How Spiritual Gifts Work
I Corinthians 12-14
Let’s turn to I Corinthians 12-14. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we’ll bring one to you. I Corinthians 12 is on page 959 in the Bibles we are passing out.
Following Jesus means receiving Him as your Savior, your Lord, and your heart-satisfying Treasure. And when that happens – you will devote your life to advancing His mission – which means we encourage our brothers and sisters in trusting Jesus, and we do all we can to help people come to know Jesus.
And to help us with this mission the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts – like serving and generosity and prophecy and healing and evangelism. And so here at
Let me give you an example. I remember leading a home group one night, and as we were worshiping I could see that across the room a young man was upset; he was in obvious turmoil. So at the end, I asked him if we could talk, and he and I walked into another room. And as we were walking into the room, I sensed the Holy Spirit giving me a spiritual gift. The Holy Spirit was telling me that the reason this young man was so upset was because he had been sleeping with his girlfriend, and God was bringing conviction on him.
So when we were all by ourselves in the room, I shared with him as lovingly and gently as I could what I thought the Holy Spirit had said, and asked if it was true. And the young man just broke down and started weeping and said it was true, and that he knew it was wrong. So we prayed together, he repented, and God did a powerful cleansing and encouraging work in his heart. That night changed this young man.
So that evening the Holy Spirit gave me a spiritual gift to help with the mission. You could call it prophecy or maybe a word of knowledge. But he gave me information I could not have known any other way – and the result was a powerful work of the Holy Spirit in this young man’s heart.
That’s why we’re so committed to pursuing spiritual gifts here at Mercy Hill. But one problem is that we all come from different backgrounds. Some of you have a background which put too much emphasis on the supernatural side of spiritual gifts, so everyone has to speak in tongues, every sin needs demonic deliverance, and everyone is always supposed to be healed. Others of you have a background put too little emphasis on the supernatural side of spiritual gifts, so spiritual gifts end up being nothing more that personality strengths and abilities.
So what I hope to do today is lay out what I think is a balanced, biblical approach to spiritual gifts. I do not have spiritual gifts all figured out. There’s lots of questions that I can’t answered. But God’s Word does answer the most crucial questions.
What I want to do is give an overview of how spiritual gifts function in our own lives and the life of the church. And I think the best way to explain this is to take one gift – the gift of prophecy -- and show how it functions in someone’s life and in the life of the church, because that will give us a model for how all the gifts function.
There’s lots of spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament. Here in I Corinthians 12:8-10 we read about the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. In vv.28-30 we also read about gifts of helping and administrating. In Romans 12 we also read about gifts of serving, exhorting, giving, leading, and mercy. And in Ephesians 4 we read about gifts of apostles and evangelists and shepherds.
But there’s two reasons I’m going to focus on prophecy. One is because there’s more written about prophecy than any other gift – especially here in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Another is because we are all commanded to earnestly and especially desire the gift of prophecy – you can see that in 1 Corinthians 14:1 –
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
So let’s look at how prophecy functions in our own lives and the life of the church – as a model for how all the gifts function.
What is prophecy? What is this gift called “prophecy”? I’ve been helped with this question by Wayne Grudem. He says the clearest definition of prophecy is given in 1 Corinthians 14:29-31. Look at what Paul says there –
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.
30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged …
Notice that in v.29 Paul is talking about prophecy, since he mentions “prophets.” And in v.31 he’s talking about prophecy, since he says “you can all prophecy one by one.” So in v.30 he’s also talking about prophecy, although he doesn’t use the word. Instead, he explains what prophecy is. He says that when someone receives a gift of prophecy when “a revelation is made” to them. The gift of prophecy involves the Holy Spirit supernaturally revealing something to them.
So Wayne Grudem says that prophecy involves “telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind.” You did not think it up. God has brought it into your mind. You were waiting on God, earnestly desiring prophecy, and as you did that God brought something into your mind – and as you spoke it to others they were helped.
So what might the prophecy involve? Paul answers that in 1 Cor 14:3 –
On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
So prophecy is when God brings something into your mind which will bring people upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Like when the Holy Spirit brought into my mind that the young man was sleeping with his girlfriend. I did not put two and two together and come up with that. A revelation was made to me. The Holy Spirit revealed that to me. And it helped that young man.
Now there is a danger in the gift of prophecy. The danger is that you will put more focus on prophecy than on Scripture. But understand: the clearest and most precious revelation you will ever receive from God is this book. And it’s this book which will help you discern if a prophecy is from Him or not. For example, if I told you I had received a prophecy that it’s OK to love money, you would know that was not a prophecy from God, because God has already told us not to love money. So prophecy is always to be judged by Scripture.
So we must put more focus on Scripture than on prophecy. But Scripture itself tells us to earnestly desire prophecy. So since we here at Mercy Hill are passionately committed to the authority of Scripture – we must earnestly desire prophecy.
For the sake of love, we earnestly desire prophecy. Because prophecy will benefit our brothers and sisters. Like when Michelle moved here from
And one Sunday morning during worship, as Dave Clark was up here leading, the Holy Spirit put the thought into his mind that he should go to Michelle after the service and tell her that God was saying she should be on the worship team.
That’s the gift of prophecy.
So how does prophecy function in our lives and the church? When you study the gift of prophecy, you can see that there’s three steps in how this gift functions. Each step starts with the letter “R.”
The first step is eaRnestly desire. You can see that in 1 Corinthians 14:1 again –
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
We are all called to earnestly desire all the gifts -- especially prophecy. And earnest desire includes earnest prayer. So whether you have ever experienced this gift before or not – we are all called to desire and pray for it and all the other gifts.
Now some people teach that everyone will have one or two spiritual gifts all their lives, and they should not worry about gifts they don’t have. And that we are all supposed to discover our gifts. But I’m not sure that’s right. Because Paul doesn’t call us to discover our gifts; Paul calls us to desire the gifts – all of them. Which means that any of us could receive the spiritual gift of prophecy at any time. Even if you’ve never received the spiritual gift of a prophecy – maybe this morning you will. That’s why Paul says we should all desire all the gifts – especially prophecy.
So this might mean taking time before you meet your brother at Starbucks and asking the Holy Spirit – is there anything you want me to say to my brother? Or before you go to home group or before you come here Sunday morning. The first step is to earnestly desire all the gifts – especially prophecy.
The second step is receiving. As you are earnestly desiring prophecy, as you ask the Holy Spirit to give you a prophecy, sometimes He will. Not always. He is sovereign and free. But sometimes. If you don’t receive anything, you can be at peace, because you did your part – your fulfilled your responsibility and earnestly desired. But sometimes you will receive a word of prophecy.
How does this happen? It doesn’t need to come with thunder and lightning and a booming voice. My experience has been that as I am praying suddenly a thought will pop into my mind – sometimes accompanied by a sense of God’s presence. And all of a sudden, you know that you have a gift of prophecy.
So that’s how you know you have the gift of prophecy – because you earnestly desired and prayed and God gave you a prophecy. But some of you have taken spiritual gifts questionnaires to help you know what gifts you have. And according to many of those questionnaires the way you know you have the gift of prophecy is because you have a bold, outspoken personality. But I can’t find any biblical basis for that. Biblically, the way you know you have a gift of prophecy is because you earnestly desire it, and God gives it. That’s how you know.
So the first step to earnestly desire all the gifts – especially prophecy. And the second step is receive – God might spontaneously give a thought to you to share with someone else.
Then the third step is recognize. Over time there will be men and women who regularly receive prophecies from God, which are so helpful that the church starts to recognize them as prophets. That doesn’t mean they can turn their gift on and off at will; it still depends entirely on God giving them a revelation. But it means God has done that so often that they are recognized as prophets.
Now those who are recognized as prophets don’t say: “Well because I’m a prophet I’m going to devote all my time to receiving prophecy.” No; that would be foolish. They are still called to earnestly desire all the other gifts, and to continue evangelism and service and giving and teaching and whatever else they can to do advance the mission. So being a prophet doesn’t mean you stop doing other things; it just means this is a gift that God frequently gives you.
And even though some are recognized as prophets, this doesn’t mean that the rest of us stop earnestly desiring prophecy. No. Paul commands all of us to keep desiring all the gifts, especially prophecy, because from time to time God will give all of us prophecy.
So do you see how these three steps work? And I think these steps work for all the gifts. Take the gift of evangelism. We all should earnestly desire the gift of evangelism – and we are all commanded to reach out to our neighbors and fellow-workers and love them and have them over and share the Gospel with them. We all do that.
Then there will be times in each of our lives when we receive a gifting of evangelism – which is probably what’s involved God works through us to see someone come to know Jesus. Like when ... shared with the woman on the plane, or when Michelle had dinner with her work-associate. We will all experience that from time to time.
But there will also be some who so frequently receive the gift of evangelism that we recognize them as evangelists. That doesn’t mean they can turn their gift on and off at will. It just means that frequently God gives them the gift and people are saved. And that doesn’t mean that they stop doing other things and start only doing evangelism; no, they continue earnestly desiring prophecy and serving in other ways and ministering as they can. It just means that God frequently gifts them with evangelism. And the fact that I am not recognized as an evangelist doesn’t mean I stop reaching out to my neighbors – because that would be disobedience to the great commission.
Do you see how these three steps work?
Questions?
Lab
Now let’s have a lab. To set the stage for this, read 1 Cor 14:1 again –
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Then read 1 Cor 14:26 –
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
The reason we take time Sunday mornings and in our home groups to ask for and share spiritual gifts is because of these passages. This is very important.
But for this to work, we all need to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Don’t think God wants to give the same people gifts every Sunday. That’s not what he says in 1 Corinthians. He loves the diversity of the Body of Christ. That’s why He wants all of us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
And the Holy Spirit might give you the crucial prophecy that will profoundly impact someone over on the other side of the room. So – for the sake of love – earnestly desire all the gifts, especially prophecy.
So when we come together Sunday morning – earnestly desire gifts. Pray for gifts. And then wait and listen and see if the Holy Spirit gives something to do you. If he doesn’t – that’s totally fine. You’ve fulfilled your responsibility. If He does – that’s great – so go ahead and share it.
More of us need to grow in this. So let’s do that now.