A Gift for Today...continued

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

There are nine gifts of the Spirit and they may be broken into three sets of three. This enables us to better identify their usage in the body of Christ.

Gifts of Revelation

Word of Wisdom - a supernatural revelation of the Divine purpose
Word of Knowledge - A supernatural revelation of the Divine Mind
Discerning of Spirits - A supernatural insight by revelation into the realm of spirits

Gifts of Demonstration

Faith - A supernatural trust in God. Manifesting Sovereignty.
Working of Miracles - A supernatural manifestation of Divine immanence and omnipotence.
Gifts of Healing - A supernatural power over disease. A manifestation of Divine Life.

Gifts of Inspiration

Prophecy - A supernatural utterance in a known language
Other tongues - A supernatural utterance in an unknown tongue (a language to the speaker)
Interpretation of utterance in tongues - A supernatural showing forth of the meaning of the tongues

It is important to remember that these are gifts; they cannot be earned and are not deserved. They are not dependent on the goodness of the individual but on the needs of the body. Secondly it is vital to understand that each gift is not a talent that someone has but rather is individual, a one-off for a particular situation or time.

It happens at times that people get caught up in the move of the Holy Spirit or that they become affected by the use of a spiritual gift such as prophecy or an utterance in tongues. Experientially, it has been said that sometimes people feel the ripple from a move of the Spirit or the use of a gift in the meeting. It is something like the ripples you see when a stone is plunged into a pond. They respond thinking that they have received a prophecy or some insight for the meeting when all that has happened is that the Holy Spirit has affected them and they have felt or sensed the nearness of God.

Remember, because a person administers a gift of healing it does not make that person a healer. In the same way because a person prophesies does not make him a prophet.

It is also worthwhile examining the scope and variation in the types of a specific gift of the Spirit, looking not only at the different types of gifts but also at the variation in the practice and administration of the gifts.

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