Do you know what your "spiritual" gifts are?

and do you recognize it when you use them? I just left this new class I'm taking at my church called, "Finding your spiritual gifts." I think most of us recognize what we are passionate about and what we like to do, and also, I think we know what we would rather NOT do (math, comes to mind) too. But tonight, we had to answer 80 questions regarding how interested or not, we were in certain things. Most of mine seemed familiar, but one that really threw me was "healing". I can't even heal my own arthritic knee, much less someone elses pain. :shrug:

But as we talked more in depth about what "healing" entails, of course, then I realized that it goes far beyond just the physical. Which brings me to many thoughts and obstacles that have happened in my life.

Did I cause my own obstacles?

I KNOW that I've caused many of my own obstacles! It must be a Karma thing. I sometimes repeat the same mistakes, over and over, hoping for different outcomes. Usually in the financial area of my life. It is SO STUPID of me I could kick myself. Hope I learn my lesson soon, before it's too late! When one is struggling to keep their head above water by robbing Peter to pay Paul, it's hard not to fall back into the old patterns. I am aware of two of my spiritual gifts. One is discernment, and the other is empathy. The greatest spiritual gift we all have is LOVE. IT never fails. I'm not sure what your Church preaches, but I consider FAITH to be another gift that is available to all of us when we need it most, if we ask for it. I don't think it is an indwelling "gift". I believe it's given when the need arises. This has been my experience over the years. Peace and love to you!

Sometimes they are placed in our life's path so we can learn to deal with them. This can happen by changing our thinking and our outlook on life. I do know from personal experience that thoughts, especially thoughts about oneself, can be toxic if they are negative, and can only be released by a rather jarring event (in my case, a traffic accident in which I broke bones in my foot).

I would suggest you try CLEAR therapy or ELF therapy--I know how to do the former, not the latter, but both, as I understand it, go to finding those deep seated emotional feelings and releasing them via forgiveness. And I know that forgiveness is a key in any kind of healing or understanding of one's situation in life.

Hope this helps.

For instance, I know I'm pretty good at some stuff, like empathetic impressions and dream interpretation, but I'm absolute shit at other stuff, like astrology. It doesn't bother me, though, because I realize that we all have our strengths, and we're not supposed to be good at EVERYthing; otherwise, we would have no need for community. Still, I also know that I shouldn't use that as an excuse not to learn something new. In other words, I know I should at least try to understand stuff I'm not exceptional at, because I might get halfway decent at it if I practice.

I don't think we cause our own obstacles if we stay attuned to Spirit ant try to follow our intuition/path in life (even if we're walking it blindly, not being able to actually see too far ahead). It's only when we consciously try to go against our intended path (swimming upstream, kinda) that we end up facing obstacles and then we find we're unhappy.

Another way of looking at it is that the obstacles aren't necessarily keeping us from doing things; they're turning us TOWARD a certain path. Kind of, "Nah, you don't want to go this way--it won't be fun. Try turning...hey! left! Lookit that--a nice clear path! Go on then!" and then we get a little loving shove between our shoulder blades.

I've read your whole post before! Deja vu?????????? This hasn't happened in a very long time for me! It felt like a little cold water in my face....."wake up foolish girl!" Thanks!

yes,...we like our safe "nests" in life and sometimes momma spirit has to kick us out of the nest before we will fly :P

We have an astral "sense" that corresponds to every physical sense we have..ie: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting.
We are also only limited by our own thoughts once we begin to awaken to our true spiritual nature.
For example, my oldest son was shifting "gravity" on the astral dreaming plane long before I ever thought of it..in fact I might still not have thought about it but he told me about it..so once I was able to imagine it..I could also do it. Even though I have been lucid dreaming much longer than he has..I just had never thought about making the ceiling/up or the walls be "down". However I thought about levitating before he did and walking through physical objects in my astral/dreaming body before he did.
My youngest thought about shooting energy out of his palm chakra centers before I did..and yet I am the one that has had to go rescue him from trouble he has put himself into on the astral/dreaming plane. (He tends to want to sword fight negative entities instead of throwing love at them..hahaa and when he gets into trouble..he calls mom.)
Releasing old blocks is called re-capitulation by some. I call it..letting the past go and forgiving.
It will help if you take the time to re-live mentally each situation in a time line (as best as you can remember it) from your childhood to the present time. Turn your head to the left while remembering. Face forward while changing how you would react to that today and mentally picture that..and turn your face to the right to breath it out and mentally let it go. Be sure to picture the scene as dissipating/falling apart/leaving you...which ever way feels best to you. Stop for a moment before turning your head to the left again and forgive yourself and others for that scene.
Keep your breath soft and natural..dont force it..and keep your spine straight.
You may need to do this several times before you will find it just isn't that interesting or bothering to you anymore.
At that time it is best to stop thinking about the past and focus on being "Here Now" in the present.
Here now is the only true moment of power and the only time you can be conscious of Spirit.
Yesterday is gone and we cannot change it..only let it go.
Tomorrow isn't here yet..
It is only today that is a time of power. What we do now..determines tomorrow.
Healing, Seeing, Knowing, Astral projection (from a wide awake meditative state or by the means of Lucid Dreaming/Dream control) and manipulation of matter are all Spiritual gifts and powers.
I think the greatest of all Powers is to have enough personal and spiritual power to stand before the Creator and not be ashamed.

Yes...and we certainly are our own worst obstacles.

It's gone from "look and know" to "sudden information". I thoroughly miss the earlier version as I'll have to learn to trust this new method.

For example, rather a while into the runaway baloon fiasco, I had a hit that the kid was not in it, had let it get loose and run and hid to avoid getting whupped. I typed that out and very nearly posted it but fell victim to the curse of the second-guess.

It's easy to say "I knew that" after the fact...hopefully my recent demonstrations of energetic precognition lends some credibility to this post.

after having proven it in the first place...

About the OP...it is very difficult to deal with spiritual abilities. I have seen psychics such as Sonia Choquette writing about familial support, easy repartee with guides, and mostly accepting friends and easily appearing clients, and a general joy in it all. Not my experience at all...I have long feared supreme rejection regarding my "differences", and have only hinted at them for my entire life.

Many, many times, when I see people taking advantage of my true politeness and perceived lack of understanding of being taken advantage of, I simply sit in vast disappointment instead of revealing the truth. Disappointment in people runs extremely deep in me, although I have myself to blame for not having stood up for myself. Which is now changing...I have been aware of things my entire life, and have only now revealed it for two reasons-- I find the 2012 items posted by a few to be true, at minimum in a trend, and wished to add my perception to that array of information, and: to be true to myself and what I am, and can do.

The amount of furor this revelation caused, was uncomfortable, and quite a growing experience. My earlier sense of October being Difficult personally as well as generally, is very, very true.

And most irritatingly, those who wonder how far my abilities extend, and if they do extend further, what that means. And those who test. And those who fear, and worst, call such abilities negative (no negativity involved, except in their use of utterly insufficient perspective and experience, to judge something they know nothing about, much less the spirituality involved, and its uses in seeking God).

This too shall pass, I hope. I know more than I say. I see more than I describe. A lot more. If any are put to fear about it, it is because they are fearful (and again, the new world requires such fear to end, or to be ended by the new world itself). I LONG for the day when those who wish to be irritants, are made to cease. What a glorious thing it will be. Let them explain their behaviour to the increasingly evident presence of God. :shrug:

It really makes you think about what "powers" you might have. Earlier this year someone here suggested I am "claircognizant," I really loved being able to put a name to my power to know what people are about to say, or what they are they are thinking in a certain situation.

I've also always been really good at knowing what time it is without a watch. I'm usually right within 5 minutes, even if I haven't seen a clock in hours. The irony of this (or maybe the reason for it), is that I missed the time-telling class in 1st grade school and so could not read a clock until they discovered in 4th grade that I couldn't tell time.

Time-telling. Not much of a power. But maybe it will come in handy some day.

Anybody watch Heroes? Those kids often discover that they have some new or additional ability that doesn't at first make much sense.

Perception! It doesn't sound as mystical, but it is indeed a very useful talent (or gift) To perceive and understand where a person is coming from, even when they cannot verbalize it enough for you to "get it".

I have one particular pattern of beliefs, choices and behaviors that has repeated again and again in completely different areas of my life - work, relationships, financial investments, volunteer work etc. When my inner work finally gave me enough clarity to begin to see myself as I truly am, the pattern became obvious. Seeing it let me understand what aspects of my nature were driving it, and that understanding gave me the ability to make different, healthier choices in my behaviour. Is that clarity of insight a spiritual gift? I don't know, but it seems intimately connected to my definition of spirituality: "Enlightenment is the ability to see myself as I truly am and reality as it truly is."