Gifts of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 12:1–6 MEV

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed!” And no one can say, “Jesus is the Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are various gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. There are various operations, but it is the same God who operates all of them in all people.

Spiritual Gifts vs. Fruit of the Spirit

There is a lot of confusion among people about the Gifts of the Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit. Which are which? Are they the same thing? What makes them different?

In this church, we tend to talk about both, and it’s easy to forget that some us—maybe most of us—don’t fully understand what we’re talking about when these subjects come up. We are afraid of looking foolish, so we smile, play along like we understood it all, and just hope we will figure it out as we go along.

But it is important that we understand what are the gifts of the Spirit as well as the fruit of the Spirit. Both are taught on in Scripture, so obviously God thinks they are important.

So let’s get started!

The Gifts of the Spirit

The gifts of the Spirit, or Spiritual gifts, can be confusing in and of themselves because you find various lists throughout the New Testament, and none of them seem to completely agree with each other.

The passage we opened with began one of Paul’s teachings on the gifts. In the verses that follow, Paul lists the gifts of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:8–10 MEV

To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.

Later, in verse 28, Paul lists spiritual roles that come with these gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:28 MEV

God has put these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various tongues.

Ephesians 4:11 MEV

He gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers,

Here, we see evangelists and pastors added to the list.

So we have all these gifts and roles. Why do some get listed in certain passages and not in others? Was the Holy Spirit confused when he inspired the verses? Did he just suddenly decide, “You know what? I’m going to add pastoring as a spiritual gift. Yep, that sounds good. It wasn’t before, but now it is.”

No. It’s simply that, in each case, the apostle Paul was writing to a particular group. He was writing what was necessary and applicable at the moment. He wasn’t trying to write an exhaustive list of every single spiritual gift. That being the case, we have a good understanding of what Paul was trying to communicate about the gifts of the Spirit.

These gifts are tools given by the Holy Spirit to help us bring edification to the church and lead others to Christ. Let’s take a better look at these gifts that were listed:

Words of Wisdom & Words of Knowledge

There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. To know is to have and understand information. I can know something and I can know how to do something. A word of knowledge is when the Holy Spirit informs you of something you should not otherwise know about. I was sitting in a classroom in college when the Holy Spirit urged me to pray for a friend who had gone on a road trip. I suddenly knew that my friend and the people he was traveling with had hit some black ice and were going down a steep hill. I knew I had to pray for them. I prayed until the Holy Spirit gave me release about an hour later. Four hours later, my friend and the others showed up, talking about how they had hit black ice and went off the road down a steep hill at high speed. They should have hit a large tree and been killed, but they miraculously swerved around the tree and hit into a snow bank that slowed them to a stop. Neither the passengers nor the car were harmed. That’s an example of a word of knowledge.

Wisdom is having understanding about a situation and being able to use that understanding in a good and useful way. A word of wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit to speak into a situation and give encouragement, guidance, or warning.

Faith

Have you ever been in a situation where things seemed dark, and you should be ready to give up, but you find yourself trusting the Lord anyway? That is the gift of faith. It is the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit that he is still present and fighting for you.

Hebrews 11:1 MEV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

When you hope for something, you want it to be real. Faith says that it is real. And that faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, as he assures you of what will happen.

Healing and Miracles

I put these two together because they involved God moving in a supernatural way. We have seen God heal, even when he chose to work through doctors and medicine. When the surgeon told Judy that he didn’t think the operation would go as they hoped, but then it did, that was a miracle. When we prayed for Brent’s eyes, and then the doctor said his vision was significantly better than they were a year ago, that was healing.

Prophecy

This is when you know that you know that God wants you to share a message from him with someone else. It can be to an individual or to a group. It usually involves a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom. But it involves a boldness to say, “This is what the Lord is saying right now.”

Discerning of Spirits

This one is important because, for every genuine move of the Spirit, there is a counterfeit move. I have seen people speaking in tongues in a service, and I have known in my spirit that the person is being led by something other than the Holy Spirit. It can be the person themself faking speaking in tongues, trying to manipulate the moment to gain attention or appear to be super spiritual. Or it can be like one time when a man was speaking in tongues, but seemed tormented. When I went to pray with him and laid hands on him, he screamed in pain, fell to the floor, and began writhing like a snake. The spirit that was on him was not the Holy Spirit!

Tongues & Interpretation

Verse 10 mentions various kinds of tongues. Tongues can be used as a prayer language, when we feel led to pray, but we don’t know exactly what to pray for. That’s when the Holy Spirit can pray through us the perfect will of the Father. As we have seen in our church, tongues can also be used when we worship, like what happened to the disciples in Acts 2.

Tongues are also a way for God to capture our attention when he is getting ready to share a word with us. The Holy Spirit moves someone to speak out in a language that is usually not understandable by anyone else in the room. This is when the gift of interpretation is needed to share God’s message in a way that everyone else understands.

1 Corinthians 14:1–4 MEV

Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands him, although in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification and exhortation and comfort. He who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

As you can see, the Holy Spirit gives these gifts to help us grow closer to God, strengthen our walk with Christ, serve our brothers and sisters in the faith, and lead others to Jesus. I cannot number the times that the Lord led me into conversations with others where we have talked about God and spiritual things, and the people I was talking with ended up saying, “I never thought of it that way before.” It’s because the Holy Spirit gave me insight and helped me know what to say in the moment.

This is what happens when you are Spirit-filled. When you are filled with the Spirit, he is able to give you the gift—the tool—you need at the moment to accomplish.

Some people seem to have a specific gift that stays with them. They become known as prophets and faith-healers. Paul supports this somewhat in what we read earlier. In a church setting, we do tend to see the same people being used the same way. In that case, the gift seems to follow the personality and character of the individual.

But I have found that God will give you the gift you need at the moment. When there is need for a word of knowledge, the Holy Spirit will give that gift. If there is need for a healing, the Holy Spirit will enable you to heal. Miracles, prophecy, messages in tongues—whatever it is, the Holy Spirit can give you that gift as the need arises. The only requirement is for you to allow him to move in you.

This is why we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is why we seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We want to be useful to the kingdom. We are called to be salt and light to the world. We cannot do that without the Holy Spirit empowering us.