GIFT OF EXHORTATION BASIC MOTIVATION DEFINED Motivated to give encouragement and wise counsel to persons in need. AMPLIFICATION Teaching stimulates the mind: exhortation stimulates the will and faith. The exhorter encourages spiritual growth through counseling and speaking. Urges another to pursue a course of conduct based on Scripture. Tells another how to apply God's truth to daily life. CHARACTERISTICS OF ONE EXERCISING THIS GIFT 1. A desire to visualize specific achievements and prescribe precise steps of action. 2. A tendency to avoid systems of information which lack practical application. 3. The ability to see how tribulation and suffering can produce new levels of maturity. 4. A dependence on visible acceptance when speaking to individuals or groups. A real awareness of his listeners. Watches the faces of his hearers. ( A prophet doesn't pay much attention to reaction of listeners.) 5. The discovery of insights from human experience which can be validated and amplified in Scripture. 6. A grief when teaching is not accompanied by detailed, practical steps of action. 7. A delight in personal conferences that result in new insight. DANGERS IN EXERCISING THIS GIFT 1. Giving home made advise rather than Biblical truth. 2. Spending too much time with those who want only temporary relief. 3. Relying too much on your own understanding and not the leading of the Holy Spirit. 4. Becoming discouraged with lack of prayers. MISUNDERSTANDINGS 1. The emphasis on specific steps of action may appear to oversimplify the problem. 2. The urgency to give steps of action may appear as having an over confidence in them. 3. The desire to win non-Christians through living examples may appear as lack of interest in personal evangelism. More concerned for sanctification than justifi- cation. 4. The use of Scripture for practical application may appear to take it our of context. 5. The emphasis on steps of action may appear to disregard the feelings of those being counseled.