The gifts of God the Holy Spirit are recorded in 3 similar, but different lists in the New Testament. One lists God’s appointment of apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, administrations, and various kinds of tongues (1 Cor. 12: 28*). Another, Romans 12, lists prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy. I remember a church service I was in when I was a child. I was sitting in one of the pews when the pastor gave the “ altar call”.
After the first call, I remember my father leaning over and whispering into my mother’s ear, “ Is there a woman in a red dress sitting on the isle [so many] rows back on the other side of the church? ” My mother was surprised and replied, “ Yes. ” My father, having received a word of knowledge from the Lord, called out to the pastor and told him that the Lord had spoken to him and told him there is a woman whose heart God had touched and that she needed to go forward. He then described her: a blonde woman, in a red dress, sitting on the isle, and told how many number of rows back she was.
The pastor looked at the woman and told her, “ Ma’am, God is definitely speaking to you. You better come forward because that man is blind and cannot see a thing. ” (My father was blinded in the 2nd World War and has two fake eyes). She immediately got up and gave her heart to God. The woman later told my mother and father that the Lord was in fact prompting her to go forward. She said she had needed the word of knowledge my father had shared in order to find the strength to go forward.
The gifts of the Spirit of God are given to authenticate the preaching of the gospel (Heb. : 3) and to equip believers for the task to which they have been called (Elwell 2001). They are irrevocable, thus they are permanent (Rom. 11: 29). They are different from the fruit of the Spirit which is produced through sanctification, and is a process of growth and maturity toward holiness. Spiritual gifts are imparted by God and are for the edification of others, and the glorification of God (Elwell 2001). I remember another service, in a different church some years later, when a woman got up and began to speak in tongues.
I would usually disbelieve such outbursts today. However, I believe that woman probably did speak another language by the Spirit that day because after she had spoken a friend of mine from India then interpreted what she said, and testified that she had spoken perfect Indian. If someone speaks in tongues, there should be an interpretation. If there was no interpretation, that person spoke in error, (1 Cor. 14: 27). To many, the gifts of the Spirit are given when one is baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Although it may be simultaneous with it, they tend to believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit happens separately from salvation, and that the evidence for the “ baptism” is the gift of tongues. They suppose that if someone hasn’t received the gift of tongues, they haven’t been baptized in the Spirit. These two concepts are not biblically founded. 1 Cor. 12: 13 clearly teaches that all believers have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Similarly, while the gift of tongues is evidence for having been baptized into the Spirit, it is not exclusively the only evidence.
Demonstration of any of the gifts is evidence of having been baptized. However, lack of evidence does not imply that someone has not been baptized with God’s Spirit. Finally, many people believe some of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in Corinthians, i. e. the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge; faith, gifts of healing, the effecting of miracles, prophecy, the distinguishing of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, are no longer given by God to be used today.
They say that when 1 Cor. 2: 8-10 says that certain gifts will be done away with, it is referring to the Bible. However, in the simple reading of the passage, it would seem it is talking about Christ’s eternal perfect reign. Unless Paul knew the New Testament was about to be formed, thus completing the word of God, he must have had something else in mind. The only mentions of coming perfection throughout Scripture are of Christ’s coming reign. So, it would seem that it is reasonable to believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still alive and active in today’s world.
