gifts

1 Corinthians 12

1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us.

I don't want you to misunderstand this.

2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols.

3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus,

and no one can say Jesus is Lord,

except by the Holy Spirit.
  

4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts,

but the same Spirit is the source of them all.

5 There are different kinds of service,

but we serve the same Lord.

6 God works in different ways,

but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
  

7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice;

(dan note: wisdom?)

to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.

(dan note: word of knowledge?)

9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another,

(dan note: faith?)

and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.

(dan note: gifts of healing?)

10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles,

(dan note:what's this one called? Miracles?)

and another the ability to prophesy.

(dan note: prophesy?)

He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.

(dan note: discernment?)

Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,

(dan note: speaking in tongues?)

while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

(dan note: interpretation of tongues?)

11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts.

He alone decides which gift each person should have.

This passage scares a lot of people,

mostly because we've seen or heard of how some of these gifts have been used in wild & crazy ways

by equally wild & crazy people.

I believe my wife, Lynn, has the gift of faith.

As long as I've known her (January, 1980), she has always demonstrated an extraordinary gift to simply believe in God's faithfulness & ability to come through.

I think in my life I've also seen others who have demonstrated each of those gifts in their lives.

I've also seen others who it would seem demonstrate more than one of those gifts at certain times, but not all the time.

One thing is for sure that I have learned over the last 16 years is to not be afraid of these gifts,

not to shy away from them & the people who genuinely have them,

& have the good sense & maturity to exercise them.

The key word in that last long sentence is “genuinely”.

We all know people & churches who overly emphasize the acquiring, demonstrating, &

importance of such gifts.

But I believe we should be open to these gifts, open to God giving any of them to us, & then depending on Him to show us how to handle them.

I don't want to open a can of worms here.

I'm just trying to encourage us all to consider what Paul is writing here.