How many of you have ever gotten a Christmas gift, and that gift has never been used, it has been on your shelf, maybe even still in the box for years. That is poor stewardship, at least re-gift it to someone else.
Do you want to glorify God? No, I mean it, really in your heart, is that one of, if not your highest priority? Do you know one of the best ways to do it? Hear what it says in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” What’s that, I am a steward of God’s grace? Are you telling me that the best way to glorify Him is to use the gifts that he has given me to serve others? Yes. Because that thought is completed in the next verse after listing some gifts, Peter says, do these things “in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
Do you desire spiritual gifts (1 Co 12:31; 14:1)? Or are you just waiting for one to magically show, before you start doing ministry. “One day I’ll figure out what gift I have, if I even have one.” Please note that what 1 Co 12:7 says and remember that you can have more than one at a time and they may change over time as well.
Now there are essentially three kinds of spiritual gifts. There are ministerial gifts or gifts of service, and what we can call motivational gifts that can be found in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. And there are manifestational gifts that we find in 1 Cor 12. These are actually the most numerous of the listed gifts in the Bible and this is where I want to focus today because we’ve touched on the others already in a previous message.
These are also the most controversial of the gifts, especially prophecy, healing/miracles, and speaking in tongues. So my hope today is to clarify these and also help you understand what we are to do with the gifts we are given.
First of all:
I. Where Do The Gifts Come From? (1 Cor 12:1-11)
1Cor verse 3, and all the way to verse 11 Paul goes to great lengths to tell us that these gifts come from the one and only Holy Spirit of God. That’s all I am going to say because I don’t want it complicated. You have no spiritual gifts other than those given to you by the Holy Spirit that dwells in you when you are saved by Jesus Christ.
There’s another very clear and simple answer to the question:
II. Why Are They Given? (1 Cor 12:7; Eph 4:12-16)
Verse 7 of 1 Cor 12, says they are given so we can help each other, and if you recall from Ephesians 4, they are to build up the body of Christ so all Christians can come to unity and maturity in Christ. If there were other reasons, I’m sure the Bible would tell us.
And when you hear these reasons, what if we are not using our gifts? We are far less effective, and the body will lack unity and maturity.
So if we put these first two points together, it can be summarized as, these are not your gifts. You don’t create them and you don’t use them for yourself. That’s why their called gifts.
OK, continuing on:
III. Who Are They Given To? (1 Cor 12:7, 27; Eph 4:7)
Ephesians 4:7 to each one of us, 1 Cor 12:7, to each of us, then verse 27, all of you together. “Wait a minute pastor, I don’t think I got one”. Oh yes you did, unless you’re not a believer. You can’t tell me you don’t have at least one of these gifts (mercy, service, teaching, hospitality etc. We should all be on our knees praying for at least one, especially if you really need like say mercy if you find forgiveness difficult.
Is it OK with you that you don’t believe you have one and aren’t using it in the body? It shouldn’t be OK. Someone died so you could have them and not using them is frankly an insult to His sacrifice.
Now there’s no need to say anymore about those first three points. Every believer has a gift, they are given to be used for others in the body of Christ, and they only come from the Holy Spirit.
I want to spend the rest of our time then looking at the gifts and how we are to apply them. So let’s start with:
IV. What Are The Gifts? (1 Cor 12:8-10, 28 & ch 14; Eph 4:11; Ro 12:8; 1 Pe 4:9)
There are a total of about 21 gifts mentioned in the New Testament and like I said I want to focus on the manifestational or what some may call the more charismatic gifts listed here in 1 Corinthians. In your bulletin the insert gives most of the gifts and a short description of them. The reason for focussing on these gifts is because I want to try to normalize these gifts that many Christians see as scary, or weird, and certainly difficult to confirm and discern as legitimate. And so we have kind of written them off.
I want to begin with the gift of prophecy, which may actually be the most misunderstood of the gifts. When most of us think about prophecy, we think about the sometimes rather odd folks who try to predict the end of the world, or some other future events. Most of these folks are frauds, sometimes well meaning. But the problem is that we don’t need any more fortune tellers. The Bible provides all the future we need to know, we need to relax in that, and Jesus is very clear that even he doesn’t know when the end will come.
But if we look at New Testament passages about prophecy we see that it means something different. Even the Old Testament prophets talked more about what was going on than what was to come. They were God’s spokespeople pointing out what God thought about what they were doing, and simply using God’s word to predict what would happen because of their current and past behaviour. And remember when they were speaking there was very little scripture other than the Law. The first five books of the OT. They were supernaturally being given words from God, we now supernaturally have the Bible.
That kind of prophecy is still very easy for us to do today. In 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 Paul emphasizes the importance of the gift of prophecy over the others. Prophecy according to Paul is simply speaking a word from God into a specific situation, to strengthen and build up the entire church. And he says this is a gift we should all be eager for.
Let me give you an example. Have you ever been with a person or group of people and a Scripture passage comes to mind that you feel strongly relates to what is going on in that moment. If you share that word, you are being a prophet. If you see a fellow Christian staggering out of a bar one night very drunk, and the next time you see them you say: “Hey Joe, I saw you coming out of the bar the other night, and I was really concerned because the Bible says ‘do not get drunk with wine’”. “Well, it wasn’t wine, it was whiskey”. And there you have pointed out the present situation and how God’s word applies to that situation.
Then you might even have a future prophetic word for that person when 1 John comes to mind and you might say, if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us. And we’re also told that anyone who continues in sin is not a child of God and may not see the Kingdom of God. Isn’t that using God’s word to predict the future? And because the greatest gift is love, we might then ask, is there anything I can do to help you with this, do you want to pray right now for forgiveness and confess that sin.
Ideally they would be thankful, and as we talked about at our elders meeting where we are studying 1 John, a person’s response to that kind of Christian intervention, may be one of brokenness and gratitude if they are truly living in the light. Or it might be one of anger and defensiveness if they are not. Prophets were sometimes not popular because they told God’s truth, but other times, their words triggered revival.
You’re also being a prophet if you go visit someone who is sick and you read a scripture passage to them that perhaps talks about comfort, or that God is always with us. And again you may be a real prophet when you share with a dying Christian that even in death we are healed as we are resurrected with a new eternal body. And to a non-Christian you might say that it is possible without Jesus to die and be eternally separated from God. That is prophecy, and yes it may be uncomfortable at times. But show me a prophet in the Bible who was having a real good time speaking God’s word.
God’s word always comes true so if you use God’s word and what it says about the future you are being a prophet.
OK, what about healing and miracles? Have any of you ever seen miraculous healings take place in church or on TV or anything? Most of us have seen those TV healers knock someone on the forehead, down they go, and they are instantly healed. Then you can buy a piece of cloth over the phone from that person to get healed yourself. Is it any wonder people are sceptical about this. But you know it will work for some people if they really believe.
The gift of healing can be manifest in many different ways and it can refer to physical healing, emotional healing, or even soul healing. Often Jesus equated healing with forgiveness of sins or salvation. We have to remember where these gifts come from, that they are never ours and that they are not necessarily permanent.
I have one experience where God did a healing through me, but has never done it since. He decides when, where, and who will get healed based on how it will glorify him and bring people closer to God. It is very presumptuous for someone to say that because they healed a person once, they have the gift always, and God will heal everyone they come in contact with.
Of course if someone gets that attitude, then who’s fault is it if a healing doesn’t happen? Usually they blame the person for not having enough faith. That is very bad. The power of suggestion and emotional frenzy can make some very interesting and powerful things happen, but I have found that often even if someone appears better in that emotional environment, it may not be a permanent healing, and once the frenzy dies down, they are no better than they were. Adrenaline and emotional belief can be powerful in the moment.
This is what’s tricky with all these manifestational gifts, they’re hard to prove, and they are often fraudulent. But many times they are legitimate and God has truly spoken or performed a miracle.
I think we need to have the attitude Paul expresses at the end of 1 Cor 14. “Be eager to prophecy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues, but be sure all is done properly and in order and with love”. In other words, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, but beware of motives and discern the spirits.
This leads us to the most controversial of all the gifts, speaking in tongues. That is what all of 1 Cor 14 is about. Paul is very clear that speaking in tongues is very specific, that not everyone has to do it to prove they’re a believer, and that it is pretty much useless for anyone other than the person speaking, if no one interprets it.
There are two kinds of speaking in tongues mentioned in the Bible. One is the kind we see at Pentecost where people are simply speaking in other human languages to foreigners who know that language.
It would be like me going on a mission trip to preach to another culture and I didn’t know their language, but to make God’s word clear to them, he supernaturally allowed me to declare God’s Word in that language, even though I didn’t know it.
I believe God could and would do that, and I would desire that for His sake and the sake of the people I was speaking to. Of course when the church was started and people from one culture were being sent into the world and there were no bible translations, this was a very necessary gift. These tongues are for messages from God.
The other tongues mentioned in the Bible are more of a prayer language to God that doesn’t seem to be any human dialect, maybe an angelic language or something. This one is a little weirder, and Paul is very clear about this when he says things like, this is a sign not for believers who already have faith, but for unbelievers. Not specifically what’s being said, but the sign of the gift. When they actually hear it they’ll think we’re crazy. But it gets an unbeliever’s attention.
He also says I will pray in the Spirit, but I will also pray in understandable words because if nobody can understand what I am saying, what good is that for anyone else? A person speaking in tongues that nobody else understands may be strengthened personally, so its fine in your private prayers perhaps, but it is much more beneficial to others to pray or prophecy in an understandable language. Remember why we get these gifts, for others.
Here are the best verses from 1 Cor 14 about this, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you. But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language”. Do you know how easy it is to fake speaking in tongues when no one else can interpret, and what we know from the Corinthian church is that no doubt some people were doing this to show off.
So let me tell you where I stand on this. If one of you interrupts the service speaking in some other language, I will stop you and ask if you or anyone else can interpret what you are saying, and if you can interpret it, then speak English. If there is no one to interpret, I will ask you to stop and do that in private unless the building starts shaking or others start joining in, or some other miracle happens while you are doing it, OK? Now I know some people who will quietly speak in tongues during prayer, and that’s fine, that’s between you and God.
One more thing, you always have control over these gifts. Paul makes this clear in chapter 14 when he gives orderly instructions on how to use them in the public meetings. You don’t have to worry about losing control and start babbling in the bank line up. And when you see a meeting where everyone starts uncontrollably speaking in some kind of tongue, that is probably not God, because he is a God of order, and His word gives clear instructions about that. So it is either fake or at the least disobedient.
Having said all that though, please desire these gifts and I pray that they would be manifested when needed to strengthen the body of Christ.
Ok, getting back to all the gifts generally:
V. How Do We Apply Them? (1 Cor 12:7, 31; Ro 12:6-8; Eph 4:12)
I’m sure many of you have taken some kind of spiritual gifts survey or inventory at some point, and my guess is that it didn’t really tell you much new. Whenever you do something like that it basically confirms what you already know. So they have some use, but are not the be all and end all.
There’s also paying attention to your desires and strengths and weaknesses. That is relevant but you need to be careful, because it is easy to believe you have a gift because you really want it, but God hasn’t really given it to you. That is your ego.
So you can put those things together and come up with some idea of what your gift or gifts might be. But really the best ways to determine your gifts are by listening to what others in the body say, and simply through trial and error. If you are active in the church, chances are others will perceive what you seem to be gifted at, and hopefully will tell you. That’s how my journey to being a pastor began. People kept saying you’d be a good leader, something I never considered or wanted, or you seem to have a way of communicating God’s word that makes sense.
I wanted to serve so I tried a few different ministries and some were clearly not my gifting based on the fruit, and other things did seem to be used by God. So it was primarily through listening to other mature believers, and trying out certain things, that I narrowed down my gifts. But you need to be active and willing, even willing to make a fool of yourself sometimes.
And then you need to just use them, and a good church will give you opportunities. Why go through the trouble of identifying your gifts if you don’t plan to put them to use in the body. God will take it from there. When we were running out of money toward the end of seminary, I was applying for associate pastor jobs all over the place thinking that’s where you have to start, and I got no real responses.
I learned early on that planning and monitoring programs and such was not my gift, and that is more what an associate does. So I decided to give senior or lead pastor positions a shot, and suddenly I was getting responses, and here we are. God will tend not to bless ministries where we are not using our primary gifts, but he will when we find that sweet spot between our gifts and His purposes for us.
What do today’s scripture passages have to say about this? 1 Cor 7 says we are to help each other with these gifts. Romans 12:6-8 go into detail about practicing our gifts to the best of our ability, and according to that gift, not ones we don’t have. And Ephesians 4:12 says that we are to use these gifts to equip and build up the body of Christ.
But I find it interesting in 1 Corinthians, how between these two chapters on Spiritual gifts, we have sandwiched the famous chapter 13 about love. We know the part of this chapter that talks about the characteristics of love, but listen to how Paul starts this chapter.
“If I could speak all the languages of the earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or clanging symbol. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understand all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I had to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”
In other words all these gifts, and even giving and sacrifice mean nothing if my heart isn’t right, if I am not motivated by the love that Christ loved me with. In fact like a clanging gong, I will be more annoying to God and the church if I open my mouth or act without love.
Start of verse 14 then, “Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the spirit gives, especially the ability to prophecy.”
It always seems to come back to this doesn’t it? No matter what we are talking about in Scripture, or how to live the Christian life it always comes back to love, the greatest commandment. After being in the church for a number of years now, I see why this is. Many people have learned how to do the Christian life and how to do church, but the love is often not there, and the church becomes a mechanical lifeless thing.
Through the most incredible love imaginable, God sent his son to the earth to teach yes, but primarily to love and die for us so we could have life in him after he was resurrected from the dead.
If he was just here to teach I’m sure God would have kept him around more than 33 years. Always remember that no one else has died for you, no one else has loved you like God did and does, and this love is to be our model and motivation for everything we do after we accept his gift of salvation. Christianity is not just a religion, it is a way of life motivated entirely by love, the love he gave us, and the love we are to express by the change in our hearts after we accept Jesus into our hearts.
Action Plan: Determine your primary spiritual gift and how you will implement it in or out of the church to build up the body of Christ. And if you’re not sure how you can implement it or you don’t see where the opportunities are, come talk to me and we can figure it out together.
