Untitled Sermon (20)
You may have heard of spiritual gifts. Most Christian believers have, but not all. Possibly you are among those who have identified their spiritual gifts and have been using them on a regular basis. But a surprising number of believers who have heard of spiritual gifts are not sure what theirs may be. And there are even those who feel that, for some reason, they have been left out and do not have any of the gifts.
It is possible to be a member of a church, attend almost every Sunday and go for, let’s say, a whole year without hearing anything about spiritual gifts. This is too bad. Why? Because in the first place, the teaching on spiritual gifts is so prominent in the New Testament. The apostle Paul says to the believers in the church in Corinth, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant” (1 Cor. 12:1). All churches should make sure that they are moving in spiritual gifts. And in the second place, if you don’t know about spiritual gifts, you may well miss out on God’s best plan for your personal life.
WHAT IS THE BODY OF CHRIST?
What, precisely, is the “Body of Christ” to which we have been introduced? This is a very important question because in every one of the three major biblical passages on spiritual gifts, namely, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, the gifts are directly compared to members of the human body. Because the Bible says that we Christians are all one Body in Christ, we understand that it is a group of believers. It is the Church. This is confirmed in Colossians 1:18: “[Jesus Christ] is the head of the body, the church.”
WHO HAS SPIRITUAL GIFTS?
Not everybody in the world has spiritual gifts. Unbelievers do not. But every Christian person who is committed to Jesus and truly a member of His Body has at least one gift and quite possibly more. The Bible says that every Christian has received a gift (see 1 Pet. 4:10) and that “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all” (1 Cor. 12:7). First Corinthians 12:18, as we have just seen, stresses that every one of the members is placed in the Body according to God’s design. Possession of one or more spiritual gifts is part of God’s plan for every Christian.
In order for you to be everything that God wants you to be, there is no substitute for finding your gift-mix and knowing for sure that you are equipped to do the “good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
WHAT IS THE RELATIO
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD’S GIFTS AND GOD’S CALL?
Christians often speak of their calling. We frequently say things like “God has called me to do such and such” or “I don’t believe God is calling me to do such and such.” At this point, it is helpful to recognize that a person’s call and his or her spiritual gifts are closely associated.
When related to doing God’s will, your general call should be seen as equivalent to your spiritual gift. No better framework exists within which to interpret your call than to know your specific gift-mix.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS?
What happens if you do decide to discover, develop and use your spiritual gift or gifts? Several things.
ON’T CONFUSE SPIRITUAL GIFTS WITH NATURAL TALENTS
Every human being, by virtue of being made in the image of God, possesses certain natural talents. As with spiritual gifts, we can expect the natural talents to have different variations and degrees. Talents are one of the features that give every human being a unique personality. Part of our self-identity is inevitably wrapped up in the particular mix of talents we have.
Where do these natural talents come from? Ultimately, of course, they are given by God. Consequently, in the broadest sense of the word, they should be recognized as God-given “gifts.” That is why we often say of a person who sings well or who has an extraordinary IQ or who can hit a golf ball into a hole from a long distance: “My, isn’t that person gifted?” By this, however, we should not imply that they have spiritual gifts.
Please be aware that possessing certain natural talents has nothing directly to do with being a Christian or being a member of the Body of Christ. Many Muslims or Hindus or atheists, for example, have superb talents for art or medicine or literature or other things. They have natural talents, but, keep in mind that they do not have spiritual gifts. And the ultimate source of these talents, of course, is God the Creator.
Years ago when I was living in the Los Angeles area, the Los Angeles Lakers were dominating the world of professional basketball. One of their players, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, had an incredible talent for throwing the basketball into the hoop. No NBA player has ever scored more points in a lifetime than he did. At the same time, another one of the Lakers, A. C. Green, had a similar talent. So here is the point. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a committed Muslim. A. C. Green was a committed, witnessing Christian, a member of the Body of Christ. Their choice of whom to worship had nothing to do with those natural talents. In fact, day in and day out, the Muslim actually scored more than the Christian.
While Christians, like Muslims or anyone else, have natural talents, these talents should not be confused with spiritual gifts. It is technically incorrect and unbiblical for Christians to say that their gift is fixing automobiles, gourmet cooking, telling jokes, painting pictures or playing basketball.
DON’T CONFUSE SPIRITUAL GIFTS WITH THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
The fruits of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5:22–23: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Some Bible expositors point out that “fruit” is in the singular and that the original Greek construction would permit a colon after “love.” So although all these other things are part of the fruit of the Spirit, love could well be the primary and all-inclusive one.
Notice that in the list of 28 spiritual gifts in chapter 3, none of them is love. Why? Love is not a spiritual gift. It would be improper to speak of the “gift of love,” if by “gift” we meant that love should be seen as spiritual gift number 29 on our list. In the broad sense, of course, love is a gift from God and should be so regarded. “We love [God] because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). But love is not a charisma in the sense that God gives it to some members of the Body but not to others. No. All believers who have the Holy Spirit should manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives.
The fruit of the Spirit is the normal, expected outcome of Christian growth, maturity, holiness, Christlikeness and fullness of the Holy Spirit. Because all Christians have the responsibility of growing in their faith, all have the responsibility of developing the fruit. The fruit is not discovered, as are the gifts; it is developed through the believer’s walk with God and through yielding to the Holy Spirit. Although spiritual gifts help define what a Christian does, the fruit of the Spirit helps define what a Christian is.
Eternal Fruit
Keep in mind also that gifts are temporal, but fruit is eternal. In 1 Corinthians 13 we are also told that gifts such as prophecy, tongues and knowledge will vanish away, but faith, hope and love will abide. Whereas gifts are task oriented, the fruit is God oriented.
It is worth noting that a passage on the fruit of the Spirit accompanies every one of the four primary passages on gifts. First Corinthians 13 is the most explicit and most widely recognized, following 1 Corinthians 12, where the gifts are featured. But also, the list of gifts ending in Romans 12:8 is immediately followed by “let love be without hypocrisy” and “be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love” (vv. 9–10). The passage on fruit continues for another 11 verses. Then in Ephesians 4, the gift passage ends with verse 16 and the fruit passage picks up in the next verse and continues into the next chapter. Among other things it says, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us” (5:2). Similarly, the passage on spiritual gifts beginning with 1 Peter 4:9 is immediately preceded with “above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins’ ” (v. 8).
DON’T CONFUSE SPIRITUAL GIFTS WITH COUNTERFEIT GIFTS
I wish I did not have to write this section on counterfeit gifts. I wish it were not true that Satan and his demons and evil spirits are real and actively opposing the work of the Lord. Jesus Himself said, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24). Jesus also spoke about those who prophesy and cast out demons in His name but who, in reality, turn out to be workers of iniquity (see 7:22–23).
I do not doubt that Satan can and does counterfeit every gift on the list. He is a supernatural being and he has supernatural powers—powers that originate in the realm of darkness. Satan’s power was shown in a spectacular way in Egypt when Pharaoh’s magicians could publicly match some of the supernatural works that God did through Moses (see Exod. 7–8). Of course, Satan’s power is limited and controlled. In Egypt he could match God’s works only to a certain point, and this applies today as well.
A rather chilling book on this subject, entitled The Challenging Counterfeit, was written by Raphael Gasson, now a Christian but formerly a spiritualist medium. He tells it like it is out there in the real world. Gasson’s experience has shown him that “it is very obvious that Satan is using an extremely subtle counterfeit to the precious gifts of the Spirit.”1 In his book, Gasson describes in detail several of Satan’s favorite counterfeits
OUTLINING THE THREE KEY LISTS
The great majority of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible are found in three key chapters: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. Mark these three locations in your Bible for future reference, because they are primary. Several secondary chapters also provide other important details; these include mainly 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Corinthians 13–14, Ephesians 3 and 1 Peter 4.
I will begin putting our master list of gifts together by using the three primary chapters. The words in parentheses will be variant translations found in several different English versions of the Bible.
Romans 12:6–8 mentions the following spiritual gifts:
1. Prophecy (preaching, inspired utterance)
2. Service (ministry)
3. Teaching
4. Exhortation (stimulating faith, encouraging)
5. Giving (contributing, generosity, sharing)
6. Leadership (authority, ruling)
7. Mercy (sympathy, comfort to the sorrowing, showing kindness)
First Corinthians 12:8–10 and 28 adds
(without repeating those already listed from Romans):
8. Wisdom (wise advice, wise speech)
9. Knowledge (studying, speaking with knowledge)
10. Faith
11. Healing
12. Miracles (doing great deeds)
13. Discerning of spirits (discrimination in spiritual matters)
14. Tongues (speaking in languages never learned, ecstatic utterance)
15. Interpretation of tongues
16. Apostle
17. Helps
18. Administration (governments, getting others to work together)
Ephesians 4:11 adds
(again, without repeating any of the above):
19. Evangelist
20. Pastor (caring for God’s people)
