Test Results: Personality, Gifts, and Identity
More often than not, I hear people mention their Enneagram type, Myers-Briggs results, or another form of personality testing to coverup their actions and thoughts.
"It's not my fault I'm introverted."
"Oh, sorry. I'm just a type 1 and need it this way."
"It's just how I talk. I'm more task-oriented..."
Statements like these can be used to follow poor and disrespectful communication. They can also be avoidant in resolving conflict and growing in relationship, vocation, and other spheres of life.
On the flip side, many will use similar phrases to point toward their personality as the reason for positive things or opportunities happening in their lives.
"Well, I'm an extrovert, so I should do it."
"My type 2 really cares for the people around me."
Either way, when we look at these phrases there is a correlation between one's personality and their identity. It's a blaming function to hide mistakes or conflict. It's a dismissive action that pushes away the real reasons why one would be qualified for a task or Who has empowered our gifts and identity. Ultimately, these personality types become how we define ourselves and we miss the point of what they are given to us for.
Now hear me out on this. Personality type testing is a helpful resource and tool for the world. I have discovered much about myself and those around me through utilizing the tests and affiliated books, podcasts, etc. I've also struggled in using the aforementioned quotes above to define who I am, what I do, and why I did it.
But, I can't be any more clear. Your personality type and your test results are not who you are, they are what you tend to do. You are not an extrovert, you tend towards extroversion. You are not locked up in the box of being a type 5 "investigator", you tend towards investigating everything in your life.
Your DISC, Birkman, Neo Pi-R, Hexaco, Inkblot, or any other test results are not the final word. They are assessments of what you have favored in the past and where you lean now. This does not mean you will always be locked into the personality type you first tested for. In fact, many personality tests are not reliable due to poor testing/scientific research and lack of clarity in language. If you want to read more about this, check out this link.
What is helpful from these tests is an honest assessment of where you are at in your tendencies and how you can learn to be more aware of yourself and others. For example, my results were type 3 from the Enneagram test. This is also known as the "achiever" or the "performer". According to these personality results, I should carry certain aspects in my thoughts and actions that I don't normally do or think like. This makes me feel boxed and like I can never not be an achiever. It makes me feel like my personality type is now more important than my call as a human being to love God, love others, and love myself.
However, it has given me language for my core pains and emotions connected with inadequacy and striving. It has shown me that in stress I do swing towards "helping" people only by trying to solve their problem and make myself look better. It has been an incredibly resourceful strategy for me to root myself deeper into the truth of who I am in Christ.
And it's exactly this landing place that I want to challenge our thinking towards. Personality tests, the things we tend to do or think, the actions we lean most towards, even the gifts we have (spiritual or not) are not who we are. They are what we do. They are not the final word, but rather they are an assessment a way for us to recognize and grow.
I can't tell you how freeing this was for me to simply shift my thoughts from, "I'll always be this way" to "This is where I trend most and I can grow."
I also can't fully explain how wonderful it was to take a step away from believing that my personality types or spiritual gifts were who I was and who you were supposed to be too. It's like I had seen a certain person and believed the lie that I had to become them by doing what they did. And then, in turn, make disciples of what I thought was the best personality type or spiritual gift mix.
This is especially prevalent in the realm of spiritual gifts and the language the church has used. I'm not here to argue about spiritual gifts. The testimonies of the global church prove God's activity today through spiritual gifts.
I'm here to write that whatever gifts you tested for through the spiritual gifts test are not what you're locked into for the rest of your life. It's not who you are and it's definitely not your goal to become more like another person who operates in a specific spiritual gift or office.
Your goal is to become more like Jesus. And I'd argue that Jesus would not have taken the fivefold gift test and say, "Well, I'm only a Prophet..." He was the Prophet, the Apostle, the Evangelist, the Shepherd, and the Teacher. Our goal is to be like Him.
Jesus would not have taken a spiritual gifts test and said, "I can only operate in these gifts." He prayed bigger and lived bigger than that. He did whatever the Father was doing and prayed for us to be one with Him and the Father as well. He breathed His Spirit within us and gave us the gifts of the Spirit to root us in a greater place of serving, loving, and becoming more like Him.
The spiritual gifts you tested for are not yours. They are the gifts of the Spirit. In fact, I would argue you have access to all of them, and the ones you tested for are the ones you tend towards the most. (A side note: if you want to become more dependent upon the Holy Spirit, try growing in the gifts you tested lowest for...)
What I'm trying to get at is this: you are who the Lord says you are. You are loved (1 Jn. 3), you are forgiven (Heb. 9-10), you are free (Gal. 5), you are connected in Christ (Eph. 2), and celebrated as a child, heir, and co-heir (Gal. 3-4).
You may have tested for a certain personality type or a specific spiritual gift, but the core of who you are as the Lord's beloved informs how you can assess your actions and how you can grow to become more like Him. This means we can look at our assessments, learn more about God, others, and ourselves, and grow in our capacity to love as we have been created, redeemed, and called to do so.
In short, I'm not saying these tests are not helpful. I'm saying that our identity is not our personality or our gifts. Our identity is found in Christ. What we do, say, and think, and how we do it changes all the time. Our identity in Christ doesn't, because Christ doesn't change (Heb. 13:8).
I can learn more about where I've tended, why I do certain things, and when I started those behaviors. I can change them. I can grow in areas of strength and weakness. I can become more empathetic. I can assess and move forward.
However, when personality results and gift tests become my identity, I've missed the point. The goal of these things is to remind us that it was Jesus' job to die for our sin and it's our job, by His grace and Spirit, to remove these patterns from our lives.
I don't want to have the personality test results of any celebrity or world leader. I want to have my identity rooted in Christ and become more like Him. I don't want to be a copy of a famous preacher. I want to be like my Savior and preach the Word because I know THE Word.
Beloved (and I'm including myself in that beloved), we need a reminder today. Your extraversion or introversion doesn't mean you can or can't hang out with people. Your Enneagram type is not who you are. Your spiritual gifts test results do not determine what the Lord is able to do in and through you.
Can they be helpful? Yes. Are they the final word? No. Jesus was, is, and will always be the final Word. And His Word to us, His call to us, and His invitation to us are to become more like Him and be one with Him. And I don't know about you, but when all is said and done, I want to be known by one result: love. I don't know any better outcome than that.
If you are interested in some more resources please use these links for authors I've found to be helpful on the personality and gift tests available. But more than anything, keep coming back to Jesus. He made you, He knows you, and He loves you perfectly. Amen.
