SPIRITUAL GIFTS - INTRODUCTION

Romans 12:6-8 (various other passages)
Bob Bonner
December 31, 1995

Whenever a general contractor sets out to build a house, there are several things that are needed for that house to turn out well. For instance: he needs a blue print that lays out for his foreman or carpenter, step by step instructions and a pattern to follow in the construction of the house. Having been raised in the building industry, I don't ever remember hearing of a successful general contractor who expected to make a profit at building a house and have a satisfied customer, who didn't have some kind of blueprint from which to build a house. If a contractor is going to build a solid home and stay within a budget, he needs need a pattern to follow.

Another thing that is necessary to construct a house is a box filled with tools. You need hammers, nails, screw drives, levels, saws, and a lot more to get the job done.

A third ingredient necessary to successfully build a house is people who are willing and able to do the construction, and who possess the know how to use these tools. 

In summary, then, to successfully build a house for a profit, one must have a pattern to follow, tools with which to build the house, and people who are willing and able to use those tools to build that house.

God is in the building business. Being all knowing, He obviously understands that if He is going to build up the church, that is cause the people to grow up and mature as well as grow up in number, God needs to employ these same three ingredients: a pattern to follow; tools to be used; and people who understand the pattern and how to use the tools. 

As I study God's word, the people God uses to build up the church, to cause us all to grow and mature are other believers. We are God's subcontractors, so to speak. To complete the project, we are all to pitch in and work. But to be successful at our jobs, we must understand the building's design, His blueprint, what our individual assignments are and what are all of the tools that He has provided for us to get the job done, and how those tools are to be used. 

But most importantly, we must never forget, that the bringing to maturity of the body of Christ, just like the reaching out to those people who have never met Christ, is a supernatural project. Just as people don't get saved because of our charisma or knowledge, but by the Holy Spirit's touching that other person's spirit, so too, the building up of the body of believers is a supernatural energizing work of God, in which He has called us to participate. 

This morning and in the weeks to come, we are going to be introduced to the tools that God has placed amongst us, that He wants us to use, that will promote spiritual growth in our lives. The Bible doesn't call them tools, but rather, calls them "gifts" or to be more precise, "spiritual gifts." In our study of the book of Romans, Paul reminds us of this very important building project to which every one of us has been called, by briefly speaking to the subject of spiritual gifts.

If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to open them up to Romans 12:6. Here, Paul writes, "And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace ["gifts" = special unique package of gifts] given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness."

In these verses, the apostle only lists for us a few of the 18 spiritual gifts spoken of in the scriptures. What's most impressive about these verses is that the Spirit of God, through Paul's words, commands each and every one of us to use our gifts for God. In other words, for us to ignore these gifts or not use them to our full potential would be sin or rebellion against God's plan for our lives. And just like in building a house, if one of the contractors assigned to that particular job refuses to uses his skill and tools to do his assigned work, the job never will reach completion.

As I thought about these verses, I realized that for the most part, we are a very young group of believers, (not young chronologically necessarily but young spiritually or in maturity). Being new to the faith, many of you don't even know that you have been given a supernatural spiritual gift. And furthermore, you wouldn't know what to do with it, unless you were at least introduced to how this gift functions and how you can tell what your gifts are.

For a couple of years now, several men on the board will testify to the fact that I have been burdened with the need for us as a group to grasp not only the knowledge of what are spiritual gifts, but that we stimulate the saints, that is all of us, to use those gifts to build up the body of Christ. But how can we be stimulated to use our spiritual gifts if we don't know what they are or how they are to be used? Hence, this next series that we are beginning this morning.

For the next three months, we are going to do a brief study of this subject of spiritual gifts. However, we are not going to look at all of the information found in the scriptures concerning spiritual gifts. My purpose is simply to introduce to you this subject and get you launched in the right direction so that you can do further study on your own as to what are your gifts and where would God have you use them.

For the past 30 years, the subject of spiritual gifts has been and still is in many churches, one of the most emotional, controversial and divisive subjects that has ever faced the modern church. There has been a great deal of unnecessary misunderstanding concerning spiritual gifts, misunderstandings that could have been avoided if we Christians only took the time to look closely at the scriptures to understand the basic principles which govern the use of all spiritual gifts. 

However, having said this, even with understanding all of the principles that govern all of the spiritual gifts, there is still room for Christians to vary upon a few of their interpretations concerning what certain gifts are and the use of those gifts. Therefore, as we look at this subject in the weeks to come, you will find me state, in those places where I know there are differences of interpretation, that here is a place where not all Christians agree. In those cases, I will tell you what both sides believe and what I hold to. If you don't agree with me, that's okay. You know I still love you and hope that you will show me the same long suffering I would show you if I felt you needed time to grow in your understanding. I certainly don't have all of the correct answers to faith and practice, and sometimes my understanding of what scripture means has changed over the years with further study.

These places where Christians differ are so minor, when you stop to think about it, one wonders why, in the past, so many Christian broke fellowship over these issues. The divisiveness caused by hardliners on either side must have delighted Satan and grieved God deeply. I am happy to say, that amongst the pastors in this town, with whom I pray, many of us differ in these areas. However, that has not prevented us from worshipping and serving the Lord together. And if you can get a bunch of over-educated pastors to work together, in spite of their differences of opinion in this area, then certainly, we in this body, in which I know already there are some who will not agree with my views, ought to be able to keep fellowship and work together.

In light of this, there is one favor I would ask of you. If you find me being unloving in presenting a view that is different than mine, please feel free to correct me. For there is no reason to bring unnecessary hurt on any part of the body of Christ. 

In your bulletin, you will find an "Outline to the series on Spiritual Gifts". I have placed this outline, separate from this week’s outline, in your bulletin so that you can keep it in your Bible over the next few months. The reason being, that you may not make it to church on a particular Sunday and want to know what you missed or where we are in our study, and need an outline to find out where we are. Furthermore, over the next few weeks, it will help you see a map of where we are going. 

Basically, the outline has three parts. First, we want to look at what is a spiritual gift. Then, we want to look at the different Biblical principles that govern the use of all spiritual gifts. Third, we will examine each of the gifts as to what they are and how they were meant to function. And finally, we will look at how we can discern what our gifts are.

Let's begin our study with defining what a spiritual gift is. A spiritual gift can be defined as “a supernatural, God-given ability, to be used in God’s program to build up the body of Christ.” 

When I refer to a spiritual gift as “supernatural” I am not referring here to a mere human talent. Even though a human talent and a spiritual gift are both God-given, talents may or may not be used for spiritually building up the body of Christ; whereas spiritual gifts, when used properly, always have the end result of building up the body of Christ.

Furthermore, the Scriptures teach that ever Christian has a spiritual gift. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 12:1. Allow me to quickly read through these 18 verses, emphasizing those verses that declare that every believer has a spiritual gift. Paul writes, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware....[v. 4] Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one [meaning in the context here, each believer] is given the manifestation [a synonym for gift] of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills."

Look with me at Ephesians 4:7. Again, Paul is writing, but this time to the believers at the church of Ephesus. He says, "But to each one of us grace [that is the Greek word for "gift"] was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men."

So, every believer has been given a supernatural spiritual gift, which is more than just a God-given talent. And for many, if not all of us, this spiritual gift is more likely a gift package. In other words, your spiritual gift package may have several gifts in it. You may have the spiritual gift of leadership and the gift of mercy and the gift of helps. Or, you may have the gift of exhortation and faith. Whether you believe you have a gift package or just one gift, the scriptures make it clear that each believer has at least one supernatural gift, given to them to use in their arena of life, in joint cooperation with all the other human talents and abilities that God has given you.

Let me show you how this works. [THE CIRCLE DIAGRAMS] When Christ came into our lives, His spirit was joined to our spirits. In that joining, God gave to each believer a spiritual gift that was supernatural ability to be used by that believer in a unique way to serve in the building up of the body. You can't see it, feel it, or touch it. You can tell that it is there, mostly by the results it has in others' lives. It is a spiritual gift, in that it is energized by God's spirit, moving through our spirit to touch another's spirit.

For instance: A person may have a God given talent in singing, and it matters not if that person is a Christian or a non-Christian. That talent for singing may affect someone emotionally, but not spiritually. In other words, it brings no spiritual change, it neither strengthens or encourages the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, or self-control to bloom in someone's life. It doesn't cause truth to be passed on in an edifying way to the spirit of a believer.

But on the other hand, if one takes the human talent of singing and links it with the spiritual gift of evangelism or teaching or exhortation, then you have a person who has become uniquely equipped with his or her talents for service in the spiritual realm, using their talent, combined with their spiritual gift to build up the body. The key ingredient that makes a difference between a human talent and a spiritual gift is the energizing of the spirit for spiritual ends. So, natural talents or abilities are not the same as spiritual gifts, but they can work together with human talents in a unique ministry.

Furthermore, just because a person is an excellent teacher in school, does not mean that that person automatically possesses the spiritual gift of teaching. The spiritual gift of teaching is recognizable that when two Christians teach, one being an excellent teacher and the other possessing the spiritual gift of teaching, the one with the spiritual gift of teaching will do more than pass on information. God will work through the spiritually gifted teacher to impart truth in such a way that it sticks in someone's mind so as to change their spiritual lives. It will remove the blinders from their eyes to see themselves truthfully as God sees them.

Another area that needs to be clarified is the difference between a spiritual gift and a Christian responsibility. Take for example the responsibility that all of us as Christians have to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. All of us have the responsibility of being a witness to the work of Jesus Christ in our lives, but not all of us have the gift of evangelism. Or, all of us as Christians have the responsibility to give to the Lord's work. But not all of us have the spiritual gift of giving. All of us as Christians have the responsibility to live by faith, but not all of us have the spiritual gift of faith. 

The difference between a spiritual gift and the common responsibility of every believer is that the one who has the gift of giving, or the gift of faith or the gift of evangelism is that the gifted one has a super amount of success and ease to perform in these areas in which we are all responsible. For instance: they love to give to the Lord's work. They can give and give and give and not have a bad attitude. Furthermore, as they give, God continues to provide for them to give more. Giving to them comes easy.

So there is a difference between a spiritual gift and a human talent, or Christian responsibility. Not having a spiritual gift does not relieve a Christian from personal Christian responsibilities. 

Now that we understand what a spiritual gift is, let's look at God's instructions that concern the use of all the spiritual gifts. There are several principles that govern the use of spiritual gifts. We will not look at all of them during this study. Instead, we will only cover seven major principles which are recorded for us in 1 Corinthians 12. These principles fully explain the how, the why and the wherefore of spiritual gifts. We only have time to look at two or three of these principles this morning. Next week we will look at the rest. 

As we begin looking at 1 Corinthians, it might be good to mention a few things about the Corinthian church, which will explain why Paul writes what he does in chapters 12-14 of this letter. The Corinthian church was probably the most troubled church that we have spoken of in the NT. When it came to the use of the spiritual gifts, they became very prideful about the many gifts they possessed. Some believers competitive bragged about their gifts, almost in the fashion of "can you top this". Spiritual maturity was being determined by who could put on the greatest display of the supernatural.

Because of these problems, Paul instructs the Corinthians on the proper use of the gifts and the correct attitude in which to view God passing out different gifts to different people.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses five different terms that are synonymous when referring to spiritual gifts. 

The first and best known word for spiritual gift is the term “charismata” in the original language. It is used 14 times in the New Testament to refer to spiritual gifts. In this chapter alone, it is used 5 times: verses 4, 9, 28, 30, 31.

The second term, found in verse 1, in the original is “pneumatikon”. Literally translated it means “the spirituals”. But in most translations, the word has been translated as "spiritual gift," because that is the intent of the word.

A third term used to refer to gifts is “diakonion” which is used in verse 5, and is translated as “services or ministries”. This term, as we will see later, is used to tell us something very important about the way our gifts are to be used.

Another term found in verse 6 used to teach us something about these gifts is the word “energematon”. And literally, this word means “energizings, or workings or operations”. 

And the final term used in chapter 12 to refer to spiritual gifts is “phanerosis” which translated is “manifestations”. It's found in verse 7.

Paul uses all these different terms in this one chapter to teach us something different about the subject of spiritual gifts and their proper usage. As we travel through this chapter, you will see how each of these different terms reveals a different principle concerning the subject of spiritual gifts.

For example our first principle is based upon the word "pneumatikon" or "the spirituals" found in verse 1.

Paul says in verse 1, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware." Although it may not be obvious at first glance, Paul is exercising a bit of humor in this verse. The Corinthians arrogantly believed themselves to be super spiritual "know-it-alls", simply because God had given them many spiritual gifts. But in reality, they understood very little about true spiritual gifts, and how to use them. They, in truth, were foolish spiritual babes. So, loosely translated, Paul is saying here "I don't want you "know-it-alls" not to "know-it-all."

This word "pneumatikon" used here for spiritual gifts, is made up of the word "pneuma" = spirit, and an ending "ikon." Whenever such an ending as "ikon" is used it means "characterized or controlled by" something. And in this case, it refers to things controlled by the spirit."

Hence, Paul is saying to the Corinthians and to us that gifts must be understood and properly controlled by the spirit for the church to function as God has meant it to function. Because the proper use of spiritual gifts is vital to the effective ministries of the church body, you can bet that the enemy, Satan, will try every trick in the book to cause some confusion concerning these gifts. So, Paul is warning us not to be caught off guard. Don't be unaware. Understand the gifts and use them accordingly.

The concern that Satan will try to confuse and mislead Christians as to the proper understanding and us of spiritual gifts, is what's behind Paul's statements in verses 2-3. Paul writes these words, "You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols, however you were led." 

In this verse, Paul is reminding these new pagan converts of their past religious track record and how they had been led astray in their pagan religious cults by many things that were highly emotional and spiritually mystical. Paul's motive for saying this right at the beginning of this discussion on gifts is to show them that if they could be led astray once concerning spiritual things, then certainly it is quite possible for them to be led astray again by counterfeit gifts. 

If we were to take the time to study these three chapters in depth, you would see that these Corinthian Christians who had been saved out of a pagan background, brought these false practices of the mystery religions into the church and claimed that they were merely exercising spiritual gifts. In doing so, they confused the practice of their mystery religions with the proper use of spiritual gifts. In other words, they abused and counterfeited the true spiritual gifts.

Some of the teaching that will be coming in the weeks ahead will enable you to identify counterfeit gifts or the abuse of gifts, based on what the scriptures say the genuine gifts and proper use of gifts looks like.

The next principle expounds on something we learned earlier, that is, that every believer has a spiritual gift. Paul adds to this truth something else in verse 4. He states, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” The word "variety", is a specific term that refers to a "variety in number," not a variety in kind. In other words, this term for "variety" is not referring to the fact that there are many different kind of spiritual gifts. That fact was already obvious to the Corinthians. Paul had no need of telling them that. They have been bragging about their many different spiritual gifts for years. And it was the cause of many of the schisms and disharmony in the church.

This term "variety", instead, refers to the fact that there is a different distribution or a variety of apportionment of gifts given to each and every individual believer. It's what I referred to earlier about the packaging of spiritual gifts. Here, Paul tells us that the package of spiritual gifts that each believer receives varies from person to person, i.e. Paul, Timothy, Titus, Barnabas. They all had more than one specific spiritual gift, but none of them had all the same gifts or apportionment of gifts. There is a different apportionment of spiritual gifts given to every believer.

And as one can see, with 18 known spiritual gifts to choose from, the combination of different giftings is great. Add to that, different people's backgrounds, interests and human talents and what you have is each and every individual Christian given an area of ministry that is so unique that no one person can exactly duplicate what their job and calling is. 

Not only that, but with different spiritual gifting packages attached to different interests and back grounds, that leads us right to another principle we must understand. It's stated in verse 6. Paul writes: "And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons." One principle this verse gives us is that even though two different people may have the same gift, and the two people are equally mature, spirit-filled, walking with God Christians, the effects or results of their exercising of their gifts will not be the same. The results of two differently and maybe similarly gifted believers will never be the same. 

This principle is one that all young pastors and Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders and those with the gift of evangelism need to keep in mind. Too often people judge their self worth and spirituality by the results of using their gifts, how many people they have lead to Christ or not lead to Christ, how large is their Sunday school class or church. Our focus is not to be on numbers, but it should be on our faithfulness to do the best we can with what we have been given and live the rest to the Lord.

For instance: one pastor faithfully preaches and teaches the word of God to his congregation, and the church explodes with enthusiasm and growth. While another pastor does the same thing, but no visible growth is taking place. What often times happens in those cases, is the pastor with the large church, sucks up his spiritual chest with pride and says, "I am a success." While the other pastor ducks his head in feelings of failure. Both of those fellows are wrong. Neither one of them are truly responsible for the effects or immediate results of their ministry. Verse 6 says that God is the one who brings about the results. He is the one to be glorified for whatever kind of results take place. 

Furthermore, pastors who are faithful to their gifts and calling should never have to feel failure because their results don't measure up to someone else's. We shouldn't compare the value or worth of one pastor over another because one pastor shines in one area and another doesn't.

When I first started my ministry here in Grants Pass, I had a very good friend who was pastor of another church. To date, he was the best teaching pastor that church ever had. For a short time, I sat under his ministry and the Spirit of God moved in my heart as a result. Yet, I had people coming to me complaining to me that their pastor wasn't like me; and couldn't I talk to him to get him to do things the way I did them.

After about the third time someone from his church said that to me, I, quite frankly, blew my proverbial cork! Here was an elder in his church putting him down and denying this pastor's unique gifting and excellent work because the pastor didn't do it the way I did it. I, in not to gentle terms, told that elder he ought to get on his knees and ask God and this pastor for their forgiveness for denying the gifting and calling that this man obviously had. Needless to say, the criticism against him didn't cease from of the few and influential main stays of the church so he chose to resign his ministry and move on. As a result, I not only lost a valuable friend, but we, here, in Grants Pass lost a very godly, faithful servant of Jesus Christ.

There are different giftings, matched with different personalities and talents, and there are going to be different results. If we don't like the results, the least we can do is be quiet and leave God to work things out as He pleases.

It's my hope for all of us, that as we gain more understanding as to this subject of Spiritual gifts, that we would all realize that each of us is a vital person to this body of Christ. You are important and needed, if we are going to fulfill Christ's mission for this church.

Let's pray. Father, we are grateful, that before the foundation of the world, you called us to be your children, so that we wouldn't only live with you forever in heaven, but right now, we could live for you and serve you here in Grants Pass. Thanks for making each of us unique and giving each of us not only individual spiritual gifts, but also each of us have a different ministry. May our lives, ministries and future exercising of our gifts bring all praise and honor to our Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.

back to top