Some Thoughts on Spiritual Gifts

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inSermons and Devotions, Uncategorized

If you haven’t read them recently, the relevant passages on Spiritual gifts are 1 Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, and 1 Peter 4.

Most of us who are old enough recall when we first heard teaching on the subject of “spiritual gifts,” or charismata. For me, it was in the Charismatic movement’s first wave, which involved me both with Catholic charismatics and with charismatics in the mainline churches. That teaching almost entirely dealt with the gift of tongues and other “supernatural” gifts of the Spirit.

Later on, many of us encountered evangelical teaching on spiritual gifts in teaching that seemed heavily influenced by various kinds of secular personality theory, especially the identification of various personality characteristics as they pertained to work, relationships and self-understanding. The Biblical material on spiritual gifts took a back seat to questions of fulfillment and happiness. I’ve known many Christians who were on a permanent quest to be accurately defined in terms of spiritual gifts/personality type/vocational preference and style.

More recently, “spiritual gift” seminars and inventories have become a standard part of the megachurch’s appropriation of Biblical material for its own programmatic needs. Spiritual gift inventories were not so much about finding who had the gift of “helping” as getting adequate cameramen for the 11 a.m. service.

I’ve always thought that despite the exegetical mysteries we’ll probably always face with these passages and this topic, the practical application of spiritual gifts was not really in question. But because of the connection with controversial topics many don’t want to explore and because spiritual gift inventories are assumed to be the best application, little new is ever said about spiritual gifts.

A recent sermon by my pastor/friend Fr. Peter Mathews boiled the essentials of these passages down to these four points, all with application.

1) The Holy Spirit gives charismata.
2) The Holy Spirit gives diverse charismata.
3) The Holy Spirit gives diverse charismata to diverse people.
4) The Holy Spirit gives diverse charismata to diverse people for the common good.

After hearing that message, I found myself thinking about the one thing I find missing in most evangelical teaching on spiritual gifts. I’d insert it as point “3.5”

3.5) The Holy Spirit gives diverse charismata to diverse people in diverse situations.

Much of the teaching on spiritual gifts that has morphed into “inventories” and such seems to be about my own possession of a gift so tied to my own identity that no matter what situation I am in, that gift is my one offering to the community.

So if my gift is teaching, then I am gifted for teaching in every situation. And I’m justified to say “I would like to help, but that’s not my gift/calling/ministry.”

Instead, I’d like to suggest that the Holy Spirit manifests a diversity of gifts in diverse people in diverse situations, and what may be my spiritual gift in situation “A” may no be at all what I am gifted to do in situation “B.”

The applicable prayer here is not just “What can I do?” but “Father, how can I be a gift from you to this situation?”

We actively seek out the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s diverse empowerment, but we have a spiritual sensitivity that if toilets need to be cleaned more than Leviticus needs to be taught, then I am gifted, called and empowered to do that very thing.

I believe that the economic downturn and the situations we all may face as families, neighborhoods, churches and ministries may provide a much needed opportunity for us to rethink “charismata,” and be much more open to what God would have us do and be in a new situation.

The current economic downturn provides many opportunities for kinds of “giftedness” that aren’t that valuable or appreciated when times are good. How many of us think about offering rides to others, or sharing a meal, or creating a food pantry when times a good? How many of us see our gifts in terms of program rather than in terms of what the Spirit is doing and yearning to do in very unusual situations?

I’d welcome your thoughts on spiritual gifts, and particularly on having a more flexible and less deterministic view of how they function in the church, the Kingdom and the world.

56 thoughts on “Some Thoughts on Spiritual Gifts”

  1. im,

    I realize I’m late to the party here, but have you read Ken Berding’s, What Are Spiritual Gifts? by chance? It’s great stuff that sort of brings us back to the basic question, which is sadly quite rarely addressed. Most of us assume that a spiritual gift is a supernaturally given latent ability, almost like a spiritual super-power (no condescension meant by that phrase, and let’s be honest: that’s basically what we’re saying!).

    At Christians in Context we did a series on spiritual gifts where we basically unpacked Berding’s book. The series includes an interview with Dr. Berding (which is the best place to start), a <a href=”http://www.christiansincontext.org/2009/01/review-of-ken-berdings-what-are.html”review of his book and a follow-up post to tie up some of the loose ends.

    Honestly, after interacting personally with Dr. Berding for some time (he is a Bib. Studies prof. at Biola, where I went for my undergrad degree) and reading his book, I’m pretty convinced that his case is dang near bullet proof and is a great corrective for the church. I’d be curious for what you’d think.

    Thanks for the stimulating post, even if you don’t bother reading our discussion!

    Andrew

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  2. 3.5 is the big deal for me. I have come to believe that too often we incline to the view that spiritual gifts, once given, are with us for life. I think a careful examination of how the Spirit comes upon people in Scripture would reveal that there are a lot of acts of the Spirit that are one-shot events that aren’t replicated. At the risk of pointing to the most exceptional case first, the conception of Christ. No one else in the history of the universe had Mary’s experience. King Saul had the Spirit come upon him in an unusual way and performed physical feats he never displayed later.

    Setting aside the inevitable debate some would have about whether King Saul was really elect or not my main point is that we can see the Spirit works on an occasional basis in ways that benefit the people of God in particular ways through particular people. A person may have a gift for discerning spirits at one time and not another yet most teaching on the spiritual gifts presupposes a persistency that I don’t see Scripture being all that clear about. It seems popular to go with a few sections in epistles rather than also consult the narrative books. Perhaps our understanding of the gifts would be more balanced if we didn’t zero in on a few sections of Paul and looked at the wider biblical context in which the work of the Spirit is described?

    I, too, have noticed most discussion of spiritual gifts finally amounts to a personality inventory/test seminar.

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  3. It never fails to disappoint me that religion doesn’t actually make better people of us. How come us Christians are such tools all the time? — Pat Lynch

    Because “People are people, and the world is full of tricks and twistiness yet undreamed of.”
    — One of The Whole Earth Catalogs

    “Fanboys” is the perfect term for such folks. Usually you can recognize them by their self-justifying legalism or the overabundance of Jesus junk they purchase; but when they’re charismatics, you recognize them by the tongues. — K.W.Leslie

    And when they’re Catholics, you can recognize them by their Marian obsessions. And Mary junk along with the Jesus junk. Makes me wish St Mary WOULD appear to some of her fanboys and slap some sense into them.

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  4. Chuck: Yeah, reading my statement again makes it look like I’m being a snarky critic of some Christians… I was trying to indicate the opposites of faith (unbelief), wisdom (stupidity), and discernment (gullibility). The purpose of these gifts is to counter these practices. I don’t mean to imply we’re to drive away such people. Came out wrong in my attempt to be brief.

    Headless: When I first encountered charismatics, I agree—the tongues thing was way overdone. Still is. He who speaks in tongues edifies himself, (1Co 14:4) so there are a lot of charismatics and pentecostals who do little else. But that’s true of most Christians. It’s human nature to follow Jesus in order to better ourselves, not to love God and our neighbors.

    “Fanboys” is the perfect term for such folks. Usually you can recognize them by their self-justifying legalism or the overabundance of Jesus junk they purchase; but when they’re charismatics, you recognize them by the tongues.

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  5. “Yeah, Pat. They’re called “Spiritual Gift Fanboys”, with all the drooling fanboy traits of self-indulgence, stupidity, and superiority complexes.”

    It never fails to disappoint me that religion doesn’t actually make better people of us. How come us Christians are such tools all the time?

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  6. Yeah, Pat. They’re called “Spiritual Gift Fanboys”, with all the drooling fanboy traits of self-indulgence, stupidity, and superiority complexes.

    When I first encountered Charismatics, there were all these Spiritual Gifts they claimed: Speaking in Tongues, Speaking in Tongues, Tongues, Tongues, Tongues, Tongues, Tongues, and Tongues.

    I held out for Wisdom — the command-and-control over all the others. Didn’t make me very welcome around Charismatics, but I’d rather have the gift of knowing what to do (and what NOT to do) in an encounter/situation than spend hours scat-singing in something Semitic.

    Oh, and “gift of discernment” depends on how you define “discernment”. If it means being able to immediately size up the truth of a given situation cold, I’m for it. If it means obsessively looking for Satan and his Whoopee Cushion under every bed (“DEMON! DEMON! DEMON!”), No Way.

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  7. (Googling the words “spiritual gift” is a hilarious exercise in observing other people’s self-indulgence. Look it up for yourself and tell me this whole thing isn’t just another awkward tangent of a selfish and uncertain American spirituality; see some of the intellectual fruit of this inward-gazing and tell me these people, the authors and consumers of all this spiritual content, are really winners at life. I don’t see it.)

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  8. “The clear teaching of 1 Corinthians 12 is that spiritual gifts are anything but average, normal, or ordinary.”

    So then why the reports in this thread of churches offer ‘inventories’ that demonstrate assuring everyone that they have SOME kind of spiritual gift?

    That’s what I can’t get around: this seeming abuse of the concept and the nomenclature of “Gifts of God” – the admittedly weird and supernatural – and their transformation into a kind of “me too”-spirituality that everybody partakes in somehow.

    We start using words like ‘wisdom’ and ‘discernment’ to apply to people who are neither wise nor particularly discerning, and we end up with a community of people who no longer understand the meanings of the words in real life, but claim special access to spiritual power anyways. As a result, we ALL personally know flakes who claim to be able to discern spirits or speak in tongues and who really love God – since God is Who made them special. I think that’s pretty weak, Corinthians or no.

    What do you think? Am I exercising my gift of discernment or no?

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  9. Very good. I think your point 3.5 is especially biblical and helpful. It prevents people from thinking they aren’t a candidate to do that one particularly distasteful job because they aren’t “gifted” in that area. The Holy Spirit may most certainly empower me to do what I by nature cannot do (or will not consider doing).

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  10. K. W. — “God needs to help us counteract the unbelievers, the stupid, and the gullible.”

    Traversing this statement I got a couple of flats and a broken spring.

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  11. Chuck: Sorry; I wouldn’t shoot you even if you did change. But I would hope that you’d be willing to encourage a more normative practice of the spiritual gifts of faith, wisdom, and discernment. (1Co 12:8-10) God needs to help us counteract the unbelievers, the stupid, and the gullible.

    Jim: You’re reading way too much into verb tenses. Probably ’cause there are no outright verses that back cessationism whatsoever, unless they’re taken out of context. God has neither left us nor forsaken us, (He 13:5) and His presence is made known by signs and wonders, (Ac 2:22) not bibles and traditions, no matter how valuable they may be. That’s why Jesus performed miracles in the first place.

    Elias/Carolyn: You know as well as I that prophecy is best given within the context of relationship. If people don’t know you (particularly when we all use Web aliases!) they’re extremely unlikely to accept a word from you, especially from the comments section of someone else’s blog.

    Same with me, of course, and any point of view I pitch from that very same section. People don’t visit Internet Monk to read me, of all people. They read Michael. As they should. He puts good stuff out there.

    I mean no offense either… we just need to be aware of our audience, or lack thereof.

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  12. K.W. –“But I wouldn’t presume that everything He did automatically becomes a normative spiritual gift for the church to regularly practice. It’d be nice to have the spiritual gift of weather control, but in what way does that edify the Church? Which is the point.”

    The day that I consider a spiritual gift “normative … for the church to regularly practice” — well please just shoot me.

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  13. One piece of advice that has stuck with me for years came from a “Christian career” book (I no longer remember the title). It was (I’ve paraphrased it): Sometimes the best way of exercising *your* spiritual gifts is to know when to refrain from using them so that other people can exercise *their* spiritual gifts.

    I take this to mean that, just because I think I have a gift, I should not assume that I’m therefore called to exercise it at every opportunity. I should look around first, to make sure that by jumping in to exercise *my* gift I’m not blocking someone else’s opportunity to exercise *their* gift.

    This is all the more true because many gifts tend to draw attention to the person using them, so I need to be especially careful that I’m not hogging the spotlight.

    As a corollary, I shouldn’t expect that someone else with a gift would necessarily exercise it the same way I would. I don’t get to have everything my own way. 😉

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  14. InternetElias, that’s ironic. My mom is named Carolina, and when I was growing up, my family used to tease me by calling me ‘Patuko’.

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  15. K.W. Leslie>>>Oh—as for your questions to Elias, I’m fully in agreement with #3 and #5. There are too many freelance prophets out there who forget that humility goes hand in hand with prophecy. (How can we be anything but humble when you realize God is willing to use us as His mouthpieces?)

    I am so sorry if I sounded in any way to be haughty in anything concerning my gifts. Imonk ask for discussion on gifts. It’s never easy to share as openly as I have at times with all of you….and what small amount I can share due to time and space limitations …..can’t scratch the surface in revealing my gifts and callings and their functions and outcomes. God generally leads to me say very little. There’s no need to say much. It His calling. His work. His outcomes. Even to understand what I have tried to share, it could only be done through spiritual discernment on the side of all readers. And since it’s such an open audience, I won’t do that anymore. Input concerning the nature of my experience with God is not understood and therefore notwelcome here. I apologize if I’ve offended any.

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  16. Patrick Lynch
    Internet Elias, are you Carolyn?

    Yes, Patrick. I have a son named Patrick…nicknamed ‘Pat.’ When he was small, his sister just eighteen months older, learned she could push major buttons by calling him Patricia. As adults they laugh at those times.

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  18. I’m a partial cessionist. (Hows that for taking a position?)

    Since Paul was the last apostle (1 Co 15.8), the apostolic gifts have necessarily ceased (2 Co 2.12, Heb 2.3-4 – note use of third person & past tense). Hence, the Didache tells its readers to honor pastors and deacons who are doing the work of prophets and teachers (although probably in a less flashy fashion, hence the need to remind us not to dispise ordinary Pastor Joe who preaches from the Scriptures rather than gets direct Rev from God).

    At the same time, healing likely continue in some form (Jas 5.14 — although the “raised up” probably refers to being annointed to suffering rather than a guarantee of healing, Jn 12.32-33).

    Also, credible reports from the mission field pretty compellingly suggest the continuation of some miracles (to me at least — the men I know don’t publicize what they see).

    Finally, I suspect there are fairly compelling Biblical-historical reasons to expect that many of the miraculous gifts reported in during Jesus’ time and in the proximate decades to his earthly ministry have ceased — tongues were a sign of the ascension of the messiah (Dan 7.14 – hence, in Acts 2, Peter preaches an ascension sermon when the crowd asks about tongues) and a sign of coming judgment on the unrepentant portion of Israel, 1 Co 14.21-22). So, too, most, if not all, of Jesus’ healings cured people of things that make them impure under the Levitical purity rituals), etc. As with the apostolic signs, these signs would cease with the completion of the transition from Old to New covenants. And etc.

    FWIW.

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  19. Michael: In Acts 10:38, Peter relates how God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power. The problems you speak of come from folks who don’t believe that Jesus, when He emptied Himself to become human, gave up divine power as well as prerogatives, and needed to depend upon the Holy Spirit for it in the same way that we do.

    I’m not trying to spur a giant off-topic debate. If people don’t believe that, no one is required to. For those of us who do believe it, we do see Jesus as an example of how spiritual gifts operate when a man has perfect faith and works hand-in-hand with the Holy Spirit. He’s not just our example of human behavior, but spiritual behavior too.

    Hence His statement that His followers will do greater things than He did. But I wouldn’t presume that everything He did automatically becomes a normative spiritual gift for the church to regularly practice. It’d be nice to have the spiritual gift of weather control, but in what way does that edify the Church? Which is the point.

    Oh—as for your questions to Elias, I’m fully in agreement with #3 and #5. There are too many freelance prophets out there who forget that humility goes hand in hand with prophecy. (How can we be anything but humble when you realize God is willing to use us as His mouthpieces?)

    But I also believe that since we all hear from God—consciously or unconsciously—the Holy Spirit within us, to the degree that we hear Him, confirms prophecy as well. If a prophet sounds like a looney, he may very well be. The Holy Spirit knows what messages from Him would resonate with an individual; the prophet who is too insistent on being heard is, as I mentioned before, trying to function in his aptitudes rather than let God function in His power.

    Chuck: Supernatural healing isn’t just about my faith, of course. Note the many times Jesus told people their faith had made them well. When people were healed supposedly by Peter’s shadow or Paul’s kerchiefs or Jesus’s hem, they were healed by the Holy Spirit again working through the inherently incapable.

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  20. Hi iMonk and fellow commenters! I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now, and really enjoying it. I’m something of a post-evangelical in the wilderness myself at present – ex-Campus Crusade / Student-Life staffer, post institutional-organised-Sunday-mornings church attender, for the moment anyway . . . but that’s another story.

    I appreciate the online fellowship I am finding in this and similar Jesus focussed blogs.

    Anyway, wasn’t planning on commenting on this topic, but decided to chime in with one of my big focuses of late – Jesus :). I think he might perhaps draw the focus of this discussion back to God and to love (a little along the lines of what ropata wrote above).

    Something along the lines of:
    1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart
    2. Love your neighbour as you love yourself
    3. Do unto others what you would have them do to you.

    I expect God’s spirit will enable us to do these things – which are not as easy as they sound (as I’m sure your readers know), and as we walk in obedience to him, to increasingly do even greater things.

    It’s not meant to be a deflection off-topic – it’s just how I imagine Jesus might interject. You know something along the lines of ->

    … Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink, or what you will wear . . . or what fruit of the spirit you may or may not have at any particular moment … other people worry about stuff like that … your heavenly Father knows what you need…

    I didn’t put in quotation marks, as I have taken some liberty in extending Jesus’ address on obsession with physical provision, to my thoughts on how he might perhaps comment on obsession with spiritual provision, over a focus on God and his generosity.

    I think Paul’s focus, in that context, might be less on the identification of who has what in the check-list, and more on the extravagant grace of God who has distributed, abundantly, all the strength and abilities we, his family, need through the working of his spirit.

    I think this is an extended agreement with your point 3.5 – we focus on God, and He meets our needs in every situation, as He sees fit.

    Again – thanks for the great forum.

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  21. iMonk –

    This is very good. The purpose of giftings is not to talk about special abilities or take tests about what we think we might be ‘good’ at, but actually functioning in them, serving in these things. You might be interested in a book I just picked up by Ken Berding (professor at Biola University), in which he challenges the ‘conventional view’ of spiritual gifts. He really challenges us not to see spiritual gifts as things lying within us that are to be figured out through tests, but to get on with serving (ministry) and that functioning in these gifts is actually the main point of Paul’s teachings. I would slightly disagree with him in that I do believe giftings are resident (which he doesn’t), since the One who gifts us is resident in us. But it is minor. Overall, it is a good challenge to the church growth and inventory testing methods that many churches have embraced in regards to spiritual gifts. Here is a link to his book – What Are Spiritual Gifts

    Also, I am always reminded of the words of a friend of mine when asked, ‘What is the most important spiritual gift?’ to which he replied, ‘The most important one is the one needed in the moment.’

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  23. Imonk… (1)They are authoritative.

    (2)I know because they are supported by the already revealed Word of God.

    (3)I’m under no authority other than God. I am to speak in meekness to those who wish to listen. Truth is not to be wasted. It’s too precious.

    (4) You will know what I say is true because what I say will be verified by the already revealed Word of God. There is no new Word. God spoke once and for all time. And that already spoken Word is alive and continues to sound just as it did when He first spoke.

    (5) I don’t have the gift of tongues. We have to remember that 1 Cor.14 is recounting a time when things of the Holy Spirit were new. The channels were open for the Holy Spirit to work His work. That’s just not the case way down here in the darkness of our times. And, yes, emphatically..yes, concerning the regulation of prophets. Don’t I wish there would be so much prophesying going on within the Church service that we would have to take turns. All prophecy is for edification.

    You mentioned that I shouldn’t be surprised at questions. You’re the first to question and I welcome it. It’s as I said…there are many who listen and simply decide it’s just not of interest…doesn’t fit their version of things, and so forth. And that’s fine. I bear no responsibility…at all…whether my experiences with God in the area of prophecy,knowledge, and so forth….is received or rejected. That’s all between God and the hearer. Actually, the sharing of what God shows me is done very quietly, peaceably, and in Love. Shouting is best heard when spoken softly. Thanks for your interest.

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  24. “Are we really that emotionally child-like in the suburbs these days? I can’t believe this isn’t a baby boomer thing.”

    I hardly believe that three-plus complete chapters of doctrinal teaching and people’s interest (albeit at times misguided or immature – see “Corinth, Church of”) qualifies as baby boomer childishness and something to be ignored in the name of being normal. The clear teaching of 1 Corinthians 12 is that spiritual gifts are anything but average, normal, or ordinary.

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  27. The pastor at my church (which by the way is one of the big megachurches in my city) has what I believe to be a reasonable view on spiritual gifts and church involvement: Just do something. Just get involved and serve wherever there is a need, and in the process of serving you will find your spiritual gift.

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  28. I know in the NT First Corinth. “spiritual gifts” are mentioned-but the whole of Scripture does not make it a major theme-what is important is to love God and our neighbors-also “spiritual gifts” is not something you read about in the History of Christian Spirituality-I think we live out our Christians lives and maybe unconsciously we excercise our “spiritual gifts”-found what I have seen over the 39 years of being a Christian I have seen very little of the “spiritual gifts” being important in churchs-most Christians just go through their spiritual lives in a fog-peace Jonny

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  29. Internet Elias:

    I’m amazed that you find the “oh really” response odd.

    If you told me you were a prophet who received messages from God, I’d have a number of questions for you.

    1) Are your prophecies authoritative? That is, am I dealing with God when you speak to me about this?

    2) If “yes,” then how do you or I know this is the case?

    3) To whom or what body are you accountable for what you do with these revelations? Are you freelance, or are you under the authority and accountability of elders?

    4) If your gift is self-authenticating, i.e. you believe God has chosen you and is singling you out, on what basis am I to know that you are not a false prophet or under the influence of something/someone other than God?

    5) If Prophecy, knowledge and teaching are tied together, do you submit to all the Biblical teaching on prophecy? Such as the regulation of prophets described in I Corinthians 14?

    I think there are a lot of questions for anyone claiming to speak from God and for God. That should be no surprise.

    ms

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  30. I have the gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and teaching. I am very clear on the operation of the gift of prophecy. God reveals scriptural truths to me through visions. Matthew 10:27 says that when He shows me these things in a night vision, I am to tell it to others in the day. And what He tells me in the ear, I am to SHOUT it to all who will hear. I speak/share what God through the Holy Spirit shows me. The visions always have to do with things such as God’s purposes in the prophetic areas of scripture….and how those things pertain to today. It is intended by Him as elaboration of scripture in order to reveal it more fully with those called by His name. But mostly….people don’t believe they are hearing from God. It’s kind of like talking about the weather. I often get the ‘oh,really? respone. The Old Testament prophets were killed because they dared to say ‘thus saith the Lord.’ In the early generation of the church, prophecy seemed to be of a gentler persuasion…growning the brethren…and it was appreciated. It has the same purpose today…only it isn’t appreciated. As to the gift of knowledge…it’s mostly spiritual discernment/understanding of scripture/enhanced intuition of certain situations….as to outcome..and so forth. Prophecy, knowledge, and teaching are sort of all tied together. Each benefits the other. Many,many things could be received by us from God…..but unbelief locks the door.

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  31. (not trying to derail the conversation, but I was curious too so I Googled the Doctor of Spiritual Science thing – the first reference I found referred to the Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy, a semi-accredited new age school allied with something called the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, and it’s multi-year “degree” program ostensibly based on producing inner awareness of “The Divine” in the self. Or so I’m reading.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Theological_Seminary_&_College_of_Philosophy

    http://www.pts.org/doctor/doctor.html

    and now back to your regularly-scheduled commentating.)

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  32. This is from http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net —

    Little Works of Love [of St. Theresa Lisieux]

    In her spiritual testimony, marked at least in part by St. Teresa’s influence, the Little Flower presented her Little Way. This simple program of sanctification has earned for Thérèse the love and devotion of countless Catholics, myself included. We could broadly summarize Thérèse’s Little Way in her advice to do little things with great love. She believed that even tiny gifts from a loving heart were pleasing to Jesus.

    But this approach was not entirely new; Teresa of Avila had presented the same idea centuries before. In the book which many consider her masterpiece, The Interior Castle, St. Teresa writes: “The Lord does not look so much at the magnitude of anything we do as at the love with which we do it.”

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  33. I think interpreting that as “you will do more calmings of the storm” is misunderstanding how Jesus’ miracles differ from the work of the Spirit in the life of the Christian.

    Anyway, this is off topic.

    Back to spiritual gifts.

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  36. K.W. — “I only have the gift when the circumstances call for me to, in faith, lay hands upon the sick and pray for their healing.”

    Then what was it when people were being healed when Peters shadow passed over them? Or when the woman with the unstoppable hemorrhaging touched the hem of Jesus’s garment?

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  37. Part of the misunderstanding of charismata is because we’ve defined it much too broadly. We understand it to mean that any teaching ability is a supernatural gift of teaching; any linguistic facility is a supernatural gift of tongues; any great understanding is a supernatural gift of wisdom, etc.

    What makes ’em charismata is that they are supernatural in nature. God, and obviously God, does them despite human inability.

    God works through His obedient kids whenever the circumstances call for them. I do not walk around with a supernatural gift of healing; I only have the gift when the circumstances call for me to, in faith, lay hands upon the sick and pray for their healing. I only have the gift of prophecy or knowledge when I, in faith, recognize that God is telling me something and state it aloud. And so forth.

    That’s why most spiritual gifts inventories are crap. Unless they’re about actions instead of aptitudes, they aren’t measuring the correct thing. They’re measuring talents, not charismata. And they’re assuming that people will demonstrate one, and only one, type of charismatic gift—despite the examples of Jesus, Peter, Philip, Barnabas, and Paul, none of whom seemed limited to only one way in which the Spirit worked through them. Paul mentions diversity of persons and diversity of gifts, not because the person matches the gift, but to make clear how God likes diversity.

    Just because I have a aptitude for teaching doesn’t at all mean I have a charismatic gift for it. Like I said, charismata is God doing things in spite of human inability. Charismatic teaching is when God teaches people effectively despite my inability to do so—the circumstances are less than ideal, the hearer is a difficult student, the environment is noisy, my lesson is incoherent, my examples are bad, my assessment doesn’t assess properly, and despite all this, the person learns something. It’s when someone preaches a really lousy sermon and people come forward to receive Christ anyway.

    Because I have an aptitude for teaching, I actually am less likely to demonstrate the charismatic gift of teaching; God doesn’t need to work despite my inability. He might boost my ability a bit, but not to the degree that I and others can obviously point to His supernatural facility. So He will, instead, work supernaturally through the areas I suck in—healing, empathy, etc. But only as the situation requires. Like you said, God gives ’em in diverse situations.

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  39. I love the topic of this thread because “gift” has been my spiritual byword for a few weeks now.

    I was “gifted” with a suggestion by a good friend and mentor that I read a certain page in the AA Big Book. It was about forgiveness and getting rid of resentments. I took the advice in this passage (given to a recovering alcoholic by a Christian minister) that I pray fervently for those who have hurt me deeply in my life, asking that God give them what it is I want from God and from life. I should do this even if I don’t want to, for two weeks straight.

    It worked right away. The boulder at the entrance to my death cave melted away, and what flooded in I can only call “gift”. And I remembered being a child when every day was a gift, and all I wanted to do was to call for my friends so we could play all day. And I remembered “play” as a process by which we “gifted” each other repeatedly and continually to keep the gift going.

    I believe that there may be a relevant set of categories for the Gifts of the Spirit, but the actual forms (if the can be called such) that they take are numberless, especially the gift of healing.

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  40. A spiritual gifts inventory – so basically, you tell people what you think they’re good at, and in exchange for the compliment, they do what you ask them to do?

    Are we really that emotionally child-like in the suburbs these days? I can’t believe this isn’t a baby boomer thing – my dad’s 78, worked hard all his life, no complaints, spiritual or otherwise. I can’t imagine him being interested in learning about his “spiritual gifts”. So I asked him – he’s not. He’s content to notice that not everybody is good at everything without getting a hug from the church for being regular.

    Is he right? Isn’t it that simple?

    This can’t be as sad and lame as it seems to me right now… Is it???

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  42. Although I don’t have chapter-and-verse on it, I believe that each believer is gifted by the Holy Spirit as uniquely as snowflakes. For psychology-inspired gifts inventories, therefore, I think their greatest problem is not their existence, but their interpretation as something final and scientific.

    (I once saw an inventory that indicated that having a desire to eat locusts and wild honey was indicative of having the gift of prophecy. Please!)

    Inventories do, on the other hand, serve as good conversation starters and tools to process.

    It would appear that every gift mentioned in the New Testament is an amplification of something that every Christian should be doing in the power of the Spirit on some level anyway.

    Moreover, I keep choking on the classification of gifts from different books being different things (motivational, sign, etc.). The lists appear too random for me to believe that.

    Finally, something is wrong when spiritual gifts become the answer to something that isn’t happening in kingdom life rather than something that is. When we re-interpret gifts to explain why not enough people serve, or why we don’t see miracles or healings, or why nobody around us speaks in tongues, then we’re using the Bible to argue from silence or to argue FOR our own experience, or lack thereof.

    Gifts are first and foremost manifestations of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-4).

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  43. Back in the day, gift inventories were invented by the church growth movement to spark more lay involvement in churches–a must if churches were to grow large. Pastor and staff simply could not do it all. IMHO, it became another “spiritual technology” that people interpreted and used in a mechanistic way.

    I recall Bill Gothard emphasizing spiritual gifts too, and a lot of folks adapted his view, which tended to pigeon-hole individuals into specific “motivational gift” categories.

    Don’t you think if we focused more on building smaller congregations of genuine community, profound worship and intentional spiritual formation, where pastors practiced spiritual direction, that the gifts would emerge naturally from the midst of his people?

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  44. Tom J.

    I’m not sure how many Catholics handle the spiritual gifts inventory. Many do not know anything about it, but there is actually group that teaches about the spiritual gifts and helps parishes use their materials, etc. The name, is Catherine of Siena Institute.

    I am not familar with their program, because I did the hard work on my spiritual gifts before I became Catholic. (Even if my jaw dropped when I did the Wychiffe test and found out that celibacy was listed first for me.)

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  45. The Lutheran Confessions list “suffering” as one of the spiritual gifts (cf., Phil 1.29).

    I always wondered about including that option in an inventory of spritual gifts . . . (squiggly lines of a fantasy scenario):

    Pastor: “Bob, I’ve gotten the results of your spiritual gifts inventory.”

    Bob: “That’s great, pastor. I’m looking forward to exercising the gifts that God has given me.”

    Pastor: “Wonderful. According to our assessment, God has given you the gift of suffering . . .”

    Bob: (Interrupting) “The gift of what?”

    Pastor: “Suffering, Bob. This is really great. The image of Christ’s work in life and on the cross. Congratulations. I’m sure you’ll do great work suffering on behalf of the church.”

    Bob: “Uh, pastor, I was actually thinking of something like ushering . . .”

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  46. i really appreciate this article.
    i’m doing my doctor of spiritual science currently, and am looking at how we find our spiritual gifts, and how they evolve. this has been really helpful. thanks so much.
    i also love this movie called ‘Spiritual Warriors’ by #1NY Times bestselling author Dr. John-Roger, and actor Jsu Garcia – it’s amazing – and gave me another really amazing insight to spiritual gifts and what it is to truly walk the path of following them – to walk the path of a spiritual warrior.
    thanks again,
    keep in touch, i just starting following you on twitter 🙂
    Zoe

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  47. My Pentecostal grandmother used to chuckle that she had the gift of helps – whatever needed to be done, from preaching to sweeping, she could help. I hand’t thought much of it until now, but I realize that it was that attitude that helped me to see the Holy Spirit as something more than a tool belt. Thanks for the post, Michael.

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  48. I agree with Miguel- I had always assumed the spiritual gifts stuff was cooked up in the 20th century, and would be interested if anyone could point out what Calvin/Luther/the Catholic Church
    said about the subject.

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  49. It’s be interesting to look at how viewpoints on the gifts have changed throughout history and see if anybody ever understood them thoroughly. Obviously the gifts were believed in during the reformation (Hence “the gifts are ours” line from “A Mighty Fortress”), but not nearly in the same way, I think, as evangelicals tend to see them post-charismatic revival. Definitely one of those areas of scripture where I wish God had just been a little more articulate. I’d be really interested in how non-charismatic Catholics see the gifts as I have never heard one address the issue.

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  50. One of the reasons why charismata have been understood in a more static and permanent way, is their connection to church roles/offices at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 and Paul’s emphasis there that not all believers have all the spiritual gifts.

    At the same time, he doesn’t seem to think of them as something the Holy Spirit gives once (determined and limited permanently) to the individual believer and from that time on, we’re “stuck” exclusively with what we were given and only operate within those boundaries. If that was the case, why would he encourage the church “to eagerly desire the greater gifts” (V.31) or someone who already has the gift of tongues to pray that the ability to interpret would also be given to him in that situation where clearly more is needed than the utterance of unintelligible language(14:13).

    Maybe the best way to integrate both aspects would be the recognition that God has given diverse strengths to diverse people permanently but at the same time still enables us in specific situations through the same Holy Spirit to be used in ways that go beyond those limited strengths.

    I would be careful though not to define “charismata” too broadly. We’re all called to be witnesses in spite of the fact that not everyone has the gift of evangelism. And I believe to offer rides, clean toilets, be hospitable etc. one does not need a supernatural gifting from above. Everyone is able and called to show love in this way.

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  51. I actually have a kind of both and view. There are a couple of gifts that seem to be constant things in my life and that are closely related to my vocation and ongoing ministy.

    On the other hand, I have experienced other gifts periodically and think it is possible to enter into a full range of the gifts.

    I also tend to think Paul’s lists aren’t necessarily exhaustive. At the same time, I see three broad categories of gifts: teaching/verbal gifts, serving gifts and sign/miracle kinds of gifts. The lines between them are fluid, but broadly speaking I find these categorizations helpful.

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  52. Have been following your blog daily for several months now, and slowly catching up on prior entries. Especially like today’s post. It is almost a year since early retirement (from 20 plus years in public mental health, 10 plus in social services, and other similar work.) Had planned on supplementing meager retirement funds with income from various crafts, not anticipating a sudden economic downturn that would render much of my output irrelevant- people don’t buy much art for the wall when they are struggling to pay for basic needs. Also had not anticipated an accident that would total my car and leave me with lots of extra medical bills. Fortunately church family (which is kind of an incorporated large house church made up mostly of “refugees” from a wannabe megachurch that imploded) has shared its gifts freely- including rides, financial advice, practical ways to market my wares effectively, prayer, love. Having had a bumpy spiritual journey (Baptist to Lutheran to humanistic to agnostic to atheist to enthusiastic convert to the kind of evangelistic/charismatic church you obviously don’t approve of -for good cause I would say- to my current happy home) I have seen a wide range of both counterfeit and genuine gifts. It is the quiet humble expressions of charisma that seem to have the most positive and lasting effect. For example, I have a friend who is on disability and who is in pain much of the time, has low income, often cannot go to church other than “First Bedside Baptist” but still she finds ways to express her spiritual gifts. She seems to have the “gift of card”- she chooses get well, thinking of you, condolence cards with such care and writes such wonderful notes that it is not unusual for her to be approached by someone who received a card years ago, and to be told “I still have that card (or note) you sent me (after/during/when ____) and it’s always meant so much to me”. This same person always takes the time to communicate respect and love to waitresses- not only tips well, but remembers the server’s name and uses it. Wow, what a concept. Gee, she even does that on Sundays. Another friend has a strong prophetic gifting- not in the sense of fortelling the future, but in the sense of proclaiming truth in a powerful,unique, and penetrating way. What she shares is so much more powerful because of the humility with which she speaks. (Not “thus sayeth the Lord” but “I believe the Lord wants you to know…”) I am all for more flexibility and less programatic approaches to the spiritual gifts- as long as there is enough structure and order to defuse attention seekers, power seekers and psychotics. All of which I’ve known, and two of which I have been at least briefly.
    By the way, I really appreciate the depth and breadth of your comments as well as the vast majority of commenters. And the laughs- which we all need more of in this difficult time.

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  53. “I would like to help, but that’s not my gift/calling/ministry.” Is just a big often used cop out.

    I do lean towards the idea that whatever one’s gifting are, that they may very well be permanant, but that just means that we still serve where we are less gifted.

    The worst trend I see in this whole area is how the church has often tried to “find” peoples’ gifting through them taking some inventory through self examination. Due to the sad shape we are often in in regards to christian community, I can see why this might be the route people choose. I just don’t think it works.

    If we truly shared our lives with one another and served where needed, I believe that others would see and affirm our gifts, maybe even before we recognized them ourselves.

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  54. Yeah, we’ve used inventories to identify gifts, if the inventories really do that–that may be another post. Like you say, many times, we, like other churches, are guilty of looking for people to fill slots, which isn’t at all what spiritual gifts are about.

    I really like your emphasis in what you label 3.5. Some things I can teach, and some I can’t. Others without an identified gift of teaching can teach certain things that I couldn’t. Some folks can be wonderful pastors/shepherds in specific situations without having that as an identified gift. We could go on about other gifts, but you made the point well.

    Funny about the reference to cleaning toilets, as that reminded me of a situation where 3 pastors (1 other male, a female, and I) were attending a memorial service at a church on Sunday afternoon for a retired pastor. The female pastor in the group mentioned to the female pastor of the host church that there was no more toilet paper in the Women’s Restroom, to which the host pastor said that she would tell the custodian to put some more in the restroom on Monday. Obviously, that didn’t help in the present moment. You would have thought that the pastor, while maybe not having the gift of helps, could have provided help in that situation.

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  55. Although I love the “gifts of the Spirit” teachers should also mention the “fruit of the Spirit”, especially Love. Though I speak with the tongues of angels… etc.

    That said, this teaching is good for evangelical churches because it empowers all and encourages acceptance of people as God has made them — much better than churches churning out carbon copy Christians!

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  56. As a Pentecostal, I believe that all the gifts given to the Church are still functioning today, be they the so-called motivational gifts of Romans 12, the manifestation gifts of I Cor. 12, 14, or the ministerial gifts of Eph. 4. Furthermore, there are other gifts that are obviously used in the Church that are not mentioned in these lists, such as music. When I was a monk with the Brothers and Sister of Charity, I learned that the gift of tears is understood to be a gift of the Holy Spirit. I’m sure there are many others.

    I also agree that too often we have used spiritual gifts tests in order to bring more people into our fellowships. Eph. 4 lists the leadership gifts, stating their purpose is to equip the saints for works of service. It never says that their service is to be limited to the local church. Many leaders have done a great disservice to their congregations by implying if they are not using their gifts to enhance the local body, they are wasting their gifts.

    Regarding point 3.5. This reminds me of Acts 4:8, where Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit to address a particular situation. True, my primary gift may be teaching or administration, but it the nursery needs an extra hand or the roof needs to be prepared, I’m sure that Jim, filled with the Holy Spirit, could find the occasion to do what love demands.

    Thanks for the great thoughts.

    Blessings,

    Jim

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