Scriptures unmistakably have so much to say about spiritual gifts and abilities tat is given to the believer by the Holy Spirit to be used in the Church and in the ministry of the to reach the lost world for Christ. But as in the secular world a man receives a gift and he does not always use it wisely or in the way that the giver intended for it to be used, so it is often times in the Church. Often times we see a Christian that misuses his or her gift of God or does not use them wisely. But the misuse and/or abuse of God’s gifts are the very reasons why we are not seeing the world reached for Christ Jesus.

 

There are a lot of people that believe that we can’t really know anything about Spiritual gifts, or that only preachers or long time Saints of God are the only ones that can know anything at all.

 

But Paul says in verse 1 that he didn’t want us to be misinformed concerning Spiritual gifts, he didn’t want us ignorant, but he wanted us educated about them. So this tells me that any well meaning Saint of God can understand about Spiritual gifts if they have a desire to.

 

But the only way that we can learn of these things is by prayer and study. In order to understand about Spiritual gifts or anything else about God we must search God’s word and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and teach us. (No.5 &No.6)

2 Tim 3:16-17

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.  (KJV)

 

2 Tim 2:15-16

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. (KJV)

How can we shun or stay away from all the garbage that is being preached today? By study and avoiding anything that even has a hint of false doctrine.

Acts 17:11

11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (KJV)

Why did Peter write that the people at Berea were nobler than the people at Thessonlica? Because they received the word and searched the scriptures daily to find the truth.

 

Rom 15:4

4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (KJV)

It is a lazy Christian that will not study for him or her self to see what is right and what is wrong, but will take someone’s word on it.

 

That is why we have so many divisions today, we are not backing our convictions with the word of God, but we believe because a certain Preacher said so.

 

** We need to watch ourselves and be careful not to be preaching or teaching a false message. V.3a

 

Many of us have heard before a well meaning person giving advice to a young Christian that is just not Biblical, all because they have not been grounded in the word themselves. (Use example of dating before divorced.)

 

** We can also be guilty of speaking the truth apart from the Holy Spirit. V.3b

 

I want to share with you this quote from the Preachers Outline Study Bible.

“To call Jesus “Lord” is to acknowledge His deity, that He is God Himself. The point is this: no man can please God by calling Jesus Lord apart from the Holy Spirit. Any person can speak the words that “Jesus is Lord,” but for a person to please God, he must acknowledge within his heart and life that Jesus is Lord. The word acknowledge is the key: it means to surrender one’s heart to Jesus as the Lord of one’s life. And no person is going to do this, not really, unless he is moved upon by the Spirit of God. However, when a person is moved upon by the Spirit to say that Jesus is Lord, the person does surrender all he is and has to serve Jesus. To summarize very simply, saying that Jesus is Lord does not mean to merely mouth the words; it means to be stirred within the heart by the Spirit of God to confess that one’s life belongs to Jesus as Lord. It means to give everything that a person is and has to Christ, acknowledging Him to be the Sovereign Majesty of the universe, the very Son of God Himself.

Apparently some in the Corinthian church were saying that Jesus is Lord, but were not truly converted. They were professing truth, but had not really committed their lives to the truth. Tragically, from the earliest days of church history churches have overflowed with counterfeit and hypocritical professions.”

POSB 1 Cor.12:3

How many do we see today that are proclaiming it with their mouth but not in their lives?

 

But can also say the truth but without the Spirit say it in the wrong way. I believe that we can be bold and straight forward if God is in it, but if God is not leading us all we will do is cause harm.

 

 

1.) Define Spiritual Gifts:

The scriptures seem to tell us that there was a terrible controversy going on over Spiritual gifts in the Church at Corinth. God had richly blessed the Church with Spiritual gifts but yet the Church was not coming close to accomplishing what God wanted them to accomplish with them. And the reason was that they misunderstood and were misusing and abusing those gifts. So it was very important that Paul defined what the Spiritual gifts were and what they did.

 

We today need to understand the meaning and purpose of Spiritual gifts as well.

2. (12:7) Gifts, Spiritual: the purpose of spiritual gifts is to enable believers to do the ministry, the work to which God has called them. The word “profit” (sumpheron) means edification, advantage, benefit. Believers are equipped with spiritual gifts primarily for the benefit and edification of others, not for themselves. The gifts are not given to believers for their own gratification or for them to revel in a sense of self-importance and super-spirituality. The believer does, of course, profit and benefit from the gift given him, but he is gifted primarily to edify and help others. This is seen in the word “manifestation.” It means to be openly and publicly seen. The gifts of the Spirit are to be openly and publicly used; they are...

·        to be manifested to the church, that is, used to edify the church.

·      to be manifested to the world, that is, used to benefit the world (reaching the lost).

       Note a crucial fact that is not always understood. The gifts of the Spirit are “given to every man.” They are not given only to the educated and outstanding. Every single believer is given some spiritual gift by the Spirit of God, and it is given because it is needed within the church and the world, needed to help in ministering to people and in reaching the lost for Christ. (POSB 1 Cor.12: 7)

 

Before Christ, when God called a person for a particular work He always provided the gifts and abilities needed to accomplish God’s plan. But ever since Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit there has been a remarkable change in this process. Not only does God call certain men and women and fit them for service, but every believer is called and is gifted by God to minister and serve. To witness of God’s saving grace is one reason that we are given the Holy Spirit and it is every reason that we are given Spiritual gifts. The gifts that are given are meant to be used in sharing Christ and in doing the ministry of the Church.

 

These Spiritual gifts are not necessarily natural abilities that we have develop from our youth. For these things can be used for worldly gain as well. And it is my thinking that if you believe you have a God given talent then you will want o use it for Him and Him alone.

 

But these gifts are special endowments given to you by God to carry out His will in the Church and to the lost world.

 

Whatever you have or whatever you can do, God expects you to offer it to Him for the use in His Kingdom.

 

These gifts are to be used to qualify us for a specific position in the Church.

 

These gifts are to be used to benefit the Church and individuals.

 

2.) List of Gifts:

It does us no good to know what the gifts of the Spirit are for unless we know what they are and what they mean.

 

a) The Word of Wisdom: In the Greek the word “word” is defined “doctrine or teaching”. So this gift is given unto the ones that God desires to share the teaching and meanings of His word to the world.

b) The Word of Knowledge: Now we have seen this misused before by some saying that God has gave them a word of knowledge that somebody has a back ache and needs to call in a donate $200 and be healed. But the true meaning of this is knowing what to do in day-to-day situations that arise. It is being able to take Gods truths that have been revealed to you and apply them to your everyday living. It is also the ability to share with others ways to do the same thing. To be able to give advice and counsel in perplexing cases.

c) The Gift of Faith: This is not your ordinary faith that we talk about in salvation. This is very special faith. This is mustard seed faith, mountain-moving faith, water-walking faith, and wonder-working faith. This is the faith that is needed to accomplish great things for God. This is what happens in the heart and soul of the believer when they are faced with a difficult matter, but all of the sudden you have an inward assurance that God’s grace would be sufficient and he would see you through. See Mark 9:23 and Luke 17:5

d) The Gift of Healing: This gift has been said to be finished by some and yet others are attempting to misuse it. But this is a gift that is given to Saints of God in order to bestow divine health upon others. Acts 3:1-10. But it was not always a continual gift, not saying it can’t be but simply that it is proven not to be. See Acts 14:8-10. But Paul could not heal his own thorn in the flesh or could he Timothy,1 Timothy 5:23.

e) The Gift of Working Miracles: This is such as raising the dead, Moses and the Red Sea; the snake biting Paul in Acts 28:3. We can see things of similar happenings today, things that we just can’t explain.

f) Gift of Prophecy:  This can mean 2 things, telling of future events and proclaiming the word or the Lord. 2 Sam. 12:1-14

g) The Gift of Discerning Spirits: This is the ability to be able to tell what is a true spirit and what is a false one. We often need this to be kept from being taken to the cleaners.

1 John 4:1

h) The Gift of Tongues: This has been the most disputed gift of all, but if we would just go to the true word of God and see what Paul said in that day to those people, we could have a clear understanding. The word “kinds” in the original Greek is “genos” (ghe-nos) and it means “offspring, family, stock, nation, or race of a particular people. The word “tongue” is “glossa” and it means a language or dialect. So what Paul was saying here was that there was a gift of a man being able to speak in a language in which he had never heard in order to give instruction or preach Jesus to a people from a different country that would attend their ministry.

i) The Gift of Interpretation: This would occur when there were some in a company that didn’t understand though the majority of others around them did, God would give someone the ability to interrupt to them the happens.

j) Gift of Ministry: The word “ministry” in the Greek is “diakonia” (dee-ak-on-ee-ah) and it is used often to mean one that waits tables or one that meets the needs of others. So the meaning of this gift would be a very special ability to serve, aid, help and assist others, to assist them in a way that they are built up and truly helped. All of us probably know someone that is unusually gifted in this way. It seems as if when bad times come about these people rise to the top. Now all of us can lend a helping hand and develop a willingness and ability to help, but there are just some that are particularly gifted towards it.

k) Gift of Teaching: The gift of teaching is the ability to explain, root, and ground people in the truth of Gods word. It is the gift of understand and communicating the Word of God and edifying believers in the truth. It is given to ones that will dedicate their lives to the Word of God and are willing to share it with others.

l) Gift of Exhortation: This is a very special ability to excite, motivate, advise, encourage, comfort, and warn people. This enables one to stir the lost to make a decision for Christ and to stir the saved to grow in Christ. It is the ability to arouse people to get up and get busy fulfilling their task in the Lord. We need on with that gift here at the Stanton First Church of God. I believe many has caught our vision but we need to be aroused and excited about fulfilling it.

m) Gift of Giving: This is one that God has given much so that they can in turn have plenty to help out others.

n) Gift of Ruling: This is one with the ability to lead, have authority, to administrate and govern. This is not for the lazy or slothful, but the ones with this gift are to blaze the path for the flock of God and are to do it with zeal and hard work and great determination.

o) Gift of Mercy: This is one that has the special ability to forgive and be full of compassion in no matter the circumstances. They do not forgive grudgingly, they don’t hesitate to forgive others, they are not quick to criticize a person but doing all they can to lift a person up that is in need of Mercy. (A desire to help the one that is down and out.)

p) Gift of Apostle: This gift is thought by some to be non-existent in our present day and age. But it could very well be these are men and women that are given more than one gift of the Spirit and are sent out to various locations to use them to edify the Kingdom of God and plant churches in the Kingdom. I really have no scriptural bases for this.

q) Evangelist: This is like a missionary with the difference that they focus more on winning the lost to Christ and informing the Church by the way of doctrinal preaching.

r) Pastor: This is the under-shepherd of the flock of God.

 

Are there any of these gifts that you think or know that you have? And should we seek or ask God for certain gifts?

 

The answer is yes, 1 Cor.12: 31

 

 

3.) Purpose of the Gifts:

a.) Qualifies one for a specific office in the Body of Christ:

In the days of the early Church only the possessor of the gift was appointed the position. But I am afraid that in today’s Church we have gotten away from that practice and began to just lump them all together.

 

Explain how some may be preachers (prophets) but not a pastor and some may be pastors but not preachers, etc.

 

b.) For benefit of the Church: Eph 4:12

The gifts benefit the Church by perfecting the Saints, fulfilling the work of the ministry and uplifting the Body of Christ and making it what it ought to be.

 

To realize that you have one of the Spiritual gifts and deny God the use of it is to commit a sin of commission.

James 4:17

17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (KJV)

 

We need to pray for the gifts to use, the power, strength and wisdom to use them.

Rom 12:1

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (KJV)

 

What are you doing for the Lord?

 

-This Bible Lesson posted 4/17/2006 – Pastor Anthony T. Molihan, Stanton First Church of God