Introduction to Spiritual Gifts

.... After Jesus was raised from the dead, He ascended on high and sat at the right hand of the Father until the fullness of times should come, when He will return and gather us again to Himself. But until then, He has sent the Holy Spirit to minister among us as our Helper.

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.... As discussed in our previous module, the Holy Spirit’s primary ministry is to point us to Jesus Himself and to glorify Him in our lives as a testimony, that we may bear fruit to eternal life – both individually and corporately within the church. This is a very intimate, interpersonal discipleship which blends with the same ministry that He is performing in the life of other believers. And in this larger sense, part of this ministry will be accomplished through a series of spiritual gifts:

.... "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 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. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."

(1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

.... In this passage, nine spiritual gifts have been listed and we will focus on them in this module. But at the same time we introduce them, we should carefully note that they are not the only spiritual gifts that the Bible mentions. These are simply the ones that are the most miraculous, having no human counterpart, and therefore are most in need of discussion.

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.... Other, equally valid spiritual gifts might even be termed as ‘areas of gifting’ because they do sometimes have natural counterparts that we already understand: gifts such as ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy (Romans 12:6-8). But even if we include those areas, the list of spiritual gifts would not necessarily be exhaustive. Never put God in a box!

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.... With that as an introduction, we’ll offer an overview of the spiritual gifts in our next lesson.

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Daily Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 3