THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS
(The manifestations of the Spirit)
The Spiritual Gifts or “manifestation of the Spirit” is still an enigmatic concept or phenomenon in the Church. The simplest way that I know to describe it is that it is God doing what He wants to do when He wants to do it; “as He will”.
The activities are not controlled by the believer nor is the time or place of the manifestation. They are not gifting that are vested to any individual human. When God wants to move or interact in with created man, He does so.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits;
to another Divers Kinds of Tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (1 Corinthians 12:4–10)
First Corinthians 12 presents The Spiritual Gifts. The Lord controls them working together with the believer. Philippians 2:13 comes to mind, reading “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
The above text uses several terms to describe the manifestations of the Holy Spirit i.e., diversities, administrations and operations. The Spiritual Gifts in operation are presented in many ways as God (“the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same God”) works through His Body the Church.
It is through the Spiritual Gifts that the Body of believers, i. e. the Church is edified, exhorted and comforted (1 Corinthians 14:3) and the work assigned to Her by Christ is completed.
The Nine Spiritual Gifts may be divided into sets of three. The Revelation Gifts reveal something, the Power Gifts do something, and the Inspiration Gifts say something.
The Word of Wisdom is the first of the Revelation Gifts. The Word of Wisdom is not that wisdom derived from knowledge or experience or perhaps age. A future event that God reveals to man prophetically is A Word of Wisdom.
This is a Word of Wisdom:
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so, shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)
“By the word of the Lord”. The coming event that he is speaking of is the rapture of the Church.
A Word of Wisdom may be given in a dream, vision or spoken directly into the spirit of an individual.
The Word of Knowledge is the second of the Revelation Gifts. It is revelation given by Holy Spirit of an existing fact where there is no natural way for it to be known to the believer.
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.
He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.
And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:
He lodges with one Simon a tanner; whose house is by the seaside: he shall tell thee what thou should to do. (Acts 10:1-6)
Here, by The Word of Knowledge the Lord reveals to Cornelius the name and location of the Apostle Peter who would be summoned to come to his home to pray for his household.
Once I had a dream about one of the ladies in our church. In the dream the lady’s name was called three times. I knew in my heart that there was some distress involved and we contacted the lady the next day.
When we reached her, we discovered that she was out of cash and had no way to get food for herself and her children. We took her shopping and gave her some cash for her pocket.
The Lord didn’t give us details, but by A Word of Knowledge, we knew that there was something wrong and that we were to help. Reflecting further about the dream and considering the symbols used by God, I today have an even greater appreciation of the love that God had at the time for His daughter and has now for His servants.
The third Revelation Gift is The Discerning of Spirits. This operation of the Holy Spirit opens a window to the invisible world for the believer to look through. Supernaturally and miraculously, the believer is availed of transactions of another dimension. A revelation about Discerning of Spirits could appear as a vision, a trance, or in a dream.
This example of the gift of Discerning of Spirits is found in the book of Acts:
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the Most-High God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. (Acts 16:16–18)
The invisible person behind the actions of the damsel had been revealed to Paul by Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter six tells us that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). The Holy Spirit could name one or more of these unseen bad guys if you were to meet them. The Discerning the Spirits.
The first of the Power Gifts of the Spirit is The Gift of Faith. The Gift of Faith is to be distinguished from “The Measure of Faith” (Romans 12:3) and “Saving Faith” of Romans 10:17 (“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”).
The Gift of Faith transcends the faith referenced in Mark 11:22–26 which is the faith to remove mountains. The Gift of Faith is sometimes referred to as Special Faith or “The God Kind of Faith”. Like all the Gifts of the Spirit, the Gift of Faith is a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is an operation of the Holy Spirit administered by The Holy Spirit. The believer need only co-labor with God to the extent of being yielding and willing.
The Gift of Faith brings an individual’s level of faith to that of the Divine by the operation of God. The fulfillment of blessings and curses, alterations, creations, destructions, removals, and even the raising of the dead are manifested by this Gift. There is no limitation where the Gift of Faith is present just as “In God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).
Here is an example of the Spiritual Gift of Faith, Paul raising Eutychus form the dead:
And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.
When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he left.
And they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. (Acts 20:9-12)
The second of the Power Gifts is The Working of Miracles. It can be defined as the supernatural manifestation of the power of God that alters, suspends, or in some other way controls the laws of nature.
Paul restores Eutychus to life and shakes off a deadly viper from this hand with no ill effect in Acts 20 and Acts 28 respectively. These are just two of the miracles documented in the Book of Acts.
The third Power Gift is The Gift of Healings.
In the Acts of the Apostles there is Peter’s healing of the lame man at the gate Beautiful (Acts 3:1–11) and Eneas of a palsy, recorded in Acts 9. as well as other miracles which he worked.
Paul healed a cripple in Lystra (Acts 14:8–10). “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:11–12).
The Inspiration Gifts are for ministry. They are for the exhortation, edification, and comfort of the Church. The first of the Gifts of Inspiration is the Gift of Prophecy. Strong’s Concordance describes prophecy as “a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; esp. by foretelling future events.”
The first of the Inspiration Gifts is The Gift of Prophecy. The Gift of Prophecy is a direct communication of edification, exhortation, and comfort by the manifestation of God co-laboring with a believer. “But he that prophesies speak unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). It is the simplest form of inspired utterance in a known language.
In the book Ever Increasing Faith, Smith Wigglesworth says this:
We see also that he that prophesies speak unto man to edification and exhortation and comfort. How important it is then that we should have this gift in manifestation in the Church in order that the saints might be built up and made strong and filled with the comfort of God. But with this as all other gifts we should see that it is operated by the Spirit’s power and brought forth in the unction of the Spirit; so that everyone who shall hear prophecy, as it is brought forth by the Spirit of God, shall know that it is GOD who is bringing forth that which for the edification of those who hear. It is the Spirit of God who takes of the deep things of God and reveals them, and unctionizes the prophet to give forth, that which is a revelation of the things of God.
Utterance in prophecy has a real lifting power and gives real light on the truth to those who hear. Prophecy is never a mind reflection; it is something far deeper than this. By prophecy we receive that which is the mind of the Lord; and as we receive these blessed, fresh utterances through the Spirit of the Lord the whole assembly is lifted into the realm of the spiritual. Our hearts and minds and whole bodies receive a quickening through the Spirit-given word. As the Spirit brings forth prophecy, we find there is healing and salvation and power in every line. For this reason, it is one of the gifts that we ought to covet.
An example of the Gift of Prophecy from the Book of Acts is found inserted below. Paul is warned against going to Jerusalem:
And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.
And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owns this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. (Acts 21:10-12)
The second of The Inspirational Gifts is Divers Kinds of Tongues. “To another, Divers Kinds of Tongues”. The original Greek text did not include the word “divers.” The translators added it. “Kinds of tongues” is how it reads with the distinct connotation of diversity meaning of different nations.
The word “Divers” is italicized in the KJV indicating that it was not in the original text but was added by the translator for clarity and emphasis. The connotation in Strong’s Concordance points to its meaning “varying ethnics or languages”.
Divers kinds of tongues are supernatural utterances of God through the spirit of a believer in a language that is unlearned by and unknown to the believing speaker.
The tongues that were spoken at Pentecost were Divers Kinds of Tongues. The Pentecost outpouring of Tongues was dual purposed; it was ministry to unbelievers and power for ministry to the believers.
Divers kinds of tongues are for public ministry. Acts 2 offers a demonstration of believers speaking a language that they didn’t understand but that was understood by some of those who were standing by. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2: 4).
Following shortly the above passage:
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, “Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? (Acts 2:5-7)
The Interpretation of Tongues is the companion gift to Divers Kinds of Tongues. Generally, when Tongues are uttered in the Assembly the Interpretation of Tongues should go with them. Paul says this:
If any man speaks in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. (1 Corinthians 4:27)
Interpretation of Tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. What was said in Tongues is not only the utterance of the Holy Spirit, but the interpretation is also given by the Holy Spirit. Whenever there is a recitation of Tongues in the open Assembly there should be either interpretation or judging by the presiding leader.
The operation of the Spiritual Gifts represents a crucial step in the Spiritual Growth of The Church (The Local Assembly). Fulfilling The Great Commission absent the Spiritual Gifts is substantially severely hampered.
SPEAKING IN TONGUES IS THE DOORWAY TO THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS!