A spiritual gift is a special endowment that the Holy Spirit gives to a believer according to God’s grace to serve others in the community of faith. The Greek word used for spiritual gifts is charisma. It shows that the gifts are given by the Holy Spirit as per His will. This Greek word charisma occurs in seventeen places in the New Testament.
1. Spiritual Gifts and Natural Talents
Natural talents are different from spiritual gifts. Natural talents are the common grace of the Spirit present naturally in a person from birth, which is used for instruction and entertainment. But the spiritual gifts are the special grace of the Spirit which the believer gets from new birth which can be used for Christian service and spiritual growth in the context of the Church.
2. Identification of Spiritual Gifts
The Bible says that the spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit as per His will for the common good of all believers. All believers are given gifts an members of the body of Christ and some find it difficult to identify their spiritual gifts. Here are a few guidelines to identify the spiritual gifts.
a. Study all the passages in the Bible dealing with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and also read other books which deal with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
b. Take time to be alone with God and write down the answers to the following questions about yourself.
Do you enjoy doing a particular work or a service in the church or in the ministry?
What are the services of God in which you find God’s blessing?
What does your inner spirit say about your gifts?
What do others say about the gifts that you have in you?
Write down the gifts that you identify in this process and believe that the Lord has given you those gifts. Pray for God’s grace to improve the gifts that you have discovered in you and start putting them into practice. Never get discouraged because of the drawbacks or failures. Once you are sure of your spiritual gift seek possible opportunities to use it.
3. List of Gifts
Four New Testament passages give the list of the names of gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows on believers.
a. Gifts given according to grace
Romans 12:6-8 lists the names of seven gifts. They are prophecy, ministry. teaching, exhortation, giving, leading and showing mercy.
b. Foundation gifts
1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 27-31 contains a list of twelve foundation gifts. These gifts are called as foundation gifts because they are widely used in the foundation period of the Church (Eph. 2:20). They are words of wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, apostles, helpers and administrations. Teacher
c. Equipping ministries
Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11-16 that five equipping ministries are needed for the edification of the Church and for the work of the ministry. People with these gifts are very important for the Church because they edify the Church and assist in missions. The five equipping ministries are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
e. Other gifts
The Bible also gives names of other gifts which are not present in the above three lists. They are eunuchs (Matt. 19:12), simple life style (Acts 2:44, 45, 4:31-
153. giving to be bunt (1 Cor. 13:3), hospitaliny (49), miesiones Eph. 36.7) Intercession (Rom. 8.26, 27) and driving out demons (Acts 16-16-18)
So totally there are are about twenty-seven gifts. In these gifts, the gifts like evangelism, exhortation, ministry, giving leadership, pastoral care, teaching and words of wisdom are very important to fulfill the purpose for which they are given. But people long for miracles, prophecy, healing and tongues because they seek self glory and want to become popular and prosperous
4. Purpose of Gifts
The Bible says that the gifts are given to each one ‘for the profit of all (1 Cor. 12.7). There is a misconception among believers that the gifts are for personal edification, exaltation and projection. Gifts are given to believers in the context of the church and hence the gifts are given for the edification and ministry of the church. The purposes for which the gifts were given to the church can be summed up as follows.
To equip the saints and to edify the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12-14).
To promote mission and for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12).
To exalt Jesus Christ and for the glory of God (1 Pet. 4:10, 11: John 16:14)
To unite all believers and to strengthen the fellowship (Rom. 12:4, 5; 1 Cor. 12:12-26).
All spiritual gifts are therefore servanthood gifts to bring glory to Christ and not to oneself. If you try and use your gifts to glorify or focus on yourself then you are in error
5. Present trends in Gifts of the Holy Spirit
In this century, there is a marked change in the belief and practice of gifts. The UBS Bachelor of Divinity Study Guide quoted H. A. Snyder from his book The Problem of Wineskins and gave the following tendencies which are present among believers about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (1983:115-118)
The tendency to deny or discredit spiritual gifts.
The tendency to over-individualize spiritual gifts.
The tendency to confuse spiritual gifts and native abilities.
The tendency to exaggerate some gifts and depreciate others.
The tendency to divorce spiritual gifts from the cross.
6. Certain Facts about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The study of Scriptures provides the following facts about spiritual gifts.
The spiritual gifts are distributed to believers individually as per the will of God by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:9-11). They are gifts of grace which cannot be obtained by fasting or good works (Eph. 2:8, 9).
God gives each child of God a few gifts. All spiritual gifts are not given to a single individual and all believers need not have the same gift (1 Cor. 12:29, 30)
The Bible says that all believers must desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14.1) but we cannot choose the gifts as we like. This is because spiritual gifts are given as per the Sovereigps will of God (1 Cor. 12:11). One may desire certain pills be will get them only if it is God’s will for him. but
God gives different gifts to different members of the body of Chrut All should not desire for certain specific gifts, but should use the gils dut the Lord has given to them and should not worry about what the other members are doing.
One should not confuse natural talents with spiritual gifts. All talents are not gifts
Gifts should never be put aside but must be used (1 Tim. 4:14). At the same time exalting one gift over the other gifts and projecting man over the Giver of the gift must be avoided.
Gifts in an individual can be improved by constant practice and prayer (2 Tim 1:6).
The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person should not be measured by the gifts he exercises but by the spiritual fruit that he produces.
Some gifts may not be spectacular but all gifts are important.
Performance of gifts alone is not important. There must be practical godliness in daily living. A person may be blessed with many gifts but if he fails to practice love, then he will be nothing but a religious noise (1 Cor. 13:1).
