Spiritual Gifts

My original quotes have been corrected, as
needed, if i noticed a spelling error.

I come against any spirit that will do otherwise even the
spirit of investigative truth with says "the sign gifts are
for the first century". Fine, if the sign gifts are for the
first century only, then they aught not to show up very much in
the 21st century. A further discussion of this matter is showing
the very contention presented. So the 'sign gifts are for the
first century' argument is fostered by this discussion.

So by
our study of these gifts of the Spirit we can learn to better
serve our Blessed Lord and Savior: Messiah Jesus.

2Ti 3:16-17 (KJV1611 Edition):
All Scripture is giuen by inspiration of God, & is
profitable for doctrine, for reproofe, for correction,
for instrution in righteousnesse,
17 That the man of God may be perfect*, throughly furnished*

* ('perfect' here does not have the current English meaning
of 'without flaw' but the middle English meaning of 'complete')
**('furnished' is a middle English term used then to indicate
what we would now call 'equipped' )

By contrast I've also seen such a discussion of serving
God in the Local Church be raided by spiritual marauders who
will plunder our service and kill our joy.

Indeed the local church is the proper place to discuss the
Gifts of the Spirit. A debate forum like this is, by contrast,
probably a poor place to discuss the matter. There are some debaters
who don't want to be encouraged toward good work, some
argumentative people who want to drag us all down.

See, i told you that the gift of 'discernment of spirits' is
a hard gift to have with Knowledge. I have the knowledge that
I've studied the gifts; i have the discernment of spirits to
recognize the coming of the marauders. Yet i have to be
nice to them, according to the board rules and not even name them
by name. If you have any love of Christ or concern for the
wellbeing of the body of Christ please stick to the positive
part of this discussion. If you cannot control your human
urge to 'be right' at the expense of other Saints of God,
please go start your own Topic. Thank you for reasonable,
Godly actions.

Again, some of the 'gifts' considered by the gift inventory
are just like some responsibilities of all Christians.
I know we are all to love the saints. But I know one Saint
years ago who had lots more love to share. I went to visit
her in the Full Care Center. She said: "I love that new
preacher of yours, he came by to see me twice."
Well that preacher had been there 3½-years and only came by
to see her twice? I know I would have griped, but not she - she
had more love in her little finger than most members of the
church (self included) had in their whole body.

 

Marcia, you are a good writer and make yourself understood quite easily. I think it is me with the communication glich. I realize that you are saying that talents and gifts are two different things. I am the one saying that what people call gifts of the spirit are in actuality the same as natural talents.

I agree. IF they had the gift of teaching it would not mean that they hadn't misused the gift by teaching the wrong thing. My thinking was that it ought to be the rare exception when error was taught and not the general rule. As an example, we could look at this board. We are Baptist yet, there is a huge diversity of opinion being put forth by people who claim to have the gift of teaching, discernment, knowledge, etc. If there is this much disagreement among people who should have very similar opinions then just imagine how much diversity there is amoong the rest of Christianity. There are probably people on this board who think they have a special "gift" to be able to communicate on the internet. (Not me, of course. )

I agree that the information is their responsibility. What I can't understand is the reasoning behind thinking that just because someone has the ability to teach that this is somehow a "gift" in the sense that is being talked about in the new testament. There were people who had an ability to teach before Pentecost. Something different happened when the Holy Spirit began giving "gifts" then. I just don't see the difference between the pre-Pentecost talents and the claims of those who say they have recieved the "gifts" post-Pentecost.

 

A gift of the Holy Spirit is something God does in us, if we could have done it without Him it wouldn't be a gift from God, it wouldn't glorify Him when we do use it because He wouldn't be doing anything through us, it would just be our natural abilities, just like anyone else. Even unsaved have natural abilities. So it can't be the samething. God says spiritual gifts are something He is responsable for, not us in any way. I believe Him.

 

Amen, Sister DonnA -- Preach it!

Yes, you showed your gift of teaching and
knowledge just in this one post here!

Isn't it uplifting to know that God gives
a person the gifts we need to do
the ministry God gives to us to do!

 

Well I went to dictionaries and encyclopedias and could not find out what EKBALLISM means. Can anybody enlighten this poor ignorant soul.

 

Ekbalism is the Christian PC term for exorcism.

 

Me too. IT just isn't in
dictionary.com

The site at:
http://buildingchurch.net/g2s-d.htm#Ekballism

exlains 'ekballism' (the word means much
the same as 'exorcism'). Exorcism is
related to the casting of demons out of
peop0le. This was element 'X' or 'exorcism'
on my old unmodified earler list of Wagnor.

5. Ekballism: "The special ability that God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to cast out demons and evil spirits" in the name of Jesus Christ.
Traditionally, this gift is known as exorcism, which comes from the Greek work, exorkizo, and means to extract by an oath. In spiritual terms this infers the incantations and spells used by pagans to extract the demonic. Scripturally, this term is only used in relation to the demonic to describe the sons of Sceva's work (Acts 19:13). Wherever Jesus, an apostle, or other believer casts out a demon, the greek term is ekballo, which means to eject, pluck out, or send away. This term is command-driven, and not dependent upon a formula. In Christian life, the term ekballism demonstrates the power we have in Jesus, and minimizes the need for a formula to accomplish Christ's work. Ekballism is a term to separate the power of Christ from the confusion of spiritism around the world.

This gift is a sign gift. Jesus gave His apostles the authority to cast out demons (Mark 3:14, 15; 6:13), and the gift was used during the earliest days of the church (Acts 15:16; 16:16-18). Although western society often excuses spiritual powers with rational explanations, there is no reason to believe that evil spirits are no longer at work in our world. However, those with this gift should be discerning in their use of it, and not develop an excessive preoccupation with demons and evil spirits. The Christian focus should be on the victory won in Jesus Christ, and the salvation and abundant life He offers, not the ever-present forces of evil in this world. Scriptures: Matthew 12:22-32; Luke 10:12-20; Acts 8:5-8; 16:16-18; Romans 8:38-39; Ephesians 6:10-12.

 

I just did the test bro Ed posted on the first page.


A very high score for. Sigh....

Voluntary Poverty

In better news I also have a cluster in the mid teens: service, knowledge and administration.
That covers my job rather well.

 

Thankyou for the answer Ed & Moique. I scored an 8 on that gift,I guess I'm not the guy to come to for that.

 

THANK YOU ED!!

 

Mioque,

Did you volunteer for it, or did it just attach itself to you?

 

Congradulations.

I had already noticed 'knowledge' and
'administration' in your on-line posts.

BTW, "many are called, but few are chosen".
Some of us have the gift of poverty but
unlike you we
don't have a great lack of funds so we can
maximize our gift

 

Ed my poverty isn't voluntary, what now???

 

Romans 5:3-5 (HCSB = Holman Christian Standard Bible):
And not only that, but we also rejoice in our
afflictions, because we know that affliction
produces endurance,
4 endurance produces proven
character, and proven character produces hope.
5 This hope does not disappoint,
because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

But i'm sure that isn't something we can
do with our hands tied behind our backs

Go with what you have, serve using the giftes
you have. (I suggest skipping the 'giving' gift)

 

LO< yah, well, most of the time I have to skip the extra giving. But I give myself and my excess time, and the use of my gifts as God calls on them.

 

I'm going to have a lot of charcter one day.

 

I'm going to have a lot of charcter one day. </font>[/QUOTE]You already do honey.

 

Thanks for your clarifications, Artimaeus!

I see what you are saying. I've heard this before and wondered about it myself.

I did teach before I was a believer (I taught astrology) and I think I was good at it but teaching always comes up on these spiritual gifts tests and I do teach in what I do in my ministry as far as explaining things when I do public speaking. So I am not sure how to explain that.

I have also heard that the idea of a test for spiritual gifts is ridiculous.

One thing that bothers me about them is that they are very subjective -- it is leaving it up to the person to answer all this and we tend to be very biased and non-objective about ourselves. I know I am.

The list of spiritual gifts in the Bible does not include some given on this test.

 

My top 4 were...

Discerning of Spirits with a score of 19
Knowledge with a score of 17
Service with a score of 15
Prophecy with a score of 14

Other tests in the past I've taken Teaching and Prophecy were my two highest.