The Redemptive Gifts: Teacher

In the Redemptive Gifts Overview blog, we learned that one of the seven gifts cited in Romans 12 has been strategically woven into our being since the dawn of time.

We redeem our gifts. While they are spiritual gifts, they are from the Father. Therefore, we call them redemptive gifts. They are not spiritual gifts as we would consider “gifts from/of the Spirit”.

We are motivated to do and think in certain ways due to our designs. Understand design and gift, when referring to the Romans 12 gift list, are interchangeable. These are our motivational gifts.

Teacher Design

The keyword for this is redemptive. This teacher isn’t the teacher mentioned in Acts 13:1 or Ephesians 4:11, or any other teacher-type, for instance, educators. These all function differently. Teacher designs are motivated to find things out and then present and share the foundations of a thing that’s been found. This means they have a bend towards accuracy, facts, information, truth, surety, and validation. It’s in their makeup, not something that can necessarily be taught.

Furthermore, the teacher design would rather have you ask what they know than present it to you or tell you, which is dissimilar to educators we think of in the education field. Though, as teacher designs mature, an expectation God has for them is to educate, ergo, open their mouths and speak forth.

The redemptive teacher reflects the nature of Father’s teacher nature. Because it is who He is, He has graced some in the world with His nature to be as Himself.

Charles Wales Jr. (2007, pg. 69) writes, “The teacher’s need to validate truth is central to their motivation. They are great monitors/evaluators…designed to produce teaching of truth that will carry on for successive generations, but their knowledge must not be academic only. [They] are safe people emotionally and can be confused with mercy because they are patient with those who are in sin…They are a good balance to the more impulsive gifts. They have a deep commitment to family and tradition.”

With a knack for knowing the genesis of a thing, teachers are usually able to draw things back to the point of origin. In doing so, they promote what is essential, from which everything else flows. What a mighty gift! 

When the redemptive teacher teaches, he (she) does so by expertly ascertaining all there is or could be known in order to deliver the deepest level of understanding for the purpose of implementation.

Outline of the Teacher Design

1. Teachers are not easily swayed by any manner of doctrine, which these days and times keeps everyone and everything in check.
2. They love knowledge.
3. They are people of safety and of refuge.
4. They balance out the impulsivity of both the prophet and exhorter designs.
5. They are the balancers of all the designs – they are the foundation among the designs, grounding all and everything to refer back to truth.
6. Their meticulous, innate nature comes in handy.
7. They can have trust issues with the Father where, unless they have some formula or method of connection, they cannot easily connect with Father or believe what He has for them.
8. They can give into fear of the future and fear of the unknown easily (also known as trepidation).
9. They tend to lean too heavily on tradition and the past, which halts and impedes them from moving forward into the future – even with the Spirit of God and in the things of the Spirit. This leads them down the path of dabbling with the religious spirit.
10. They tend to overanalyze and be overthinkers.

Buzzwords

It’s commonly placed on the redemptive teacher that they are: (1) Slow, (2) boring, or (3) stuck in the past.

While these identifiers hold true in some instances, it isn’t the overarching theme God wants us to understand about this design.

Slow – Rather than saying that teachers are slow, we must understand it takes time for them to process information…of any sort. Like the body’s digestive system has its process of full digestion time, teachers need to be able to chew the cud on matters, receiving grace from all the other designs to do so.

Boring – Rather than estimating them as boring, despite their unique and often dry sense of humor, teachers are processors, students, and thinkers. Yes, God did make a design that reflects His nature with those who are “always in their heads.” It isn’t that teachers don’t like to have fun or can’t be adventurous; the preferred priority for their kind of fun is something mentally engaging, something that stimulates the family unit that is “clean, wholesome and safe”, or something that speaks to history and tradition. More than likely they excel in puzzle games, mystery games, escape rooms, or anything that has to do with attention to detail, research, and theory.

Stuck in the past – Rather than seeing them as stuck in the past, they [prefer] the old, established, validated ways, [which preserves history] (Wade, 2007, pg. 27).

The Purpose of the Teacher

1. Reveal the presence of God [through] experience [and in experiencing Him while learning about Him] (Wale, 2007, pg. 69).
2. Reveal the manifest presence of God alive and present on earth today.
3. Serve as the historians of history, truth, and spiritual matters among the other designs.
4. Serve as the librarians of history, truth, and spiritual matters among the other designs.
5. To do spiritual warfare with the weaponry of truth and education; to violently and fiercely strike with truth.
6. To administer righteousness and justice throughout communities, tribes, and throughout the earth.
7. To point to and reveal the majestic nature of Yeshua to communities, tribes, and throughout the earth.

Wade, C, R. Jr., (2007). Designed for fulfillment: A study of redemptive gifts. Free To Be Me Ministries, Inc. pgs. 27, 69