Spiritual Gifts:

“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)” 2 Corinthians 10:4

When Jesus established His church, He said that the gates of hell would not be able to stand against it. After His ascension into heaven, He sent His disciples the power of the Holy Ghost. Armed with His power and Spirit, they spread the Gospel to every part of the then known world. The Holy Ghost not only comes to indwell us, He brings us the power of God which is to be used to edify and build up the Church, to reach the lost, heal the afflicted and set the captives free.

To this end, the Holy Ghost imparts spiritual gifts, ministerial offices and administrative gifts. The believer may be used in any of the gifts as the Holy Ghost desires and as you allow. There are 9 Spiritual Gifts imparted by the Holy Ghost. They are divided into three groups and each gift in that group is closely related. In the first group are the revelation gifts:

1 The Word of Wisdom

2 The Word of Knowledge

3 Discerning of spirits

The second group are the gifts of utterance:

4 The Gift of Prophesy

5 Speaking in Tongues

6 Interpretation of Tongues

The third group are the gifts of power:

7 The Gift of Faith

8 Gifts of Healings

9 Working of Miracles.

Each one of these gifts is supernatural in nature. They allow the believer to see, know or do things that they are naturally incapable of accomplishing on their own.

Through the Word of Knowledge or the Word of Wisdom, God will give you certain information that you would have no other way of knowing unless God imparted the information to you. The information is usually given for the benefit of others. The Word of Wisdom will usually tell you something that must be done or said to someone in order for God to move in a situation. The Word of Wisdom was active when Moses received the Old Testament law from God. In the law of Moses, we find the world’s first successful public health code. The Word of Knowledge most often is given to call attention to something that God is doing or about to do on another’s behalf. It is God’s way of calling attention to the moving of the Spirit.

A very powerful gift is the gift of discerning of spirits. This gift often manifests itself in visions to the believer. It allows the believer to see into the spiritual realm and to know whether what they are witnessing is of God or of Satan. Those with the gift of discerning will know when a person is being possessed or oppressed by demons. They will often know when someone is telling a falsehood, and when someone is doing something out of improper motives.

People with the gift of discerning can save the church from being misled by evil and can direct prayer for people. As a believer, we have power and authority over demons, but in order to use that power, we must know where to direct our energies. Discerning allows the church to recognize the enemy and move against that enemy in the power of God. The gift of discerning of spirits is not “mind-reading” or fault finding or the revealing of the character flaws of another. Rather it allows one to actually see an evil spirit in operation.

The next group of gifts are the gifts of utterance. Paul encouraged believers to pray to be used in the gift of prophecy. It should be pointed out that the gifts of tongues and interpretations together is the same as prophecy. This is a much desired gift for it allows God to speak directly to others through you. In the gifts of speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues, or in the gift of prophesy, God will often give you the first few words and wait for you to step out in faith before the rest follows.

For this reason, I often hear people say, “I don’t have that gift,” because they don’t think they have the whole message. In saying this, they deny that God would ever use them in such a manner. This sort of thinking should be avoided. There have been times that I have felt certain that the Lord wanted to speak in a service. A hush would fall over the congregation, but nothing would happen. In those times, I have turned to some of my brothers who have manifested these gifts in the past and asked them what happened. I was told, yes there was a message, but God wanted to use this or that brother or sister and they wouldn’t speak out.

God never overpowers a person and uses them in spite of themselves. The Holy Ghost is a gentle Spirit. He prompts but does not force the use of the gifts on someone.

The prophetic gifts will never go against Scripture or against one of God’s principles. It will also always be for comfort, edification or exhortation. The Spirit of God would not direct you to say or do something that He has already declared to be wrong or improper in His Word. This is how to test to see if the message is really of God. It is very evident when a member of the congregation has one or more of the utterance gifts.

I know of at least six in our own congregation who have one or more of the utterance gifts.. The power gifts, as the name implies, are often the most spectacular of the Spiritual Gifts. The gifts of healings and miracles are always used to help others. They are most often made manifest after the preaching of the Word, and are used by God to prove that His Word is true. The Bible reported that signs and wonders often follow when the disciples preached. Jesus said that a sign that would follow the believer is that they would lay their hands on the sick and the sick would recover.

Jesus remarked that if people did not see a sign, often they would not believe in Him. It is important to remember that healings and miracles do not save anyone from hell. It is the belief and obedience to the Gospel message that saves. However, the gifts of healings and miracles is often imparted by the Spirit in confirmation of the Word in order to convince people to believe. Anyone who simply tries to follow the signs and wonders is in danger of being deceived or of never receiving the greatest miracle, the miracle of Salvation.

Healings accomplished through the Spiritual gifts of healing are always spontaneous and sudden. Never in the Bible do we see a healing from the power of God taking weeks or months to occur. The healings will also have nothing to do with medical science. Many healings from God have occurred after the doctors have given the people up for death. I have noted that people will often not even turn to God and the church for healing until they have exhausted all medical options. I often wonder how much pain and suffering might be avoided by believers if they sought God first. Many believers have obtained marked improved health simply through believing God’s Word and obeying His principles and Old Testament dietary rules. This, however, is not the Spiritual Gifts of Healings.

In the case of non-believers, they will often know the nature of their illness, having been diagnosed already by doctors or having been born with an affliction such as blindness or deafness. How much more the glory to God when the disease is thought incurable by medical science. We have heard more than one report of God spontaneously healing diseases such as cancer, AIDS, leukemia, blindness, amputated or deformed limbs, etc.

Miracles fall into a different category and should not be confused with the Gifts of Healings. Miracles deal not with overcoming diseases, but overcoming nature. Calming of storms, parting the sea, multiplication of food, changing of one substance into another, and feats of superhuman strength are all classified under this gift. Paul was being hindered in Cyprus by a sorcerer. Paul struck the sorcerer with blindness in order to show the crowd that the sorcerer’s powers were false. Supernatural deliverances from unforeseen danger also falls into the category of miracles. One pastor fed an entire church congregation at a gathering from one box of fried chicken!

The Gift of Faith allows a person to receive miracles through their belief and trust in God. These might be personal blessings and supernatural provision or personal protection, such as Daniel in the lion’s den. It is also believed to be in operation in raising the dead, and in the laying of hands to impart the baptism of the Holy Ghost to others. Lets face it, how many of us in our own strength would believe and trust God to raise someone who has just died. However, Smith Wigglesworth, a noted preacher, is credited with raising as many as 14 people from the dead, as well as a string of other signs and wonders too numerous to mention.

It must be remembered that the Spiritual Gifts are an impartation of and a sharing in the power of Jesus Christ, who is God Almighty. We must always remember that when a believer is involved in giving a Word, in working a healing or a miracle or any of the other gifts, it is God who is doing the work and providing the power. So, to God be all the glory!! Anyone who begins to believe that he is doing anything of a supernatural nature on his own is badly deceived and probably won’t have the gift or its use for long.

God is going to pour out His Spirit in a mighty way in these last days, and He wants us, as members of His family to be a part of it. If we will have faith and allow God to move through us, we will not only be witnesses, but will take part in the most awesome move of God in the history of the world.

Be prepared for His prompting. Begin to pray and believe big! Speak out to others with boldness. The Spirit gives His gifts severally as He wills. Once you know you have been given a Spiritual Gift, look for opportunities to use it to help others for God’s glory.