Steps to living out God’s purpose for you:
- Salvation - 2 Peter 3:9
- Consecration - Rom 12:1-2
- Finding and doing your part as a member of Christ’s body – Rom. 12:3-8
What Spiritual Gifts are and are not:
They are not signs of spiritual maturity, personal piety, or personal importance.
They are not justification for pride or priority.
They are not a belief for which differences should be cause of breaking fellowship.
They are a gift given by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit.
They are personal in that everyone’s gift mix is different.
They are universal in that each Christian is called to be part of the body of Christ and is gifted for that role. Every Christian is gifted – I Pet. 4:10, I Cor.12:7
No one has them all to a large extent. No gift is given to everyone in a large measure. (I Cor. 12:11) Every function of the body has someone to perform it, and every member has a function to perform. God does not give a gift to someone and not “call” them to use it.
They are less important to a healthy functioning body than the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) but more important than almost any other characteristic.
They are subject to scriptural authority and must be tested. Be careful, Satan has counterfeits.
“A spiritual gift is a special attribute given by the Holy Spirit to every member of the body of Christ according to God’s grace for use within the context of the body.” Wagner
Discover, develop and use your gifts:
This spiritual exercise is as important to living a life pleasing to God as other spiritual exercises such as prayer, bible study, worship, etc.
You must discover because it is a gift, you don’t get to choose or earn them.
You must develop your gift. Like any other ability, such as an athletic or musical talent, your must develop it to get the most out of it. Both these process take time. You don’t need to wait to start using your gift. Exercising your gifting is part of the process of developing your ability to serve as God called you to.
This process is important because it will make you a better Christian, it will make the Church a healthier place, and it glorifies God. It is an act of stewardship. Matt. 25:14-30
Gifts, Service, and Workings
I Cor. 12:4-6
Gifts, service, and workings can appear similar and are often confused. A gift is a special attribute given by the Holy Spirit to help a Christian fulfill their calling within the body. These are fairly stable over an extended period of time for a given individual.
Service refers a roll or job. For instance, a Pastor is doing the service of Pastoring but his gift may be pastoring, teaching, leading etc. We all have an obligation to perform acts of service whether it is within our gifting or not. For instance, you cannot use the fact that you do not have a gift of evangelism as an excuse not to share your faith. We are all commanded to do it, therefore we must fulfill the service whether we have the gift or not. The same is true with mercy, helps, hospitality, etc.
Workings of the Spirit are instances in which the Holy Spirit chooses to work in a special way through an individual that normally doesn’t have the gifting to do so. You can almost think of this as a temporary gift. An instance I have experienced is the Holy Spirit giving me exactly what to say to an individual to lead them to accept Christ, even though I don’t have the gift of evangelism.
Listing the gifts:
There is no conclusive list in the Bible. I have seen lists with as few as 12 and as many as 44. For our purposes we will discuss 27.
Key passages: Rom 12, I Cor. 7:7, I Cor. 12, Eph. 4
Supporting passages: I Cor. 13, I Cor. 14, I Pet. 4, Eph. 3
There are two predominant views of gifts within the Church today. The dispensational view believes that what are referred to as the “sign” gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age (At the death of the last Apostle, John). These can be thought of as supernatural gifts such as miracles, healing and tongues. The Charismatic view holds that all New Testament gifts are still functional today.
Remember that whatever your view, ones position of the gifts should not be a divisive point between Christians. We need to give each other grace in this area. Study the scripture, ask God to teach you and live within your convictions without denigrating those of an opposing view. My experience has been than God can lead one to change their view in his time.
1. Prophecy- to receive and communicate a message from God to his people. (current or future).
2. Service- to identify an unmet need and make use of available resources to meet the need (task oriented).
3. Teaching- to communicate information relevant to the health and ministry of the body in a way that others learn. (requires passion for and ability to gather information).
4. Exhortation- to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement and counsel in such a way that they feel helped and healed. (counseling)
5. Giving- to give resources to the work of the Lord with liberality and cheerfulness.
(requires ability to accumulate or gift of poverty)
6. Leadership- to set and communicate goals to others in such a way that they work together to accomplish those goals.
7. Mercy- to empathize and feel compassion for believers and non-believers and do acts that show Christ’s love and alleviate suffering. (person oriented)
8. Wisdom- to receive insight from the Holy Spirit into how knowledge may be best applied to specific needs.
9. Knowledge- to receive, accumulate, and analyze information. (academic or supernatural)
10. Faith- to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God (to dream big and believe it will happen).
11. Healing- to serve as an intermediary through whom God cures illness through supernatural means. (physical, mental, or emotional)
12. Miracles- to serve as an intermediary through whom God performs acts contrary to the ordinary course of nature.
13. Discerning of spirits- to know whether certain behavior is divine, human or satanic, or to gain supernatural insight into what is motivating another person.
14. Tongues- to speak a language one has never learned (human or divine) or to receive and deliver a message from God in a language never learned. (sign to unbeliever, prayer language, or, with interpretation, a message to the body of Christ).
15. Interpretation of Tongues- to make known a message from God spoken in tongues in the language of those who heard the message.
16. Apostle- to exercise leadership over a number of Churches with extraordinary authority in spiritual matters.
17. Helps- to invest talents and abilities into the ministry of others thus enabling them to increase the effectiveness of their gifts.
18. Administration- to understand goals and execute effective plans to accomplish them. (gifts of faith and leadership set goals, gifts of helps and administration make them possible).
19. Evangelism- to share the Gospel in such a way that people accept Christ. (Luis Palau- public, Mark Cahil- private).
20. Pastoring- to be empowered with the ability to assume a long-term personal responsibility for the spiritual welfare of a group of believers. (pastors, small group leaders, etc.)
21. Celibacy- to receive the ability to remain single and enjoy it; to be unmarried and not suffer sexual temptation.
22. Voluntary Poverty- to renounce material comfort and adopt a lifestyle of poverty to serve God more effectively. (often used in combination with the gift of giving)
23. Martyrdom- to suffer and die for the faith while displaying a victorious attitude that brings glory to God. (the gift that is only used once)
24. Hospitality- to provide an open home or other environment that makes others feel welcome and comfortable.
25. Missionary- to minister whatever other gifts one has in a culture other than their own.
26. Intercession- to pray for extended periods of time on a regular basis and see specific answers.
27. Exorcism- to cast out demons and evil spirits
Pitfalls of the gifts:
Gift projection: since doing what you are gifted to do seems easy to you, it is natural to expect it to be easy for others. This can be very discouraging and counter productive to those around you. (Cahill- evangelism, Green- giving)
Counterfeit gifts: people can be pressured to exhibit certain gifts to the point that they try to emulate them, often even deceiving themselves about having them. This is most common with tongues. Also, Satan loves to imitate God. For every true gift of the Spirit Satan has a counterfeit. Don’t assume that just because someone exhibits a gift that they are empowered by God. (see Matt. 7:21-23)
Exaltation of gifts: In many Churches those with more spectacular or evident giftings are lifted up as some sort of super spiritual Christians. This is lunacy; the gifts are given by the Spirit and are not earned or merited. This is unfair to the body and to those who are lifted up. Along these lines, people become so enamored with the gifts that they are caught up in the pursuit of the gifts rather than the pursuit of the giver of all good things. If we submit to God and press hard after him the gifts will take care of themselves.
Phobia of gifts: At the other extreme are those who are so fearful of something out of the ordinary and out of their control that they see all gifts as counterfeit and counter productive to the body. This is not supported by scripture and borders on blasphemy. While we must allow for others to hold different viewpoints on the gifts, we must not succumb to pressures to deny them. Scripture must always be our guide.
Fallow gifts: the most common and most tragic pitfall of Spiritual gifts is allowing them to go unused. God gives them in his wisdom to help his Church grow both in health and numbers. If you do not discover, develop and use your gifts then you are not on board with his plan.
(message by John Cobb)
