Calvary Church

At the Jewish Feast of Pentecost five weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and just a few days after His ascension to Heaven, there were 120 followers of Jesus, including the Apostles (Acts 1: 12-15), gathered as Jesus had instructed them (Luke 24:49) to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send. They had been gathered in prayer for several days. Acts 2: 1-4 describes the amazing coming of the Holy Spirit when they were “all filled with the Holy Spirit”. Likewise, every follower of Jesus is urged to seek God for the infilling of the Spirit (Acts 2: 38; Ephesians 5: 18). The Feast of Pentecost was a festival celebrating the bringing in of the harvest, and was most fitting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, since His purpose in coming was to empower the church for the mission of bringing in the harvest of people from all nations of the world until Jesus comes again. The infilling of the Spirit is also called the “gift of the Spirit” in Acts 2: 38. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the church.

And, the Spirit, having been given to the church as God’s Gift, has also brought His own inexhaustible number of gifts to distribute among followers of Jesus. These gifts are a wide variety of abilities spread out among members of the church for the purpose of witness, ministry and mission (Acts 1: 8). These gifts include very practical abilities such as teaching, serving, mercy, hospitality, administration, leadership, giving, encouraging, serving-behind-the scenes, ministry callings, (Romans 12: 6-8; Ephesians 4: 11; I Corinthians 12: 28). In fact, every unique ministry skill is a gift of the Spirit such as working with children, youth, worship leader, nursing home worker, jail ministry, counseling, etc. But there are also gifts of the Spirit that are very miraculous in nature.

The Apostle Paul lists nine extraordinary, miraculous gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians 12: 7-11. These nine gifts have one common feature: they are spontaneously expressed through individuals only as the Holy Spirit wills in order to meet a particular need at a particular time. A believer cannot at just any time express these gifts, but only when there is inward clarity and certainty given by the Spirit to a believer at the very instant He desires to express one of these gifts. The nine gifts listed by Paul can be defined with biblical examples in the following ways…

Message of wisdom: the Holy Spirit imparts a sudden flash of insight beyond human wisdom in order to resolve an issue or dilemma or give immediate guidance in a situation (I Kings 3: 16-28; John 8: 7; Acts 15: 22; Acts 6: 9-10).

Message of knowledge: the Holy Spirit imparts a sudden awareness of facts or information about a person or situation apart from what could be otherwise known in order to meet the need of the moment (II Kings 6: 9-12; Luke 2: 26; John 4: 17, 18, 29; Acts 5: 1-6; Acts 27: 10).

Distinguishing of spirits: sudden insight given by the Holy Spirit to perceive the type of spirit or motivation behind a person’s words or actions whether good or bad, godly or demonic (Acts 8: 23; Acts 13: 8-11; Acts 16: 16-18).

Gift of faith: sudden infusion by the Holy Spirit of special faith to believe God to meet a specific need; this is a faith beyond the “daily faith” in a Christian’s life (Acts 3: 1-3, 16; Acts 14: 8-10; I Samuel 17: 34-51; Hebrews 11: 33-35).

Gifts of healings: sudden imparting by the Holy Spirit of a miracle of healing; stated in the plural as gifts of healings to indicate that the Holy Spirit has power to heal any kind of disease (Acts 3: 1-6; Acts 5: 15; Acts 8: 6-7; Acts 14: 8-10; Acts 28: 6; Matthew 4: 23-24).

Miraculous powers: sudden infusion by the Holy Spirit of power to supersede natural processes and do a miracle in order to meet the need of the moment (Matthew 14: 13-21; John 2: 1-11; Acts 5: 12; Acts 8: 6; Acts 13: 91--; Acts 9: 40; Acts 20: 12).

Gift of prophecy: a sudden word or statement of insight, encouragement or guidance given by the Holy Spirit to meet the need of others (Acts 21: 9; Acts 21: 10; Acts 11: 27-28; Acts 15: 32).

Different kinds of tongues (languages) & Interpretation of tongues (languages): the Spirit-led ability to speak prayerfully or worshipfully in a language unlearned and previously unknown (I Corinthians 14: 2-5) which must always in a worship gathering be connected to the gift of interpretation of languages according to the Apostle Paul’s instructions (I Corinthians 14: 1-4, 18-19) so that what is expressed miraculously in the unknown language may be interpreted so all may understand the message the Holy Spirit is conveying.

So, among the many more natural, practical ministry gifts the Holy Spirit has given are also some miraculous gifts. In I Corinthians 12: 12-31 Paul uses the analogy of a body to show that the more spectacular gifts are not be valued above the less spectacular because the Holy Spirit distributes and expresses His gifts according to His will. This also teach us that the Spirit does not always meet all needs, or always carry out the work of God by miraculous gifts, but by a blend of the natural with the miraculous. In fact, church history, including the first century period of the Book of Acts, shows that the majority of the Lord’s mission is carried out by day to day faithfulness of believers doing their practical ministries, and that the miraculous works of the Spirit are occasional extraordinary events that break in as the Spirit so desires.

We create a climate for all of the “gifts of the Spirit” to be freely expressed when we as a church live together in the “unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4: 3).