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Spiritual Gifts
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the spiritual gifts from God. Paul describes God’s spiritual gifts to believers in 1 Corinthians 12 I’ve actually been thinking about it for a couple months, ever since I was introduced to the idea of speaking in tongues.
I visited a Pentecostal church for about a month or so a couple months ago, and let me say up front I think the Pentecostal church is amazing. The worship and expressions of faith there are humbling and heartwarming. No, the Pentecostal church is not a cult. I’d recommend it to anyone. But it did get me thinking about the whole speaking in tongues concept. I’ve read Acts 2, a couple times where the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and the disciples began to speak in tongues. The hard part was, I knew I could never speak in tongues. To be honest this frustrated me a little bit. I think I believed that if you were chosen by God you could speak in tongues. It’s a gift from God. So where does that leave me if I can’t? I didn’t come to believe this because the Pentecostal church told me to believe it, it was just my own unsupported thoughts and insecurities I guess.
But now I’m ok with it. You see, there are many different gifts that God blesses all believers in Him. Actually in a study I did, I found 23 of them in the following verses:
1 Corinthians 12:8-10 (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Spirits, Tongue Speaker, Interpreter of Tongues)
1 Corinthians 12:28 (Apostleship, Prophets, Teachers, Administration)
Romans 12:6-8 (Service, Exhorting, Giving, Leading)
Ephesians 4:11 (Evangelism, Pastoring)
1 Peter 4:9-10 (Hospitality)
Exodus 31:3 (Craftsmanship)
Timothy 2:1-1 (Peace)
1 Psalm 150: 3-5 (Musical Praise)
I could have some of these words wrong, but thats how I’ve interpreted them. So what’s mine?? I have no idea, I just know its not speaking in tongues. I have a feeling maybe teaching or knowledge. Not because I’m knowledgable now, but because I have a thirst for knowledge and I know in the future I will be knowledgable….mmm…hopefully.
Why do I care?? I care because I want to know. I feel it’s important to understand God’s given gift to each one of us. If we know we can focus on that gift and use it completely for God’s glory.
If you were ever worried or ever wondered what your gift is from God, I encourage you take a look, search online for a questionnaire, you’d be suprised what you could find. But know that each and every believer has a gift that God has given them and we should use it anyway we can.
1 Peter 4:10 “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
