Use the Gifts
By Pastor Jeffrey Smith
In the Christian sphere, people throw around terms like Pentecostal and Charismatic. I don’t like to be identified by those terms because people often try to ascribe negative connotations to me by using them. In Acts 2, we find people praying and celebrating on what’s essentially a feast day. The Holy Spirit descends on those people and fulfills what Jesus said would happen throughout His ministry. Modern-day Pentecostals believe God moves in powerful ways that are observable and He has gifts He wants to pour out into the lives of believers.
This is the framework by which we believe that God imparts the gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12. In hopes to help you easily understand them, I’ve divided them in three groups. Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and discerning of spirits are all concerned with the power to know. Word of wisdom is the ability to have a practical solution when a situation seems impossible. Word of knowledge is gaining information through the Spirit that would not be available otherwise. Discerning of spirits is the ability to know whether someone is being stupid, outside of the will of God, or if they’re literally demon-possessed.
Diverse languages, interpretation, and prophecy all concern themselves with the power to say. Diverse types of languages can be thought of in three ways: the type that speaks languages completely unbeknownst to us, interpretation of languages completely unbeknownst to us, and our prayer language. Considering the first two are pretty self-explanatory, I want to dig into our prayer language. 1 Corinthians 14:2 describes our prayer language as a language spoken directly to God. Where the first two types are downloaded from God, our prayer language is an upload to God! Interpretation is taking these diverse languages and getting to the point of what God is communicating through them. Prophecy is using the lens of the Spirit to call out what will happen.
Miracles, faith, and healing are all concerning with the power to do. Miracles are divine interventions that alter our natural circumstances. Healing is supernatural endowments of divine health and the faith to impart healing to others. Faith is a supernatural impartation of belief and confidence for a specific situation.
If you feel like these gifts are difficult to understand, that’s because they are. As Christians, we’re called to live a life of discovery. These gifts are a part of that discovery process, and they’re available to you right now. Be encouraged knowing God entrusts us with these gifts, as imperfect as we all are, and calls us to use them in our everyday lives.
