Spiritual Gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14
My plan is to go through these chapters focusing on what they say specifically about spiritual gifts. This means there will be sections I will not cover, not because they are not important, but because I am only focusing on the gifts. All of the quotes noted DP are from Derek Prince and his book, The Gifts of the Spirit: Understanding and Receiving God’s Supernatural Power in Your Life. Some questions I will be asking and answering:
+ What are these things we call spiritual gifts?
+ When do we receive spiritual gifts?
+ What are the spiritual gifts?
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
(Let’s begin with a parenthesis! While verses 2-3 are important in this matter of spiritual gifts, I’m skipping them now, but will return to them in my last post.)
Please notice that the first thing Paul says is, Brethren I would not have you ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. He wants us to know what they are, how they are received, and how to experience them.
Second, right away, in the first 7 verses, we find 3 words for spiritual gifts: spiritual, gifts, manifestations. This helps us answer the question: What are spiritual gifts?
1 Spiritual This first verse is very interesting, it should read, Now concerning the spirituals. The Greek has the article “the” and so should we because it is important here, he is talking about something specific. It is plural because there is more than one. The KJV has the word gifts in italics, which tells us there is no word for gifts in the Greek; it was supplied by the translators because in this case “the spirituals” does refer to the gifts of the Spirit. But when we understand that he is calling them spirituals or spiritual things, this gives us our first definition:
They are spiritual. These are not natural talents or abilities; you are not born with them; you do not develop them; or learn them in school; you don’t need to take a personality test to see which one you have. They are spiritual in nature; they are supernatural abilities. They are spiritual because they are linked to, associated with, given by the Holy Spirit. This tells us what they are, but not when we receive them.
4 Gifts - Now there are diversities of gifts
Diversities - There are many
different gifts. Like when you go to the grocery store, there are a variety of
fruits in produce, but they are all fruit. Even so, there many gifts. But the
most important thing for us is the word, gifts.
Gifts is the word charismata; we get our word charismatic from this. It comes from the word for grace. These are gifts of grace; gracelets; freely given; not related to merit or worth; no relation to spiritual maturity. Receiving these or possessing these says nothing about how spiritual you are, how deserving you are, how mature you are – they are freely given by the Holy Spirit. And again, this tells us what they are, but not when we receive them.
7 the manifestation of the Spirit. Isn’t this cool? Spiritual gifts is a way that the Holy Spirit makes his presence known. This refers to times when we are gathered together, such as church, a prayer mtg, a Bible study, and other times when such manifestations are needed, basically any kind of ministry situation. As we will see in 8-11, gifts are given by the Holy Spirit when he wills, thus received at different times, or as Paul says it, manifested at different times.
He goes on in v 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. Profit withal? That all may profit or benefit; the manifestation is given to one for the good of all.
To sum up: Spiritual gifts are spiritual, supernatural abilities, freely given and bestowed by the Holy Spirit as a manifestation of His presence.
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