BISHOP Dr. RANWELL MWENISONGOLE
MESSAGE:
When we speak of spiritual gifts, we mean the supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit that equips a Christian for his or her work of service and ministry. It is right to use your God given gifts in powerful and useful ministry everyday of your life. 1Peter 4:10 encourages us that, “as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
As we understand the gifts, hopefully and prayerfully we will discover and activate our gifts. Lets’ carefully examine 1Corinthians 12: 4-11, which gives one of the best lists for spiritual gifts:
1Corinthians 12: 4-11
4”There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of services, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS.
The word “Diversities or varieties” give the idea of distribution and clearly this distribution is done by the choice of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, the presence of the gifts in someone does not necessarily signify great holiness, sanctification or maturity. People may confuse powerful gifting with a person’s character or lifestyle, and yet they may not be the same. We should pursue holiness and right living but the fact is that God sometimes uses sinful people who are still changing into mature believers.
MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT.
The next verse gives some example of how the Holy Spirit manifests for the edification and profit of everyone in the church. We can categorize these gifts in three ways:
1. Gifts that give power to know:
a. The word of wisdom
b. The word of knowledge, and
c. The discerning of Spirits.
These gifts see things as God sees them. They are God’s insight into people’s life, circumstances and, even the secrets of their past, present or future.
2. The gifts that give the power to do:
a. The gift of faith,
b. The gift of healing and
c. The gift of miracles.
These gifts are channels of supernatural power of God and God’s hand to touch people. They can be seen as the divine power of God is released through the divine energy of God, which accomplishes a particular result in word or work.
3. The gifts that give the power to say:
a. The gift of prophecy
b. The gift of tongues
c. The gift of the interpretation of tongues.
These groups can be considered as follows:
· The first group; the eyes of God.
· The second group; the hands of god.
· The third group; the mouth of God.
Throughout Scripture we see God as a “speaking God” who desires to communicate with His people. Now, let’s take a closer look at these gifts.
THE WORD OF WISDOM
The word of wisdom is a word inspired by the Holy Spirit and revealed to the believer. It is seeing what God sees in a situation and saying it.
It is applying God’s wisdom to a specific situation. For example, in 1Kings 3:24-27, King Solomon was given a word of wisdom to evidence the truth when two mothers claimed to be the same baby’s biological mother.
The King said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the King. And the King said, “Divide the living child into two, and give half to one, and half to the other.” Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the King, for she yearned with compassion for he son, and she said, “O my Lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!” But the other said, “let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide” so the King answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him, she is her mother.”
THE WORD OF KNOWLEDGE
The word of knowledge is a word inspired by the Holy Spirit that reveals a fact or pieces of information not seen before, but now seen in the new light of the Holy Spirit’s knowledge.
A word of knowledge is a particular word given in a particular instance, thus revealing God’s mind toward a specific situation. In Acts 5: 1-11 we see the word of knowledge operating through the apostle Peter when he was supernaturally told that Ananias and his wife Sapphire, were lying about the amount of money they received for a peace of land. Jesus also operated through word of knowledge.
John 4:17 the woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, you have no husband.”
Mathew 9:4 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? Jesus operated here through a word of knowledge.
THE DISCERNING OF SPIRITS.
The discerning of spirit is the spiritual capacity to judge whether the spirit has a source that is human, demonic or divine. It is a supernatural perception into the spiritual realms. The apostle Paul provides a good example of the discerning of the spirit at work in Acts 16: 16-18.
Acts 16: 16-18
Now is happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying “These men are the servants of the Highest God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” And this she did many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.
1Thessalonians 5:21 says that we are to “test all things; hold fast what is good.” We must even test our own motives and words lest we think that only those who are demonically possessed can be used for our enemy’s work. Consider the following scenario from Mathew 16: 21-23; 21”From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23Jesus turned and said to Peter “get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Why did Jesus say this? Because He discerned the spirit that was in Peter’s mind that it was not of God but of Satan.
ACTIVATING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFT
The giver of varied gifts is the Holy Spirit. Gifts, service and workings are different forms of the same ministry of the trinity of God whose grace is distributed by the Spirit according to the merits or will of any particular person. The gifts are for the up building of His church by each believer who receives the gifts of spirit, so that he or she may be useful both to self and others. We are to create an atmosphere where people know that they are valued, respected and trusted to serve.
Spiritual gifts are given to the uneducated and the educated, to the mature and immature, to people with sinful shortcomings, personal problems and feelings of unworthiness.
What spiritual gift do you desire most?
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