer, and that’s been my journey as well.

This training isn’t meant to try to change your theology. I’ll try to share as much as I can about where I see this in Scripture, but I also acknowledge that a lot of peoples’ perspectives about listening prayer are heavily influenced by their own personal experience, mine included.

If you read this and don’t agree with what is shared, that is OK! My suggestion is to read this with an open mind and allow the Lord to search your heart and see if there’s anything here that will be beneficial to your relationship with Him. Seek out others that practice listening prayer and ask them questions.

Secondly, for those that want to learn more about listening prayer and how God speaks, this is a process. I want to make it very, very safe, especially if you try some of these activities and don’t have a strong sense that you’re hearing anything or get something specific! 

It’s completely safe and OK to feel like you didn’t hear something. It takes a lot of faith and boldness to try and listen. But it also takes boldness to say, I didn’t get something even though it kind of feels like you’re supposed to. There’s no shame there because you’ve tried and that’s OK.

Also, it might not be your role for a certain time. Your role might be to receive from someone else that has heard something and shares it with you. That doesn’t mean you don’t have God or you’re not saved. It actually means that God is probably communicating to you in lots of other ways. In listening prayer, it’s OK not to get something.

In our training group where we practice listening prayer, we had a guy named Joe who embraced that. He wasn’t resistant to listening prayer, but He would listen and a lot of times just think of Scripture. And that is also from the Lord!

It’s important to continue seeking and engaging, preferably in a safe place with your community. As you pursue God in this process, I’m confident you will grow in hearing His voice!

The God of the Bible is a God who Speaks

The God of the Bible is a God who speaks.

Before we talk about how to engage in listening prayer, this is something we need to be confident in from Scripture. In Genesis 1, God introduces Himself to all the world as the God who speaks creation into existence. And He continues speaking in all of the pages of the Bible to the very end.

God is a communicating God. There’s some examples like Esther and Ruth where they are just trying to be obedient in the situations they are in and see God at work through that. But there are even more examples like Jonah, Moses, Samuel, David, Philip, Paul, Peter, and many more where they communicate with God pretty directly, through prayer and through the word of the Lord coming through other people. We’ll give a few examples here that include different ways that God communicated to His people.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

In Acts 8, we see God communicating with Philip to evangelize to the Ethiopian eunuch. In verse 26, “an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’” Philip doesn’t even know the purpose of this instruction, he just hears from an angel messenger to go and he obeys.

When he gets to that area on the road to Gaza where the Ethiopian eunuch is traveling, “the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’”

Philip’s there by the side of the road, and sees the Ethiopian eunuch who he knows is royalty. Philip hears the Spirit tell him to go near the chariot, and he runs towards it! From anyone’s point of view, Philip looks like a robber. There’s no reason for him to run towards a chariot!

But Philip obeys and RUNS immediately upon hearing the Spirit’s voice. He doesn’t say, “What’s that voice? Was that God? I don’t know if I’ve heard God speak before.” Philips hears and runs to the chariot. He shares the gospel with the eunuch and baptizes him immediately by the side of the road. Church tradition says that this Ethiopian eunuch may have been one of the first to bring the gospel into Africa.

When we are in an unreached place and out on the road and the Spirit tells us to go towards a person that He has prepared to hear the gospel, will we RUN forward in obedience? Will we be able to recognize His voice?

Samuel

We see another example of God communicating clearly with Samuel. At this time, they already have the Torah from Moses. But the early Jews knew that they were supposed to continue to receive the word of the Lord – not to just get the Torah and be done. After Moses, God spoke through prophets to the people of Israel. But 1 Samuel 3:1 says “the word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no frequent vision,” which must have been really concerning.

Eli is the priest and Samuel is serving as a boy. In this story, the Lord calls out to Samuel but Samuel gets confused and thinks it is Eli calling him. Eli perceives that it’s God calling out to Samuel and encourages him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

God gives Samuel a prophecy about Israel. God begins communicating with Samuel directly and “Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground… and the word of Samuel came to all Israel.”

Even when it feels like we haven’t heard God’s voice for a long time, or maybe if we feel like we have never heard God’s voice, He can still start communicating with us at any moment! Can we posture our hearts like Samuel to say – “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

David

Next you have David. Saul is a king that prophesied a few times but he has Samuel as his main connection to hearing the Lord. But David actually starts to operate as a prophet, a priest, and a king!

9 times in 1^st and 2^nd Samuel it says that David inquires of the LORD. When David inquires, he is specific, and he is obedient. He asks specifically of God, what do you want me to do? Should we go here? Will we have victory? He waits for God’s response and obeys.

The best example of this is in 1 Samuel 30, where David and his men go to battle but return to their city to see that the Amalekites have raided their city and kidnapped all the women and children. David and his men “wept until they had no more strength to weep” and “the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord” (1 Samuel 30:4, 6).

This is probably one of the hardest points in David’s leadership. But he does something unbelievable here, with his people ready to stone him. 

He inquires of the Lord. 

Should I pursue, will I overtake them? And God says yes and that he will rescue them.

What else is David supposed to do here except pursue?! The people would’ve certainly stoned him. But David doesn’t do what is obvious, doesn’t do what his followers expect, doesn’t do what he thinks is right – he obeys the Lord after he inquires of the Lord. David is a man after God’s own heart, and he knows God’s heart by communicating with Him.

Cornelius and Peter

In the book of Acts, we see some types of communication from God that are more apostolic in nature. And what I mean by that is the Holy Spirit is guiding the Apostles and disciples to bring the gospel to places it has never gone, because the church is just beginning and spreading.

But later in the Epistles you see words that are more about sanctification in nature. These words are bringing us to look more like Christ, focusing on our union with Christ and oneness with Him.

In Acts 10, we also see a few different ways that God communicates. Cornelius gets a message from an angel to find Peter and tells him exactly where to find him. So he sends three men to find Peter.

At the same time, Peter goes into a trance while he’s really hungry and praying. So that’s maybe how you know you’re doing fasting and prayer well – you’re so hungry that you go into a trance and have a vision!

Peter gets a vision three times about supposedly unclean animals that God says that he can kill and eat. But God says it’s OK. And as Peter is thinking about this vision, the three men are at the gate, and the Holy Spirit tells Peter, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”

So there’s three types of communication just in this short passage – the angel giving a message to Cornelius, Peter receiving the vision from God, and the Holy Spirit literally saying to Peter what he’s supposed to do, to go with the three men. And the rest of the book of Acts is completely transformed by this moment because it opens the door for Gentiles to come into the Kingdom.

Ways that God Speaks

Now we’ve seen several different people in different times hear from God in different ways – visions, angels, prayer, hearing the Spirit’s voice directly, and through prophets and leaders.

In John 10, Jesus says that the sheep hear the Shepherd’s voice and “the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

The sheep know the Shepherd’s voice.

So that’s just my word of encouragement to you as you begin to hear God speak. You know your Shepherd’s voice. God is already communicating with you!

The sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

John 10:4

This was my “ah-ha” moment as someone taught me about listening prayer. When you’re praying and certain thoughts, words, Scripture passages, images, songs, visions, impressions, and even emotions enter your mind and heart, that is the Holy Spirit speaking! It really is!

Sometimes when the Spirit is speaking, it might be accompanied by certain emotions like peace or love or joy, or even physical expressions like warmth, waves of tingling moving down your body, goosebumps, or feelings of electricity.

As you hear those things, write them down even if it feels like it’s from left field. Obviously the random distracting thoughts like “what am I going to eat for lunch” or “what’s the score of the game” are probably just your own mind. In part 2 we will talk about a way to quiet your mind to remove distractions and find a place to meet Jesus and hear from him. We’ll also address the more difficult part in discerning whether some things you hear are from your own mind or are from God. 

But I want to help you grow to be confident in knowing that it was God who spoke. The more you know and recognize God’s voice, the more you’re going to stand on that rock until He gives you a new word, and continues to communicate with you more and more.

God Speaks to Be With Us

In many of these biblical examples, there’s a lot of instruction from God about what people should do. And that can be a strong motivation for cross-cultural workers as well when they are seeking God’s voice through Scripture and prayer – what am I supposed to do?

It can be really great when God tells you to go do something, and you go do it and it feels like it was exactly right. But a lot of what God tells you in listening prayer will be about your identity because he wants you to be loved and to be in him. He tells you about identity so you can be one with him.

If we read and study Scripture to increase our knowledge but miss out on loving Jesus more, we have missed the point. Jesus says to the Jews in John 5 that “you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

In a similar way, if our only motivation to increase in listening prayer is to receive guidance in what to do or receive just what we need but not to enter into deeper relationship with Jesus, we may also be missing the point.

Throughout his time with the disciples, there is plenty of instruction from Jesus to the disciples about what they are supposed to do. But in Jesus’ final words to the disciples, he says that he no longer calls them servants but friends. In his final prayer for the disciples in John 17, he prays for our unity, our joy, our sanctification, our perseverance, and ultimately that we would know Jesus in the Father. “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

It was a journey for the disciples to grow in their relationship with Jesus, and it’s a journey for each of us to grow in further maturity in our relationship with Jesus and that’s OK. Our prayer lives start with being like toddlers – “Look at me!” And we’re the ones talking and talking and talking at Jesus. Then it goes to being like a teenager believer, who is like, “I need this, I need that.” Eventually we get to the point of more maturity where we are experiencing oneness with Jesus. Where we’re in tune with him, we’re interacting and communicating with him. We don’t only ask for things or even ask what we’re supposed to do, but we ask him about his heart, about his desires, about what he wants us to know about ourselves.

For sure, it pleases God when we hear and obey his voice. But let our motivations to hear his voice mirror his heart, “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Questions for Reflection

1. What hesitations or doubts do you have about listening prayer? Offer those to God and ask Him to speak to you.
2. What are other stories in the Bible where God communicates? Do you believe He could communicate with you in those ways? Why or why not?
3. Have you ever felt like the Holy Spirit was speaking? What method did it come by (image, emotion, words)? What happened after hearing from God?
4. What is your motivation for increasing in listening prayer? Ask God to help you align your heart to His in seeking His voice.

Read Listening Prayer (Part 2).

How to Prepare

When we first started learning about this topic, a mentor told us, “Anecdotally, maybe 20-30% of spiritual warfare is what we would call a power encounter – overt demonic oppression, physical manifestations, dreams, nightmares, etc. But 70-80% of the warfare is through the Enemy’s temptation, lies, and attacking sin patterns.” It’s hard to know for sure, but in general, this has been the case in our experience as well – much of the warfare is conducted in our own hearts and minds.

Various Scriptures allude to this: 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The counter to the Enemy’s attack is a sober mind, being spiritually vigilant and watchful.

2 Corinthians 10 says something similar: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” The weapons of spiritual warfare destroy arguments, opinions, and thoughts, in order to obey Christ.

This is not at all to discount that the Enemy also attacks the physical – just look on any page of the Gospels or Acts – physical manifestations of demonic oppression abound, and the Kingdom coming includes deliverance from these types of bondages as well as spiritual and mental bondages.

If we know that much of the battle is in the spiritual realm and in our own hearts and minds, our preparation must reflect this.

A. Freedom in Christ

Part of the training that our organization does in training people for cross-cultural ministry is in freedom in Christ. It’s true that sanctification is a continual process from the time that we begin following Jesus until he completes that work by taking us home. But the part that is not talked about enough is that Jesus purchased freedom from sin for us! We can experience significant victory and freedom over sin patterns in our lives that we have felt like might be with us forever. This is a critical part of learning to thrive overseas; whether from the Enemy or from cross-cultural stress or a combination, your sin issues WILL come to the top. If you haven’t reached a place of significant freedom in Christ, these things will either be a significant barrier to thriving or effectiveness, and in many cases end up sending people home with a wake of carnage in the aftermath.

We believe understanding Union with Christ is a significant part of finding freedom – our own striving in sanctification is futile; surrender your sanctification to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to will and to give power and to do the work of freeing us from sin.

Other helpful tools include Neil Anderson’s Steps to Freedom in Christ, and corresponding books Victory over the Darkness and The Bondage Breaker. Our recommendation would be to find someone who has gone through or even led others through the Steps to Freedom and have them lead you through it.

Professional counseling is also another helpful resource to help us uncover certain sin issues, bondages, unbelief we have about God, or deep-seated patterns from our family of origin that we might not have known about. Finding counselors that specifically work in the missions space is crucial. Many times, when you go through a candidate conference for missions agencies like Frontiers or Pioneers, you will have to do an assessment with a professional counselor that will bring these things up anyway. From what we’ve heard, the majority of people are either rejected or paused from going to the field to address these types of issues because if there are bondages left unaddressed, it will come up and derail a team, family, or individual.

Lastly, establishing a rhythm of confession, repentance, and accountability before you launch and while you’re on the field is a necessary element of finding freedom in Christ. See Jenn’s post on Heart Checks for Emotional Thriving to learn about Life Transformation Groups (LTGs).

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:16

B. Study and Memorize the Word

If the Enemy attacks our minds and hearts through temptations and lies in the context of spiritual warfare, then ignorance about how he engages in warfare is one of the biggest weak points for him to attack. Prepare for spiritual warfare by studying what the Bible says about it, and memorizing passages of truth to be your firm foundation when those lies come. Below is a list of passages to study and memorize before you go. When you’re aware that you’re engaging in spiritual warfare, recite and declare these truths out loud. This list isn’t exhaustive but are key passages for understanding and battling the Enemy.

C. Understanding the Spiritual Climate

In Jenn’s story about our first exposure to Thailand in the first post, we were completely overwhelmed because of our lack of understanding in spiritual warfare, lack of knowing the Word, and lack of perspective about spiritual realities in Thailand. Learning and praying through the spiritual realities of the place you’re going to can help to prepare you for warfare you may encounter.

For example, Thailand is a very spiritually charged place, where fear and power is the main worldview – fear of spirits is prevalent in everyday life. Therefore, studying passages and learning best practices about casting out demons was one thing that we tried to learn about before we launched and ask questions about when we arrived. I had never heard a story of someone being influenced or oppressed by demons when I lived in America, but in Thailand, every single person we talked to had an experience with it or knew about it. My worldview needed to catch up with the worldview of the people I wanted to serve and live amongst. Our team had to ask the question – how will these realities affect our ministry approach?

In America, spiritual warfare and influences may not be as overt – there are major patterns in our society and culture around materialism, comfort, anxiety, addiction, power. To think that there is not spiritual influence in these categories would be to ignore the Bible. In Thailand, from our studying of the culture, society, and history, there are major spiritual strongholds in sexual deviance (sex trafficking, prostitution, infidelity, gender confusion are all prevalent throughout Thailand), addiction (drugs and alcohol), and death / suicide (highest suicide rate in Southeast Asia), among other things. We needed to be on guard for our own hearts against these things, and be forming our discipleship processes around these topics. We’d heard too many stories of the long-term worker who ‘innocently’ started going to massage parlors by themselves and spiraling downwards until they left their families to engage in prostitution regularly in Thailand.

Pray, research, and ask questions about potential spiritual strongholds in the country you’re going to. What are major sociological issues in your country? What type of worldview do they have and what are specific examples of how it affects their spiritual and religious lives? What is the major religion in your country and how does it affect social, cultural, family, and personal lives? Ask experienced workers or local believers about their experiences with these things to get a practical understanding of how these issues play out in your country.

Indicators of Spiritual Warfare

One of the main questions around spiritual warfare is – how do we know when we’re undergoing spiritual warfare? On the one hand, we see from the Bible and from the places we’re going to that spiritual warfare and demonic influence is very real. On the other hand, we don’t want to be the boy who cried wolf and assign every toe stub and every errant thought as ‘I AM UNDER SPIRITUAL ATTACK!!!!’

Again, 1 Peter 5 reminds us to be sober-minded and watchful. Many times, spiritual warfare and personal sin issues of the flesh are not mutually exclusive – it can be the Enemy poking at an area where we are already weak. Below, we’ll talk about responses to spiritual warfare, and many times, the response can be similar in situations of personal sin issues or spiritual warfare, almost like antibiotics attacking a variety of bacteria. Here are some indicators that spiritual warfare or influence might be happening:

• Sin issues and random thoughts: sins coming up that you thought you had victory over and temptations or thoughts that come out of left field might be spiritual warfare. For example, one of our close friends brought their family on a vision trip to see if they would serve in Thailand long-term. Their young daughter, who was 9 years old at the time, would say things like, ‘Mom, you’re just going to leave me here aren’t you?’ She had never thought of or even imagined abandonment before but had these thoughts upon arriving in Thailand. Many times, children can be more spiritually sensitive than adults, and parents should have particular focus in checking in with how their kids are doing. Teammates in their first few weeks in Thailand had sudden and random thoughts of self-harm that had never come before. Situations like these might be spiritual attack.
• Physical symptoms / feelings: nausea, headaches, feelings of uneasiness, feelings of lack of peace or fear can all be signs of spiritual warfare. They also could be the intensity of cross-cultural stress, but many times, some of these feelings might come out of nowhere or be triggered by something. As Jenn mentioned, when we went on prayer walks through temple areas, engaging in direct spiritual warfare, we would literally cross over the threshold of the temple and be immediately hit by headaches, uneasiness, and nausea.
• Nightmares and difficulty sleeping: Many times, we are especially vulnerable in situations of sleep! Spiritual warfare can come in the form of vivid nightmares and difficulty sleeping.
• Works of the flesh vs. fruit of the Spirit: Galatians 5 and 1 John 4 give us some of the clearest indicators of good vs. bad spiritual influence. In Galatians 5 we see two opposing lists – the works of the flesh juxtaposed against the fruit of the Spirit. Decisions, words, thoughts, actions that bring about the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, etc., and that point to the Lordship of Jesus, are from the Holy Spirit. Things that cause dissension, immorality, anger, strife, and that point away from Jesus as Lord are from the Enemy. Use Galatians 5 and 1 John 4 as grids to discern and test the spirits.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

1 John 4:1-2

• Inability or difficulty in feeling God’s presence or hearing His voice: Like our friend who messed with the bell in the temple, many times spiritual warfare can cause disruptions in our ability to meet with God. If there’s something blocking your access to Him, it is worth evaluating if there was an opening for the Enemy to attack.
• Disunity and unforgiveness: One of the main places that spiritual warfare comes in is through disunity and unforgiveness among believers. Take special care that in your anger, ‘do not sin… and give no opportunity to the devil’ (Eph. 4:26-27). If you feel a conversation or conflict escalating from a 3 to 11, pull back and bring the group to prayer and repentance.

In almost all of these situations, there will be an aspect of discernment – is this my own flesh or is this spiritual warfare? And I think the Bible somewhat backs this up: the Enemy attacks the weak points of our flesh and sin, and so we need to be vigilant in holiness and in watchfulness against his attacks. The following responses address both these issues.

Best Practices Against Spiritual Warfare

These best practices are things we do regularly in order to stay vigilant against spiritual attack.

1. Abide in Christ and Be Filled with the Spirit. Regularly surrender your own control and desires and flesh and receive from Jesus. Daily times with God in worship, prayer, and Scripture are critical. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you daily, hourly.
2. Put on the armor of God daily. Paul says in Ephesians 6 to put on the armor of God in response to spiritual attack. What does this mean? I pray and ask God every morning to help me put on the armor and go through each piece. But it’s not a magical incantation. The armor of God is embodying the salvation, righteousness, truth, peace, Spirit, and Word of Christ within us to protect us from the Enemy’s distractions, lies, attacks, accusations. So I go through and ask myself the questions: “Where am I not living out of the assurance of salvation that Christ has given me and where am I living out of fear and doubt?” “Where am I not believing truth?” “Where do I not have peace?” “Where am I unrighteous?” “Am I living out of the Spirit’s power or just my own strength?” “Am I consulting and armed with the Word in my life today?” Evaluate where you’re missing the armor and rectify it through prayer and confession.
3. Regular confession and repentance. We’ve already mentioned regular accountability groups through LTGs – be proactive and depend on your brothers, sisters, and teammates to help you avoid opportunities for the Enemy to attack!
4. Prayer over places you stay and praying for protection as you go. Whenever we are staying in a new place, we pray a quick prayer over that place – that any spirit that is not of Jesus in that place would leave, and that this place belongs under the authority and Lordship of Jesus! And as we enter into any situations, we are praying for God’s protection and the filling of the Spirit with us, particularly in more dangerous situations like conflicts with others, spiritually charged locations like temples or red-light districts, and when engaging in prayer walks or evangelism.

Responses to Spiritual Warfare

When you encounter these situations where there are indicators of spiritual warfare, what do you do? Here are some responses to follow while actually in the event of a spiritual attack:

1. Immediately bring it to the Lord in prayer. Pray out loud. Pray according to Scripture – that the Enemy has no power over those that belong to Jesus. Invite the presence of the Holy Spirit to come.
2. Invite in community ASAP, bring things into the light. One of the biggest mistakes that we can make in situations of spiritual warfare is to keep it quiet – this is exactly what the Enemy wants as he is the father of lies. But those lies lose power when they’re exposed. For these sin issues or disruptive thoughts, find a brother or sister in Christ and tell them about it as soon as possible. Have them pray over you, and if appropriate, take steps in accountability during that period of attack (perhaps keeping someone from opportunities of self harm, or addictive substances, for example).
3. Quote and declare Scripture out loud. The giant list of Scripture above speaks to the truths of who Christ is, who we are in him, and how little the Enemy has power over us. Speak out and declare these Scriptures to strengthen your faith through the truth of God’s Word.
4. Play worship music and worship. Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people – worshiping God brings his presence and is a direct act of spiritual warfare. When her children were experiencing spiritual warfare through nightmares, one of our mentors would take a portable speaker with an unending playlist of worship songs and simply play it on the lowest setting in the corner of her kids’ room – bringing them peaceful sleep!
5. Have experienced believers or spiritual leaders pray over you. If certain spiritual warfare subsists beyond initial responses, it can be helpful to find other people experienced in spiritual warfare, or spiritual leaders like elders, to come pray for you.

Conclusion

The topic of spiritual warfare can feel confusing, scary, and overwhelming for many of us that don’t have a lot of experience with it. I’ll be honest – when we first started encountering situations of demonic oppression and even seeing some of our Thai partners cast out demons regularly, it was pretty scary for us! One of our close Thai partners, similarly nervous about these situations, would just repeat 1 John 4:2 somewhat tongue in cheek – พระเยซูเป็นพระเจ้า which means “Jesus is Lord” over and over again, just in case!

But Scripture repeatedly declares the Sovereignty of God over the Enemy, that he was defeated by the Cross and will be destroyed completely at Jesus’ return. So we don’t need to fear, but instead can focus on being filled with Christ, sober-minded, and watchful.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:4

One of the biggest questions we had before launching to the field, and one of the biggest questions we still get from people preparing to go, is about spiritual warfare. Is it real? What does it look like? How should I respond to it?

We are by no means experts on this topic, but this post is adapted from the simple introduction and training we do as a part of our new staff orientation for people coming to Thailand. The first post is about spiritual realities and warfare, and the cultural lenses we bring into understanding this topic. The second post is about how to prepare against spiritual attack, how to know when spiritual warfare is happening, and best practices for how to engage in it.

Spiritual warfare can look very different in different places and with different people. This post isn’t meant to be all-encompassing, and some people may disagree with our perspective on it. We all have the lens of our own experiences, but for us, we try to reconcile what we experience with the unchanging foundation of the Word of God. Thankfully, Scripture actually has plenty to say about the Enemy, spiritual realities, and spiritual warfare.

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

The topic of spiritual warfare can bring up a variety of responses – some good, and some bad. 

Some will hear about forces of evil and fear it. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control,” so we reject fear and embrace the power we have in Christ.

Others will reject this reality, and some will become engrossed by it. C.S. Lewis says, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

We want to approach this topic sober-minded, with Scripture as the foundation. A lot of our ideas about spiritual warfare have probably been poorly informed by what we see in TV shows and movies.

Ephesians 6:10-20 is one of the clearest passages that describes the reality of spiritual warfare.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. [12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. [13] Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. [14] Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, [15] and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. [16] In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; [17] and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, [18] praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, [19] and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, [20] for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:10-20

There’s plenty of great commentaries on this passage, so we won’t break it down here. Put simply, Paul tells us that our struggle is not against physical, flesh and blood opponents, but against cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil, and schemes of the devil. This reality is repeated again and again throughout Scripture – there will be a list of passages at the end for people to consider.

Secondly, Paul tells us that we are to combat these forces by standing firm with the armor of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with perseverance. Thirdly, he connects the response to spiritual warfare with his ministry of proclamation of the gospel.

For leaders on the mission field, it’s essential to help your team understand and be prepared to face spiritual realities and spiritual warfare – for themselves but also for the work of ministry they want to engage in. Too often, we see missionaries who are not well prepared for the field, but even for those who have gone through training and preparation, this category of preparation is missing. There can be theological, cultural, ministry, and character training which is all great, but without being able to engage in spiritual warfare, it’s like being the most well-equipped fish fighting an enemy on dry land.

The Excluded Middle

Another aspect that keeps most Westerners blind to the realities of spiritual warfare has to do with our worldview and ethnocentrism – essentially the idea that we evaluate other cultures through the preconceptions and lens of our own culture’s standards and customs. Paul Hiebert was a leading missiological anthropologist that coined the term, ‘the Excluded Middle,’ that helps us to understand our own biases and why we might be missing some of the spiritual realities that many other cultures understand and live in daily.

The Modern Worldview, which most of us from the West will have, stems from the Enlightenment and is based heavily on empirical science and data. In general, those with the Modern Worldview may accept the ‘high supernatural’ realities like God, angels, and demons, but we assume those reside in the detached ‘heavens.’ Our natural world doesn’t interact much with that reality, meaning there is an Excluded Middle zone where we don’t engage with these spiritual realities on a daily basis.

Hiebert says, “People pray to God for their salvation, but turn to modern medicine for healing and psychology for deliverance from so-called demon possession, because demons exist in the heavens, not on earth. Western missionaries influenced by this dualism affirm the cosmic battle between good and evil, but deny the realities of witchcraft, spirit possession, evil eye, and magic in the cultures where they serve. Consequently they fail to provide biblical answers to the people’s fears of earthly spirits and powers, and fail to deal with the reality of Satan’s work on earth.”

In contrast, those with a Tribal Worldview see spirits throughout their reality on a daily basis, whether ancestors or witchcraft or in nature. “They help those who serve or placate them. They harm those who oppose their wishes or who neglect them or refuse to honor them. Humans must placate them to avoid terrible disasters.”

Lastly, Hiebert gives the Biblical Worldview, where God is Sovereign over all created things, whether good or evil, and the battleground between these good and evil forces is within individuals, social systems, and cultural systems.

For those engaging in cross-cultural ministry, it’s critical to understand the worldview lens that we bring with us, the lens that exist in the place we’re doing ministry, and what the Biblical perspective is. This applies to almost every category of overseas life and ministry, but is crucial in our understanding of spiritual realities and warfare. Whenever we encounter something in Thailand that we don’t know how to categorize or process, like about spirits or witch doctors, we have to try and understand these experiences through those three lenses, especially the biblical one. It’s hard to engage in warfare when we’re uninformed!

Our Initial Experience with Spiritual Warfare

I (Jenn) want to share a little bit about our own experience with spiritual warfare in Thailand and how we learned about this topic. We first visited Thailand in 2009 on a short term trip while we were still in college. 

Our church background was very conservative – at the time I had very little understanding of the Holy Spirit or spiritual gifts, and I don’t think I knew anything about the spiritual realm or spiritual warfare.

On that short term trip, we slammed headfirst into the realities of spiritual warfare and how unprepared we were to deal with it. 

On the first day of our trip, a girl on our team woke up screaming and crying because she was having nightmares. And everywhere she looked, with her open eyes, she would see evil spirits.

Another teammate nonchalantly rang a temple bell that is used to call spirits and was terrified to find that he couldn’t pray after that.

For the first time, we heard many testimonies from both long-term workers and Thai believers of demons being cast out, stories of healing, stories of spirits (ผี) and their prevalence in Thai culture and society. One experienced missionary told us, “ask any Thai person on the street about an evil spirit that causes sleep paralysis, and every single Thai person that you meet will either have had a personal experience with it or know someone who has.” And that’s just one of many different evil spirits.

When we entered temples during prayer walks, some people would get headaches and nausea, and begin to tremble and shake. Others would be hit by anger, despair, or doubts in God. 

Thankfully, the leaders on our trip had more experience with the Holy Spirit and spiritual warfare, and began to guide us through key passages like Ephesians 1 and 6. They encouraged us to not fear but to trust in the promise that Christ has authority over all rule, authority, power, and dominion (Eph 1:21)!

As we continued to pray and seek God for help, the Holy Spirit met us powerfully, and He began to pour out spiritual gifts over us. Multiple people on our team began praying in tongues, even though they had never heard anyone pray in tongues before! Other believers that we connected with prayed prophetic words over us. I remember having some of the richest times of prayer in my life as we begged God to fight for us and to help the Thai people. 

When we got back from that trip, we were hungry to learn more. We began to seek God in increased prayer, asking the Spirit to fill us and to help us. We met with people from different church backgrounds and studied the Word to see what Scripture said about these things we had never experienced before. At times we veered overly into the experiential where we became fixated on power encounters or the spiritual gifts, and needed to course-correct back to what was biblical.

The work of missions is spiritual in nature, and our enemy is not flesh and blood but the powers of darkness. We believe that if we want to see Thai people freed from evil and the Kingdom of God come to Thailand, we must be able to walk in the Spirit to war in the spiritual realms. And we don’t have to fear because we are guaranteed victory in Christ, who has authority over all things, and who is with us even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20)!

Questions for Reflection

1. Have you had an experience with spiritual warfare? What was it like and how did you respond?
2. What is your biblical perspective on spiritual warfare? What passages of Scripture are behind that perspective?
3. What are your thoughts on the Excluded Middle worldview? Do you think you have this worldview or not? Why or why not?
4. What is the worldview of the culture that you’re serving in?
5. What kind of emotions does the topic of spiritual warfare bring up in you? (e.g. fear, skepticism, curiosity?) What’s an appropriate response to these emotions?

Read more in Part 2.