S2, Episode 4: Spiritual Gifts
With the last episode being all about the Prophetic, the timing seemed right to do an episode on the Spiritual Gifts in general. Spiritual Gifts is kind of a difficult topic to talk about, because whilst we can all go deeper ourselves…I realise that so much of our experience of the Spiritual Gifts is dependent on the communities we find ourselves in.
With all that said, this is a critical aspect of faith. So let's proceed. The most obvious place to start would be to answer this question - what are spiritual gifts?
When we receive Christ, we receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the Holy Spirit imparts a gift that is unique and at his discretion in terms of the type of gift. There is nothing to say in scripture how the mechanics work, nor how he determines who gets what. All we know is that it is a holy Spirit empowered gift, it’s not something you can manufacture in your own strength. And scriptures are really specific to say that these gifts can and maybe therefore should build up the church, Paul being specific to say in 1 Corinthians 14:12:
“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”
Now we aren’t supposed to use these gifts to determine the evidence of the Spirit of God, we are encouraged to look at the fruit of a persons life to determine that. But Spiritual Gifts are exactly that…they are a gift. And most people find joy in being able to express these gifts to their fellow believers. I’ll say one more thing before we move on…these Spiritual Gifts are really important. They aren’t like the optional extra of heated seats when we buy a new car. They are probably not the steering wheel or the engine either, but they are somewhere in the middle in terms of significance to the overall vehicle.
Okay so important question: how do you find out what your spiritual gift is? You may already know what it is. But for those of you who don’t you can do a spiritual gifts test. The most reliable one i have used is spiritualgiftstest.com. I have used it many times and referred many people there. And plenty of churches also recommend this as a part of their volunteer programs. Most people have 1 major gift, and two to four other gifts. But here’s the thing…they can change. Because it is a self-questionnaire, the success of the test relies on your comprehension of the questions based on your level of exposure and experience at the time. So for instance, these days I score pretty highly on prophecy. 10+ years ago I was having visions and dreams, but I wouldn’t have understood that this was called prophecy. But because I have spent more time in prophetic environments, I now understand that my dreams are prophetic. And so that knowledge no doubts impacts what I respond. But its not entirely influenced by your interpretation. I have never planted a church in my life, but for as long as I can remember I have consistently gotten Apostleship as a spiritual gift…even though I had no idea what that meant the first time I did the test.
We can also learn about our spiritual gifts through people. There are those odd people in church communities who can pick up very quickly what your spiritual gifts are. They just have a knack for it, and better yet they have a passion for it.
Now there is one more thing - there is this thing that you may hear about, especially if you come from a pentecostal tradition…its called the five fold ministry gifts. The five ministry gifts refers to the specific gifts as noted in Ephesians 4:12, which says:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[c] and teachers,[d] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
So the five are: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (or pastors), and teachers. They have been specifically given to equip the Body of Christ.
So the five fold ministry gifts are apparently when one person embodies the 5 gifts. When I first got told this, I was not super keen. I was like “Na, there’s no way God would create this super gifted person so that they can get full of pride and independence”. But someone explained to me recently, some I trust, that the way this operates is more that the Holy Spirit can empower whichever of those gifts is necessary at the time. So it's the equivalent of being a jack of all trades, a master of none. That seems more likely to me.
However, I ultimately think we can get bogged down with these fivefold giftings stuff and trying to identify them in other people, and not enough focus is given to how exactly they equip the Body of Christ. I’m not talking about leadership philosophies, I’m talking about how exactly those gifts or roles equip others. Because if I am being honest, I only really see the teachers equipping…and that’s not necessarily the fault of the other ministry gifts.
Ok, I digress. So what kind of gifts can you have? Well besides those that have already been mentioned, which were: apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, shepherding, and teaching, there are also:
Mercy
Intercession - Prayer
Administration
Discernment
Exhortation, which means encouragement
Faith
Healing
Giving
Tongues
And Interpretation
Leadership
Service
Hospitality
And Wisdom
People far more gifted and committed than me have taken the time to glean from scripture these different kinds of spiritually empowered gifts because they aren’t all listed as explicitly in scripture as the five ministry gifts in Ephesians mentioned earlier.
But every believer gets spiritual gifts. It’s not our choosing. BUT, we certainly can steward it and grow in our ability to discern the Holy Spirits' guidance in the use of those gifts. So for instance, when it comes to prophesy, I specifically have prophetic dreams. The more I have listened, taken note and prayed about it…the more I have seen God use the dreams and increase the number of dreams I have had. My stewardship process has also been learning how to wait, learning who to trust in terms of sharing them with others…and learning how to understand them, which has certainly ramped up in the last 12 months. That hasn’t happened instantly. It’s been a growing process. Sometimes through the guidance of others, sometimes through just talking to the Holy Spirit. Either way, there is a process when learning how to steward the gift.
Now unfortunately, I am not going to be able to go through each gift in detail. But I will allude to gifts throughout so that hopefully you get at least a snippet of something relating to your gift.
The big question:
Why would I need to talk about this? How does the Pink Elephant of depth diminish the value of this scriptural topic?
I’m glad you asked! There are several ways in which we see a lack of depth in the comprehension and practice of spiritual gifts.
A very significant number of Christians, have no idea what a spiritual gift is and the fact that they have been given one
To be fair, much of this culture is also contributed to by the fact that there is very little teaching in general about spiritual gifts in church community. Not all of course, but many. And many churches who might provide coaching about these spiritual gifts, might focus on certain gifts like ‘prophecy’ or ‘teaching’. So yes in general it would be hard for every Christian to know about something that rarely gets discussed. On the other hand, there are plenty of volunteer programs that introduce you to your spiritual gifts but give very little information about what it means and how you could grow it. I know because I used to run these. I was always a little disappointed that the reason we would think to do a spiritual gifts test, was to assist in the volunteer engagement process and not because we in general value the spiritual gifts enough to teach it. That’s just my two cents though.
Unfortunately, it just means that people don’t understand how significant it is to have been given a gift, nor do they value the gifts in other people. Or even valuing those gifts in themselves.
See one of the contexts of 1 Corinthians, a highly quoted book, is specifically addressing spiritual gifts and their use. Yes he is chastising the Corinthians church for their use of the gifts, but the underlying presupposition is that the spiritual gifts are actively being used in the community of God. Very actively compared to our standards today. The love passage in 1 Corinthians 13, possibly one of the most well known passages in our society, a classic choice for a bible reading at weddings for both Christians and non-Christians alike, is in the context of a conversation on spiritual gifts. Paul is encouraging them to ensure that love is still the highest value when we consider our actions, including how we use spiritual gifts.
So the fact that so few Christians know and understand the spiritual gifts God has given them, and consider it a low priority to use them…is quite shocking.
There are some gifts that are greatly prioritised, and others that are almost completely forgotten.
Teaching is probably the most emphasised gift in the Body of Christ these days. And now I understand why, there is a high accountability for those who teach. James 3:1 says:
“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”(NIV)
Teaching is not meant to be taken lightly. But when we read Pauls words in 1 Corinthians 12, we see that he is adamant that there is no benefit in ranking the gifts since none can be done without.
He says from verse 20 to 26:
“As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have not need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.”
There is just so much gold in this passage. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are INDISPENSABLE. Let me tell you what the church often treats as the weaker parts as far as spiritual gifts are concerned:
Those with a hospitality gift.
All the churches I have been to have presumed that hospitality means cooking. So some event will come around, and the leaders will go “Um we need some food. Just give it to such and such they’ve got a hospitality gift.” And that person is in a kitchen by themselves single handedly trying to feed an entire hungry populace…whilst the leaders are enjoying themselves, completely relaxed, giving very little thought to the person in the kitchen. Let me demonstrate how much we undervalue this indispensable gift. The word in scripture used for hospitality in the New Testament is: philoxenia, which means “lover of strangers”. We demonstrate our lack of depth, when we suggest that this word means ‘cooking’. Cooking is important, its a blessing. But based on this definition, hospitality may or may not involve any domestic and practical tasks! And how beautiful does “lover of strangers” sound. Is this not an indispensable gift?! What could it do for our small groups, churches, and families if we rightly honoured the gift of hospitality in the Body of Christ? What impact might it have for those who are searching for Christ? I’ve heard many testimonies of how someone has given their life to Christ because of a preachers expounding of Christian doctrine…but I have heard equally as many testimonies of salvation on account of the actions of a generous and hospitable person.
Now there is even fear in relationship to some gifts. Let’s talk about Apostleship as a gifting for a second. I mentioned earlier that its the most consistent gift I get when I do spiritual gifts tests, and I have also had it prophesied over me. BUT, in my early days exploring the spiritual gifts, I literally had no idea what Apostleship was. And worst yet, it was next to impossible to find any information about it. I once met with a leader, and they asked me what is your spiritual gifts? And I said very matter-of-factly, Apostleship and even before the word had fully escaped my mouth they said: “Well you don’t appoint yourself as an Apostle, the church will do that. In fact, its best you don’t tell people that.” What??!! At the time, I didn’t even know enough about the church to understand what she was saying. So I almost walked away feeling ashamed about this spiritual gift that I knew nothing about.
So let me address the contraversy. Some believers don’t recognise the gift of Apostleship. They believe that apostleship came and died with the original twelve appointed back when Jesus was on the earth. We of course have some exceptions like the Apostle Paul who had an encounter with Jesus after his ascension. And there are others that Paul calls an Apostle including Andronicus and Junia, Junia being one who is believed by some theologians to have been a female apostle, although of course much debate still surrounds this. Now I don’t know if thats true. I don’t know if there are people that deserve the title of ‘apostle’ in this day and age. Where the difference really matters though is the distinction between the gift of Apostleship and the office of the Apostle. That’s what this leader was really trying to tell me when she said ‘Don’t appoint yourself as an apostle’. She is saying that the office of the apostle is the issue. And I have to admit that after she told me this, I did discover many people online and otherwise that are self-proclaimed apostles, as in declaring themselves to function in the role of an apostle to the church, that had some pretty concerning behaviours and even doctrines. So it was good advice. But the downside of such ‘apostles’ in the atmosphere is that believers with a genuine apostleship gift are silenced and undeveloped. Over the 15 or so years from when I had this prophecy spoken over me to now, I have gathered more and more information and understanding, albeit in an adhoc kind of way…that I now understand what it means to have an apostleship gift. And I find I can see it in other believers and at least encourage them. But its taken a lot of time. Not like a 1 year leadership program, like those with a leadership gift could do. Or a term based prophetic program, like those with a prophetic gift could do.
Now people with a gift of apostleship can’t remain silent forever. It’s just not their makeup. There’s a guy in the USA and he began a movement called the New Evangelicals. He has come to represent Christians who are deconstructing, but based on his story I don’t think it started that way. I believe he was responding to a culture he saw in the church (a classic apostleship trait). But his own pastor was not happy with what he is doing. Sidenote - those with a shepherding gift or even a leadership gift will often struggle with the apostleship gift because they can be quite radical. And the shepherd often wants to maintain the status quo because they’re impulse is to protect the sheep. And those with a leadership gift can be programmatic, they aren’t necessarily wildly visionary. Anyhow, a conversation with his pastor probably sent him over the edge and he is now very much leading a movement of deconstructing believers. He now has 35,000 followers on instagram alone, he has interns, merchandise, get invited onto podcasts…and so much more. He basically has the same number of people following him as the weekly attendance as Craig Groeschels Life Church. He arguably has the same engagement as a megachurch. He is what I would describe to have an apostleship gifting. Say what you want about what he is leading, but there’s no denying the apostleship gift on his life. Then there’s the preacher and sneakers guy. Ben Kirkby. Another Christian personality that believers divide over. I happen to love the guy, his book is humble and thought provoking…but I don’t care what anyone says, I absolutely believe he has an apostleship gift. He may have accidentally become prominent, but what he has done is address a previously unaccounted for culture in the church (there’s that apostleship trait again). Nobody was voicing this concern over the unusual relationship between leaders, money and image…until this guy came along. Love him or hate him, he has brought some accountability that didn’t exist before.
Here’s the thing, I think it is highly amusing that the habit of ranking spiritual gifts in the Corinthians church is still happening today. And maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. But it is certainly an area that we could all improve on.
There is often little opportunity to use them, and people are waiting for permission to do so
So even if you do know what your spiritual gift is, and understand it….there isn’t necessarily permission to use your gifts (depending on what they are…because some gifts like prayer, you don’t necessarily need the permission to use…though I know intercessors love being called on by others to pray).
For many, the sheer layout of a church service prohibits the usage of spiritual gifts. Service outlines are very strict and structured these days, and having someone get up and speak a tongue and interpret for 10 minutes is not so easily allowable. So there is the permission of opportunity that believers struggle with. But then there is also the permission of value right. So if you’re specific gift is not valued, you will be more unlikely to share it. There are some churches that I have had to learn, do not want to hear about my prophetic dream. Because they don’t value dreams. Now thats okay, I can deal with that. I am not trying to get attention with this thing, I am just trying to be faithful to God with a gift that he has given me. But I admit I would be quite concerned if a new Christian were to begin demonstrating this spiritual gift in that church…because they may not be encouraged to pay attention. And therefore miss out on something incredible that God has meant for them to a) experience b) meant to serve the church with.
If you find yourself in this situation, where you have a spiritual gift that you want to grow in but there is either no opportunity or value of that gift in your church community…my encouragement to you is to find other believers outside of your church that you can connect with around this. There is a good chance that no church is going to faithfully value every single gift, as God values it. And that’s okay to a degree. But that doesn’t mean that you are limited. Remember, your gift is still your responsibility to steward and grow in.
Okay, so why do we need to talk about these matters. They don’t seem so deeply spiritual. It’s not an earth shattering revelation. Why do we need to takl about this?
A couple of years ago, I had an epic dream. It was like a one in a million dream. There were 3 scenes to the dream and I could remember every single detail. I went to my Connect Group Leaders at the time, and relayed this dream and we all agreed that God had given me a strategy for our Connect Groups ministry. Some of my old Connect Group Leaders listen to this podcast, and I am confident that they can remember this dream. I prayed and prayed for weeks to understand the key principles of this strategy. And one day, the Holy Spirit revealed it to me. The key element was: belonging. So I began to research and research this concept called belonging, which no doubt one day I will write all about. One of the key aspects of belonging that kept emerging in the research I was doing was this idea of contribution. The research made it clear that contributing to an organisation, family, group whatever the collective of people is represented by…that this contribution increased their feelings of connectedness and belonging to the greater group. It made sense! I’ve sat in so many leaders meetings, where overcommitted volunteers ask “Why aren’t our people willing to do more? Why don’t they turn up?” Well its kind of obvious right. High level volunteers know how to uniquely contribute themselves, and they feel valued for the contribution they make. So of course, contribution increases a persons sense of belonging.
When Paul used the analogy of a human body to describe how the people of God relate and work together, it was no accident. As always, the writers of scripture were writing insights that were beyond the understanding they had at that time. A great sign of the spirit of Gods wisdom anointing them as they write.
1 Corinthians 12 becomes a critical passage for all believers. So what did Paul say in this passage again? He said:
We cannot say “we have no need of you” to any other member. Which means every individual that believes in Jesus is needed. Every gift is needed.
The parts of the body that seem weaker, they are in fact indispensable! Indispensable! We cannot do without them. We are not complete as the Body if we have people unable to contribute to the Body of Christ. And for the leaders listening, its not necessarily up to them to slot into our pre-prepared volunteer roles. When our responsibility is to equip the Body of Christ, its our problem if they don’t understand how to use their gifts and live out the Christian life.
Paul even goes so far to say that those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour. It is our duty as believers to give greater value & respect to those gifts, that are often seen as less valuable. Like service, or mercy, or exhortation. Those gifts that believers contribute behind the scenes, that few see. We are the ones who are supposed to see, and honour, value and respect it.
In verse 25 he says that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. This is so countercultural. I have worked in so many workplaces where there is division between certain groups of labour. All because there is not a mutual care. All because certain departments are valued as greater, and cared for with more than another. Like in a school, where there is a difference between the teachers and the administrators. Or in an airline, where the engineers are looked after better than the cabin crew. The body of christ is the one place where this need not be so. Imagine, if we assigned the people in the body of christ with a monetary value. Right now we now that the distribution would not be equal. We know that some would be grossly exaggerated in value against others. Some would be a million. Some would be 200,000. Some, maybe the ones we have forgotten about because they stopped coming to services, would be given $5. Unfortunately, those people representing $5 often know that this is there value to the church. Hence why they stop coming. The $5 was assigned well before they left. Here’s the point of my analogy. Paul is saying: Everyones assigned value is $1,000,000. Everyone receives the same care. We listen as attentively to everyone, as we would the Pastor. Everyone is given time, resources and support as equally as we would give to the person we want to help the most.
Lastly, Paul says in verse 26 - If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.
How humbling. This verse is a reminder of our interconnectedness. We effect each other. We cannot simply say that this is not my responsibility, because anothers suffering is our collective suffering. We all benefit from each other. This is the way God intends that we do community. I’ve talked about it before, but my heart really hurts for the disillusioned. The people who have left church communities because they are so confused. I sense their suffering, and I suffer with them. We all have those areas where we feel specifically burdened right? But God is asking that we feel the burden of our brothers and sisters that do not feel valued and loved in the Body of Christ, because their contribution differs in appearance and even glamour.
Final Point:
Now here’s the point, which I realise I say a lot. But lets get to the crux of it right? God doesn’t stipulate through Pauls analogy, which gift or person is represented as an eye, or a hand or a foot. He doesn’t stipulate the level of importance each gift has so explicitly, although there are some very debatable passages, its still not necessarily explicit and conclusive. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul calls prophecy of greater value than tongues, unless someone interprets the tongue. He says this because he argues that prophecy builds up the church, but an uninterpreted tongue only builds up the individual. That’s his logic for such a statement. If an interpreter unpacks the tongue though, that tongue is no longer lesser than a prophecy. So the only way he categorises these gifts is the degree to which they support and encourage the Body of Christ versus its individual benefit. But he doesn’t distinguish one gift against another in terms of its contribution to the body. If all gifts are contributing to the body, he doesn’t say one is lesser or one is greater. They are of equal value.
Some people argue that the five ministry gifts have been given in order of importance, which if it is true we have grossly fallen short of. They argue that apostles are first, prophets second, evangelists third, shepherds fourth, and teachers fifth as per the passage in Ephesians 4. Now to be honest, the only person I ever heard really argue this point strongly was a person who was complaining about the lack of honour they felt as someone with an apostleship gift. So yeah, I don’t really agree with his interpretation of this passage. But I also don’t know. I think the more critical part we should be concerned with is whether these 5 giftings do have opportunity to equip…as scripture implores them to.
BUT again, we can be sure that God still doesn’t stipulate through the imagery used in 1 Corinthians 12 the value that each gift brings to the Body. So why would we believe we have the right to interpret the gifts for ourselves? To discount some, and elevate others? God has not done this and he doesn’t give us the authority to do so either. We must assume that any gift could represent any part of the body. Maybe service is the heart. Maybe discernment is the arm. Maybe apostleship is the knee. We don’t actually know, though we usually already have our own assumptions and prejudgements according to how we interpret the value of the gifts.
So how have you overlooked the spiritual gifts that God has given the body of Christ? How have you failed to look at the gifts he has given you, as equal in contribution and value to those you would like to emulate? How have you upheld in the value the flashy preacher, over the intercessor? Or the evangelist, over the discerner? Would you listen to them equally if they had something to say? How might you have undervalued those gifts that Paul describes as indispensable? Maybe you’ve felt excluded and rejected because your gift seemed dispensable, and all you’ve wanted to do was contribute? Well I pray that God can heal your heart, even as you have listened to this episode.
The spiritual gifts are important. They are critical to the survival of the Body of Christ. It is critical to your own faith. And it is critical to your relationship with the church. Most of all, it is a free gift that our generous God has lavished upon us all because he is such a greater giver. What will you do with your gift?