A Word about the Gift of the Holy Spirit

Today I want to share a word about the Gift of the Holy Spirit as I continue in a series commenting on the Gifts of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit gives us power for ministry. He does this by giving us spiritual gifts. If we take this literally, then every Christian must be a charismatic!

The root word for “charismatic” is “charism,” which means “free gift” in Greek, and we have all received the free gift of the Holy Spirit from God!  The issue is not whether we all have a gift from God, because we all do. The question is whether or not we understand these gifts and how they operate. That is what we will try to do today.

The Nature of the Gift of the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is God, and His gift of the Holy Spirit comes out of His Nature:

• God is good and He always gives good things to His people.

• God is supernatural and His gifts have supernatural power.

• God reveals Himself to us; He gives us the knowledge we need. We have the knowledge we need to have about Spiritual Gifts.

The free gift of the Holy Spirit is a blessing that is unique to those in God’s Family. God gives good gifts to all people, but the best gifts He reserves for those who love Him, those who have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for their sin. Much of the gift of the Holy Spirit is observed in our lives through the Gifts of the Spirit.

Origin and Purpose of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

The Spiritual Gifts come to believers when they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit gives at least one spiritual gift to every believer.

Ephesian 4:4-7 says, 

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Romans 12:6 says, 

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”

No special anointing or second Baptism is required.  When the disciples of John received the Holy Spirit and then spoke in tongues it was not a second baptism of the Spirit because they had not yet been become followers of Christ. When they were saved, they received the Holy Spirit for the first time, the same way we do today.

The Bible also tells us that the purpose of these gifts is to build-up or edify the church and to glorify God.

Ephesians 4:11-13 states, 

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

1 Peter 4:10-11 says: 

So, how do these gifts work? Some theologians believe that the Holy Spirit empowers our natural talents. Some believe that spiritual gifts are abilities given by God that are totally unnatural to us. Some believe it can be both, but the Bible does not really tell us which is true! What is important is that we have been given gifts to use. How they work is not nearly as important as the fact that God gives each of His children the power to do some kind of ministry, either to speak or to serve as Peter says.

The Gifts of the Spirit must be Exercised in Humility:

Paul instructed the church at Rome this way:

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:3-5).”

Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

We must not use our gifts to build our reputation or our standing in the church or community. We must use our gifts for their intended purpose, which is to edify the church, the Body of Christ on earth, and to glorify God. This applies to all gifts, but in particular to the sign or miraculous gifts.

Biblical Lists of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

We only have four places in the New Testament that record gifts of the Holy Spirit.

• Romans 12:6-8: prophecy, service, teaching, giving, encouragement, leadership, and mercy.

• 1 Corinthians 12:8-30: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, teaching, apostleship.

• Ephesians 4:11: apostleship, prophet, evangelists, pastor, teacher.

• 1 Peter 4:10-11: speaking and service.

In these lists we find some important things to note: 

First, Peter neatly categorizes the gifts for us into speaking and serving. 

Second, some teach that the list of Ephesian 4:11 is a list of offices not a list of gifts. Since the power for this work is from the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the work is to edify the church, this may be a distinction without a difference. 

Nowhere in the Bible does it say these are all the gifts that the Spirit bestows. There may be others, but at the same time there is no place in the Bible that it says there are more. 

Prophecy is the only gift that is included on all three of Paul’s lists, and both Paul and Peter emphasize the attitude of the one exercising the gift more than they do the individual gifts themselves.

For example, 1 Peter 4:8-11 says, 

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Also Paul told the church at Corinth to “eagerly desire the greater gifts,” and then he showed them “the most excellent way” which is of course, love (1 Corinthians `13).

Individual Experience of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

How does one know what gift they have from the Holy Spirit? This can be harder than you might think, since we see no direct teaching from the Bible about this subject.

Romans 8:16 says,

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” 

This indicates that the Spirit teaches us spiritual things and thus the Spirit will inform us of the gifts he has given us. We also can ask the Holy Spirit to give us a gift, but Paul tells us it should be one of the greater gifts. We also know from experience that our pastors, friends, and counselors can give us insight into the gifts they see in us.

Regardless of what gift we have, we are to be good stewards of the gift of the Spirit as well as the Gifts of the Spirit.

The emphasis in the Bible is on using the gifts we have been given. For example, Paul instructed Timothy, 

“Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you (1 Timothy 4:14).”  

The implication here is two-fold: a gift becomes more effective when it is regularly used; also, a gift can wither and become useless if it is not used. The bottom line here is that knowledge of our gifts is not as important as using them! The Holy Spirit gives us gifts and the power to use them to bless God and God’s people.

The Duration of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

We must realize that our spiritual gift may not last forever. Paul tells us that most gifts will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10 says, 

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

What will remain in the end are faith, hope, and love, and Paul says that the greatest of these is love. Love must guide our use of the gifts, and we will talk more of this later.

We also know from history that the sign gifts seemed to cease after the First Century. These gifts were not seen often after the death of the last Apostles and the church ministered for centuries all over the world without the sign gifts being a prominent feature of our work. Therefore, many believe that the sign gifts have ceased to be given. Of course, the development of the Charismatic Movement in the 20th Century challenged the idea that the sign gifts had ceased. Charismatics believe that the sign gifts are normal, and required to demonstrate your salvation. Again, we will talk more about this in the future.

Conclusion and Summary: 

• The Holy Spirit Gives gifts to all Christians for ministry.

• The purpose of these gifts is to glorify God and the help God’s people become mature.

• There are four lists of gifts in the Bible: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. There are two basic types of gift: speaking gifts and serving gifts.

• Some gifts are miraculous gifts or sign gifts. There is disagreement about whether these gifts have ceased or not. 

• We must be good stewards of our gifts by using them for ministry.

• What will remain in the end are faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. Love must guide our use of the gifts.

Join me again next time when we will explore the sign gifts.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt