Spiritual Gifts Today

In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul writes,

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 (1 Corinthians 12:4-7).

He then goes on to list a variety of spiritual gifts, including wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. I want to begin with a question.

What is the purpose of spiritual gifts?

Spiritual gifts are given to glorify God. It says as much in 1 Peter 4 and here, in 1 Corinthians, Paul is careful to mention all three persons of the Trinity — the Spirit, which always refers to the Holy Spirit, the Lord, which always refers to the Lord Jesus Christ and God, which always refers to God the Father. Spiritual gifts should always bring glory to God. But some people suggest that if you get involved in spiritual gifts, if you seek spiritual gifts, you’ll somehow take the glory away from God.

I certainly think it’s possible to make it all about you, but in my experience, when the gifts of the Spirit are expressed in the context of loving, spiritual community, in relationship with others, where there’s real accountability and godly leadership, folks usually end up worshipping God better. They often move toward God, not away from him. Do you remember when Jesus healed the paralytic who was brought to him by his friends? What was the result of that dramatic healing? Luke 5:25 says,

Immediately the man stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Then everyone else was amazed and gave praise to God.

That’s what happens when the gifts of the Spirit are in operation in the context of loving community — people who’re hungry for God move toward God, not away from him. It’s the people who aren’t hungry for God that often get critical and offended when confronted with God’s presence and power through the operation of spiritual gifts. Just look at the reaction of the pseudo-religious Pharisees to any of Jesus’ miracles. They criticized his methods and questioned his motives while ignoring the results.

There’s an historical account of an Easter service held in St. Augustine’s church in the 5th century. A brother and sister who regularly attended the church suffered from what was called palsy, a condition that sounds remarkably similar to modern-day Parkinson’s disease. Augustine said that they always shook uncontrollably and they couldn’t walk very well. During the worship that Sunday, the brother felt the power of God come on him and he was instantly healed. The shaking suddenly stopped, word spread, and there was this spontaneous outburst of praise in response to his healing.

His sister, who was standing at the back of the church, was still shaking. But as people began giving praise to God, she lifted her hands, and the power of God came on her as well, and she was instantly healed! Augustine writes that the worship that day was “among the most memorable of any Easter he’d ever celebrated.” I’ll bet it was memorable.

God is with us when we use the gifts he’s given us. It’s through the gifts, all the gifts, that the church becomes alive with the presence of God! If you want a dead church, shut down the gifts. If you want a living, healthy, vibrant church, let the gifts be expressed with deep humility and total dependence upon God, and people will give glory to God. Because they’re gifts. They’re not rewards for a job well-done. They aren’t distributed based on merit. They’re not the result of having grown to a certain place in your life where you’re finally able to handle them. They’re gifts — unmerited, unearned, and undeserved.

You don’t give your children gifts at Christmas because they’ve had a good year. If that were the criteria, I wouldn’t have gotten anything growing up. You give gifts to your children because they’re your children and you love them. That’s what the Bible teaches about God our Father. He gives gifts to his children because he loves us.

I think that many Christians are confused about spiritual gifts because they see immature believers, believers who’re worldly in a lot of their attitudes, believers who are in sin, believers who have moral problems, exercising spiritual gifts. They say, “Surely, this cannot be God because I know the kind of life that person is living. They have major issues, moral issues and other flaws. God couldn’t possibly use them. Their behavior nullifies their gifts.”

Look, I’m in no way trying to promote spiritual immaturity, quite the opposite. But there’s no relationship whatsoever between a gift given by God and the level of a person’s spiritual and emotional maturity. The gifts are not rewards. They’re not merit badges. It’s not like the Boy Scouts or Brownies, where you get a merit badge for learning how to tie eighteen different knots or collect eleven kinds of acorns. That’s not the way spiritual gifts work.

You say, “Well, what is the condition for receiving spiritual gifts?” The only condition, according to the Bible, is that a follower of Jesus is open to receiving the gifts, asks for them and keeps on asking. Then, of course, it’s up to God to distribute them as he sees fit. Many, many young believers are far more open to receiving spiritual gifts because they have a purer faith, they’ve been exposed to less faith-destroying teaching and, as a result, have fewer obstacles to overcome than many of us who’ve been Christians for many years. So you can’t arbitrarily decide whether a gift is from God based on the maturity of the person exercising the gift.

The disciples, with their radically imperfect faith and utterly immature understanding of the Christian life, were serving, praying, healing people, casting out demons, and prophesying. Still, the fact that God gives gifts to immature people really offends some folks. It’s annoying! And it will continue to cause us to stumble until we arrive at a better understanding of God’s grace. God’s grace goes to the utterly undeserving, not sometimes but every single time! He extends grace to the utterly undeserving every time. That’s the nature of God. It is, after all, his prerogative to give gifts to whomever he chooses.