Pat's Prayers: Sharing your gifts If a community asks for you to share your gifts and then refuse your willingness to share, can this community truly be founded in the spirit? When we are asked to share our God-given gifts for the common good, the giver should give of their talent in the way the spirit moves them, but they should stay true to the gifts of the Spirit. A carpenter should not try to be a cook if the Spirit is not leading him in that direction. And the receiver of a person's spiritual gifts should not say, "Thank you for sharing your gifts, but I have enough cooks so can you chop wood instead." For this is a misuse of the Spirit. The Spirit sends what you lack, and not necessarily what you desire.