Get In The Game: Week 3- 1 Corinthians 12

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth regarding spiritual gifts because the people were unspiritual and extreme in their application of the gifts. They knew that they had been given spiritual gifts, but they did not know how to properly utilize them, so to correct the Corinthian’s charismatic confusion, Paul goes back to the fundamentals.

Where do the gifts come from? I Corinthians 12:4-6

The corinthian believers overemphasized the gift of tongues in worship, so Paul reminds them that there are various kinds of spiritual gifts – ALL of which come from the Holy Spirit. Verse 6 says it is God who empowers them all in everyone. The unity amid diversity within God’s nature shold also find reflection in the variety of God-given gifts among believers.

What are the gifts for? I Corinthians 12:7

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” The gifts are given to bring unity to the body of Christ.

What are the gifts? 1 Corinthians 12:8-11

Wisdom – The Spirit of God will give you insight into His will in an area not spelled out directly in Scripture.

Knowledge – This is a special knowledge from the Holy Spirit about someone’s life, directing you to pray or speak into their lives. It may reveal something to someone that he or she would not know or could not know about a paritcular situation unless it was revealed supernaturally. It is a special message of insight into a particualr situation that may reveal a hidden motive or even a future action.

Faith – People with a faith gift have the ability to perceive what God wants to do and the urge to ask Him for it.

Healing – This is a supernatural enablement given to a believer to minister various kinds of kealing and restoration to individuals through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Miracles – People that have a miracle gift are the agents that God uses to release His power into a situation, often without any explanation.

Prophecy – Prophecy is the ability to speak God’s will into a situation at just the right time; or how to apply Scripture to someone in just the right way. It can also be defined as the spiritual ability to proclaim God’s truth in such an authoritative and powerful fashion that lives are changed, the lost are saved, and believers are motivated for greater service and maturity.

Distinguishing Spirits – The ability to see through false teaching, false prophets, and false doctrine. In other words, this is the ability to know whether what someone is saying is really from God. This gift also allows an individual to recognize whether an utterance comes from God or an evil spirit.

Tongues – Paul discusses two types of tongues: those of people and those of angels (13:1). When someone speaks in the tongues of angels, they are speaking to God – no one else understands them and thus they need an interpreter (14:28). When someone speaks in the tongues of people, they are miraculously speaking to someone in their own language, without training (Acts 2:3-4, 11).

Interpretation of Tongues – The person with this gift translates the utterance spoken in a tongue into the native language of the believers that are gathered.

1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” We must remember that this is ALL from God gifted to us through the Holy Spirit through our relationship with Jesus. We don’t “do” any of it, but we must be faithful to be obedient to how God wants to use us to edify the church and bring glory to God through it.

Pray that God would use you to generously offer your gift, and be careful not to be jealous of the gifts of others around you. It takes ALL of us together.

Another definition of spiritual gifts: Spiritual gifts are abilities by which we receive the grace of God and give that grace to others.

Question:

Is God being glorified in your life through the exercising of the spiritual gifts He gave to you? How or why not?