Our rallying cry for 2021: we practice the spiritual disciplines and we practice the spiritual gifts!
Here, we’ll do a four part series to define and describe both. Here is Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. The last part today is a list of spiritual gifts and brief definitions.
How gracious and creative is our God to make us one and also give each of us different gifts, roles, services, and activities. Because the Spirit gives gifts, our prayer is that we would gain a better understanding of them and be excited to use them for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). The Spirit is empowering us to serve one another for our joint maturation.
Word of Knowledge – the ability to speak in a way that gives true knowledge to people—especially knowledge of Scripture and knowledge of God (1 Cor 12:8).
Word of Wisdom – the ability to speak a wise word in a situation with wisdom the Holy Spirit has given through years of meditation on Scripture and practicing godly living in everyday life (1 Cor 12:8).
Faith – this is not the faith that is granted to all Christians in salvation, but a kind of faith in an almighty and sovereign God that specifically believes that He is capable of intervening in the most dramatic or supernatural (or even more subtle and mundane) ways (1 Cor 12:9).
Mercy – To be sensitive toward those who are suffering, feel genuine sympathy, speak words of compassion (Rom 12:8).
Leadership – to give direction and motivate others to accomplish goals (Rom 12:8).
Giving – To share the resources you have with cheerfulness (Rom 12:8).
Serving – To identify needs and use available resources to meet those needs (Rom 12:7).
Encouragement – To come alongside someone with words of exhortation, comfort and counsel (Rom 12:8).
Gifts Of Healings – healings are granted by the Spirit, are occasional, and are subject to the sovereign purposes of God. Which means we pray expectantly for God to heal people. And we think God’s healing can come through in an instant by his touch or through him using medication. Healing is an expression of God’s mercy so we shouldn’t view it as a right. Healing is not the payment of a debt. God does not owe us healing. We don’t deserve healing. We do not name it and claim. We believe we should have faith for healing. But there is a vast difference between faith in God’s mercy and presumption based on an alleged right.
We don’t believe if anyone could ever heal, he could always heal. Multiple people have ongoing sickness and health problems in the New Testament and so we should see the gift of healing not based on the will of the person but subject to the will of God. A person may be gifted to heal many people, but not all. Another may be gifted to heal only one person at one particular time of one particular disease (Matt 9:18; Mark 6:13; Luke 4:40, 8:43-44; 1 Cor 12:9, 28; James 5:15)
Working Of Miracles – Since Paul does not define “works of miracles” any more specifically than this, we can say that the gift of miracles may include the working of divine power in deliverance from danger (Acts 5:19-20, 12:6-11, in intervention to meet special needs in the physical world (as in the case of Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1-16), in judgment on those who irrationally and violently oppose the gospel message (Acts 5:1-11, 13:9-12), in vanquishing the demonic forces that wage war against the church (Acts 16:18; Luke 10:17), and in any other way in which God’s power is manifested in an evident way to further God’s purposes in a situation. All of these would be works of “power” in which the church would be helped and God’s glory would be made evident (1 Cor 12:10, 28).
Discernment/Distinguishing Of Spirits - Specifically, this is a special ability to evaluate the origin, authority, and application of a prophetic message. More generally, this gift may be the ability to distinguish between demonic forces from the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:10; 1 John 4:1, 6, Luke 13:11; Acts 16:16; Mark 9:25-26).
Prophecy – Telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind. A revelation from God is reported in the person’s own (merely human) words (Acts 11:28, 21:4-11; 1 Cor 14; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).
Teaching – the ability to explain Scripture and apply it to people’s lives (Acts 15:35, 18:11; Heb 5:12; Rom 15:4; 2 Tim 3:16)
Speaking In Tongues – Prayer or praise spoken in syllables not understood by the speaker. Sometimes this gift may result in speaking in a human language that the speaker has not learned, but ordinarily it seems that it will involve speech in a language no one understands, whether that be a human language or not (1 Cor 14).
Interpretation of Tongues – the Spirit-empowered ability to translate a public utterance of tongues into the language of the congregation (1 Cor 12:10; 14:1-40)
Application As We Move Forward
"If we spend less time searching to identify our spiritual gift(s) and more time actually praying and giving and helping and teaching and serving and exhorting those around us, the likelihood greatly increases that we will walk headlong into our gifting without ever knowing what happened. God will more likely meet us with His gifts in the midst of trying to help His children then He ever would while we’re taking a spiritual gifts analysis test” (Sam Storms, Beginner’s Guide To Spiritual Gifts).
These gifts are all manifestations of the Spirit for the common good. Healing serves the sister with that chronic pain and builds up our faith in our merciful God. Words of wisdom and knowledge help and instruct others in specific questions and situations. Demons being cast out is for our good. Having a crew of people that have the gift of faith and seem overly optimistic is good for others of us who are doubting and skeptical. All the various gifts are for the common good.
*These definitions are borrowed or adapted from D.A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, Sam Storms, and The Village Church
Join our rallying cry by committing to read the Bible this year with us and by participating in our Equip classes. Find registrations for both here.
A few other blogs on The Spirit and gifts: