The Intersection of Giftings, Practice and Anointing

Graeme Spencer Author

Where is the intersection point of these 3 components and why is it important to know how they all fit together?

One of the lessons I have learned in my career working behind the scenes in media is that anointing isn’t only for those who are on the platform. Far from it. We can all experience God anointing us in what we do, our “craft” and our function. This is for you and for me and we can all access this at any time. There is an invitation from God to us to partner with Him to achieve His purposes.

Let me back up though, as there are certain things we need to do that create an environment for God to come and move in a way that only He can.

We need to identify what our skill set is. In my blog post on “Harnessing everyone’s gifts and talents” I talk more about this so I won’t spend too much time on that here. I am passionate that we all have the responsibility to find our niche. There might be many things you are good at and can do and that is awesome - we need multi skilled and multi-disciplined people – BUT, for most people it would be true to say that if you asked them “If you could only do one thing for the rest of your career what would it be?” they would know what it was and be able to tell you. If you have not thought about this then let me challenge you, what’s your one thing? I’m not saying that is all you will ever do, but the answer you give reveals what it is that God has put inside you. For me, it is producing and directing and if I were to “niche” down further, I would add say producing and directing live events. I can and do many other things – but that is the ONE thing I would say is my main skill set.

Once we have defined the one thing, we need to put the work into being the best we can be at whatever we have chosen. That will develop over time. We need to put ourselves into environments that help us grow, learn new things and inspire us to greatness. That’s one of the main reasons we are launching our media mentoring programme – I want to inspire you to greatness and mentor you in the process. 

It is our job to cultivate a learning attitude that keeps us moving forward. I have been in this industry for over 25 years and have done some amazing things BUT there are still people I can learn from, people I look up to and new skills and knowledge I can get. I remain on a journey of learning – do you? I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell and love his writing. In his book “Outliers” he talks about the 10,000-hour rule. I’m not sure it’s quite as clear cut as he tries to make it out (and there are many other articles that argue against it) but the general point he makes is true, i.e. that greatness comes with hard work – we must put the work in if we want to grow and develop into the people God wants us to be and flourish in our giftings.

And now for the fun one, the anointing…….

OK, so anointing is a religious word and while I don’t want to get into theology here, my basic explanation of it is that it is God breathing on someone in a way that makes them able to perform at a higher level than they “naturally” could. Where this comes into the creative space is that we need to be sensitive towards what God is doing and be ready to flow when He shows up.

In my life, there have been certain times that I have been doing my “job” creating content, producing an event, directing a live broadcast etc and I have become aware that I am functioning at a level beyond my natural ability. It is NOT a replacement for the years I have spent honing my skills BUT it is a GLORIOUS thing to experience and is a very special feeling.

I am not sure on the purpose of these moments BUT I do know they are the moments I hunger for. I also love that as “back stage” people WE can experience this as powerfully as those who are on the stage. There is a story from the bible that seems to encapsulate this.

In Exodus 31, we see what is an outline of this process of the intersection of these three things (Gifting, Practice and Anointing) in the story of Bezalel. He is a craftsman (Gifting) who has skills (Practice) and God puts His Spirit in him (Anointing). The purpose for this convergence is so that he and his assistant – who also seems to have the same overlap – can make everything that God told Moses to have made. Perhaps in this story we get a glimpse of the purpose of these moments - so that God can get something done that couldn’t happen without this intersection? I like to call it being “in the zone” and love the feelings I experience when this happens, I was created for this.

I hunger for more of those moments and the opportunity to partner with God to get something done. Let’s all continue to move towards this goal. Let’s find our gifting, hone our skills and then expect God to show up and breath on what we are doing and look forward to seeing the results as He gets something done.

When was the last time you felt one of these moments?

Categories: Foundation, Leadership, Skills, Team, volunteer