In my experience walking with the Lord, I have found that most born again believers have one primary redemptive gift and at least one or two minor redemptive giftings in their lives. However as we mature in our walk with the Lord, I believe it is His desire that we become mature in all of the gifts so that Holy Spirit may call on any gift at any time within each person as He sees the need. My comments and experience with these giftings are in green.
Blessings,
Gerri
PROPHET – Moody. Articulate. Passionate. Generous. Intense. Keen sense of justice and righteousness. Loves the underdog. Ideologically driven. Creative. Judgmental. Extreme.
The redemptive gift of Prophet is very different from the gift of prophesying. While prophets understand the future through revelation, those with the redemptive gift of Prophet understand the future through the use of Biblical principles.
I know this gift well. I live with one! The descriptions are accurate and I might add that the one who walks in the redemptive gift of Prophet is usually not well liked even within the Body of Christ. They are designed with God’s DNA to not necessarily be your favorite person to be around, but rather they are designed to be the one who can rightly discern good and evil and warn you of both. It is wise to press into this redemptive gift and listen carefully. It’s also wise to love on them big with Father’s love!
SERVANT – Diligent. No enemies. Joyous. Helpful. Alert. Hospitable. High spiritual authority. Low self image. Impeccably honest. Team player. Prone to the victim spirit.
God gives the redemptive gift of Service the highest level of spiritual authority because they can be trusted to use it for the Kingdom instead of for themselves. However, until the Servant sees himself as God sees him, that gift of spiritual authority remains underutilized.
I recall two very strongly anointed Servants in my life. I watched their gifting be used and abused especially by other ministry leaders in their lives. They both were extreme co-dependents and their servant hood became idolatry in their lives. See Downfall of the Servant Gifting.
TEACHER – Need to validate truth. Processes slowly. Deep family loyalty. Sees the big picture. Sense of humor. High authority over predator spirit. Intimacy is a major birthright of the Teacher. When the teacher focuses on doctrine rather than on Father, it leaves the church losing.
When I think of the redemptive gift of Teacher, one particular person comes to mind. This person had yet to discover how to apply the Father’s love to their gifting. They had great potential, yet the amount of time spent validating the truth in God’s word led them to know well the Word of God, yet not know well the God of the Word. Intimacy was their birthright, but it had yet to be discovered.
EXHORTER – People person. Obsessive compulsive. Verbally expressive. High energy. In motion. Loves change. Dramatic. Melodramatic. Superb teacher. Natural leader. Fun. Late. Real late. While the Exhorter is the most spontaneously relational of all the gifts, his/her real strength is revealing the nature of God. The Exhorter has an unparalleled ability to see God in Scripture and to cause us to see our world differently because we have a bigger perspective of God.
Here I am! My secondary redemptive gifting is that of an Exhorter. Everything you see in the characteristics are me except perhaps for the last one…late. Real late. That is because I live with one who is the primary gift of Prophet. He is meticulously always on time and that helps keep me on time!
GIVER – Private. Intuitive. Insightful. Cautious. Chameleon. Good listener. Very independent. Impulsive. Stable. Contradictory. Frugal. Unpredictable. Multifaceted. Devoid of shame. Family focused.
The gift of Giving has the amazing ability to adapt to almost any situation without being changed at all. While they seem to fit in well, they typically retain all their core values rather than embrace the values of the community around them.
In my life’s experiences so far I can clearly identify two redemptive giftings of Giver. Both of these people are men who are private, intuitive and cautious. They are excellent listeners and what stands out the most to me in both of these men is that everything they touch seems to turn to money! That part of their gifting allows them to be ferocious, extravagant givers and PITFH has been blessed beyond measure through their gift of Giver!
RULER – Busy. Real busy. Thinks big. On time. Reliable. Leader. Fearless. Not easily swayed. Visionary. Team builder. Multi tasks easily. Reads people well.
The Ruler has the highest ability to get maximum effectiveness out of a poor labor pool. God has graced them with a combination of love and wisdom that enables the mature Ruler to accomplish extraordinary things with a team that appears to be highly inadequate.
I believe that this is Roger’s secondary redemptive gifting. Before entering ministry, Roger was a Superintendent of Parks for a large city in California. I watched him even before he was born again accomplish great things in the work place to the praise of many around him at that time. He continues to be a visionary with a huge vision for PITFH!
MERCY – Intuitive. Intuitive. Intuitive. Safe. Sensitive. Loves beauty. Defines the ambiance. No enemies. Works hard. Hugely compliant. Stubborn in the nicest sort of way.
The gift of Mercy is dramatically different than the previous six gifts. The Mercy hears God with his/her heart while the others tend to hear God with their mind. God uses the gift of Mercy to bring the spiritual climate into right alignment through the blessing of presence.
Here is my primary redemptive gifting. I absolutely adore the blessing of His Presence and enjoy bringing others into that Presence through leading worship. Each description describes me. I intuitively know the Presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit…I just know Him in my ‘knower!’ When I wrote and recorded Intimation to Intimacy, it was the gift of Mercy that clearly defined the ambiance of Heaven in that work.
This project began when I asked Father in my quiet time to take me into the Heavenlies with Him. I simply journaled what I saw and the conversations I had with Him. It was not until later that I realized Father was doing something very significant in my life and that He wanted me to share it with my world. The entries are written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the content has not been edited. ~ Gerri
2 CD’s ~ Approximately 1½ hours of listening pleasure taking you on a journey to Father’s House and His garden.
Invitation to Intimacy is now available for a LOVE OFFERING plus shipping and handling.
This a great teaching. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Patti:
Thanks for taking time to comment on this article. This is one of our favorite teachings too!
Blessings,
Roger and Gerri
I’ve listened to Authur Burk’s teaching on The Seven Redemptive Gifts of the Spirit several times over the years but have been curious how he received them.
I’m a Prophet personality and my husband is a Mercy.
It has really given us a better understanding of our differences and grace for those littte things that we couldn’t understand that bothered us about each other.
We, ourselves became aware of the areas we needed spiritual growth.
I can identify another Prophet a mile away.
It is said by Burk to be the most difficult personality to walk in because God expects the most from them.
I can testify this to be very true.
Do you by any chance know how Burk put this teaching together?
Hi Christina:
Yours is an excellent question. We met Arthur a number of years ago and were with him in conference meetings numerous times. I don’t remember any specifics about your question except that during a long time frame Arthur studied “sevens” in the Bible. I believe that this teaching of the Seven Redemptive Giftings came from that study.
Thanks for sharing your comments on how this teaching has helped you and your husband. We have the same combination here. Roger walks in the gift of prophet and I, Gerri, am the mercy person! We have found that Father often puts this combination together. Studying the personalities of each gifting has brought great revelation to us as well and we are so glad to know it has touched your hearts. Thanks for your comments.
Roger and Gerri
Thank you for your quick response.
We are in good company.
Burk also said as different as the Mercy and Prophet are, (completely different ends of the spectrum if you ask me), they compliment each other well in their maturity of the gifts.
I’ve grown so much in my walk because of this teaching.
It took some humbling but I recognized areas I needed to grow and areas I needed change, sometimes having to ask God for revelation and wisdom.
Thank you again.
Christina: You might want to check out the article on our website
entitled “The Seven Redemptive Gifts of Individuals.” This article
describes the personality of each gift. It’s a great tool.
Blessings,
Gerri
I bought this teaching series from Arthur Burk’s website, Sapphire Leadership Group, and in it he says that this teaching was developed by a gentleman in the 50’s and 60’s, I believe. Burk stumbled upon it and started to use it in his ministry for lots of practical application. The real breaking open of this teaching was its correlation to the sevens in the Bible, which came about by word of knowledge to a lady at his dinner table somewhere along the way. They have since spent several decades extracting more and more of this revelation through study and prayer. Hope that helps!
Hi Jeremiah!
Thanks for your info. Appreciate you taking time to share it with us all.
Blessings,
Roger and Gerri