Understanding 'gifts'
The word is closely related to the word 'grace.' John White who has written for Intravarsity Press describes charismata as 'gracelets.' Dr. William Thurman, former head of the Classics department at UNC Asheville has used the term 'gracious bestowals' to describe the charismata.
Perhaps we should back up and consider what 'charis' (grace) means. We usually think of grace as getting salvation even though we don't deserve it. That is truely an amazing aspect of grace, but grace extends even further into our lives than that.
If you look up what 'charis' means, you will see that it means favor, or gift. If the king has favor on you, he may give you a gift. 'Grace' is favor, and the manifestation of that favor, the gift that is given. If you go through a concordance and look up occurances of 'grace,' you will see that in some places, grace is used to describe when God enables or empowers someone to do something.
Paul wrote that he outlabored the other apostles, yet not him, but the grace that was with him. God's grace in Paul outlabored the other apostles. It worked with Paul.
We can see that grace is paralleled with 'power' when the Lord spoke to Paul and said,
My grace is sufficient for thee
for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Notice the parallel between grace and power. This use of grace in scripture is one reason some Christians will say things like "God gave me grace to endure."
Romans 6 teaches us that sin shall no more have dominion over you for you are not under the law, but under grace. God's grace empowers us and keeps sin from having dominion over us. It is in operationin our daily lives.
GOD-GIVEN ABILITIES
God's grace shows up in practical, sometimes mundane-looking ways. God saves us by His grace, even though we don't deserve it. He empowers us by His grace to endure temptation and overcome sin. He has favor on us and enables us with this grace.
Romans 12 says that we have gifts (gracious bestowals) according to the grace given unto us. I Peter 4 says that as every man has received the gift, even so let us minister one to another as _good stewards of the manifold grace of God._ Peter tells the person who ministers, to do so with the ability that God provides. This is a good description of grace and spiritual gifts in a lot of cases-- the ability which God provides.
The charismata are abilities that God provides. Some of these abilities are quite amazing-- the ability to know the secrets of another person's heart or the myseteries of God by the word of knowledge of the gift of prophecy...the working of miracles, and many other gifts. But some of these abilities seem quite normal. For example, teaching, giving, ministering, and ruling can be spiritual gifts.
Does it make sense to say that all 'charismata' in the first century were spectacular and therefore giving, etc. was much more spectacular then? No. Let's think about this. How could the gift of 'giving' have been a supernatural power? What did people do, give 5 dinars and it miraculously turned into 100 in the recievers hand? That seems unlikely. Did those who had the gift of administrating or ruling have a supernatural power than made people obey them? Judging from the problems the churches faced as recorded in Paul's letters, it would seem this was not the case.
No, Paul called abilities that seem natural and normal, 'gifts' or 'charismata.' Keep in mind that the word 'charismata' does not literally mean 'spiritual gift.' It means something like 'gracious bestowal.' God, in His grace, gave some people to ability to do certain things. Some of these things are supernatural-looking, and some seem quite mundane. But all are given for the common good. The value of a spiritual gift is not judged by how spectacular it is. Depending on how one interprets the end of I Corinthians 12, one could argue that teaching is a higher-ranked gift than the working of miracles.
UNBELIEVERS HAVING GIFTS?
What about unbelievers? They have natural talents. Some theologians believe in 'common grace'--that is grace that God givesall people. God enables people with natural talents. Can unbelievers have 'charismata?' Were the supernatural abilities described in the Old Testament, before the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2, also charismata?
We know that there was grace in the Old Testament because even back then God was in the habit of giving grace to the humble, as the Bible says. Isn't it reasonable to think of Elijah or Moses' 'gift' to be able to prophecy as 'charismata'?
But then, what about Balaam. Balaam normally resorted to divination. He is a type of false teachers in the New Testament. But we see that He also could talk with God and he prophesied true prophecies over Israel when the Spirit of God came upon him. Couldn't this be viewed as a 'charism' in action?
What about Caiaphas, who ___prophesied___ that one Man should die for the people, even though he was plotting the death of Christ?
And what about those wicked who Christ will turn away at the end of the age recorded at the end of Matthew 7? If they really were casting out demons, could they have really been prophesying and doing wonderful works in Christ's name, but end up not being a part of the elect?
What about the miraculous power that Judas had when he, like the other 12, was given power to heal the sick and cleanse the lepers when the 12 were sent out two by two into the towns and villages of Israel? Couldn't that be considered 'charismata.'
So we cannot rule out the idea that unbelievers, or at least the unelect, could potentially exercise charismata, even the pneumatika type.
