MOTIVATIONAL GIFTING - EXHORTER

  1. Definition:

    1. Loves people.

    2. Very positive.

    3. Encourages or comforts - father/mother image.

    4. Stimulates faith.

    5. Wants God's Word to become flesh in people.

    6. Life centered - excited about personal progress.

    7. Growth oriented - disciple oriented - maturity oriented - spiritual growth in practical living.

    8. Good counselor - called to walk along side - paracletus and exhorter are the same word in the Greek - works with person to achieve agreed upon goals.

  2. An exhorter must: (Rom. 12:12)

    1. Rejoice in hope.

    2. Be patient with lack of progress.

    3. Be persistent (continuing constant) in prayer.

  3. Exhorter motive weaknesses:

    1. Greatest weakness - apathy.

    2. Needs to build into life an understanding of God's design - to understand and explain God's kingship.

  4. Traits:

    1. Presentation:

      1. Counsels to encourage spiritual growth - likes to counsel.

      2. Must see achievement and will give precise steps of action for counselees - may tend to help God out a bit.

      3. Enjoys challenges - does well in the middle of the mess.

      4. Has the ability to visualize spiritual achievement - steps designed to develop personal discipline through which the Holy Spirit can work.

      5. Enjoys seeing people following steps of action prescribed - discouraged when truth is not followed.

      6. Must see individual acceptance when counsels - needs to see facial expression to see response - not interested in small talk.

      7. Avoids teaching that isn't practical - impractical teaching causes grief, boredom, frustration.

      8. Explains truth with logical reasoning to motivate action.

      9. Desires open life to gain wider hearing for the Gospel.

      10. Desires to be transparent - chief weapon is a clear conscience.

      11. Motivated to urge people to reach their full potential in Christ.

        1. Can discern and visualize personal achievement in the eyes of God.

        2. Motivated to search out root problems - hindrances in people's lives who are not growing - asks a lot of questions.

        3. Identifies with people where they are in order to counsel them - has ability to discern person's level of growth and communicate on that level to them.

    2. Insights:

      1. Sees value in suffering - whether personal or from others.

      2. Knows message of the cross - discovering God through suffering.

      3. Glories in trials - turns problems into benefits.

      4. Has insight into human experiences as relates to Biblical truth - principles of growth.

      5. Will use personal and other examples to illustrate principles.

      6. Delights in new insights - gains insights through experiences in life.

      7. Motivated to learn cause and effect sequences to discover underlying principles of life.

      8. Studies both scripture and life experiences.

  5. Dangers and misunderstandings:

    1. Counseling:

      1. Setting unrealistic goals and projects for counselees without care as to their time commitments.

      2. Becoming discouraged with lack of progress.

      3. Manipulating people.

      4. Wasting time with those who want only temporary help.

      5. Willing to give of time which cuts into other duties.

      6. Faith in his counseling program may seem in the eyes of counselees as if the program was too simple for the problem.

      7. Overconfidence in program tends to raise expectations for results prematurely.

      8. Eagerness to give steps of action may appear as having too much confidence in the program.

      9. Faith in steps of action may appear as being insensitive to people's feelings.

      10. Tends to categorize problems as hears them and arrives at hasty conclusions - giving wrong counsel.

      11. Avoids heavy doctrinal issues which don't have practical applications and can cause imbalance.

      12. Seeing practical applications in scripture may appear to take scripture out of context.

      13. Tends to treat people as counseling projects rather than real people with personal needs.

      14. Shares private illustrations without getting permission first - enjoys giving examples from other people's lives.

    2. Attitudes:

      1. Boasting of his results - looking to self as problem solver - takes personal credit for growth of counselees.
      2. Wants to win the lost by being a living example - appears as not interested in evangelism or as only interested in saints not unbelievers.

      3. Wants to be well liked, will compromise convictions - appears to be wishy-washy.

      4. Tends to start new projects without finishing former projects.

      5. Uses projects to motivate others and then drops out himself.

      6. Giving up on unco-operative people who don't consistently respond to counsel given.

References:
E-mail: efi7jld@gmail.com
BACK TO: Perfecting of the Saints; Giftings; EFI; THE EDIFIER
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:12
© 1981, Jacqueline L. Davis
WWW © 1999, EFI
Created: 7/9/99
Updated: 5/28/2011