What Are Spiritual Gifts?

                      

        

There is a serious spiritual warfare going on within life– good verses evil; right verses wrong!  The enemy, adversary, devil, whatever identity you want to attach is a thief.  John 10:10 tells us “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  So if you are not prepared to battle, then you just may be taken into captivity.   

Pastors/Ministry and Leaders are not educating and empowering people enough.  I pray they will start teaching more about spiritual warfare to truly prepare believers and to encourage people to operate within their gifts.  If you are paying attention to the news, you have noticed the chaos in the world, in the communities, and maybe in your homes.  I call it “devil drama.”  If you review the previous posts, they are pertaining to the spiritual realm.  Hopefully, they will be a reference point for future post referencing the natural/physical realm.

First you should be made aware that everyday life is lived within a spiritual realm, good and evil.  We may function in the natural and see through natural eyes; however there are activities happening all around us within the spiritual realm.  Things that we can’t see or understand unless we have committed our life to God the Father and Jesus the Son whom give specific spiritual gifts.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." John 4:24  In addition, you should know that God will bless those whom He sees fit with spiritual gifts because He wants to equip His people and wants them prepared to walk through the battlefield – and this earth is the battlefield.  God’s word, in 1 Corinthians 12, instructs us Concerning Spiritual Gifts

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³ Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,^[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.^[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Unity and Diversity in the Body

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues^[d]? Do all interpret? ³¹ Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Love Is Indispensable

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.