Understanding Spiritual Gifts: The Gift of the Spirit Overview
WELCOME to Issue #197 of The Seedhead from Alex and Hannah at Dandelion Resourcing - a weekly confidence booster to help you step into naturally supernatural discipleship and mission!
In spite of the controversies they sometimes stir up, the use of the gifts of the Spirit is at heart a discipleship issue.
As followers of Jesus, our primary task in this life is to go and make disciples.
However, we don’t go in our own strength or cleverness. God empowers us for this task, through the impartation of spiritual gifts. These gifts are part of God’s empowering presence, designed to bless and enrich human lives for the common good, and draw everyone concerned closer to Jesus.
These gifts help us to get the job done. They are a tangible expression of God’s grace at work.
The Greek of the New Testament uses several words that we translate as ‘gifts of the Spirit’. Their meaning helps us understand why the gifts exist and are given.
(1) Perhaps the best known is charisma, or in the plural, charismata. This can best be understood as, ‘expression of grace’, or ‘gift of grace’, or ‘a divine enablement granted as a favor’. It comes from the root word charis, which means ‘grace’.
Grace is one of Paul’s favorite ways of describing God’s work in our lives.
For instance, he talks about how we receive grace through Christ’s death on the cross (Romans 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift [charis] of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”)
Grace is how he often starts and wraps up his letters, which was a completely unheard of way of greeting others.
He especially talks of grace expressed through charisma to describe the Spirit’s equipping power in the believer. Romans 12:6 “We have different gifts [charismata] according to the grace [charis] given to each of us.” 1 Corinthians 12:4 “There are different kinds of gifts [charismata], but the same Spirit distributes them.”
(2) The other word that is often used is pneumatikos, meaning ‘expressions of the Spirit’, ‘things of the Spirit’, or even ‘the Spirit stuff’! Tidied up, the best known translation is ‘gifts of the Spirit’.
Here the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit as the root source, since pneumatikos comes from the root word pneuma, which we translate as ‘spirit’ (or Spirit).
The word pneuma literally means ‘breath filled’ or ‘Spirit empowered’. In English, we see this idea reflected when we talk about pneumatic drill or tire, where the compound power of air makes all the difference.
Pneumatikos therefore is the Spirit-empowered life. This word reminds us that the context for exercising any of the gifts of the Spirit must always be founded in relationship with God. When we try to have the gifts without the Giver, we can end up in a lot of trouble (see the sons of Sceva in Acts !).
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses both words to describe the gifts. In verse 1 it’s pneumatikos (”Now about the gifts of the Spirit…”) and in verse 4 it’s charismata (”There are different kinds of gifts…”).
(3) Finally the writer of Hebrews uses a word, merismos, which only appears twice in the New Testament, in Hebrews 2:3-4 and 4:12. Merismos literally means a division, and so the idea here is of portions of Spirit power being distributed amongst God’s people according to His will.
Key Texts
Lists of the gifts appear in several places:
Romans 12:3-8
1 Corinthians 12:7-10 shows the gifts as manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:27-31 describes how the gifts are to build up the body of Christ, some gifts are greater than others, and different people have different gifts.
1 Corinthians 13 connects the gifts with love, and discusses some limits of the gifts.
1 Corinthians 14 looks at prophecy and tongues and gives us principles by which we learn how to operate and mature in any of the gifts
Ephesians 4:11 is a list of gifts from Jesus, rather than the Spirit, which seem to focus on vocation and calling.
1 Peter 4:8-11 reminds us that the gifts are to be stewarded with the goal of glorifying God.
Some individual gifts pop up, e.g. celibacy (and some would argue marriage) in 1 Corinthians 7:7, martyrdom in Philippians 1:29, craftsmanship in Exodus 31:2.
Remember that Paul’s lists are almost always illustrative rather than exhaustive, so there is no one central ‘official list of the gifts’. In fact the Bible nowhere even claims to have listed them all!
From these texts we learn some general principles about spiritual gifts:
They’re gifts of grace. (Romans 12:6)
Gifts are tools for ministry, equipping us to serve others for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
The Gifts are gifts! They’re not awards, trophies, merit awards, or scout badges, or something we earn by our great behavior or performance for Jesus. They are gifts, something we receive for free, by God’s grace.
As they are gifts, they are not an expression of your value, worth, or importance.
They are also not (necessarily) marks of spiritual maturity, or even godliness. This of course opens the doorway to them being misused for impure or selfish motives, or in immature ways.
Every believer receives spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7) - meaning we all have something to contribute.
The gifts are always to be exercised with love, otherwise they carry no value (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
The gifts are an interim expression of God’s grace to give us a foretaste of His eternal rule, where possibly the gifts as we understand them won’t be in operation. It’s exciting to imagine the even greater things that they’ll be replaced with! (1 Corinthians 13:8-12)
We are commanded to “eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy” (1 Corinthians 14:1). Some people treat the gifts of the Spirit as an option, but God is clear that we are to actively ask for them and desire them.
God likes giving us His gifts (Matthew 7:11) and is generous with them.
When God gives a gift, it is not withdrawn, even if we choose to stop exercising it or we misuse it. (Romans 11:29)
Some gifts seem to be greater than others (1 Corinthians 14:28)
Gifts can only properly be exercised in relationship with God.
The way way we exercise gifts should always bring God honor.
In the weeks ahead we’re going to return to our regular video format, where in under 10 minutes we’ll look each week at one of the more overtly supernatural gifts, since those are more commonly misunderstood. We begin with the Word of Wisdom…
Next Steps
On a scale of 1-5, how obedient are you to the command from 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit”? If your score is less than 5, why are you being disobedient to God’s clear instruction?
Take some time to read through the Bible passages on the gifts. Ask Jesus what He wants to show you through them.
Is there a gift or two He’s calling you into in a fresh way, or an attitude reset you need to take on, or just a greater openness to the Spirit’s work in you?
We love seeing others step further into using the gifts of the Spirit. They are such an amazing thing for God to do in and through us! We’re praying for you to see more of the Spirit’s empowering presence in your life as you track this series over the next couple of months.
With love,
Alex + Hannah
ALEX AND HANNAH ABSALOM
P.S. Who could you forward this teaching to? Who needs to be receiving the weekly videos on the gifts? Either forward this to them, or invite them to sign up for their own free weekly equipping email!
