Having discerned that it is God’s Holy Spirit at work and not an evil Spirit, we can move to see what the Spirit is doing and saying. One of the key things that the Holy Spirit does is to give gifts to the Church.
Prioritise the giver (v4-6)
We can become focused on the gifts themselves, seeing them as things for our own personal benefit. However, more important than the gifts should be the one who gives them. Notice too that whilst we talk about the Gifts of The Spirit, there is a Trinitarian dynamic: we receive diverse gifts from the one same Spirit, we are called to serve in different ways but it is the same Lord we serve and whilst we are called to do different things, it is the one same God that empowers us. Father, Son and Spirit are all involved.
Consider the needs of others (v7)
We also need to remember that the gifts are given not for personal, private benefit but for the benefit of the whole church, for the common good. In fact, we might argue that it is not so much that each of us receives gifts as that the gifts are given through us or even that we are the gifts to the church.
Enjoy the gifts given, for God’s glory (v8-11)
Paul lists a number of gifts here. In fact, Paul gives different lists of gifts in a few places suggesting that we are not meant to see the list as exhaustive and definitive. In fact, I personally think that we should not worry too much about trying to work out whether or not we have a specific gift from a specific list as simply enjoying serving Christ as he enables.
In this particular list, there are revelatory gifts including wisdom, knowledge and prophecy. We trust God to keep leading and guiding his church and these gifts are given for that purpose. Some people have worried about the possibility that we might undermine the unique authority of Scripture by seeking to hear God today through prophecy and wise or knowledgeable insights. However, it is helpful to remember the distinction between special revelation (Scripture) which has unique authority and General Revelation, the idea that God is continuously revealing who he is and what he is doing to us. I believe that prophecy and visions outside of Scripture belong in the latter category and so are both submitted to the authority of Scripture in that they must not add to or contradict it and understood or interpreted through it.
There are also gifts that demonstrate faith such as healing and in fact faith itself is described as a gift given to some. Obviously, every believer has faith, that’s what it means to be a believer but I think that God enables some people to show particular faith to courageously and confidently pray about certain things and to keep trusting through trying circumstances. The gift is to all of us in that they encourage us in our faith too.
Some gifts, including healing, speaking in tongues, or other languages and also miracle working function as sign gifts, evidencing God’s presence with his people. In fact, I would suggest that prophecy is included here as it often acts to remind us of the nowness of God’s Word.
Conclusion
A local church needs to be completely dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit. Whilst I’m aware that there are different theological positions and understanding about how the Gifts of the Spirit work, in that sense I would argue that every church needs to be a charismatic church. The crucial thing is that we are ready and open for the Holy Spirit to work among us and through us.
Faithroots 