FCLP 31 | When Trying Harder Isn't Always the Answer (Spiritual Gifts: Tongues, Interpretation & Wisdom)

In this grounding leadership episode of the Female Church Leaders Podcast, Kadi Cole concludes the Spiritual Gifts Summer Series by exploring three gifts that remind us leadership isn't only about strategy and stewardship—it's also about dependence on the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Tongues, and Interpretation. This episode offers a thoughtful framework for recognizing when faithful leadership has done all it can do and it's time to seek God's direction in a deeper way.

You'll gain practical insight into how these gifts function, why they matter for healthy ministry, and how they help leaders discern when a challenge requires more than simply trying harder.

TIMESTAMPS

01:15 - When leadership requires more than better strategy 

01:28 - Don't spiritualize manageable things 

02:27 - The gift of wisdom explained 

03:29 - Where the gift of wisdom shows up in ministry 

05:11 - Developing people with the gift of wisdom 

05:56 - The gifts of tongues and interpretation introduced 

Resources mentioned:

The Spiritual Gifts Leadership Toolkit: kadicole.com/spiritualgifts

Next Steps and Resources:

• Take the Quiz: Identify your growth gap with our Sticky Floor Quiz at femalechurchleaders.com.
• Join a Cohort: Be part of our next Closing the Leadership Gap cohort for guided coaching and monthly Q&A with Kadi. Visit closingtheleadershipgap.com to learn more.
• Stay Connected: Follow us on Instagram @femalechurchleaders for daily encouragement and leadership tools.
• Spread the Word: If you found this episode helpful, please follow, rate, and share the podcast to help us reach more female church leaders.

Tune in and get ready to lead with clarity, strength, and joy. Your calling matters, and we're here to support you every step of the way!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Female Church Leaders Podcast, a weekly resource for women who love God, love the church, and are called to lead. I'm your host, Katie Cole, Church Leader, Autor, and Executive Coach. After more than 30 years in full-time ministry, Open as the only woman at the table, I understand how meaningful yet challenging your calling can be. That's why I created this podcast to remind you that you're not leading alone. Each week, I'll share practical tools, biblical insights, and honest encouragement for the real challenges female leaders face in ministry. So you can grow your skills, strengthen your faith, and lead with more confidence and joy without burning out or striving to prove yourself. We drop a new episode every Monday because Sunday is coming and you are going to be ready for it. If you've been leading for a while, you've probably run into one of those seasons where you slowly begin to realize this isn't working. You've led well, you've built the team, you've clarified the vision, you're developing leaders, you've taught God's word faithfully, you're organizing the ministry, you're caring for people, you've prayed, you've faithfully stewarded the gifts God has already placed on your team. But then one day it hits you. God, I just need a breakthrough. Not because you failed, not because you skipped the basics, but because some things simply can't be solved with better leadership. One of my favorite leadership phrases is don't spiritualize manageable things, but don't try to manage spiritual things either. As leaders, we should absolutely steward the gifts God has already given us. Throughout this series, we've talked about the gifts like leadership, teaching, administration, intercession, mercy, and so many others. Those are the first places we should look. They're kind of the baseline that God gives us. But then there are moments when you've faithfully stewarded those gifts and you realize what you're facing requires God to move in a way that only He can. That's where today's two spiritual gifts become especially important: the gift of wisdom and the gifts of tongues and interpretation. These gifts remind us that leadership isn't just about planning, faithful stewardship, and doing the next right thing, although those are all important. It also requires the honesty to recognize when we need God to intervene and the humility to invite people with different gifts to help us seek Him. Let's begin with the gift of wisdom, also referred to in Scripture as the Word of Wisdom. But before we jump into that, I want to make one quick distinction. The Bible encourages every one of us to seek wisdom. James tells us that if we ask God for wisdom, he gives it generously. That's different from what Scripture calls the word of wisdom. The word of wisdom is a specific spiritual gift. It is a spirit-given ability to bring clarity, direction, and insight into a situation that helps people recognize what God is inviting them toward next. People with this gift often see through the noise. While everyone else is sorting through details, they're often able to identify what actually matters. Sometimes they recognize what's keeping someone stuck. Sometimes they see patterns that no one else can recognize. They might see the next step before anyone else can see it clearly. Sometimes they ask one question that changes the entire conversation. One of the things I appreciate most about this gift is how many different places it shows up. Yes, it can be incredibly valuable in leadership, and you should absolutely be accessing this gift in your leadership. But it also shows up incredibly powerfully in discipleship, mentoring, pastoral counseling, parenting, really any moment where someone is trying to understand what God is doing and what faithful obedience looks like next. I've watched people wrestle with their calling or struggle to understand why they can't seem to move forward. And then almost unexpectedly, clarity comes. Not because someone suddenly had more information, not because they had all the answers, but because God graciously gave someone an insight that no one else could have seen. Sometimes it's helping someone realize they've been carrying something God never intended them to keep carrying. Sometimes it's recognizing the deeper issue underneath what everyone has been talking around. Often it's simply asking the question no one else thought to ask. And when that happens, you can almost feel freedom enter the room. That's one of the beautiful fruits of this gift. It doesn't simply offer good advice, it helps people recognize what God is doing and respond wisely. One of the reasons this gift is so easily overlooked is because after someone shares that spirit-led insight, everyone around the room kind of says, Well, that was obvious. Of course it's obvious now, but five minutes earlier, no one could actually see it. That's one of the fascinating characteristics of this spiritual gift. Once clarity arrives, we as humans quickly forget how confusing everything felt before. And like every spiritual gift, this one also has areas that you as a leader need to work on to create healthy development. People with the word of wisdom often move quickly because the answers seem so obvious to them. They can unintentionally skip over processes everyone else needs in order to understand how they got there. So as leaders, we can help by encouraging them to slow down, explain their thinking, invite others into the journey. Because when people understand not only what God may be showing them, but why they believe that, the whole team grows in wisdom together. One of the simplest questions you can ask someone who carries this gift is what do you think God wants us to see that we might be missing? Sometimes the answer to that question changes everything. Now, let's turn to the spiritual gifts of tongues and interpretation. Before we dive into this one, I want to acknowledge something we've tried to do several times throughout this series. Depending on your church background, this gift may feel very familiar or it may be completely unfamiliar to you. Maybe it even makes you a little uncomfortable, and that's okay. Christians who love Jesus and faithfully follow scripture have understood this gift differently throughout church history. So rather than simply adopting someone else's opinion or dismissing it altogether, I want to encourage you to do what we've done throughout this whole series. Go back to God's word for yourself. Read what Paul teaches about this gift. Pay attention to how this gift functions in the New Testament and ask God to help you understand what He wants you to learn about it. One of the ways I've come to understand this gift is as a spiritual language of prayer, a way of communicating with God that moves beyond the limitations of human words. For me, this gift has become very personal. I've been following Jesus for over 40 years. And one of the sweetest surprises of my faith journey has been discovering that sometimes, as we faithfully steward the gifts God has already given us, He graciously develops other gifts over time. And that's been my experience with the gift of tongues. I didn't pursue it. I didn't feel like I needed it. The background I grew up in never even talked about it. But from time to time, especially during worship, like powerful worship times, or while praying deeply with others for someone, I find my prayers moving beyond words. I'm a very visual thinker, and often what God places in my heart isn't a sentence, it's pictures, images. Sometimes it's almost like watching a little movie unfold in my mind and spirit. I don't necessarily know every detail of what's happening, but I have an overwhelming sense of what God is inviting me to pray for. And the coolest part that I've noticed in this experience is that what I'm praying for is always so hopeful. It's always moving toward what I believe God desires to do in that person's life. One place this has become especially meaning for me is with the women who are in my closing the leadership gap cohort. I put outside my office a really large map with everyone's name and where she lives. And as I pray over these women, it's amazing how there are oftentimes when my prayers naturally move into this deeper place of communion with God. It's one of the affirmations that this is what I'm supposed to be leading and pouring my efforts into right now. It's become one of the sweetest and most unexpected parts of my own prayer life and prayer journey. And now that I've said this out loud, I'm not sure I've actually told anyone this before. So I guess this will just be between you and me. So what this gift has looked like for me in my own walk doesn't have to be what it is for everyone else. But throughout this series, we focused on helping you identify and develop the gifts God has uniquely entrusted to you and the people around you. This just happens to be one of the ways God is continuing to shape me. But scripture also describes this as a public expression. And whenever Paul teaches about the expression of the gift of tongues, he keeps bringing it back to the same principle: interpretation, not confusion, not performance, not pressure, but interpretation for the affirmation and edification of the whole body. Because God's desire isn't simply that something supernatural happens, it's that his people understand what he is saying. So the whole church is strengthened. That's why the complimentary gift of interpretation to the gift of tongues is so important. One person may sense what God wants to speak, and another helps the church understand what he's saying. Together, those gifts strengthen the body of Christ. And as leaders, our responsibility isn't to dismiss this gift, and it's not to manufacture it either. It's to create healthy, biblically grounded environments where every spiritual gift can flourish in ways that build up the church and point people toward Jesus. This week, I'd encourage you to think about the people God has placed around you. Who seems to bring unusual clarity when everyone else feels stuck? Who has a way of helping people recognize what God may be doing beneath the surface? How could you intentionally invite them into more conversations where that gift can serve others? Then think about your own ministry. Have there been moments when you've faithfully stewarded every gift and resource available and still found yourself praying, God, I need a breakthrough. I need you to move. Maybe that's an invitation to stop trying to manage something that's actually spiritual. Maybe it's time to humbly invite others with gifts you don't have to pray with you, to seek God with you, and to trust that he still equips his church with exactly what his people need. If you haven't downloaded the Spiritual Gifts Leadership Toolkit, I want to encourage you to do that this week. These final gifts can feel unfamiliar to some, but understanding them helps us lead with greater confidence, humility, and dependence on the Holy Spirit. The toolkit will help you recognize these gifts, understand how they function, and think practically about how to steward them well on your team. You'll find the link in the show notes. Some leadership challenges require better systems. Some require better conversations. Some require better stewardship of the gifts God has already placed on your team. And then there are those moments when only God can provide the breakthrough you're praying for. Knowing the difference and having the humility to seek him accordingly may be one of the most important leadership lessons you'll ever learn. Thank you for growing in clarity, wisdom, and faithfulness as a leader. It is truly a privilege to walk alongside you in this journey. And remember, we are here to cheer you on every step of the way. I'm so glad we got to spend this time together on the Female Church Leaders podcast. I hope you're walking away encouraged, equipped, and reminded that your calling truly matters. To keep growing, join us for our next Closing the Leadership Gap cohort at ClosingTheLeadershipGap.com. It's a guided coaching experience, including live QA with me, designed to accelerate your leadership journey. If this podcast has been helpful to you, would you please take a moment to follow, rate, and share it? Your engagement helps the algorithms suggest our resources to female church leaders we haven't had a chance to meet yet. And don't forget to follow at female church leaders on Instagram for encouragement and leadership tools designed just for you. You can also follow my personal feed at Katie Cole spelled K A D I C O L E. Keep leading faithfully, keep growing your leadership gifts, and I'll see you next Monday because Sunday is coming and you are going to be ready for it.