Spiritual Gifts

Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking/reading/talking about spiritual gifts.  I had never spent much time thinking about them until I had a question in my AWANA book that made me begin to ask some more questions about spiritual gifts and try to dig deeper into their use.  After some interesting discussions with some friends of mine and my parents along with some of my own research, I decided it was time to write a blog post about some of the conclusions that I came to.

What is a spiritual gift?
A spiritual gift is a special talent that God gives to believers.  It is something that they are good at doing.  The Bible lists several different spiritual gifts which can be classified into three different categories.  1.  Prophetic Gifts  (Anything that involves teaching, encouraging, exhorting, or rebuking others.)  2.  Priestly Gifts  (Include anything that involves showing mercy and caring for those in need or interceding before God.)  3.  Kingly Gifts  (Involve anything having to do with administration or government or order in the church.) A spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church.

Who gets spiritual gifts?
When a person believes in the Lord Jesus as their savior, they are given a spiritual gift by the Holy Spirit.  Each person is given at least one gift that they are supposed to use in the ministry of the church.  Someone asked me about non-believers who exhibit some of the same spiritual gift-like abilities such as prophecy.  I believe that someone who is prophesying without the power of the Holy Spirit is doing so through the power of Satan.  I would consider these people to be false prophets.  Matthew 7:15 says, "Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."

What are we supposed to do with spiritual gifts?
Spiritual gifts are given to equip the church to carry out its ministry until Christ returns.  The gifts that God has given are designed to be used for the edification of the church members.  1 Corinthians 12:18-20 says, "But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body."  This chapter of 1 Corinthians uses the human body as an analogy for spiritual gifts and the church.  If everyone had the same gift, we would be lacking some essential parts of a healthy church.  If everyone had the gift of teaching, everyone would teach and there would be no one to listen.  If everyone had the gift of leadership, no one would follow and there would be a lot of resulting dissension in the church.  Each of us is called to use and to develop the gift that God has given us within the church for the glory of God.

This is by no means a complete discussion of spiritual gifts and their uses, but hopefully you will have a better idea of what a spiritual gift is and how we are supposed to use them.  If you have questions about spiritual gifts (or anything else) please don't hesitate to contact me at sistersinchrist.girlz@gmail.com  If you are interested in finding out what spiritual gifts you might have, click on this link!  http://www.spiritualgiftstest.com/tests

Some excerpts taken from Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
Thanks to my friends Cody and Olivia for discussing this topic with me.