The Spiritual Gifts: Pt 1 (Excerpts from "The Spiritual Gifts" book)

The Spiritual Gifts:  Are they for Today’s Church?

Over the years, a controversy has brewed over spiritual gifts and whether they are operating legitimately in the church today. Some say that these gifts, or at least some of the gifts are not available today and so any claim of their manifestation is illegitimate Others disagree and say all the gifts should operate today, just as they did during the early church period. I want to take a scriptural look at this topic because I believe that our understanding of this subject has great bearing on the life of the church.

Why is this an important topic for us to study? Is it essential for salvation? No, it is not, but it is extremely important in our personal relationship with the Lord and certainly affects the work of the ministry that God has for each one of us. How we see and understand the gifts of the Spirit affects how we relate to each other and the world around us. It can dictate the type of ministry we have, so we need to have a firm grasp of what we believe about spiritual gifts.

Look at what Paul says in 1 Cor 12:1 “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”  The word gift is not really there. It should really say “about spirituals.” It is possible that the word gifts is implied, but looking at the context, it seems likely that Paul was speaking about people, who were gifted but misusing the gifts. In either case, Paul will keep us from being ignorant concerning the gifts. The word in Greek for spiritual, is from the root word pneuma and denotes its’ divine origin.

Here is the Strong’s definition for gifts; NT:5486 charisma (khar'-is-mah); from NT:5483; a (divine) gratuity, i.e. deliverance (from danger or passion); (specifically) a (spiritual) endowment, i.e. (subjectively) religious qualification, or (objectively) miraculous faculty: (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

 When you put this together, it is clear that these gifts have a divine origin.   

So, let’s follow Paul’s exhortation and jump in to the scriptures with both feet to see what it says about this subject. In order for us to understand the teaching about spiritual gifts, we must ask ourselves some questions.

1. What are they?
2. By whom were they given?
3. When were they given 
4. Why were they given?

Question 1. What are they?

 Let’s start by looking at the passages that specifically describe these gifts. There is two lists given in the New Testament. The first in Rom 12:6-8; “6 we have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

The second list is found in 1 Cor 12:8-10; “8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.”

Without going into detail right now, let’s sum up this list 

1. Prophesy
2. Serving
3. Teaching
4. Encouraging or exhortation
5. Giving
6. Leadership
7. Mercy
8. Message of wisdom (utterance in ESV) (word of wisdom in NASU)
9. Message of knowledge
10. Faith
11. Healing
12. Miracles
13. Distinguishing between spirits
14. Various kinds of tongues
15. Interpretation of tongues

Next Post- Who distributes the gifts and when were they given?
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