GOT GIFTS

GIFTSFile

GOT GIFTS?

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

  John [GW] 16:13 [Jesus declared] When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into the full truth.

  1Corinthians 12:1-11 [Paul explained] Brothers and sisters, I don't want there to be any misunderstanding concerning spiritual gifts. You know that when you were unbelievers, every time you were led to worship false gods you were worshiping gods who couldn't even speak. So I want you to know that no one speaking by God's Spirit says, "Jesus is cursed." No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. There are different spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, and yet the same Lord is served. There are different types of work to do, but the same God produces every gift in every person. The evidence of the Spirit's presence is given to each person for the common good of everyone. The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak with wisdom. The same Spirit gives another person the ability to speak with knowledge. To another person the same Spirit gives courageous faith. To another person the same Spirit gives the ability to heal. Another can work miracles. Another can speak what God has revealed. Another can tell the difference between spirits. Another can speak in different kinds of languages. Another can interpret languages. There is only one Spirit who does all these things by giving what God wants to give to each person.

  When an individual believes in Jesus they receive everlasting life, become one of God’s John 1:12 family, changed persons (Jn.3:3, 16; 2Cor.5:17) indwelt with the Holy Spirit (1Cor.12:13; Rom.8:9; Eph.1:13-14). One of the wonderful aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is that He endows every follower of Christ with one or more gifts to be responsibly used to honor and glorify God in serving Him and others.

  I was not introduced to the truth about gifts (Rom.12:6-8; 1 Cor.12:4-11; 1 Pet.4:10-11) until decades into following Christ. In questioning other believers I discovered this lack may be commonplace, sometimes a matter of total ignorance.

  There are evaluation books and pamphlets with surveys to help determine your gifts. A good no-cost place to start is GotQuestions.org. Type in “gifts” and study the 6 informative essays there: Spiritual gifts survey - what are the different spiritual gifts the Bible mentions? How do I know what my spiritual gift is? Is there a biblical spiritual gifts list? Is there any value to a spiritual gifts test/inventory/assessment?

Are the miraculous gifts of the Spirit for today? How does God distribute spiritual gifts?

EBB4

PS. Upon request I’ll send you all 6 from my GIFTSFile.

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