THE CHARISMATIC GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We had a prayover session last weekend during our men’s retreat, and it was recommended that we pray for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit for each other.  I struggled to remember the nine CHARISMATIC gifts of the Holy Spirit.  I realized that not only did I need a fresh outpouring, but I needed a reminder.  So I dug up my teaching notes about these nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and saw that I had last given this teaching in 2001.  God forgive me.

Anyway, here’s what my teaching notes say.  The inspiration comes from Paul’s letter:

To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. The Spirit gives special faith to another, and to someone else he gives the power to heal the sick.  He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.  (1 Cor 12:8-11)

According to my notes, the first set of gifts are those that are “WORD GIFTS”, where the believer is given the power to say things. These gifts are:

• The gift of prophecy — whereby the person gives Gods message for the community or for an individual.
• The gift of tongues — whereby the person gives God’s message for the conununity that is present, but he speaks in a language unknown to him, and even to most of the community.
• The gift of interpreting tongues — whereby the person, after hearing other person yielding to the gift of tongues, gives the general meaning of what the person has said, or a response to what has been said.

 The second set of gifts are the “SIGN GIFTS”, where the believer is given the power to do certain acts.  These gifts include:

• The gift of faith — which enables the person at a given moment, without human reasoning or any sense of doubt, to ask or to speak in the name of Jesus in such a way that what he says or asks must come to pass. This is the kind of faith that can literally move mountains.
• The gift of healing — which enables the person to be God’s instrument in bringing about the well-being of another person who is sick, whether spiritual, psychological and/or physical.
• The gift of miracles — is a passing manifestation of God’s power whereby some obstacle is removed or some opportunity is seized in a very special way, so that it could only come from God’s intervention into human affairs. This gift is a sign of God’s presence and power and, therefore, often a source of belief to many.

 Finally, the third set of gifis are what they call the “INTELLECTUAL GIFTS”, which give the believer the power to know certain truths. These gifts are:

• The word of wisdom — whereby a person is granted an insight into God’s plan in a given situation and is enabled to put this into words of advice or of direction.
• The word of knowledge — whereby a person is granted an insight into a divine mystery or facet of man’s relation to God and is enabled to put this into a word that helps others to grasp the mystery.
• The gift of discernment — whereby a person is enabled to know the source of an inspiration or action, whether it came from the Holy Spirit, his own human spirit, or from the evil spirit.

 So, those are the most commonly recognized beautiful charismatic gift, of the Holy Spirit: the gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy; the gifts of faith, healing. and miracles; and the words of wisdom and knowledge, and the gift of discernment.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

My teaching notes say further:  These charismatic gifts are not something which we possess, but rather they are “ways” in which the Holy Spirit regularly reveals Himself through an individual.  Usually they are passing manifestations, as and when the need arises to minister to someone else.  When the person receives a prompting, he/she must yield to the Holy Spirit and minister to another person using whatever gift the Spirit prompts him/her to manifest.

All of these charismatic gifts are meant for the good of others, not simply for, and sometimes not even including, the person yielding to the gifts.  Therefore, yielding to these gifts should be a loving response by the person, and should be motivated purely by love.  As St. Paul notes in his famous first letter to the Corinthians (13:1-2): “If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love — then I am nothing at all.”