A Basic Understanding

Introduction

Imagine what would happen if Pat Sajak and Vanna White from the game show Wheel of Fortune would switch jobs. Can you imagine Sajak, dressed in a slinky dress and standing off to the side, clapping and chanting “Big money, big money!” Can you imagine him turning over vowels on a board?

How about Vanna? Can you picture her cracking jokes, talking with contestants and essentially running the show?

The two of them swapping jobs just doesn’t seem right, does it? Sajak is good at what he does and White is good at what she does. But the show probably wouldn’t be as good if they switched jobs. They’re both perfect for what the show needs and for what they’re good at doing. I’d be willing to bet that if one or both of them were to quit the show or wanted to do the other’s job that the show wouldn’t make it. Wheel of Fortune needs both of them doing exactly what they’re doing.

Forgive me for drawing an analogy between a game show and the Church of Jesus Christ, but we can learn something from that illustration.

If one of us is not doing what God designed us to do, the church isn’t what it could be or should be. Not only is it short-staffed, some people have to do double duty and do things that they’re not comfortable doing.

Can you imagine what would happen if Marshall Faulk, star running back for the St. Louis Rams, had to play defensive tackle because a lineman didn’t feel like playing? Not only would Faulk be overmatched, his play as a running back would probably suffer as well. He’d have to play both offense and defense, not to mention he’d probably get beat up playing against 350-pound behemoths.

Looking at the bigger, and more important picture, the Rams would have a hard time winning in that scenario. The Rams need each and every player to first of all play, and second of all to play in their natural positions. The same thing is true for the Church. Each of us needs to be in the game and playing our unique positions.

Today we’re going to begin looking at specific spiritual gifts, but before we do that, let’s find out what are not spiritual gifts. Specifically, we’ll look at a passage in Ephesians 4.

Before we do, however, let’s remind ourselves of what we’ve learned in the last two articles.

We found out that God expects each and every one of us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Because of all the wonderful things that God’s done for us, is doing for us and will do for us, we should be totally committed to Him. Specifically, we need to give Him our bodies, minds and wills.

The next thing that we learned from our study in Romans 12 is that we shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves than we ought, especially in terms of how God has gifted us for service. Instead, we should think of ourselves with sober judgment, accurately evaluating ourselves. We shouldn’t think too highly of ourselves, nor should we think too little of ourselves.

This is Biblical self-esteem. Christians with this kind of humble and realistic attitudes are the kind of persons God can use in a mighty way. In fact, the Lord gives us just the right amount of faith that we need in order to use our spiritual gifts.

Clarifying What Are NOT Spiritual Gifts

Now let’s briefly discuss what are not spiritual gifts. Look at verse seven.

Eph. 4:7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

So Christ has been gracious to us, the Church. He’s “given” us something. And what has He given us? Skip down to verses 11-13.

Eph. 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

Eph. 4:12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Eph. 4:13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So Christ has given us “apostles,” “prophets,” “evangelists” and “pastors” and “teachers.” Some people read verse 11 and believe that these are spiritual gifts. But are they?

Aren’t they really people? I think they are. In fact, I think it’s obvious that, taken in context, Christ’s grace gift to the Church are these people. They’re not spiritual gifts. They’re gifted people.

As a result, I think those who conclude that there are spiritual gifts of apostleship, evangelism and pastoring are misinterpreting this passage. Again, these are gifted people, not spiritual gifts in terms of supernatural enablements..

As we’ll see later, however, I do believe there are spiritual gifts of prophecy and teaching.

It’s my conviction that the only specific spiritual gifts that we can be absolutely sure of are found in Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 & 28 & 30. In fact, let’s look at one of the lists in Romans 12 right now.

While gifts are also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:1 and 14:1, they don’t give us any new ones that aren’t already mentioned in chapter 12. Spiritual gifts are also referenced in 1 Peter 4:9-11, but no specific gifts are revealed.

Those of you who have heard sermons on spiritual gifts before or have taken a spiritual gift inventory before, may have been taught that there are a ton of gifts. Maybe as many as 20 or even more. Here are some of the ones that I’ve found in lists of gifts from various sources:

Apostleship

Counseling

Craftsmanship (artistic)

Craftsmanship (manual)

Evangelism

Shepherding

Hospitality

Music (vocal)

Music (instrumental)

Pastoring

Writing

I feel strongly that these are not spiritual gifts because they’re not found in either of the lists in Romans 12 or 1 Corinthians 12. Everyone agrees that these two places discuss specific gifts. It’s indisputable. It’s when people start citing other passages that they start getting themselves into trouble. As I looked up the verses that people cite for some of these supposed gifts, they’re very inconclusive.

Spiritual Gifts Are Not The Same As Human Abilities Or The Fruit Of The Spirit

By the way, this seems like a good time to make a differentiation between spiritual gifts and natural, human abilities.

Human abilities are either given at birth or are learned over time. Everybody, even non-Christians, have certain skills or natural abilities. For example, some people are great cooks or great musicians or have a sense of humor. Those have their origin in man. Everybody’s good at something.

On the other hand, spiritual gifts are from God, most likely given at the moment of salvation. That means only Christians have them. Non-Christians don’t have spiritual gifts.

It’s important that we not confuse natural, human abilities and skills with supernatural, God-given gifts. I may be a great softball player, but there’s no spiritual gift for batting and fielding.

It’s also important that we not confuse spiritual gifts with the fruit of the Spirit.

Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal. 5:23 gentleness and self-control.

The Fruit of the Spirit has to do with maturity and character issues. When we yield to the Spirit and let Him control our lives, these kinds of things-this kind of “fruit”–are evident in our lives. We have “love,” “joy,” “peace” and all the rest.

On the other hand, spiritual gifts have to do with Christian service or ministry. They determine what, exactly, God wants us to do in the church. How do we serve God? What does He want us to do? We need to find out how He’s gifted us and then put those gifts to work for Him in the appropriate ministry.

By the way, you may be wondering just how many gifts a person can have.

It kind of depends on how you look at it. I believe that each of us has more than one spiritual gift. And yet, in 2 Timothy 1:6 Paul tells Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God.” So, all of our spiritual gifts put together can also be seen as a single gift. Have you ever received several gifts in one box at Christmas or your birthday? It’s the same idea. In one sense, you received multiple gifts, but in another sense, you only received one gift.

You can also look at it this way: God has an artist’s palette with all the primary colors, and those colors represent different gifts. But He takes His brush and begins combining the primary colors and creates a wide variety of other colors, until each of us is unique. I’ve got a little of this, a lot of this, a fair amount of this, and it all adds up to my gift as it were.

On the other hand, God’s given you some of this, a pinch of this, a big glob of this and before you know it, there’s your gift. You have multiple individual spiritual gifts which combined is how you’re gifted.

As we’ll find out in this article and the next, the gifts overlap and complement each other. Sometimes, the distinction between them is relatively minor so we’re going to resist the urge to over-define them. I first studied spiritual gifts 10 years ago and even taught a class on them, but if you were to ask me today what my gifts are I’m not sure I could tell you definitively. It’s not always cut and dried.

Having said that, as we talk about each spiritual gift I encourage you to ask yourself the question: “Do I have this gift?” That’s a legitimate question to ask, and while you may never be able to say definitely, knowing how God has gifted you can steer you towards the best way in which to serve.

The Spiritual Gift Of Prophecy

And now, finally, let’s look at some real-life spiritual gifts. Let’s read verses 6-8 and then we’ll look at each gift in more detail. In all, we’re going to see seven gifts here in Romans 12: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, leadership, giving and mercy.

Rom. 12:6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

Rom. 12:7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;

Rom. 12:8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Verse six mentions the first gift: prophecy. For most of us, the word prophecy probably conjures up the image of somebody predicting the future. “Thus sayeth the Lord.”

In reality, the Greek word for prophecy literally means to speak forth, to proclaim or to speak before people. In other words, prophecy’s essentially the gift of public speaking. First Corinthians 14:3 says that “everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.”

There it is: speaking to men. It’s public speaking. From my perspective, this can also be called the gift of preaching. It’s proclaiming the Word of God.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the Bible who prophesy predict the future. Many simply verbalize what God has already revealed in Scripture. Since the Bible’s complete and God’s revealed everything that He wants us to know, I don’t believe the gift of prophecy here in the 21st century refers to predicting future events.

Again, canon is closed and the Bible, as it exists right now, is all we need to know. God’s already revealed Himself, so Christians who have the gift of prophecy confine themselves to public speaking about the Bible, and specifically, about Jesus. After all, Revelation 19:10 says that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

The modern day spiritual gift of prophecy, then, has nothing to do with predicting the future. It focuses on preaching from the Bible, and especially on Christ. My hunch is that many preachers and evangelists have this gift.

By the way, don’t confuse the gift of prophecy with New Testament prophets. Remember, prophets are people, prophesy is the gift itself. Besides, prophets in the sense of New Testament prophets don’t exist anymore.

Look at what Ephesians 2:19-20 says:

Eph. 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,

Eph. 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

The foundation of Christianity was laid by the apostles, capital “A,” and prophets, capital “P.” And how many foundations do we need? That’s obvious. Just one. The foundation’s already been laid, the Bible’s already been written and is complete, so the job of apostles and prophets has ended. They died off 2,000 years ago and don’t exist anymore.

Jude 3 … I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

William McDonald says this:

“Once the foundation was laid, the need for the prophets ceased. This ministry is preserved for us in the pages of the New Testament. Since the Bible is complete, we reject any so-called prophets who claim to have an additional truth from God.”

The spiritual gift of prophecy is still around, but prophets in the sense of predicting the future and laying the foundation for the New Testament is over and done with. Now I grant you that someone who has the gift of prophecy today could be called a prophet of sorts, lower case “p,” but not in a predictive or an official sense. I hope you understand the distinction, because it’s an important one.

The end of verse six says “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.” What does that mean? It sounds similar to the end of verse three, doesn’t it?

Rom. 12:3 … Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

If you remember from last time, we said that God gives each of us just the right amount of faith so that we can use our spiritual gifts to their fullest extent. If we have the gift of prophesying, then, the Lord tells us to use it to the fullest extent, “in proportion to” our “faith.” In other words, if God’s given you the gift of prophesying, then use it as God intended.

As you might imagine, the gift of prophesying is a valuable one. In fact, 1 Corinthians 14:1 says “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.”

If you have this gift, please use it-the church needs more proclaimers.

The Spiritual Gift Of Serving

Now let’s look at the next gift, the beginning of verse seven. “If it is serving, let him serve.”

The word for serving or serve can also be translated ministering or ministry. It is a very broad and all-encompassing word that means just what it says: you serve in some way. It does not, as some have said, refer to the “office” of deacons. This is a list of specific spiritual gifts and not people or office-holders.

And what kind of “serving” or service is this? Anything. Absolutely anything. This is practical help or service. It could be washing windows at church, taking a meal to shut-ins, preparing communion for Sunday morning, mowing the grass, fixing the air conditioner in the parsonage, whatever.

I thank God for people like this. If there weren’t people with the gift of “serving” there’s a lot of things that wouldn’t ever get done. It’s my experience that many people who have this gift are on the quiet side and aren’t really wild about being in the limelight, but they are very, very important.

Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is one of the most prevalent gifts of all: Supernatural capacities and the desire to help and to serve and to do whatever it takes to help God’s people and advance the Kingdom.

By the way, I believe this gift is essentially the same as the gift of “helps” that’s found in 1 Corinthians 12:28. We’ll talk more about that in a future article.

Verse seven says if you have this gift, then use it, then “serve.”

The Spiritual Gift Of Teaching

Now let’s look at the end of verse seven. “If it is teaching, let him teach.”

This gift’s pretty obvious. The person understands Biblical truths and has a God-given knack for sharing it in an understandable way to others. How does this differ from prophecy? Prophecy proclaims the truth while teaching carries the idea of training and equipping and is often a continuous process. Prophecy’s often a one-time event and may not be very deep in terms of understanding. On the other hand, teaching systematically digs beneath the surface so that others can grasp the full intent of whatever’s being taught.

This gift can be used in any number of ways. It can be used formally in a Sunday School class or Bible study for adults, children, men or women. It can also be used informally: at home, one-on-one and pretty much anything else you can imagine.

The gift also manifests itself differently in people. Each teacher is unique. Each teacher has his or her own style.

It’s safe to say that many pastors have the gift of “teaching,” but remember, you can be a teenager and have the gift of “teaching” and you can be a woman and have the gift of “teaching” and you can be an introvert and have the gift of “teaching.” So let’s shake our rigid concept of a teacher as somebody like Chuck Swindoll or Miss Landers. Anyone can have the spiritual gift of teaching. (By the way, if you know who “Miss Landers” is, I know how old you are.)

Do you have this gift? If so, the end of verse seven says “let him teach.” In other words, get it on, because the church needs you!

Conclusion

What about the gift of prophecy or the gift of “serving?” If you think that’s how God has gifted you, start praying about how you can use that gift if you aren’t already using it.

If you’re anything like I was when I first became aware that God has supernaturally equipped me, I couldn’t wait to find out more about them and then see if I could figure out what the gifts are. After we go through all of the gifts we’ll also talk about how we can tell what it is that God has uniquely equipped each of us to do.

But until we discuss all of the gifts and ways in which we can identify which ones we have, I encourage you to focus on the point that we made at the beginning of this article. And that’s this: all of us have spiritual gifts and the church needs all of us to use those spiritual gifts. If we’re not using them in some kind of ministry, then everybody else suffers.

I depend on you and you depend on me. If one of us doesn’t pull our own weight, the other suffers. Most important of all, God depends on you. Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead some 2,000 years ago. And yet, in a very real sense, He is still here on earth. We are the body of Christ, and if part of His body isn’t doing its part, Christ’s impact and presence here on earth and in our culture and in each of our churches is incomplete.

What would happen if everyone at your church decided not to use their spiritual gifts and the few of who did ended up doing things that God hasn’t equipped them to do? What would visitors to your church see in that scenario?

They’d see a Jesus who needs to be in an ICU not at your church. And why? Because parts of His body wouldn’t be functioning or would be missing altogether. He’d be on life support and be a real mess. All because some believers weren’t willing to do their part as members of the body of Christ.

On the other hand, imagine if everyone at church were using their spiritual gifts and doing everything God has supernaturally equipped them to do. What would visitors to your church see in that scenario? They’d see Jesus Christ Himself, since everyone’s collectively the Body of Christ. They’d see a healthy and whole and well functioning Jesus since everyone would be using their gifts and involved in some kind of ministry.

When I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing, you suffer. And when you aren’t doing what you’re supposed to be doing, I suffer. Worst of all, when one of us aren’t using our spiritual gifts, Christ Himself suffers.

You’re important. Every one of you. Christ needs you. I need you. And everybody else in the Kingdom of God needs you.

Let’s figure out what Christ wants us to do and do it!