What Matters: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit (March 23)

March 23, 2012

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit (March 23)

Read: 1 Corinthians 12

Key Text: There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4)

Reflection: My formative years as a Christian (the 1980’s) coincided with the rise of the so-called Charismatic movement across much of the Western world. In mainstream churches, Protestant and Catholic, new experiences of the Holy Spirit were being reported and sought. People were being ‘baptized in the Holy Spirit’, many were speaking in tongues, a new freedom was being discovered in worship and people were praying for, and expecting miracles. It was a heady time; it was also a divisive time. Churches divided over differing attitudes and beliefs surrounding the validity and/or the appropriate exercising of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

What was true in the 1980’s was also true in 1^st century Corinth. The way in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit were being exercised had become divisive. It seems that some people with particular gifts thought they were better or superior Christians to those who were not blessed with the same gift. To this divisive attitude, Paul responds with a robust articulation of the unity in the origin, vehicle and purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Every gift of the Holy Spirit has its origin in the same God. (vv.4-6)
The vehicle through which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given and exercised is the one body, the church. This body is made of many parts, but is united by the head who is Jesus. (vv.12-14 – see also Colossians 1:18)
The purpose of spiritual gifts is to serve the Body of Christ and its mission, just as the parts of a human body serve the other members of the body for its proper functioning. (vv.14-26 – see also Ephesians 4:12)

Even with all the potential for misunderstanding and division, Paul implores the Corinthians to eagerly desire spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1). May God give us the same hunger and thirst, not for our sake, but for his glory.

Question: What gifts do you believe the Holy Spirit has gifted you with (see 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:1-16, Romans 12:1-9) ? How are you using them to build up the church and serve the mission of God?

Watch: The late founder of the Vineyard movement speaks in 1985 on the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today. There are three, ten minute videos: