Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts, There Purpose And Use

However, at the same time, verses 28-31 does indicate that not everyone will receive a particular spiritual gift just because they desire it, if it is not God's will. You will not receive a certain spiritual gift no matter how strongly you seek after it. God is infinitely wise, and He knows through which gifts you will be most productive for His kingdom. 1 Corinthians 14:12-13 that it is God (not us) who chooses the gifts. So, what we see from scripture, that some spiritual gifts are received at the time of salvation, but there are those that can be desired in your heart, pursued and developed into the receiving such spiritual gifts from God.

The next question is, have some spiritual gifts ceased to exist?

There are many Christian organizations and churches that believe some spiritual gifts cease to exist, and are no longer operational in our church age. Some years ago, I was invited to attended this church, and while there, the pastor of that church started saying spiritual gifts no longer exist today, how they were only used by the first disciples of Christ for the bringing in of the church age. I turned to my wife, told her let’s go. We got our kids and left.

As we mentioned earlier, Spiritual gifts are not natural talents or abilities, but rather they are empowerment that the Holy Spirit gives to a believer to minister to the body in ways that were not possible by mere natural effort apart from the Holy Spirit. We are told, Eph. 4:7-13: "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 11So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"

As, I mentioned earlier, these offices of prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are given for the purpose of building up the body of Christ and extending the kingdom of God. And, as long as the church is still under construction, spiritual gifts are needed. So, there is no reason to maintain that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased in the modern church today. This would indicate the Spirit of God is not working in exactly the same way today as he was in the first century, because the church has not come to perfection. Yet, strangely enough, there are many who teach that 1 Cor. Chapter 13 speaks of spiritual gifts having ceased and have no place in the Church of today.

However, I want you to notice the fact that Chapter 13, the well-known chapter on love, comes where it does, between Chapters 12 and 14. In chapters 12 and 14 of 1 Corinthians we are given a long discourse on the subject of spiritual gifts and their proper use in the Church. So, ask yourself, why did the apostle under the guidance of the Holy Spirit choose to use up such a huge chunk of Holy Scripture (which I believe is intended for ALL churches at ALL places at ALL times) on something that God was about to completely do away with? As I have said many of times to many people, the primary rule to reading our Bibles, is context, context, context. And, if one simply reads and examines Corinthians 12-14 in context, you will easily discovery that Chapters 13, sandwiched in between 12 and 14 implies, “strongly implies”, in and of itself that love is central to the ministry and operation of God’s Spiritual gifts.