Questions Arising in the matter of Spiritual Gifts

^{I Cor 12:4} 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.

³¹ Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

^14:12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

Today’s thoughts appeared recently at the blog of Scot McKnight and is credited to Donald Nwankwo, Pilgrim Sense. This is rich in detail and questions that often come up when people are discussing the area of spiritual gifts. The title below takes you direct to the original post at Donald’s blog.

Five Fallacies of Spiritual Gifts

It is not that uncommon to run into a believer, sometimes already contributing to their Christian community, but who still doubts they really have what could be called a spiritual gift. 1 Cor 12-14 is indispensable in studying the subject, so I kept it in view as I pondered. It is a spiritual gift because of its source, the Holy Spirit. Thinking about this, I mused to myself as I recalled some of my own (overzealous) presumptions many years ago as a new believer.  Below are some subtle misunderstandings that sometimes prompt some well meaning church members to not step up and fully embrace functions that the Head and Body have been a long time missing from them.

1.    If it is my spiritual gift, then it must be something I find easy to do.
There has been a bit of a shift in the way some people have come to understand gifting or talents. It can sometimes be seen as the undertaken where we feel the least challenge. This has some truth to it in a general sense, but also, can leave room for a misunderstanding of how things work in real life. When an individual shows aptitude in a specific area, we tend to say that’s their strength. Well then, being strength powered by the Holy Spirit, ought we not be able to serve in those areas with little or no challenge to the human side of us? Not always. The best teachers will admit that they put much energy into understanding the matter, their audience, and even moving the material from raw to a final piece that effectively teaches their specific audience. Worship coordinators will admit no less. Even givers (everyone should be a giver – but here, specifically those for whom it is considered a special area of Christian service), will admit that they have given in spite of how difficult it felt under certain circumstances. In fact, the more likely it is your gift, the more likely tougher cases within that category will tend towards you. And because it is your passion and gifting, the more likely you are to put in what it takes to have it done efficiently. It may, therefore, be said to be easy in a different sense—it is an area in which you feel a sense of inner excitement and joy unraveling, resolving or serving. For this fallacy, do not ask yourself – is this going to be easy to do? Rather ask, is it an exciting type of challenge for me?

2.    If it is my spiritual gift, then its outworking should be inexplicable by natural reasoning.
Some of us have not fully appreciated, or embraced, our gifts because they were ones that did not appear to require some mysterious spin to their explanation. Therefore, we did not think very highly of those as spiritual gifts. So then, we tend to see how a vibrant biblical teacher could have a spiritual gift but not a skilled church administrator. The term, spiritual, can be misunderstood at times. For sure, it is endowed by the Spirit (1 Cor 12), so it is definitely a spiritual gift. Let’s not forget the purpose, however, that though distributed by the Holy Spirit, it is to practically meet all sorts of growth and development need areas of the church. For this fallacy, please do not ask if this activity has a mystical spin to it to qualify it as spiritual gift. Rather ask, “Is this a valid need area in the church for which I can bring my skill, knowledge, or even honest effort?”

3.    If it is a spiritual gift, then it should not require other formal means of enhancement.
In a group conversation once, a member asked candidly, “If the Holy Spirit gives you a gift, and you go try to pursue secular training, is that not tantamount to distrusting what the Spirit gave, or trying to help Him?” In my view, it is not tantamount to helping the Spirit. It is a way to be a better steward of the talents He gave you. Think how much a person with a natural gift for empathy and encouragement would do getting training on a related skill such as listening. A growing number of churches and church-members have realized the value of training and development for individuals that show strength in various areas of service. For this fallacy, please ask, “Will such training improve some of my human limitations, working toward more effective results in the use of my gifting?”

4.    Since it is a spiritual gift, I should confine its use to the church or else it is misappropriated.
The Spirit gives gifts for the edification of the body of Christ, so what happens when we are outside of the walls of the church? God has made us as whole beings. One who is blessed with wise counsel or sympathy does not automatically become unsympathetic or full of foolish advice when they are, say, with a colleague at workplace instead of at church. The outworking, or delivery, may be different, wisely and appropriately suiting the scenarios, but we are nonetheless instruments of the Spirit. If gifts were only usable within the church, evangelists would have little opportunity to use theirs. For this fallacy, do not try unbecoming who you are, simply because you are not in religious company. Rather ask, “does the circumstance fully permit me to help; is there some glimpse of blessing a life; and will Christ be ultimately glorified?”

5.    Spiritual gifts are simply about what we do.
Obviously, spiritual gifts require deeds to be done. But the ultimate purpose does not dead-end on doing. In the end, it is about who we are becoming. In a community where individual (and group) talents are appropriately harnessed, you soon notice that there is a becoming happening to the whole body. When we view it this way, it removes some of the undue attention and nervousness. We find that we are part of a family and that the Spirit invites our participation. Following Paul in 1Cor 12, there are two levels of the gifts’ reception: first, we are given various gifts as individuals; second, these gifts, altogether, are given to the Body. And, this is so the Body can be built into a stable, solid whole under one Head, Jesus Christ!

 

The Devotional Ministry of Selwyn Hughes

I grew up with the Our Daily Bread devotionals, but many years ago, I discovered the devotional booklets Every Day With Jesus by the late Selwyn Hughes.   The advantage to these books is that you are studying a single subject for 60 days.   Can’t remember what you read earlier this morning?   Maybe a more focused study like this is the answer.

EDWJ is distributed in most countries of the world, but is relatively unknown in the U.S.  Probably this is because there are so many free devotional books in the States, whereas CWR (Crusade for World Revival) in England, the publisher of EDWJ charges for the booklets, and it’s not cheap.  ($5.50 in Canada through bookstores from David C. Cook.)   However, they do publish annual collections under various titles, and you can still find some of the ones Broadman & Holman published in the U.S.

Here are some samples of Hughes’ writing:

Seeing Life Whole

For reading & meditation: 1 Peter 3:13-22
“‘ Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have ‘” (v.15)

As Christians we ought never to forget that the message of the Bible is addressed primarily to the understanding; it enables us to understand life. Because of the Bible, we are able to give a reason for the hope that is within us. The psalmist found the truth of this. In the sanctuary he discovered an explanation for the way that he felt. He was not given a temporary lift that would stay with him for a few hours or a few days – he was given a solution that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

It was this, in fact, that caused him to write the psalm we are focusing upon day by day. The words: “Then I understood their final destiny” (Psa. 73:17) suggest that previously he had not been thinking correctly. He had been seeing things from a partial and incomplete perspective, but now “in the sanctuary” he began to see the whole picture: “Then I understood”. When? Then – when he came into the sanctuary. There is a line in one of Matthew Arnold’s writings that goes like this: “Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole.” What a delightful phrase this is. Nothing can be more wonderful than to see life steadily and to see it whole.

Much of the inner turmoil we go through in life comes about because we do not see life as a whole. Prejudice has been defined as “seeing only what you want to see”. People who are prejudiced say: “I have always seen it that way.” That’s their problem – their eyes are fixed on just one facet of an issue and they will not allow themselves to look at the other sides.

Restoring The Image

For reading & meditation: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
“May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v.23)

We continue meditating on the importance of looking at life “steadily and whole”. I venture to suggest that people who are not Christians are unable to see life as a whole. How can they, when their thinking takes place only on the level of the natural? Natural thinking is notoriously partial and incomplete.

Take, for example, the field of medicine. A generation ago doctors treated the symptoms that people presented to them, but now, with a clearer understanding of how the mind affects physical health, they have come to see that this approach was partial. One doctor said: “At long last the medical profession has discovered that the patient himself is important.” Medicine is fast moving towards what is described as a “holistic” approach as more and more doctors begin to realize that it is not enough to treat the problem, we must also treat the person.

They are still far from seeing that there is also a spiritual element in the person that has to be considered, but perhaps in time that will come. Christian counselling suffers from the same problem – it does not see the whole picture. I am tired of reading books on Christian counselling that give just one side of the issue and suggest that problems can be resolved by applying one special technique.

Man was created as a whole person and he will never be helped back to wholeness unless every part of his being is treated – spirit, soul and body. God wants to restore His image in us: not in part of us but in the whole.

No Need for Dead Reckoning

For reading & meditation: Acts 26:1-18
“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” (v.9)

The place where we can see life as a whole is in the sanctuary of God, or, if you prefer, in the presence of God. There we are reminded of things we have forgotten or ignored. See how the Good News Bible translates Acts 26:9: “I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth.” Here you see the root of Paul’s problem: “I myself thought”. And is not that the underlying cause of many of our problems too? We say, “I myself thought ‘” instead of asking: “What does God think?”

Sometimes sailors will attempt to establish the position of their ships by estimating the distance and direction they have traveled, rather than by astronomical observation. This is called “dead reckoning”. It is sometimes necessary in foul weather but it is fraught with peril. One mariner has said: “Undue trust in the dead reckoning has produced more disastrous shipwrecks of seaworthy ships than all other causes put together.”

There are people who attempt the voyage of life by dead reckoning, but there is no need. God has charted the map for us with loving care in the Scriptures, and our plain duty is to study the chart so that we might become better acquainted with His purposes and His ways. For the better we know the Scriptures, the better we will know God. We cannot ignore the facts of history or science – they help – but if our perspective is not drawn from the Scriptures it will lead us astray. We must not rely on dead reckoning but on divine reckoning.

What the Scripture Says

For reading & meditation: Matthew 22:23-33
“Jesus replied, You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” (v.29)

We spend one more day considering the proposition that apart from a relationship with God and an understanding of the Scriptures, we are unable to see life as a whole. The man or woman who knows and understands the Bible will be acquainted with the facts he or she needs to have in order to come to right and sound conclusions.

So immerse yourself in the Scriptures. Understand that human nature is corrupt and that apart from the grace and power of God men and women are unable to live up to their ideals. Realize that the spiritual is more powerful than the material, and unless the spirit is in control we will be driven by carnal desires. When people say humanity is getting better and that sin and evil are just the “growing pains” of the human race – what are the facts? You get them from the Scriptures and only from the Scriptures. What does the Bible tell us about evil? It says it is part of the human condition and can never be rooted out except through the power and the grace of God.

So study the facts of Scripture. Read them, memorize them, and meditate upon them. When next you feel dispirited because you cannot make sense of something, ask yourself: What are the facts? Dig into the Scriptures and draw your perspective from what the Bible says. The root of many of our emotional problems lies in a lack of clear thinking – clear thinking based on Scripture. Think as God thinks about issues and you will feel as God feels about them. For you are not what you think you are, but what you think you are.

These readings are from the archives for March 1 – 4 this year.  You can link to them through this page, which offers current readings. For the record, I remained a EDWJ subscriber for 18 years.