In 2 Timothy
1:6, Paul reminded the young pastor to kindle afresh his spiritual gift. While
teaching this passage last week, I thought about how it has been a long time
since I have heard about spiritual gifts in the church. If we don’t talk or
teach about spiritual gifts, how can we “kindle afresh” (NASB) our
gifts.
In 1
Corinthians 12:31, Paul said, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts,” indicating
that some gifts are higher or greater than others, and also that we can desire
or seek after gifts of the Spirit from God. He again tells the Corinthian church
and us today that we should “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts,
especially that you may prophesy,” in 1 Corinthians 14:1.
Every believer
is gifted with at least one spiritual gift, or a supernatural grace to build up
other believers. Every BELIEVER! If you are a Christian, God has endowed you
with a spiritual grace for you to help other believers. Not just a natural
talent or an ability or a learned passion. A spiritual gift is supernatural and
to be used especially for the edification within the church or such as in the
case of the giftedness of an evangelist, to bring people into the family
of God.
You likely know
what your natural talents are or even what you have learned to do through
experience or education. Those are natural and normal and useful in everyday
living. But do you know what your spiritual giftedness is? The main differences
between natural gifts and spiritual gifts are 1) Spiritual gifts are
supernatural and 2) Used primarily if not exclusively for the edification of
the church body.
Here is an
example: You may not have any desire to teach vocationally in a career and may
hate learning, studying, and research in the secular, worldly realm. But
regarding Christianity, you cannot wait to read, study and prepare to share
with others what you have learned from God’s Word. And what’s more, people
eagerly seek you out to tell them about God’s truths.
On the other
hand, God may give the supernatural gift of teaching to those who are by their
profession teachers, but when they teach with their spiritual giftedness in the
context of the church, their lessons and effectiveness will be on a different
level. It is will be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.
There are
several lists of gifts in the Scripture, but no two are alike and I do not
believe the lists are exhaustive. You can find them in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians
12 and 14, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. There are other places where spiritual
gifts are mentioned. That’s another reason why I don’t believe that the gifts
are fully listed or limited to solely in the Scriptures. But certainly, the
gifts in the Bible are worthy to be studied and sought after.
One final
thought on your spiritual gifts: If you notice, I referred to 1 Corinthians
12:31 and 1 Corinthians 14:1. In between is a well-known passage of chapter 13,
also known as the love chapter. As we pursue gifts of the Holy Spirit, it
should always be used in the context of the greatest of all virtues and
spiritual fruit: Love. If you gift does not lead to love of God, the love of
others, and the love of yourself (yes, the Bible says you are to love yourself
so that you can love others), the gifts are not being used in the way that God
desired.
