NOT JUST FOR SUNDAYS: EXPERIENCING THE POWER & PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PART 4. SPIRITUAL GIFTS

In a nutshell: What are spiritual gifts and how should they be used? Do I have to be weird to use spiritual gifts?! God gives his people gifts of the Spirit to enable them to serve him and one another. For the health of the church we need to have a clear understanding of what the gifts are and how to operate in them. We need to see the presence of God working through his people.


My simple definition of a spiritual gift: When we are filled with the Spirit, we are given gifts that enable us to do things which we could not previously do. The Spirit also breathes on our natural gifts and enables them to be developed to their full potential, to the glory of God. The difference between operating in these grace gifts and operating in our own strength is like the difference between watching a small, fuzzy, black and white TV and watching a giant hi-def plasma screen.

Romans 12

Normal Christian Life
Romans 12 describes normal Christian life: Worship of God; Serving the Body; Witnessing to the World.

This is different from the world of the Old Testament where three special types of people represented the nation of Israel before God: Prophets, Priests and Kings.

• Prophets spoke God’s word to the people – often in judgement – and moved in signs and wonders.
• Priests interceded to God on the people’s behalf.
• King’s represented God’s authority among the people and to other nations.

By definition, these roles were reserved to only a very few people, but the Old Testament covenant promises pointed to a day when these roles would be open to all God’s people. For example, God promised Moses, You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6).

Now, because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, this promise has been fulfilled. The curtain in the Temple was torn in two and the Holy Spirit poured out on the Church. Now God is building a living temple.

The best answer for the search for spirituality and significance in our society is found in the church of Jesus Christ. Our Prophetic task is to declare this good news to the world around us. Our Priestly role means we can approach God ourselves with confidence. Our Kingly role is to demonstrate the kingdom of God amongst us. All this is made possible by the work of the Spirit among us, and has profound implications for how we organize church life:

Leadership: The role of church leadership is, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12) NOT to do all the work themselves or try to solve everyone’s problems. Church leaders are to help people see the grace of God operating in their lives and teach them how to minister one to another. It is this that makes it possible to build large churches and ongoing church-plants can be a reality.
Buildings: Buildings are not sacred. People are the church, not buildings. So we use and appreciate our building for the way it helps us in advancing our mission, but we recognize that the really important building is the living temple God is building through his people.
Every member ministry: Every member of the church has a responsibility to discover and exercise their gifts, so that God is worshipped, the body blessed, and the world witnessed to.

Normal, Not Weird
Romans 12 paints a picture of believers living well-balanced lives. It presents an experience of spiritual gifts that avoids the error of seeing them as merely ‘talents’ and also the error of thinking that being spiritual means being weird.

Charismatics can be prone to weirdness (look at the example of Corinth) but this doesn’t mean we should back off from spiritual gifts. The antidote to misuse is not disuse but proper use. What Paul does in Romans 12 is to describe the gifts being used in the context of a regular life of high character. He describes a number of characteristics that are all directed towards living in a way that is attractive to others and blesses others.

Normal Means Variety
Gifts of the Spirit are gifts of grace and we all have different measures of grace; and of faith. There are several ‘gift lists’ in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 28-30; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 4:10-11) and they are all different! None of them is an exhaustive list.

The point is that whatever gift God has given us we must use it to glorify God and bless his people. There is variety in the type of gifts we have, and variety in the level of faith and grace we have to exercise those gifts. But, whatever they are, we must use them!

A body is made up of many different parts, but those parts are co-ordinated together so that the whole body is strengthened. This is how it is to be with spiritual gifts in the church.

Normal Means Not Just on Sundays
The whole thrust of Romans 12 is “this is normal, 24/7 Christian life.” This means that spiritual gifts are not just for Sundays! Normal Christian life means an expectation of the gifts operating anywhere. We should look for opportunities to use our gifts throughout the week, to worship God, bless his people, and witness to the world.


Application Questions
• What are your spiritual gifts?
• How are you using your gifts?
• Why is it important to understand that these are grace gifts?
• Where would you like to grow in your experience of these gifts?