Understanding Spiritual gifts
What is a spiritual gift? How do I get it? How do I know I have it? Can I have more than one please? Can I use them to make money? (:0) -- Ignore that last one!! OK - lets talk about some basics, and then look at some resources to help you dig deeper into this topic.
What are they?
Wikipedia is a good place to start - but if you want to avoid a mouse click - in simple terms, spiritual gifts are capabilities, that a person is endowed with by the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of edifying (educating) or supporting the church (the body of believers that have been sealed by the same Holy Spirit).
The very first gift on display in the New Testament is in the book of Acts, where uneducated Jewish men (the apostles) were given the ability to speak in languages they did not know - definitely a new capability. There is a list of other gifts (and some debates on the completeness and exhaustiveness of that list) on this site and others, a good list is on the Wikipedia link at the beginning of this article.
Why are they given?
The NT gives the following description.. for some of the gifts.
Eph 4:11 And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. ---------- With the result? He goes on to say...
Eph4:14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. 16 From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.
The analogy with body parts is used elsewhere. The Apostle draws the analogy of a gift being similar to being part of a body. Your hand has the "gift" of holding, the foot has the "gift" of walking, the eye has the "gift" of seeing. All work together to make you be able to function in this world!
As you see above in the Eph 4:11 quote, there is training, and then there is the WORK of ministry! Some gifts are given to enable that work to proceed efficiently... Administration, Leadership, Serving, Giving, Wisdom, Knowledge, Encouragement are examples here. Some involve a different kind of work... Healing, Prophecy, Mercy/Compassion, Discerning Spirits, Miracles - these are designed to enable the church support its members and protect against bad decisions/influences.
There is one gift that precedes everything else. The ability to say "Jesus Christ is Lord" is a GIFT!!
1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning what comes from the Spirit: brothers, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you used to be led off to the idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. Your Salvation is Gift #1! (related to the topic of Election - but enough of that for now). Thats the gift of Faith - without which no one is saved!
Last point on the why... Christ left this earth so that the Holy Spirit would come. He's not walking the planet anymore as a Human, but in a sense He is participating with the Spirit that now indwells every believer. He left so that we could ALL each get the Spirit .. all over the world, at the same time! Why? Acts 1:8 gives us the answer........"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Thats why. Without the energy of the Spirit, we can do nothing, certainly not the awesome work of being a witness (which also means martyr!) of Christ's resurrection.
How do I get them?
Unfortunately, you don't get to choose! The Spirit is the one who decides to give you a particular gift according to His plan for you! It occurs once you have been sealed by Him (born again, saved etc. - in fact I would say He decides to give you the faith that saves you!) However, Jesus clearly says - in Luke 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?
Never, ever hurts to ask - for then you SHALL receive!!!
It is sad that a lot of Christian believers don't really know any of this! All they know is - I prayed to Jesus, he fixed my sin problem, I'm going to heaven! And thats right!! But you are missing out on a lot that He has for you to do on this earth!! You have the third person of the Trinity actually INSIDE you!
The good news? If you are an indwelt believer - you already have a gift! Its waiting to be discovered and unwrapped! Now go check out the other resources on this site to figure out how to do that....