The concept of spiritual gifts is central to Christian faith, highlighting how the Holy Spirit empowers believers to serve God and build His Kingdom. These gifts are not mere talents or natural abilities, but divine endowments given to each person for the common good. Understanding and discerning these gifts is a journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth, allowing us to recognize our unique role in the body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus as an advocate and teacher, plays a pivotal role in our lives as Christians. Before Pentecost, the Spirit’s presence was often temporary and specific to certain tasks. However, with Jesus’ ascension, a new era began where the Holy Spirit permanently indwells believers, marking a profound shift in the relationship between God and humanity. This indwelling Spirit is described by Paul as a “deposit,” a foretaste of the fullness to come, connecting us to Jesus and to one another within the Christian community. We believe that through communion with the Holy Spirit, alongside scripture, tradition, nature, and the community of faith, we can discern God’s voice and direction.
The work of the Holy Spirit is transformative, both inwardly and outwardly. Internally, the Spirit cultivates virtue within us, helping us to become more Christ-like. Externally, the Spirit empowers us with spiritual gifts to impact the world around us. Interestingly, there’s a growing recognition in today’s church of the importance of integrating contemplative spiritual practices with charismatic expressions of faith. This unity of inner spiritual work and outward ministry through gifts enriches the Christian experience and strengthens the Church as a whole.
Reflecting on Spiritual Gifts: Insights from Scripture
To deepen our understanding of spiritual gifts, meditating on scripture is essential. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 offers profound insights into the nature of God and the role of the Holy Spirit. Taking time to slowly read and reflect on this passage, perhaps in different translations, allows Paul’s message to resonate within us.
- The Trinitarian God and the Holy Spirit: This passage reveals the interconnectedness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul specifically emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s role in revealing divine wisdom, things hidden from human understanding but disclosed to those who are spiritual.
- The Spirit Within: The scripture highlights that the Holy Spirit dwells within believers. This indwelling is not just a presence, but a transformative power that enables us to understand spiritual truths and live according to God’s will.
- Hearing the Spirit’s Voice: Each individual may experience the Holy Spirit’s guidance differently. Reflecting on how we personally perceive and discern the Spirit’s voice – whether through intuition, scripture, prayer, or community – is crucial for spiritual growth.
Exploring the Landscape of Spiritual Gifts
My personal journey into understanding spiritual gifts began in a Vineyard church, a significant shift from my Anglican upbringing. Initially, the charismatic culture felt foreign, even jarring. However, I sensed a divine prompting to learn and grow within this new environment. While I had a foundational understanding of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts from my Anglican background, the Vineyard emphasized a passionate pursuit of the Spirit. It was a formative period where I felt God saying, “I have given you a strong foundation, now I want you to experience me in a new way.” This experience shaped my understanding of the Spirit and eventually led me to spiritual direction.
The Vineyard movement itself emerged from the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, a time of spiritual awakening that blended diverse traditions and emphasized the gifts of the Spirit. John Wimber founded the Vineyard to foster this integration, drawing from Methodist, Catholic, and Pentecostal perspectives. The core belief was that while all spiritual gifts are accessible to every believer, each person is uniquely gifted to contribute to God’s Kingdom. Recognizing and developing these individual gifts creates a vibrant and complete community, where each member plays a vital role. Only when all gifts are active can we truly grasp the fullness of God’s nature.
Paul’s discourse on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14 is foundational. Several key principles emerge from these chapters:
- Diversity and Unity: Spiritual gifts are diverse, yet they originate from the same Holy Spirit, fostering unity within diversity.
- No Hierarchy: Gifts do not create a hierarchy within the Christian community. Paul corrected the Corinthian church’s misconception that certain gifts implied superiority. Ranking individuals based on gifts contradicts God’s design.
- Interdependence: Every member is essential for a thriving, Spirit-filled church. We need each other and should avoid marginalizing anyone based on perceived importance.
- Love as the Foundation: Spiritual gifts are temporary tools to reveal the Kingdom, but love is the only eternal gift. Possessing a gift alone does not signify intimacy with God. Gifts are meaningful only when expressed through divine love.
Discerning Your Unique Spiritual Gifts
Discovering our spiritual gifts is a process of understanding our personal story and inherent inclinations. Some gifts may seem natural, present from a young age, while others may emerge later in our spiritual journey. Our awareness and expression of gifts are also shaped by our environment and exposure. For example, if speaking in tongues was not part of your church tradition, you might be less familiar with that gift. Jesus’ words, “Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward,” highlight that being open to those who operate in certain gifts can awaken those same possibilities within us. Even when using spiritual gift assessments, we must be mindful of our biases and remain open to God leading us into unexpected areas of service.
Various assessments can aid in gift discernment. One helpful tool, adapted from the Houts-Wagner test, identifies twenty-three gifts categorized broadly by their focus on building the Church vertically (maturing Christians) or horizontally (welcoming new people). While some are considered vocational postures (like worship or poverty), most gifts relate to specific callings within the church.
For a deeper exploration, resources like online spiritual gifts assessments can be valuable. (For instance, you can explore a spiritual gifts assessment at https://www.citybeautiful.ch/spiritual-gifts – Note: Please evaluate the resource critically and in conjunction with prayer and community input.)
Categories of Spiritual Gifts: Offices, Processors, Miraculous, and Culture Builders
Spiritual gifts can be broadly categorized to better understand their functions within the church. These categories are not rigid but provide a framework for appreciating the diverse ways the Spirit works.
The Offices: Foundational Leadership Gifts
Often termed the “five-fold ministry,” these gifts function as leadership vocations, laying the foundation for other gifts to flourish. They are not superior but foundational. Some see these as specific offices, while others view them as qualities distributed across leadership.
- Apostle: Visionaries who articulate God’s vision for the church and guide it towards that reality. They are initiators and gatherers.
- Prophet: Those who deliver timely divine revelation to the community, ensuring alignment with God’s will.
- Teacher: Individuals who illuminate scripture and truth, fostering deeper intimacy with God and understanding of Christian identity.
- Pastor: Shepherds who nurture, protect, and guide the congregation on their spiritual journey.
- Evangelist: Communicators of God’s heart who inspire awareness of Jesus and His Kingdom, drawing others to faith.
A supporting gift often associated with these offices is:
- Leadership: The capacity to influence and guide a community, directing it according to God’s leading.
The Processors: Gifts of Insight and Application
These gifts often enhance the “offices,” shaping how leadership is expressed. They relate to how we process information and apply it to the world.
- Knowledge: The ability to absorb and process information, particularly from scripture and life experience.
- Wisdom: Applying God’s revealed truth – from scripture, prophecy, and experience – to present situations with discernment.
- Intercession: Intuitively perceiving the needs of others and responding through prayer and practical service.
- Discernment: The divine ability to distinguish the source and nature of experiences and information, discerning truth from falsehood.
- Exhortation: Seeing God’s sovereignty and encouraging others towards hope and victory in faith.
The Miraculous: Gifts Demonstrating God’s Power
Often labeled “supernatural” gifts (though all gifts are divine), these gifts reveal God’s power in ways that transcend natural order.
- Healing: Having insight and power to address various infirmities – physical, emotional, or mental – stemming from a broken world.
- Miracles: Extraordinary signs that point to God’s power and reflect His character and purposes.
- Deliverance: The ability to identify and liberate individuals from spiritual oppression and demonic influence.
- Tongues: The gift of speaking in another language to communicate God’s message. This can include glossolalia (prayer language) or xenoglossia (foreign language for evangelism). Interpretation of tongues is often considered a related gift.
The Culture Builders: Gifts Shaping Community
Once foundational structures are in place, these gifts build a community culture that reflects Kingdom values, contrasting with worldly systems.
- Service: Radically inverting worldly power structures by prioritizing the needs of others and establishing a Kingdom economy of humility and love.
- Helps: Actively supporting God’s vision for individuals, initiatives, or the church, propelling them towards greater effectiveness.
- Administration: Revealing God’s order through problem-solving and creating effective and loving systems for organization and task completion.
- Hospitality: Honoring the dignity of others through welcome, kindness, and creating a sense of home and belonging.
- Giving: Freely and joyfully sharing resources, allowing God’s generosity to flow through them to others.
The Context: Mercy and Faith
These two values provide the overarching context for all spiritual gifts, serving as both motivation and goal. Certain individuals are gifted to emphasize these core Kingdom values.
- Mercy: Reflecting Jesus’ compassionate heart, reminding us of the motivation behind our actions in the Kingdom – love and compassion.
- Faith: Abiding in God’s promises and character, even beyond current circumstances, sustaining hope and trust.
Stewarding Your Spiritual Gifts
Every spiritual gift, like personality traits, has both healthy and unhealthy expressions. Possessing a gift does not guarantee its proper use or spiritual maturity. Misunderstanding and misusing gifts can cause harm to ourselves and others. Therefore, stewarding our gifts is crucial.
Focusing on what seem to be our primary gifts can be helpful. Identifying perhaps three dominant gifts allows us to understand their synergy and unique contribution. For example, someone with teaching and wisdom gifts will teach differently than someone with teaching and prophetic gifts.
Acknowledging that gifts need to be cultivated opens us to learning how to use them effectively. Seeking out mentors who demonstrate these gifts well, especially as seen in scripture and exemplified by Jesus, is invaluable. Studying how Jesus taught, healed, served, and loved provides a model for stewarding our own gifts.
Just as our personalities have light and shadow sides, so do our gifts. Understanding the potential pitfalls and blind spots associated with our gifts fosters self-awareness in practice.
Finally, a safe and supportive community is essential for exploring and developing our gifts. We need a community that believes in us, allows us to experiment, accepts mistakes, and affirms growth. Ultimately, spiritual gifts are meant to contribute to the local church, fostering both internal growth and outward outreach, extending God’s love to the world.
Reflection:
Consider your own spiritual journey and gift discovery.
- Identify what you believe are your three dominant spiritual gifts.
- Reflect on how these gifts might interact and contribute uniquely to the church and community.
- Consider the healthy and unhealthy expressions of each of these gifts, both in your own life and in others you’ve observed.
- Reflect on how Jesus exemplified mastery of the gifts you possess. Find specific examples in the Gospels.
