Sunny Pathway

Monday, June 15, 2009

Gifts of the Spirit

Before looking at the gifts of the Spirit as listed in I Corinthians, I want to mention that praying privately in tongues is not one of them. Private prayer in tongues is simply praying in an unknown language. Personal use of a prayer language was a familiar practice among early Christians and among pagans of the time as well. Specific references to praying in tongues can be found in Acts 2, 10:44 ff and 19:6.

Praying in tongues makes it possible for me to pray beyond myself. There are times when I don’t know what to pray. I pray in tongues. There are times when I feel limited by English. I pray in tongues.

Praying in tongues builds me up. Praying in tongues comforts me. Praying in tongues offers release when I'm distruaught. Praying in tongues makes it possible to pray when I’m at a loss. After many years, my testimony is that I can’t imagine not being able to pray in tongues.

The fact that tongues can be abused—and used by spirits other than the God the Holy Spirit—should not be frightening. Satan counterfeits praying in tongues because it’s effective. He wouldn’t bother to counterfeit something than has no value. As with anything from God, motives make all the difference.

Whenever anyone desire to do something for God, self enters in. In fact, that self of ours is a huge problem. Just as focusing on fruit causes problems, focusing on gifts causes problems. As a person with a sinful nature, I'm prone to decide what I think God should do and, specifically, what He should do in me. But I can't. And I can't decide what gift or gifts God should give any more than I can decide I want to grow a specific fruit. Everything comes from God and depends upon allowing Him to do His thing.

When thinking about gifts of the Spirit, it’s helpful to remember that they’re external. They have nothing to do with me other than whether or not I’ve opened myself to receive a gift. Even the faith to operate in these gifts is a gift. And so, gifts are not a sign of maturity or spiritual growth. In fact, it seems new Christians often receive faith to move in gifts—a baptism of sorts into the supernatural workings of God. Then God begins to work in them—grow the fruit. Gifts might take a back seat for a season—until God gloriously resurrects them. But individuals have no control over the process. They can only yield or fail to yield to God.

In addition, I want to mention that what I'm sharing here could be considered old teaching. When people currently share about the gifts of the Spirit they often focus on the person of the Holy Spirit Himself. Or they might tell about something the Holy Spirit is doing in the world at this time. Both are good and worthy approaches. However, sometimes a return to basic texts provides a helpful perspective.

Now a brief look at the function of the public gifts listed in I Corinthians 12:7-10. Sometimes a public 1) Message in Tongues is given within a congregation or group. Then, rather than functioning as a private prayer language, the message becomes a gift for the Body of Christ and for the edification of all. This is almost always an extension of an active prayer language. There are miraculous stories surrounding this gift—of people in the audience who hear a message in a language they know. This happened in Acts. But Paul refers to speaking in unknown tongues of men and angels (I Cor. 13)—and I’m not going to argue with Paul. The possibilities are endless.

I’ve also experienced 2) Interpreting Tongues. This is simply an interpretation of the Message in Tongues. When I've received an interpretation, the message was almost always a thought or thoughts I’d had earlier—thoughts that suddenly became so focused that I had to say them out loud for the group's benefit.

The same is true of the 3) Gift of Prophecy which is a message spoken directly in the language understood. I don’t know why God gave both—but there I times when I’ve merrily sat in my spot with no thought of contributing. Then there’s a message in tongues and I know I must be open. Anything else would be irresponsible.

Prophetic words come in all sorts of packages. Quite often they're shared by someone within a group in a way that somehow identifies them as a prophetic word. Also, some preachers regularly preach with a prophetic anointing that moves the message into the spirit realm. And then there are those times when a prophetic message is spoken in a conversation without the speaker even realizing what they've said. But the one hearing the message knows.

4) Healing was familiar territory for me. Dad experienced healings off and on throughout his ministry—several remarkable. Historically, every major move of God was marked by healings. I’ve experienced healing and I see doctors—and find no conflict in that lifestyle.

Then there’s 5) Faith. What Christian hasn’t had to step out in faith on occasion? Scary, but we learn God is with us. I’ve found that when I try to drum up faith on my own, it's usually my doing. But if something happens outside my control that requires faith—or if faith is required to do something I feel God has called me to do—then I can call on Him and He faithfully provides faith. Remember, the gifts originate outside the self. That’s why we can’t work up faith on our own.

6) Discernment of Spirits and the 7) Word of Wisdom are often realities or thoughts I’ve learned through reading the Bible—but that God brings to mind in times of need. What Christian hasn’t experienced that? Nevertheless, there have been times when I supernaturally understood something within my spirit. And there have been times when I've understood a spirit working within another person. There were times when I knew exactly how to approach a problem. Those types of occurrences are God’s gifts or His revelation at work.

That leaves two I’d rather not discuss. First, the 8) Word of Knowledge or supernaturally knowing something. This doesn’t mean a general truth—it means something specific and it includes information that could be shared—probably for encouragement or correction. I stepped out with a word for someone once—and my word was wrong. After that, I started backpedaling—and since then I’ve moved in the gift only once or twice. On the other hand, I’ve been grateful when I’ve received words from others—sometimes key words.

And 9) Miracles. I’m so aware of damage done by people who claim God did or does miracles through them. While healing is actually a speeding up of the natural healing process, miracles involve creating something new or different. A miracle is, by definition, impossible. I don’t doubt the stories of miracles in the Bible, Nor do I doubt the stories of miracles embedded in Christian history because, Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb. 13:8) But I think miracles are more likely in areas where people have no recourse to meet their needs other than a miracle. However, I also think miracles could become more common if people turned whole-heartedly to God.

While I think it important that spiritual gifts be challenged at times—and carefully weighed—the gift of miracles especially carries the burden of verification. If not documented, all sorts of claims and charlatanry can follow.

Please notice that none of the gifts are necessarily outside our normal Christian experience unless they’ve been rejected—perhaps out of fear because they’ve been practiced in error. The key to healthy use of spiritual gifts is submission. People who operate in the gifts must submit to God and to each other. Leaders, especially, must trust others to hear from God. They must believe God can speak to more than one and that His Word is confirmed by multiple witnesses. They must be willing to submit to other people. If not, they will begin to think they are something or someone special.

I also want to suggest that the personal gift of praying in tongues I received so many years ago seems to open the door for the others gifts to flow more freely. But that’s an observation, not a doctrine.

Next time, a look at the purity issue.

No comments: