Spiritual Gifts

If I were to go over my posts for the past year and count up the number of times I've written "One of my favorite Bible verses is...", I'm sure it would be a very large number. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 are among my favorite verses:

⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the 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, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

You count 'em up, and you'll see nine different gifts (somewhere in my mind, I had eight), and I work under the assumption that these gifts are self-explanatory. Indeed, it's not that important that we know what the gifts are as much as recognize when we possess a given gift and make use of it in the service of the Lord.

Later in today's reading, specifically in 1 Corinthians 12:28-31, Paul will creates hierarchy of the USERS of these gifts, but the gifts themselves have no relative ranking--one isn't more important than the other to the extent it is being used to glorify the Lord. As such, we shouldn't be jealous of another person's spiritual gifts, because we possess our own, and both are of equal importance. Also, while we ALL have spiritual gifts, we don't possess ALL spiritual gifts, and it would be unrealistic to expect to. We might be lucky to possess more than one, but what's more important is that we fully utilize that gift we've been given instead of pining away for more.

Probably my most important point is that these gifts won't necessarily be the same throughout our lives. They certainly could be, but as circumstances change, the Holy Spirit may equip us differently to deal with the various needs we'll encounter in life, but we can be certain that the Holy Spirit WILL always be equipping us, either augmenting what we already possess or training us in new endeavors. I'll make a brief detour at this point and comment on people who exhort us to get outside our "comfort zones," implying that somehow doing something outside of our experiences will be some type of growth experience. It very well could be, and I won't reject the idea out of hand, but I'll work on getting outside of my comfort zone when I'm convinced that the Lord has fully and completely used the skills and abilities he's blessed me with inside that comfort zone. I have difficulties understanding how being a novice in one area can trump being proficient in another, but that's a discussion for another day.

Sometimes we feel like these spiritual gifts are either hiding or don't exist. Neither is true, and it could well be that the time or place for the utilization of our gifts hasn't yet come. In any case, when we feel those times, pray that our hearts and minds be opened to what our gift is and the proper place to use it. The spiritual gifts are the lamp under a bowl as described in Matthew 5:15, and just as we're not to cover our lamps, we shouldn't cover our spiritual gifts. False modesty in denying a gift that the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon us is not a virtue, but instead an impediment to the work that needs to be done. We all have spiritual gifts--ensure that we live lives where we try to discover what they are AND fully utilize them in the service of the Lord.

Scott