City Life Starter

7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

1 Corinthians 12:29-31

29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.

II. Reflection Questions:

1. Do I view my spiritual gifts as a way to advance myself and gain recognition, or as a gift that belongs to King Jesus, so that I may bring Him glory?

2. Have I been asking the Holy Spirit to develop spiritual gifts in me that are helpful to the Church?

By Jason Scherzer

Chapter 11 discusses proper worship and the godly perspective on worship. As we have examined chapter 12 this week, we see that it contains important instruction for us on spiritual gifts: their purpose, different types of spiritual gifts, and how a Christian is to view these special abilities that have been given by God. Spiritual gifts are given by Christ for the purpose of building up the Church, yet the gifts are “administered” and given through the working and power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:7 tells us that each believer has a spiritual gift. This Scripture is not emphasizing the number of gifts that is given, but is saying that every believer has gift(s), and the use of a gift properly will result in others being helped. This builds up the Church which is made up of people.

Verse 8 begins with a series of examples of gifts that are uniquely given to different people according to God’s choice, by the Holy Spirit. Wise advice or wise counsel is one, and a message of special knowledge is another. There are persons in the Church with varying measures of wisdom, and this is by God’s design. If every believer had exactly the same “degree” or “level” of wisdom, then where would be the sharing of wisdom from one believer to another?

Verse 9 makes mention of the gift of faith, and the gift of healing. A person with a special measure of faith will be able to exercise a supernatural level of trust in God that is beyond human ability. It would be similar to a superhero in an animated movie (which recently hit theaters), when he lifted a massive evil robot by using his super strength! Except that the heavy lifting takes place in the spiritual realm. Every believer will encounter truly difficult situations in which he/she feels that it is near to impossible to trust God.

Verse 10 describes the gift of miracles, the gift of prophecy, the gift of discerning between spirits, the gift of speaking in tongues, and the gift of interpretation of tongues. In Acts chapter 3, Peter and John were going to the temple together at the time of prayer. They exercised the gift of miracles when they met a man who had been lame from birth. The man expected nothing more than a small sum of money, but Peter commanded him to stand up and walk, in the name of Jesus Christ. Prophecy means speaking forth a message from the Lord, speaking truth. Some Christians have this gift, which requires hearing the voice of the Lord very clearly, as well as His call and anointing. Discerning, or spiritual discernment, is like prophecy in that the believer hears clearly from God. Yet discerning the Spirit is more related to hearing what God says about a matter than it is about empowering to speak forth a message.

Speaking in tongues allows some believers with this gift to commune with God in a heavenly language; the gift of interpretation of tongues allows other believers to edify the whole gathered church by making known what was spoken in a way that makes sense to the larger group.

Verse 11 tells us that all spiritual gifts come exclusively from the One, the Holy Spirit. He is the bearer of each and every gift, and no spiritual gift can be given except that the Holy Spirit has provided the desire for the gift, moved with the human heart, and dispensed the gift with effective power. He determines by His wisdom and love how the gifts should be distributed.

Skipping down to the end of the chapter, verses 29-31 show us that not all can be apostles; not all can be prophets; teachers, etc. It is the human tendency to envy the abilities of other people, though this tendency is not taught by the Spirit. An apostle is one who is sent out to preach, in particular one who has seen the Lord. The Church would not be effective if all members were sent out to preach without any other functions. So the wisdom of God is shown in giving a wide variety of spiritual gifts.

Application:

Applying Paul’s teaching in this chapter on spiritual gifts is extremely challenging. In our sin nature, we tend to think only of ourselves and so we look for spiritual gifts to do something for ourselves, such as bring us recognition, or perhaps a higher status within church. Ask the Lord to give humility in the use of spiritual gifts.

Always keep in mind the purpose of spiritual gifts: to edify the body of Christ and to build up the Church. Ephesians 4:11-13 says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The spiritual growth of the Church is for Christ, not for our spiritual achievement or accolades. The Church is a people who are being made perfect, to be exactly like Christ in His character, wisdom, holiness. This is a grand thought that can be tough to wrap our minds around. Meditate on how wonderful Jesus truly is, and His words. Hearing His voice clearly is essential to growing to be the person He wants you to be. Develop the spiritual gifts He has given, while desiring gifts that help the Church.

Prayer: 

Glorious King Jesus, grant that I can be counted as Your servant, and kindly give me gifts from the Holy Spirit that will move my heart toward You and also help others to believe in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen