A Gift for Today...continued

A gift of the Holy Spirit

Spiritual gifts (known to Bible students as the charismata) are nine in number, and are marked out from other gifts of God as being uniquely supernatural.

1 Corinthians 12:6 -11 "There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."

All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. Paul begins 1 Corinthians chapter 12 with the dramatic statement

"Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant."

W. R. Jones in his chapter "The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit" from the book "Pentecostal Doctrine" (15), states the following:

"Those Corinthian Christians were certainly not ignorant regarding the existence of the gifts, for they were very much to the fore in their worship. Their ignorance concerned such things as the real purposes of the gifts, the relative value of the gifts, and the true relationship of the gifts of the Body of Christ, which is His Church (Ephesians 1:22,23).

This revelation of the Church as a body is the main thrust of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and is of vital importance, because the real value of the gifts of the Holy Spirit springs from the relationship of the Church to the living Christ. The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit were all implicit in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, though they did not all become immediately explicit."

And again on page 48:

"Spiritual Gifts are absolutely necessary if the church is to function properly and accomplish for God what he has purposed. Every-member participation is as vital as is the case of our natural bodies. This is the burden of 1 Corinthians 12: 12-16. The church without the gifts of the Holy Spirit is like the natural body without faculties - an object of pity."

It is important to see that spiritual gifts are part of the natural character and attributes of the body of Christ and that they are available for everyone to use.

1 Cor 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

He doesn't give them on the basis of individual goodness but rather according to the needs of the body, just as he determines.

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