Welcome to Day 13. Today we will address spiritual gifts. There is mention of "spiritual gifts" both in the Old Testament and New Testament, indicating this was not just a New Testament "phenomenon.” A spiritual gift is "a gift or endowment characteristic of the presence or enabling of the Holy Spirit.” This means God supernaturally gives and enables gifts to humans for His glory through the power of the Holy Spirit. The difference between the Old and New Testaments concerning the gifts is that the Holy Spirit now rests within the believer because of what Jesus Christ has done. This means the Spirit doesn't just come and go. Below you will see verses that show the power of the Spirit enabling His people both in the Old and New Testaments.
 
Numbers 11:25-29  Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6  There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Spiritual gifts or empowerment of Spirit were given to God's people for two purposes:
 
1) To demonstrate the truthfulness of God.

We see that the truthfulness of God can come in many forms. One of the ways is through prophecy. This is demonstrated in Acts 2:14-18 when the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers at Pentecost. At this moment, Peter confronted a small group of people who were saying the apostles were "drunk" because they were speaking in everyone's languages. Peter uses Joel's prophetic words in Joel 2:28-32 to combat these individuals. The prophetic words of Joel were confirmed by Peter in Acts 2 when we see him using the reference to attest to something God spoke through an individual long ago.

2) To assist and empower the believer to accomplish God's will on earth.

1 Corinthians 12:7  Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

The ministry (work of restoration) of God started right after sin entered the world. The Spirit's role is not limited to the creation of the world and assisting the believer, but the Spirit is the means to accomplishing the will of God. The coming of Jesus opened up a unique opportunity for God's people to have the Spirit rest upon them. Part of that uniqueness means spiritual gifts would assist the believer's daily life moving forward to accomplish God's will.

When you become a Christian, you receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives the gift(s) according to scripture, and we see this in 1 Corinthians. We see in both the Old Testament and New Testament when the "power" of God comes upon the believer they receive empowerment by the Spirit. The only difference between the New and Old Testament is that the Holy Spirit can now rest within the believer, since the Spirit doesn't come and go as we see within the Old Testament. We know the Spirit is the one who distributes the gifts based on 1 Corinthians 12.
 
1 Corinthians 12:11  All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

I write this section as a friendly encouragement and to emphasize that, as you pursue understanding your spiritual gift(s), you should first seek God in prayer and self-examination before taking a spiritual gifts test. While I believe that such tests can be helpful, they often come with limitations. Many of these tests seem to focus more on your personality, which can be problematic because it may limit what God is trying to do within you and how He wants to use you within the body of Christ. You might feel that you "don't qualify for that specific gift," which could hinder God's work in you.I also believe that the authors of these tests have good intentions, but the tests themselves might fall short of what God wants to achieve in our lives.

Consider Gideon's life (Judges 6-8). God enabled and empowered him to be a warrior for His name. Gideon's personality appeared frail and weak-minded, not suited to lead an army for the Lord. Yet, through miraculous signs, God empowered him, increasing his faith to carry out his calling. This is just one of many examples in Scripture where God adds the "super" to our "natural" for His glory. Spiritual gifts are given by God, and if we pursue Him first and foremost, He will guide us correctly.

It is important that we do not become prideful about gift(s) that God has given to us. Remember that the spiritual gift(s) and the assignments that God assigns to you are for His Glory, not yours. Stay humble because no matter the number of people God might enable you to reach for His name’s sake, this is all for His glory!

There are many types of spiritual gifts that God gives. Below is probably the most comprehensive list of "spiritual gifts" I have ever found, but I will be the first to tell you, there might even be more gifts than this. The reason I say that is because if we are going by what the Bible describes as "spiritual gifts,” which is a supernatural enabling of a person by the Spirit within the human for the glory of God, there may be a variety of ways God wants to move that are not listed or maybe just not identified by this list.

Spiritual Gifts/Ministry List:
Reference From: The Making Of A Leader - Frank Damazio (pgs. 47-52)


Figure 9