The Apostle Paul discusses the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. He starts by saying, “I don’t want you to be ignorant of these spiritual gifts.” What does it mean to be ignorant? Ignorant means lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified. Why do you think it was important to Paul that believers are not lacking knowledge or comprehension about spiritual gifts? It’s because the gifts of the spirit are given to us to help, encourage, strengthen, heal, and much more. Unfortunately, a big portion of the Body of Christ is ignorant about spiritual gifts. Let’s educate ourselves on this important subject!
1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Do you remember that we talked about how different every believer in Jesus is? There are millions of us, and we’re all unique. Yes, we have some similarities, but we are all uniquely different. Want to know why? Because God loves diversity! God is our Creator. God didn’t just create one man, then duplicate him billions and billions of times. He designed every human to be different. That’s how awesome He is. He is one God capable of creating great diversity.
These gifts we’re discussing, i.e. the gifts of the Spirit, are from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity. Don’t forget, the Holy Spirit is still God. The Holy Spirit loves diversity as well.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
Paul is trying to stress the fact that even though there are different gifts, it is from the same Holy Spirit. Even though we have differences in administrations, we all serve the same Lord. Administrations in Greek means management of household affairs, stewardship, administration. Even though we see different operations, meaning different effects, it’s the same God causing that.
Ok, so we now see that God loves diversity, and all the different ways we see God work are by design because He loves diversity. I’m going to tell you a little secret, so please don’t tell anyone this. As believers in Christ, we tend to not like diversity. That’s shocking, I know, but it’s true. We have so many different denominations, or branches, of Christianity that it will make your head spin. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. But, many of those branches can’t seem to get along with each other. Some branches believe if you’re not from their “branch” then you’re not a Christian and you’re destined to go to Hell. That’s what is bad. We can’t seem to agree on much at all, which again is not bad in itself. It’s the judging, criticizing, cruelty, and un-Christ-likeness that is awful.
You’ll find that this subject, the gifts of the Spirit, can be a touchy topic. So much so, that there are a lot of good Christian believers that don’t like to even talk about the gifts in front of their “brothers and sisters in Christ” for fear of ridicule, chastisement, or worse. That’s so sad. Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant of these gifts. They are given for our benefit, for our good.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
The gifts of the spirit are given to us to help us, and so we can help each other. I don’t believe that every believer gets every gift. I believe we can get more than one, but not all of them. God designed it this way. He doesn’t want us to be self-reliant. He wants us to be God-reliant first, then He wants us to help each other. If I have a gift that you don’t have, but you need it, you can come to me for help, and vice versa.
So, what are the gifts Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12?
Word of Wisdom
Word of Knowledge
Faith
Gifts of Healing
Working of Miracles
Prophecy
Discerning of Spirits
Tongues
Interpretation of Tongues
We’ll cover each of these in more detail next week, but for now, there are a couple of things we need to keep in mind. Each gift is exactly that...a gift. These gifts are valuable, powerful, and precious. We should never view one gift as better than another. Some gifts appear to be more powerful, or desirable, than others, but that depends greatly on the situation. If I’m sick I need someone with the gift of healing, not discernment. If I need to know if a teacher is teaching from the spirit of truth, then I need discernment, not healing. Make sense?
I hope this has been helpful and I can’t wait to dive into each gift next week. Let me know if you have any questions or comments! I’d love your feedback. Until next time, Keep on Keepin’ on for Jesus!
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