I’m in the middle of re-publishing a course on discovering and using God’s gifts. The course was written by a colleague back in 1998 so it needs a bit of updating.
However as I start re-packaging the material I realise there are some questions I need to explore.
First of all. Why do we talk about ‘spiritual’ gifts? Aren’t all gifts from God? Do we need to have a distinction between a natural inclination to provide backup help and a supernatural capacity to provide backup help? I’m wondering if we might be continuing an unnatural division that started when Paul attempted to correct an over-emphasis on supernaturalism in the Corinthian church?
Does every Christian have at least one spiritual gift? I’m told this comes from the passage where Paul says “and to every one God gives a different gift”. I have a hunch that Paul was outlining the fact God equips the church in many many ways. No one is the same. Each person is unique and offers a distinct contribution to the people of God’s work in the world.
Do individual Christians possess spiritual gifts? Or do they belong to the whole church and get shared around as the Spirit enables people to respond to need? Obviously some people specialise in certain areas.
What are spiritual gifts for? From my time in charismatic circles I was taught that spiritual gifts were for the building up of the body. “For what?” I ask. What’s all the body building designed to strengthen us for? It’s for engaging in the mission of God in the world surely. And that’s where the gifts of God really come into play. Not just in worship services and home groups.
Should we stick with the inventories provided by Paul in Romans, Ephesians and 1 Corinthians? Or can we start recognising the huge varieties of giftedness that God creates in the 21st century church?
Milton Stanley’s posted some of these questions over at his Transforming Sermons site.
Good questions. I’ll be linking to your post at my blog later this weekend. Peace.
really good questions. some of this stuff has really been floating around my head for a while now, but I haven’t put fingers to keyboard on it (and I’m starting to think I should).
to me the first question is ‘what does the Spirit do in the church and why?’ putting it that way forces us to look at both the gifts *and* the fruits of the Spirit and this seems important to me. they both seem to be essential to the proper functioning of the meeting of believers. whatever the mission of the church is, it depends on the meeting of believers to function well.
for me the other big point is that whatever we experience of the Spirit is always also an experience of Christ and God the Father. We may understand the function of the Spirit as distinct, but the goal is the same. this trinitarian insight is really important to me (and where I diverge from my charismatic and pentecostal friends on these things is often most acute in the discussion of the trinity).
if the great commission frames our understanding of christian life (well it does for me), then the gifts and fruits of the spirit will ultimately be to that end. that they build up the church in process is simply an explanation of their logical connection to that mission
thanks for getting me thinking on this issue.
I’m shure that you have more of your own thoughts on the answers to the questions you raised and I wish they were raised more often.
In my experience, today there is a need to have some distinction as the spiritual aspect of our gifts are often neglected. We train in teaching and theology and pastoring but do not spend time developing the ability to feel and respond to the umption or prompting and messages from the Spirit in these activities. I like Paul’s summary on this topic, “Follow the way of love, but eagerly desire spiritual gifts especially the gift of prophecy (1 corith 14:1)”
For a long time I thought that one day when I was a good enough Cristian the Spirit would just suddenly take over but my resent experience in practicing/exercsing prophecy (ie hearing God in the moment)with others has shown me that learning and practice is required. It is natural to respond to the spirit to a degree but under the clamor of spiritual noise in our lives from other souces we must practice hard to hear the God’s Spirit from moment to moment. In my recent experience with developing spiritual gifts in myself and others it seems everyone has all the spiritual gifts available to them but they do not come in distinct packages and variy in degree from person to person “just as [the Spirit] determines”. I think Pauls summary on Spiritual gifts in Corinthians 12 – 14 is spot on but its certainly not exhaustive and should not be over analysed.
I am staying away from this wonderful subject, for reasons best known to you! 🙂
Sorry to be off topic Duncan, but I have tagged you for Your Bookshelf! 🙂
GBYAY
Reading through Gordon Fee’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 11, I note his observation that “Paul’s argument is entirely ad hoc, reflecting the Corinthian situation itself, reflecting the Corinthian situation itself… Paul’s conceren here is to offer a considerable list so that they will stop being singular in their own emphasis.”
I think there is benefit Duncan in distinguishing between ‘spiritual gifts’ and ‘natural gifts’ or abilities. For me the key thing about a ‘spiritual gift’ is that it mediates the Spirit of Christ. In other words, the person/group who receives the support or benefit usually experiences being built up spiritually in some way when a spiritual gift is ministered. You wouldn’t have the same expectation with a person simply expressing a natural ability (although in God’s sovereignty all things are possible!) I think this is perhaps one reason Paul claims that the person who is not in relationship with God through the Holy Spirit cannot accept the gifts that come from the Spirit – such gifts are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). Regarding another question you raise, while I don’t believe that the various New Testament lists on spiritual gifts are intended to be exhaustive, nevertheless together they do provide a pretty good coverage of the topic. In fact I would be hard pressed to identify any ministry or service that couldn’t be included in one or more of the 26 or so different gifts identified in the New Testament.
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Well, I didn’t do it during the weekend, but the link is up now. Peace.
I think Balaam’s gift of prophecy is something that deserves a lot more consideration. A pre-pentecost pagan experiencing the Spirit of the Lord? Definately a story to shake off the institutional cobwebs.
Also Moses’ power encounter with the Eqyptian pagan magicians. How do you discern between gifts that look so similar?
My question is, how do we teach about spiritual gifts in a pluralistic context where many seekers may have already experienced ‘spiritual power’ outside the confines of the church? We can no longer begin with the assumption that an encounter with Charismatics is the first encounter seekers have with spiritual signs and wonders.