There is a significant difference between Spiritual gifts, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit. Many people in the fold sometimes misconstrue these three terminologies. So, I want us to begin from the understanding of the difference between these three terminologies as we proceed into what God would have us share with ourselves today. There is another one that talks about Ministry Gift as documented in Ephesians 4:7-14. But we won't be dwelling about that aspect today because I believe many of us are familiar with why God gave those gifts to the body of Christ and what they are supposed to accomplish.

 

Spiritual gifts are special abilities and endowment that God has given to every believers through the Holy Spirit. Remember the Scripture in Philippians 2:13 that says "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." The question is: How does God works in you to do His good pleasure? It is through these spiritual gifts that He has endowed us with. God gave us these gifts for a function so that in the end we might be able to please Him.

 

Spiritual gifts is not the same as the Gift of The Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit that many people assume is the person of the Holy Spirit being given to us at the point of salvation. Acts 2:38 tells us "Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The gift of the Holy Spirit here talks about His person!

 

But Spiritual gifts are given by God but are made functional by the help of the Holy Spirit in us. God gives spiritual gifts but are made operational by the Holy Spirit. James 1:17 tells us that "Every good gifts and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." That passage simply tells us that these gifts are from God. But there is what is known as The fruit of the Spirit according to Galatians 5:22.

 

The fruit of the Spirit has to do with the character traits a believer now EXHIBITS after he or she has been born again and has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. It talks about what you produce as you walk and exercise yourself in the Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit produces fruit in us for all to see as we can see in Galatians 5:22. But He is the channel, THROUGH WHICH SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE RELEASED TO US and operational too. That is why at salvation, the person of Holy Spirit is the first gift God gives to you, because it is through Him that all other Spiritual gifts operates.

 

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: ² You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. ³ Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. ⁴ There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶ And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. ⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: ⁸ for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."

 

 

Why These Gifts?

Verse 7 of our text reads: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." The Bible says it is for the profit of all. God didn't give these gifts so that we can corner them to ourselves and for ourselves alone, No! It is so that everyone can profit from the operations of these gifts in your/our lives. In the process, you are pleasing God and then you are solving the problems of humanity with it. There are many challenges bedeviling the human race, and God has made believers, you and I to be solution carriers. Matthew 5:13-14 tells us "you are the salt of the earth, and light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."

 

So, God gave us these gifts so that we can be a beacon to the world and make tremendous impact. As much as the gifts is good for the body of Christ, gentiles also would come to the brightness of it and through it, be saved into the family of God.

 

 

An Examination of These Gifts

Because of time, we would only talk about six of these gifts. The other three I discover a larger proportion of believers today function and operate in them (The Gift of Prophecy

Different Kinds of Tongues, The Gift of Interpretation of Tongues). But the ones we are going to be talking about are those we rarely allow the Holy Spirit to use us through them and that is why we would be focusing on them.

 

Word of Wisdom

According to the dictionary, wisdom is the ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand. It is also an ability to provide solutions or answers to what appears to be difficult situation or challenges by the help of the Holy Spirit with the intent of making people see light at the end of the tunnel. This kind of wisdom can only be from above, far above the wisdom of men or wisdom through philosophies. This kind of wisdom was revealed to us in James 3:17, it says: "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."

 

So, operating in the gift of word of wisdom would literarily mean speaking in wisdom. It is speaking in a higher form wisdom greater than the wisdom of this word. People could be literarily confused and don't know what to do or where to go, but encountering you and the wisdom that is coming forth from you can give them a sense of purpose and redirection. Jesus demonstrated this in when the matter of taxes came up, as to whether the Jews should pay taxes or not in Luke 20:25-26. The Jews naturally don't love to pay taxes to the Romans, and the they are also looking for every slightest of opportunity to bring Jesus' ministry down.

 

So, they came up with a matter that if He had not applied wisdom, would pitch Jesus against the Jews and against the Roman authority. But Jesus' response the Bible says, kept them silent forever over that matter.

 

²⁵ And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²⁶ But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.

 

 

Word of Knowledge

This talks about the ability to know things supernaturally by the help of the Holy Spirit. Knowledge there is not the type that is acquired through western education or through philosophies of men, but the type that the Holy Spirit supplies. Jesus demonstrated this gift in John 4:16-18 with the woman He met at the well.

 

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

 

No one had ever told Jesus about the woman's case before that time, but by operating in knowledge, Jesus was able to reveal the woman's past and present to her right there. Also, Acts 21:10-11 shows us the operation of this gift through the Holy Spirit by Agabus.

 

¹⁰ And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹ When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”

 

What makes the clear-cut difference between this gift and fortune telling done through witchcraft is the Holy Spirit. There are many fake fortune tellers in the world today who would say this and that in the name of telling you your past or your future. You need to be careful about what you hear and where you heard it.

 

 

The Gift of Faith

Romans 12:3 tells us that "God has dealt with everyone a measure of faith." That tells us everyone has faith. Ephesians 2:8 talks about faith being the medium through which we are saved. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." That tells us that salvation is a gift of God that we receive through faith. But the gift of faith is operating in a bigger dimension of the measure of faith that each and everyone has. I define it as: a divine ability to exercise faith way beyond the measure of faith that we already have.

 

Listen to Podcast: Understanding  The Spiritual Gifts And Their Significance To The Body of Christ

 

Let me show us just two examples of this in the New Testament of how people demonstrate the gift of faith in the Bible. The woman with the issue of blood believes that Jesus could heal her, no doubt about that. She believed that if she could just have a one-on-one contact with Jesus, Jesus would pray for her, lay her hands upon her and then she would get her healing. But as it stands, this was not possible. There was no way she could have been able to come very close to Jesus talk less of Jesus giving her attention.

 

So, she said what if she could just touch the helm of His garment? It was at this point that "The Gift of faith" was in operation in her life. So, Luke 8:44 documented and said and she ⁴⁴ came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped." The faith that got her to take that decision is no ordinary faith. It was the kind of faith that even made Jesus to feel in His body that someone just drew virtue out of Him.

 

The story of the healing of the Centurion's servant in Luke 7:1-10 is another example of the workings of the gift of faith. In fact, at the end of that account, Jesus referred to what happened as "great faith." The man said to Jesus "don't come to my house. I believe in your word, just speak it from where you are and my servant would be made whole." And that was exactly what happened. God expects us to walk in this dimension of faith. Although a grain of mustard seed kind of faith can get certain things done for God and for us, but if we are ever going to do great and mighty things for God and the kingdom, then we must be ready to operate in this special dimension of this gift of faith.

 

 

Gifts of Healing

Healing is our portion in God. God said to the Canaanite woman in Matthew 7:26, "I cannot give what belong to children to dogs." God has given us the gifts of healings to be a blessing to ourselves and to as many that come in contact with us who needs healing. It is the ability to heal people by the power of God. Most times, the gifts of healing works hand in hand with the gift of faith. That means you must have faith and believe that the Holy Spirit can administer healing to another person through your hands.

 

An example of this I would love to give is that of Peter and John and the experience they had with the man at the Beautiful Gate. In Acts 3:1-8, the Bible says:

 

"Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; ³ who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. ⁴ And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. ⁸ So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God."

 

 

The Working of Miracles

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines miracle as "an unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God." Each time we see or witness miracles, what it means is that we are seeing or witnessing the supernatural operations of God in the natural. To those who don't believe that God is real or exists, the working of miracles is what usually prove them wrong. Now, God wants us to work miracles so that people would believe. In John 4:48, Jesus said "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."

 

Through the working of miracles, more people would be drawn to God just as it was recorded in the case of Philip and the city of Samaria. Acts 8:5-6

 

" Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. ⁶ And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. ⁸ And there was great joy in that city."

 

 

The Gift of Discerning of Spirits

Lack of discernment of spirit would make a believer to fall prey of the devil. As a matter of fact, lack of discernment of spirit would make a believer to fall victim of his pastor's sexual advances. There are many believers today who aren't discerning and because of this, they are victims of all kinds of vices from the devil. In the book of 1 John 4:1, the Bible says "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

 

There are many false prophets, fake pastors in the world today that if genuine children of God are not discerning enough, they would fall victim of their crafts. These ones are wolves in sheep's clothing. 2 Peter 2:1-3 also tells us "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed."

 

The reason many would follow is simply because they aren't discerning enough to know that these are the people the Bible warned us about. So, it is imperative for us as believers to understand the significant of these gifts to us so as to be able to appropriate them fully and make use of them for our daily growth and edification.

 

Amen!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!