Spiritual Gifts

Yes. I certainly believe people have more than one gift (I believe I have about 4-5 prominent ones).

I don't think any one person has them all (except Christ) because they are meant to be used corporately.

 

In theory I think it is possible for a person to have them all, but in practice I thik this is unlikely (My personal opinion). Regardless, whether we have one or more we are to exercise them all. Not having the particular gift of faith does not negate a believer's responsibility to exercise faith etc.

 

I believe a person can have more than one gift. Some people have more gifts than others. Some use their gifts more than others.

 

Yes a person can have more then one gift, but non one has them all. The gifts are meant not for personal edification, but to be used along wiht other christians and their gifts, if we could have them all we would be self sufficent and not have to depend on others in ministry. BUt we have have gifts and fit together just like the bible says as a body, as one part of the body is not the whole body, preforming all functions, neither are we meant to preform all the functions, we would not fit like to body, opperating like the body if we were all an eye, or a finger, then we could hear or walk.

 

What Kate said. Look at 1 Corinthians 12:11, and then compare it with the following passage (v.12-26).

 

More than one.

 

Over the last 2 or 3 years I have studied spiritual gifts in light of the charismatic movement and I have come to the conclusion that there are NO spitirual gifts for todays Christians. People are born with certain predispositions, people have talent, and these predispositions and talents can be God given and in that sense you can call them gifts but to say that someone has had a spiritual gift bestowed on them after salvation is indefensible. I have never seen any evidence from anyone that they have an ability suddenly that they did not have before. All of the gifts mentioned in the New Testament were abilities that people did not have before and now have. They did not learn them or develop them.

 

Spiritual Gifts are most certainley for today, that is why so many Christians have them. Yes you can certainley have more than one Spiritual Gift, I have seen a number of instances where Spiritual Gifts can be situational. I knew a Salvation Army MInister who found he ministered with a different Spiritual Gift in three different churches that he had be moved around to minister in.

If we decided to say that there could not be Spiritual Gifts, I can not see a biblical precedent for doing that. Some claim 1Cor 13:10 states that "But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with". That which is perfect is Jesus Christ. Refer to Heb 5:9 And being made Perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. Hence when Jesus Christ returns to the earth, Spiritual GIfts will no longer be needed. Up until that time they are in full effect.

 

Someone give me an example of a spiritual gift where the person suddenly has an ability that one moment earlier they did not have. Do not give me talents that people have delveloped (even with God's help and blessing)..

 

(fingers tapping)...I'm waiting... Seriously, I have heard you guys discussing the plainest of scriture as though there could be twelve different interpretations. I just want one example of a gift bestowed after salvation without the benefit of learning. Baptist Believer , you said you had 4 or 5, give me one of them. I am not flaming, I want someone to acknowledge that I am right or set me straight. It is not a conviction, just something I have been studyng on recently.

 

I think the first thing to say here is that you may have some preconceived notions that need to be adjusted before I go any further… I realize that many charismatics go off the deep end with spiritual gifts and make certain assumptions about them. I am convinced that most spiritual gifts are discovered as a believer grows in faith, grace and maturity and that most gifts can be developed.

Furthermore, I think that gifts are given within people, as integrated parts of their moral/spiritual makeup and are not often something that appears as “foreign” to their character or personality.

I am also convinced that the lists of spiritual gift presented in the Bible are not meant to be exhaustive of the gifts that God bestows on His children for the service of the Kingdom.

I see gifts mentioned in these passages:

Romans 12
exhortation
giving
leadership
mercy
prophecy
service
teaching


1 Corinthians 12
administration
apostle
discernment
faith
healing
helps
word of knowledge
miracles
prophecy
teaching
tongues
tongues interpretation
word of wisdom


Ephesians 4
apostle
evangelism
pastor
prophecy
teaching


Possible Gift (the gift that nobody wants )
celibacy (1 Cor. 7:7-8)

Sure. I understand you aren’t upset. I’m just getting around to answering.

The gifts I believe that I have:

Prophecy:

This is not a fortune-telling or future-telling gift, but it is the ability to discern the truth of a situation and confront those who could possibly harm you to speak God’s truth to them. (This gift has gotten me into a lot of trouble through the course of my Christian life.) This gift was not immediate, but it began to manifest itself very early in my Christian life (about two years after my conversion, when I was 15).

Teaching:

This is simply being able to teach both small and large groups of people in a way that is easy for them to understand. I have had a large number of people tell me that I have this gift, but I’m not as certain as they seem to be. I may be simply a natural ability that is possibly enhanced by the Spirit.

Discernment:

I am very confident of this gift. I have the ability to discern truth from error very quickly (even if I don’t understand why it is wrong yet) as well as detect the work of the evil one. I am very quick to discern who is a false teacher and who is lying. Some of this may be natural ability, but I suspect that it is almost wholly of God. I do not recall having this ability before conversion.

Word of knowledge:

This is definitely one example of a gift that I have not developed. Some believers interpret this gift as the ability to gain knowledge by study, but my understanding of this gift is the reception of knowledge that you have no rational/human way of knowing. It is not “psychic” ability (because this comes and goes according to the circumstances and needs of the time), but it probably looks similar. For instance, I often know the private struggles of others (even when they are not around, when we are separated by hundreds of miles, and we have not communicated for weeks/months). When I get these insights, I use them as an opportunity for prayer for that person. It allows me to pray specifically for those needs and take practical steps to help meet those needs without the other person having to personally reveal anything to me. (I can’t count how many times I have had people confirm this to me after the fact.) It sometimes takes on more immediate application: When a friend of mine was suicidal way back in college, I was always able to find her when she went into emotional tailspins. It didn’t matter if it was in the next building or across town at a home I had never heard of before. I could get into my car and find her and take her to her counselor.

But this gift is only manifested within the context of ministry, but it happens on a fairly common basis. It is usually used in the context of prayer, but when I have been compelled to discuss my impressions with the subject of my impressions, I have always been right – even when it was embarrassing. It has given those people confidence that God is hearing their prayers and knows their concerns.

Word of wisdom:

I understand this as the ability to understand and express what and why of human circumstances and to find appropriate responses to very difficult situations. I find this gift manifested in my life much less frequently than the others, but when it happens I can’t deny it.

For instance, in a completely different situation than I mentioned previously, I had to assist a couple immediately after they had found their daughter had committed suicide. I had absolutely no time to consider what I would say or how to handle the situation, but I asked God to give me the words and I was able to counsel them with apparently amazing understanding of their situation, their feelings at that moment, and help them on the road to recovery. I was amazed at the thoughts and words that were coming out of me and I’ve often wished I had a tape recorder going so I could learn from what I said.

In other situations I have been able to provide answers to problems facing the church or a ministry team in the field without really understanding how I came to that solution. Furthermore, everyone in the room would immediately recognize that it was the proper solution (that’s truly a miracle in a room full of Baptists!).

--

So that’s a list of my primary spiritual gifts. Any good in them is from God. Any flaws in them are from me. I am no better or worse than anyone else because of my gifts (frankly, I am in awe of those who show mercy and who have the gift of helping – I obviously do not have those gifts and have been trying to develop those skills in my life).

Is this what you are looking for?

 

there was a young lady I knew of on a mission field in Africa. At a crusade, she was at the altar, praying for a chap. She began to pray in tounges, A gift she did not have up until that point. The interesting thing, is that the tounge, was this mans own language.

 

Baptist Believer, I disagree wiht some of that. Knowledge is not suddenly knowing something like Pat Robertson, ahh someones being healed right now of something terriable. Scripture does not support that. If you watch people using thier gifts you'll see what some of those gifts are.

And I do think people have their gifts, but at times one gift is more prominent then others, and at other times another may be more prominent, depending on what God has for us to do at one particular time.

 

Hmm…

An interesting thing happened once to a friend of mine. It was July 4, 1987 and we were working as part of a beach outreach on Stewart Beach, Galveston Island, Texas. It was a strange day full of unusual happenings. At one point a man with “666” tattooed on his forehead starting screaming at us (the group) and cursing God. He tried to disrupt all he could, but he got tired of hassling us.

Shortly after that incident, John and I went back to the church bus to get some equipment for later that afternoon and we walked by a woman who was helping with the event. (She was part of our prayer team that kept all interceded for us all day in prayer. That team stayed in the area by the buses and vans so they would be out of the way and would not have distractions.) When we went by I noticed that she was praying in “tongues” (that is, a ‘language’ or utterance that made no sense to me). I remarked to John that the woman seemed to be babbling. He said (with a surprised expression on his face) that he understood her prayer perfectly. He told me what he “heard” her say. (He said it was like hearing two channels – with one he could hear the gibberish I heard and with the other he could hear beautiful words pouring out of her expressing the needs of the moment.) He specifically named several things she was praying about and the way she said it (very eloquently). I was pretty skeptical about it, but when we passed her on the way back she was still “babbling” (at least, that’s what I heard), but John interpreted it again after we were out of earshot.

The words John repeated were far to eloquent for him to formulate (I had known him for about 10 years and hadn’t heard anything like that from him before or since) and he seemed as surprised about it as anyone. As far as I know (I lost touch with him about 5 years ago), he has not had a similar experience since. Of course, he’s been in Baptist circles almost all of his life.

I guess you could call that an unexpected realization of the gift of interpretation of tongues.

 

I’m sorry you disagree, but I can’t change my experience. That’s what I have experienced and it seems to line up with scripture. For what it is worth, I have done some reading on spiritual gifts and I have seen word of knowledge and word of wisdom described in this way by other believers, so it is certainly not a private interpretation.

Certainly I don’t want to be compared to Pat Robertson!

Furthermore, I am not on television making unsupportable claims of “healing”. The gift is employed in practical ministry and prayer. I would appreciate it if you would not try to twist what I have said.

Then please explain to me what the gift of “word of knowledge” is… Notice that it says word of knowledge, not just knowledge.

Certainly. And if you knew me very well in a real-world setting, you might actually experience the gift in use.

Sure. So why is it so hard to believe that God might speak to one of His children to give them information for immediate ministry to another person?

 

I think the first thing to say here is that you may have some preconceived notions that need to be adjusted before I go any further… I realize that many charismatics go off the deep end with spiritual gifts and make certain assumptions about them. I am convinced that most spiritual gifts are discovered as a believer grows in faith, grace and maturity and that most gifts can be developed.

Furthermore, I think that gifts are given within people, as integrated parts of their moral/spiritual makeup and are not often something that appears as “foreign” to their character or personality.

I am also convinced that the lists of spiritual gift presented in the Bible are not meant to be exhaustive of the gifts that God bestows on His children for the service of the Kingdom.

I see gifts mentioned in these passages:

Romans 12
exhortation
giving
leadership
mercy
prophecy
service
teaching


1 Corinthians 12
administration
apostle
discernment
faith
healing
helps
word of knowledge
miracles
prophecy
teaching
tongues
tongues interpretation
word of wisdom


Ephesians 4
apostle
evangelism
pastor
prophecy
teaching


Possible Gift (the gift that nobody wants )
celibacy (1 Cor. 7:7-8)

Sure. I understand you aren’t upset. I’m just getting around to answering.

The gifts I believe that I have:

Prophecy:

This is not a fortune-telling or future-telling gift, but it is the ability to discern the truth of a situation and confront those who could possibly harm you to speak God’s truth to them. (This gift has gotten me into a lot of trouble through the course of my Christian life.) This gift was not immediate, but it began to manifest itself very early in my Christian life (about two years after my conversion, when I was 15).

Teaching:

This is simply being able to teach both small and large groups of people in a way that is easy for them to understand. I have had a large number of people tell me that I have this gift, but I’m not as certain as they seem to be. I may be simply a natural ability that is possibly enhanced by the Spirit.

Discernment:

I am very confident of this gift. I have the ability to discern truth from error very quickly (even if I don’t understand why it is wrong yet) as well as detect the work of the evil one. I am very quick to discern who is a false teacher and who is lying. Some of this may be natural ability, but I suspect that it is almost wholly of God. I do not recall having this ability before conversion.

Word of knowledge:

This is definitely one example of a gift that I have not developed. Some believers interpret this gift as the ability to gain knowledge by study, but my understanding of this gift is the reception of knowledge that you have no rational/human way of knowing. It is not “psychic” ability (because this comes and goes according to the circumstances and needs of the time), but it probably looks similar. For instance, I often know the private struggles of others (even when they are not around, when we are separated by hundreds of miles, and we have not communicated for weeks/months). When I get these insights, I use them as an opportunity for prayer for that person. It allows me to pray specifically for those needs and take practical steps to help meet those needs without the other person having to personally reveal anything to me. (I can’t count how many times I have had people confirm this to me after the fact.) It sometimes takes on more immediate application: When a friend of mine was suicidal way back in college, I was always able to find her when she went into emotional tailspins. It didn’t matter if it was in the next building or across town at a home I had never heard of before. I could get into my car and find her and take her to her counselor.

But this gift is only manifested within the context of ministry, but it happens on a fairly common basis. It is usually used in the context of prayer, but when I have been compelled to discuss my impressions with the subject of my impressions, I have always been right – even when it was embarrassing. It has given those people confidence that God is hearing their prayers and knows their concerns.

Word of wisdom:

I understand this as the ability to understand and express what and why of human circumstances and to find appropriate responses to very difficult situations. I find this gift manifested in my life much less frequently than the others, but when it happens I can’t deny it.

For instance, in a completely different situation than I mentioned previously, I had to assist a couple immediately after they had found their daughter had committed suicide. I had absolutely no time to consider what I would say or how to handle the situation, but I asked God to give me the words and I was able to counsel them with apparently amazing understanding of their situation, their feelings at that moment, and help them on the road to recovery. I was amazed at the thoughts and words that were coming out of me and I’ve often wished I had a tape recorder going so I could learn from what I said.

In other situations I have been able to provide answers to problems facing the church or a ministry team in the field without really understanding how I came to that solution. Furthermore, everyone in the room would immediately recognize that it was the proper solution (that’s truly a miracle in a room full of Baptists!).

--

So that’s a list of my primary spiritual gifts. Any good in them is from God. Any flaws in them are from me. I am no better or worse than anyone else because of my gifts (frankly, I am in awe of those who show mercy and who have the gift of helping – I obviously do not have those gifts and have been trying to develop those skills in my life).

Is this what you are looking for? </font>[/QUOTE]Thanks, Baptist Believer, that is exactly what I was looking for. That was a very well thought out and reasoned response. That is the sort of explanation that I have heard and believed all my life.
I, too, have been told that I have the gift of teaching by several people, but, I think 5 years of college, 15 years teaching experience, and 30 years of Bible study have played a part in that estimation.
The gift of tongues was immediate and unlearned, the gift of healing was immediate and unlearned (they didn't go to medical school to develop that gift). I use those examples because we can usually all agree that those were unlearned. We all have talents, abilities, predispositions, skills and such that we can develop and which the Holy Spirit can use with those like you who are willing to be submissive. I applaud you for that, would that we would all be so sensitive to His leading. However, according to your explanation we all have all of these gifts, to varying degrees. I am sure you have the ability to show mercy, I know you can help because you are helping me. Talent, even if given by the Holy Spirit, is not the same thing as a gift given in the New Testament.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is not developed.
The gift of eternal life is not developed.
A gift is just that, a gift, unearned, unmerited
I just don't see a predisposition, latent talent, or undiscovered potential as a "gift".
I appreciate your taking the time and effort to respond to me. If everyone in the world thinks I am wrong and you are right I will be just as happy as I could be because your position is one I certainly can't say is bad.. Mine is just gooder…

 

Mine is more gooder!

 

Scripture can not be interetated by experience. But experience by scripture.

 

Wouldn't this be another gift?
Such as prophecy.

I notice it also does not say fortune telling either.

And I would appreciate it if you did not treat me as if I now nothing. I also have the biblical gift of knowledge, so I know what I am talking about.

Excuse me, but I also have done months of study on this subject and am writting a study on it. I have researched this subject in the bible over and over agin, and read afew other things, being careful not to choose information too drastic in either direction. So do not act as if I have no knowledge on this subject.