In today’s thoughts, we continue on Spiritual Gifts and their meaning in relationship to the church. I will briefly explain each gift in today’s thoughts. It is truly my prayer that all believers and followers of Christ take time and read today’s thoughts. Let’s open our hearts, mind, and spirit and pray for an understanding of these Gifts for the Church and the need for all to flow in the power and might of His Spirit. As Christ is in us and the fullness of the Holy Spirit is working in us, may we be available and allow the moving of His Spirit to be upfront in all we do.
This morning, I will summarize in a condensed version each of the nine Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will cover each of these gifts in more detail over the next few days. It is my hope that those who love the Lord will begin to desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit and understand these various gifts that are distributed and available from the Holy Spirit. These Gifts are given to them, the Church and yes, for you and me to encourage and build up the people of God, the body of Christ.
Again, let me say, there must become a desire and understandings of these gifts for the believer and begin to walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Desiring all that God has for us. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifestations of the Person of the Holy Spirit working in and through the believers. The presence of God, you might say, is the manifestation of the Person of the Holy Spirit. The anointing of God is another much needed manifestation of the Holy Spirit, a deeper presence given to those who will dedicate and consecrate their lives as a witness, a vessel, an instrument for His use.
One more thought, the Holy Spirit is not to be used as a thing or for your own purpose. The Person of the Holy Spirit can be grieved in like manner just as our own spirit is grieved when untruth is spoken of us. God looks at the very intentions of the heart of man. Man must love the Lord God with their whole body; mind, heart, soul, and spirit. The purpose of today’s thoughts is to show the importance of these gifts given for today. These gifts are given to believers who desire hunger and are willing to be used through the working of the Holy Spirit.This will take a sacrifice of your time, consecrated to the Lord in prayer and spending time in His Word. We go after God to know Him and His love. With that said, let’s look at the meaning and definition of these gifts.
The Nine Gifts of the Holy Spirit are as follows:
Gift #1. The Word of Wisdom. This is supernatural revelation, or insight into the divine acts as to how God Himself does things. It is the application of divine knowledge according to the will of God.
The word of wisdom conveys divine instructions to men, and it may be manifested by dreams, visions, audible voices, angels, or by divine utterance in prophecy and tongues and interpretation. The word of wisdom is revelation concerning things present and future. When any special problem arises that is not covered by God’s written revelation or there are no specific rules to go by, the gift of wisdom should be used in solving the problem. See also (1 Cor. 12:8; Lk 6:9).
Gift #2. The Word of Knowledge. This is supernatural revelation, by the Spirit of certain facts in the mind of God. It may be revelations concerning God’s will, His plan, the secret of others, or their acts, thought, motives, and ambitions. This knowledge is revelation that man could not have known of himself, such as the knowledge of creation, the church, and other truths that were hidden from man from eternity. Both the Word of Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge confirm the Word of God. The young and inexperienced may be the recipient of this knowledge as well as the old and experienced, for it does not depend upon natural ability, but upon the direct acts of the Spirit of God. See (1 Cor. 12:8; Lk 18:22)
Gift #3. The Gift of Faith: is defined as: a supernatural endowment of the Spirit whereby that which God has said, recognized as a settled fact, to be done, regardless of what it is. It is the very backbone of the spiritual gifts into which and from which all the life-cord and nerve-centers of communicating power are centered. Yes…it is the miraculous assurance that guarantees to every man those things, which he has asked of God, according to the promises. In other words, it is the spinal-cord of the body of Christ and the very life of the Church. See also (1 Cor. 12:9; Acts 3:6; Heb.1-3).
Gift #4. The Gift of Healing. This gift of healing is the imparting of power to heal, cure, repair, and make the whole physical body and deliver it from demons and diseases or infirmities. This is supernatural healing without the use of human aids, medicines, or any natural means whatsoever. So much of the mainstream of religious belief has been so watered down that it has become acceptable to believe that Jesus heals through medicines and doctors. The above-stated way is the way of the world, but supernatural healing is God’s way. This belief is no more scriptural than that He saves from sin through theories and methods of men. Our salvation is provided for, and our sin is forgiven through our individual faith in Jesus and His grace. Just as our healing is provided for through our faith in Jesus and His grace through the working of the Holy Spirit. The supernatural gifts of healing are for today and available to all believers, those that ask and believe by faith will receive. See also (1 Cor. 12:9, 28; Acts 28:1-10).
Gift #5. The Gift of Miracles. What is a miracle? A miracle is a supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature for a specific purpose and time. It is worked by faith. When God sets aside His laws or suspends the laws of nature, this action is a miracle. God is not bound by natural laws of His own making; otherwise, this limitation would reduce Him to the plane of a creature and do away with His sovereignty. All of the gifts of the Spirit are in one sense miraculous, “supernatural”, but the use of the word “miracle” for this gift, or the working of miracles is used to display God’s power and magnificence.
In the Young’s Concordance, the Greek word “miracle” here is called “powers”. That is to say, the working of miracles is called the working of powers. In the Greek concordance, this same word “miracles” means, “explosions of almightiness.” It means impelling, staggering wonders and astonishment. In other words, “the working of impelling, staggering wonders or astonishments, or the outworking of explosions of almightiness.” See also (1 Cor. 12:10; Acts 6:8).
Gift #6. The Gift of Prophecy. Prophecy in the New Testament translated in the Greek means “divinely inspired and anointed utterance.” The gift of prophecy is entirely supernatural. Speaking with other tongues is a supernatural utterance in other tongues. Prophecy is supernatural utterance in a known tongue. It is a manifestation of the Spirit of God, not of the human mind. Through prophecy, God speaks to men through the organs of men. When man was created and placed in the Garden of Eden, God conversed with him directly. Sin broke the communion. There remains a deep longing in the human spirit for direct communication with his Creator. This basic need of man is supplied in a measure through the operation of the gift of prophecy as it is manifested in the New Testament church. In the Old Testament days, one inquired of the Lord through a priest. In the present dispensation, all believers are part of a royal priesthood and may individually approach the Lord.
See also (1 Cor. 12:10; 1 Thess. 5:20-21; Eph. 4:11)
Gift #7. Discerning of the Spirit. This gift completes the gifts of revelation in the realm of knowledge. The gift of discernment is limited in scope to a single class of objects – spirits. That is in the spiritual realm only. This is supernatural revelation, or insight into the realm of spirits to detect them and read even the thoughts of the mind. Its purpose is to give an insight into the spirit realm and reveal the kind of spirit working in and through a person and to make known thoughts and motives. Discernment of things outside the spirit realm is the work of wisdom and knowledge. The power to discover the faults of others is not a work of true discernment, for no supernatural power is necessary to do this. As we can see stated in Matt. 7:1, 15-20, judging others is not to be part of the Christian life. We are not to condone sin; pointing out sin is not judging as long as we do not do it in a condemning way. Love has to be in everything we do. (1 Cor. 12:10; Luke 8:29).
Gift #8. The Gift of Divers Kinds of Tongues. Simply put, the gift of tongues is supernatural utterance by the Holy Spirit through a believer in a language, which the believer has never learned. That is to say, tongues (unknown languages) to the speaker, but known somewhere in the universe. The word “unknown” in 1 Cor. 14 is in italics, and that means it is not in the original Greek. For there are many hundreds of languages and dialects in the world, and many do not sound like a real language. This gift is one of the three main ones (the vocal gifts) to be used in the meetings of believers. This gift has nothing to do with the mind or intellect as far as the understanding is concerned. For it is simply the Spirit employing the vocal organs and other facilities of speech. Yes, man’s will and spirit are active and in perfect accord with God, who is the one directly speaking through the man by the Spirit; the miracle of utterance in unknown languages speaking spiritual mysteries unknown to the individual, which we cannot understand. See also (1 Cor. 12:10; 14:13-33 Acts 19:6; Acts 2:1-21; 10:44-48; 19;1-7; Rom. 8:26-27.
Gift #9. The Gift of Interpretation of Tongues. This gift is the only one that is dependent upon another because it is useless unless there are tongues to interpret. It is the same in principle and operation as the tongues, only it is the interpretation of the tongues that are spoken as stated in 1 Cor. 14:5, “I wish you could all speak in tongues, but even more, I wish you could all prophesy. Prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be strengthened.” As stated above, Paul’s instructions to the Church concerning the Gift of Interpretation were that speaking in other tongues is not permitted in the public assembly when there is no interpreter. If you speak in other tongues as giving a prophecy in a gathering setting, be prepared to interpret it if no one else gives an interpretation. Tongues with interpretation are acceptable and are equal to prophecy. Most of what has been said on the gift of Prophecy applies to the gift of interpretation. The two are very similar except that the speaking in tongues always precedes an interpretation.
Don’t confuse the above Gift of Interpretation with the infilling of the Holy Spirit, with evidence of speaking in tongues. This gift of tongues is for all to receive when you are filled with the Holy Spirit after you are born again. This gift is for individual encouragement when praying and communicating with God. As the Bible states, the Spirit of God knows how to express your heart, or you might say speak your heart, when you do not know how to express it.
This brings encouragement to the individual. Because of their similarity, the question arises, “What is the purpose of the gift of interpretation and why not have it all prophecy in the assembly?”
Here are some reasons:
1) Without the gift of interpretation, there would be no speaking in other tongues in a public congregation, for the speaker is told to be silent unless there is an interpreter present. The speaker in other tongues is a sign “to them that believe NOT”.
2) Another reason for the manifestation of the gift of tongues is that it alerts the congregation as to when the Holy Ghost is about to speak. It gives the people time to get into a reverent attitude of prayer to receive before the giving of the message.
3) To the person that is new to this type of manifestation, the effect is greatly enhanced when a message is spoken in an unknown tongue and then skillfully interpreted. It is also an excellent demonstration of two or more members of the Body of Christ working together.
4) It is not uncommon for someone present when a message is given or spoken in the unknown tongue to recognize the language spoken as his own native language. Such an occurrence usually leaves a very deep impression upon the person, as did on the day of Pentecost. The gift of tongues and the accompanying interpretation, given under strong anointing, usually results in great edification and blessing to the listeners. The purpose of the gift of interpretation of tongues is to make tongues clear to the church. Remember, it is the interpretation of tongues, not the translation of them. Interpretation is the rendering of the sense and meaning of tongues, while translation is the rendering from one language into another by the exact words and phrases.
At times, the interpretation may seem briefer or larger than the tongues spoken. In other words, interpretation is summing up by the Holy Spirit what was said in the unknown language. This may come word by word or a summary of the tongue; however, the Holy Spirit wants to relay his own words. Also (1 Cor. 12:10; 14:13-33)
It is my hope that all believers will see the importance of these gifts for the church and begin to desire hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ Jesus. We are to be a holy and pure vessel to be used for God’s purpose. When we allow the Holy Spirit to flow freely, we allow God our Creator to have His way in us through the working of the Holy Spirit. Quench, not the Holy Spirit.
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