As the Holy Spirit revealed to me, there are two categories of spiritual gifts: the temporal gifts [manifestations of the Spirit] and the more permanent gifts [ministry gifts]. In today's posting, I will be dwelling on the temporal gifts, that is, spiritual gifts that are spontaneously manifested by the Holy Ghost, as He wills. Nine of such gifts are shared here, but there could be more. Please read, study, meditate, apply and share your testimony with me. You will surely be blessed as you do so.
a. Word of Knowledge – This is divine insight into the root cause of a challenge, problem, sickness or naughty issue. It is sudden revelation of the history of a person or an event. It is the knowledge of thing or an event that is beyond human comprehension. For instance, Jesus knew by word of knowledge that a man that was born blind was not in that condition because of the sins of his parents as the disciples [natural men] thought. In another instance, Jesus knew that a woman He met beside a well in Samaria had five husbands by word of knowledge. This was revealed by the Holy Ghost. That is why these gifts are called manifestation of the Holy Ghost.
a. Word of Knowledge – This is divine insight into the root cause of a challenge, problem, sickness or naughty issue. It is sudden revelation of the history of a person or an event. It is the knowledge of thing or an event that is beyond human comprehension. For instance, Jesus knew by word of knowledge that a man that was born blind was not in that condition because of the sins of his parents as the disciples [natural men] thought. In another instance, Jesus knew that a woman He met beside a well in Samaria had five husbands by word of knowledge. This was revealed by the Holy Ghost. That is why these gifts are called manifestation of the Holy Ghost.
b. Word of Wisdom – While word of knowledge
reveals the root cause or history of a challenge or situation, word of wisdom offers the solution to the challenge. A practical example was when our Lord Jesus
mixed clay with spit and placed it on the eyes of a blind man. Thereafter He told
him to go and wash in a pool.
Yet, in another encounter with a blind man, He declared, ‘go, you are healed’;
and yet in another case, He touched a blind man’s eyes for him to be healed. These different ways of treating the same
ailment are manifestations of word of wisdom.
They are inspired by the Holy Ghost. Apostles and Prophets often manifest word of
knowledge and wisdom. However, any child
of God in good relationship with the Holy Spirit can manifest these gifts
occasionally as He wills.
c.
Gifts of Healing – Some believers, via
the empowerment of the Holy Ghost, can manifest the unusual gift of healing,
especially of terminal ailments that medical doctors find impossible to
handle. In this regard some tend to be
gifted in handling peculiar ailments, like insanity, cripple cases, cancer,
HIV, barrenness etc. When a believer has the tendency of manifesting multiple
healings in this category, such is operating gifts of healing. This gift is quite close in manifestation with
working of miracles. Jesus manifested
this gift when He healed leprous cases and the paralysed bed-ridden man that was lowered
from the roof.
d. Working of Miracles – Working of
miracles is a further manifestation of signs and wonders in dimensions beyond
ill-health, sickness or disease. Cases
of bitter water turned to drinkable water by Elisha; and our Lord Jesus’ multiplication
of five loaves of bread, turning water to wine, walking on water etc are all
examples of working of miracles. Peter
manifested this gift when he raised Dorcas from the dead and got the crippled
man at the Beautiful gate healed.
However, note that many of these miracles are manifested via combination
of more than one type of spiritual gift.
In the cases cited above, you will agree with me there is also the
operation of the word of wisdom in the operation of working of miracles and gifts of
healings.
e. Prophecy – This is basically, but not
limited to, foretelling. A believer, by the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, may suddenly gain spiritual insight into God’s future agenda and
plan. You know the Spirit of God
searches the deep things of God. You also
know it is His ministry to reveal or communicate to us what He hears from the
Father. King David was moved by the Holy
Ghost to prophesy of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, an event that
happened about 1000 years after [Psalm 22].
Many of the Prophets prophesied in like manner.
However, the gift of prophecy is not limited to prophets. Neither is this gift limited to
foretelling. Prophecy is also for edification, exhortation and comfort [I Cor. 14:3]. You will notice that the gift of prophecy,
like other spiritual gifts, is manifest more in an atmosphere of holiness, faith and love expressed in deep worship of God
[II Kings 3:15,16; Acts 13:1-3].
f.
Discernment of Spirits – This is the
ability to spiritually sense the presence and operation of spirit beings
[angels or demons or demonic human agents operating in the spiritual realm]. Discernment of spirit may operative together with open vision; however this is not compulsory. One may just sense the presence or operations
of the spirit spiritually. This is why
you need faith to operate these gifts. Consequently, great caution should be applied because it is so easy to
operate in the flesh rather than in the spirit.
It is therefore not uncommon to find that when some Ministers are declaring, ‘thus saith the Lord’, what they are actually manifesting is, ‘thus
saith by mind’. More dangerously, some are operating
the spirit of suspicion rather than the spirit of discernment of spirits. So, we must watch it and ensure we are truly
in operating in the Spirit. When
‘Peter’ derided Jesus for prophesying His death, Jesus rebuked Satan talking
through him because He could discern that it was not Peter speaking but
Satan. Apostle Paul in the bible, after
3 days of spiritual harassment, eventually discerned that it was a spirit of
divination talking through a girl that was seemingly doing a good job of
announcing their mission. How did he
discern? He was grieved in his spirit
instead of being joyful. He did not see anything spiritually. See the account
in Acts 16:16-18. Papa Kenneth Hagin of blessed memory once shared in one of
his books, how, after ministering to a mentally affected brother, his [Hagin’s]
spiritual eyes were suddenly opened to discern a demon gripping the brother’s
head in arms lock. The initial ministration was not effective; however, with
the manifestation of the gift of discernment of spirit via open vision, he
could deal with the issue more effectively.
Can you now see how these gifts are designed for our profiting?
g. Divers Kinds of tongues – This means
divine ability to speak in many human languages while speaking in tongues. This manifestation occurred on the day of
Pentecost when the disciples were baptized in the Holy Ghost. ‘Behold,
are not all these which speak Galileans?
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?’
– Acts 2:7-8. I once heard the testimony
of a brother in a foreign land, who after several failed attempts to minister
to some of his classmates, eventually got their attention when on a
certain day, whilst praying in the spirit in the hostel, began to manifest the
gift of divers kinds of tongues. Unknown
to him, one of the tongues [or language] was the local dialect of one of the hardened
students. The student knew no one in
that setting could speak the language.
He was therefore not only stupefied but literally broke down in tears and
joyfully accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour, more because of the message the
Holy Ghost was communicating to him via the ‘divers kind of tongue’. Is there anything too difficult for God? Is anything impossible for God? Is He not the one who multiplied human
languages in the first place? [Gen. 11:7]
Believers need to understand that these gifts are still available to us
today. It is in believing and
manifesting these gifts more that we shall fulfill prophecies such as, ‘the glory of this latter house shall be
greater than of the former’ [Haggai 2:9]
I see you and I being amongst those who will manifest these sure prophecies
in Jesus name.
h. Interpretation of Tongues – This is the
unique ability to understand and interpret the tongues or strange language
being uttered by oneself or fellow believer. See I Cor. 14:13,27-28. To edify the body of Christ, it is imperative tongues are interpreted. I find it interesting that the Holy Spirit, expressing Himself through Bro Paul, expects believers to freely express this gift as indicated in the scripture quoted above. Apparently the Corinthian Church members were expressing this gift a lot, such that they were almost becoming disorderly about it, hence this epistle.
Another account of
interpretation of tongues in the bible is the Pentecost account cited earlier, when the Parthians, Medes, Elamites and dwellers in Mesopatamia, Judea,
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome,
Cretes and Arabia could interpret the divers kinds of tongues spoken by the
disciples [Acts 2:8-11]. Over 3000 souls
gave their lives to Christ because of the manifestation of this gift. This indeed is a [if not the] major way the
Church, even you and I, will profit in this end times. We must thirst and cry to God for more
manifestation of these spiritual gifts.
Reflection Time
Which of these gifts have you ever manifested? Which of them do you desire? Please understand that your awareness, understanding, love for the brethren and thirst/earnest desire to manifest these spiritual gifts are the essential ingredients to increasingly manifesting them. Your thirst is expressed predominantly in prayer, strong expectations and corresponding faith actions. What are you waiting for?
What Next ?
The Ministry Gifts - More Permanent Gifts
Reflection Time
Which of these gifts have you ever manifested? Which of them do you desire? Please understand that your awareness, understanding, love for the brethren and thirst/earnest desire to manifest these spiritual gifts are the essential ingredients to increasingly manifesting them. Your thirst is expressed predominantly in prayer, strong expectations and corresponding faith actions. What are you waiting for?
What Next ?
The Ministry Gifts - More Permanent Gifts
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