There have been animal stories told to try to explain, but it is time to say, or write it, out plan and simple, so you do not get caught up in cute little animals and miss the truth. God gives to us gifts. The gifts are given to each as needed for them to serve. The “to serve” is important. God does not give gifts so we can be served but that we can serve. Serve whom? Those that God sends our way and to whom God sends us. Gifts may overlap and sets of gifts will overlap, but according to the gifts and our faith we serve. Some say we serve the body of Christ and that is true, because the body is made up of individuals and we serve individuals. Serving is an individual serving an individual and the body is a connected group of individuals all serving individuals, other than self. By serving individuals within the body we serve the body.
There are some gifts that minister to (serve) the whole body Spiritual food in the form of music and/or teaching. But even that is an individual serving individuals, because the Holy Spirit gives understanding to the individual. The same can be said of a physical meal. The people that prepare the meal servers the fellowship that eats the meal, but the meals are served to individuals. There are also some that minister to (serve) outside of the fellowship. It is the call of every believer to use their gifts to share the message of salvation with any that are sent there way or to whom they are sent. Beyond that there are those called to minister (serve) outside the fellowship with music, teaching and physical meals. Jesus said the believer would be known (identified) by our love for one another (Love one another, so they will know you are Mine), but our mission was to go into the whole world.
The believers are commanded (not law but love; Love one another, so they will know you are Mine), to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. At the assembling the gifts of the Holy Spirit come together to produce a Spirit filled fellowship body. It is not one Spirit filled preacher, but a Spirit filled fellowship made up of Spirit filled individuals. That is a time of spiritual feeding for the believers, but we eat physical food everyday (unless we are fasting). Fasting from physical meals is a practice that God uses to help us to know that Jesus overcame (and by proxy we have overcome) the flesh. Fasting from spiritual food normally indicates an issue or battling with the flesh (really with the principality of darkness). We are not trying to overcome the Word of God, but to grow within Him. We should not fast from spiritual food. With daily scripture reading, prayer and listening to the spoken Word of God from the Holy Spirit the believer is spiritually fed. Love is a fruit that grows from the Spirit (sent by God). The daily feeding helps the believer be prepared to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit for ministering within the assembly or outside the fellowship.
These things called Spiritual gifts should not be strange to the believer. God, through the Holy Spirit, starts working with us while we are not yet born. If you watch people you can see gifts at work, even in some that you may think are nonbelievers. One waitress at a restaurant may go from table to table with a smile and proficiently serve each table in her path. Another waitress at the restaurant may struggle keeping up with a couple tables. The first waitress is happy and proficient because she is working within her gifts. Do you see a serving “helps” gift at work in the first waitress? The second waitress may be struggling because she is working outside of her gifts. In a church fellowship there are some gifted with the ability to see the resulting attitudes and actions of those working within his or her gifts and to encourage them. The same gifts may be used to lovingly help redirect someone working outside their gifts. Gifts may also be given in different proportions. The left hand may have the same gifts as the right hand, but not in the same proportion; the right hand needs the left hand to put on a glove and to bathe, etc and the body needs them both.
As a believer it is a calling to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to praise and glorify God. To write it, hopefully clearer, we are to use the gifts to be thankful to God and to do things for others that bring them to be thankful to God. If we bring people to be thankful to ourselves, we are missing out. The perfection of the believer is the glory of the one sending us out, Christ Jesus. Jesus glorified the Father. The Holy Spirit glorified both the Father and Son – the Holy Sprit glorifies the One(s) that sent Him out. Use your life by using your gifts to glorify God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).