What are the differences between the Spiritual Gifts?

 

 

1 Corinthians 12

4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[1] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[2] 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines

 

 

Distinctions between 3 different kinds of related spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

Gift:

Definition:

word of knowledge

Spiritual, supernatural, beyond human or scientific..

..knowledge of the present (John 4:18, Acts 5:1-5)

prophecy

..knowledge of the future* (the prophets, Acts 11:27-30, Acts 21:10-11, Acts 27:21-26)

word of wisdom

..wisdom (Colossians 1:27-29), counsel (Ps 32:8‑9) or advice (Prov 1:20-33) (Acts 21:4)

 

*Limiting prophesy to the future tense is something that most others writers would not do.  Paul Linc Hudson presents a majority Pentecostal view of the definition of prophecy as speaking in the name of the Lord or “speaking as carried along by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 2:21).  I’m afraid that this definition muddies the waters of 1 Corinthians 12 since Paul’s usage clearly indicates a mutually exclusive distinction among the gifts in his list. 

 

Acts Chapter 21 informs all 3 distinctions above.  Why was Agabus known as a prophet?  We know that he had a track record (Acts 11:27-30) of correctly predicting the future through the Holy Spirit. 

 

          Acts 11:27-29 (New International Version)

 27During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea.

 

Before God warns Paul dramatically through Agabus himself in Acts 21:10-11, however, He warns Paul through the advice, or “word of wisdom” from regular disciples in Acts 21:4. 

 

          Acts 21 (New International Version)

4Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

 7We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. 8Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

 10After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' "

 

 

message of knowledge

 

John 4
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[1] )
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
18Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.

 

So how did Jesus know her history? 

 

Philippians 2

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
    6Who, being in very nature[1] God,
       did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
    7but made himself nothing,
       taking the very nature[2] of a servant,
       being made in human likeness.
    8And being found in appearance as a man,
       he humbled himself
       and became obedient to death--
          even death on a cross!

 

The same way that Peter knew that Ananias was lying to the Holy Spirit. 

 

Acts 5
Ananias and Sapphira
1Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.
3Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
5When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

 

 

distinguishing between spirits

 

Every time Jesus or his followers cast out a demon in the bible, they had to know it was there.  Usually they call it more specifically than just an unclean or evil spirit.  This is because they are operating in the gift of discerning, or distinguishing between spirits. 

 

This gift is integrally involved in the regular pattern of New Testament ministry, which I refer to as “Sozo” ministry.  Sozo is a Greek word that means to save, deliver, and heal. 

 

 

miraculous powers

 

These are among the most interesting and missing gifts in the body of Christ today.  They still occur, but people don’t believe it when you tell them.  I accidentally drove through the front of a tractor-trailer truck and out the back once.  There were angels involved with that.  One was at least 30 feet tall.   I felt surprisingly calm and peaceful, and did not think as much of it as you would expect because Jesus was performing so many other miracles in my life around that time.  I’m not claiming that I just have “miraculous powers” in my pocket.  I’m just one to whom any gift “is given through the Spirit”.  You could be too, if you wanted to be. 

 

The NAS bible translates this phrase as “the effecting of (Q)miracles”, and King James “the working of miracles”.  Miracles are interesting because sometimes they are directly the result of prayer (Act 16:26), and sometimes they just happen as  a course of daily life, like when Paul is bitten by a viper and miraculously unharmed (Acts 28:3-6), or as in the following passage:

 

Acts 19:11-13 (New International Version)

 11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

 

As Acts chapter 12 demonstrates, the church is sometimes surprised by God’s miracles.  God sent an angel to release Peter from a maximum security prison.  Peter walked to a friend’s house where they were praying and the men there did not believe that Peter was at the door. 

 

Conclusion

Now that you know what the spiritual gifts are, how should you go about seeking the spiritual gifts?  Individually? Collectively? Both?

 

 

 

 

Return to The Full Gospel's home page.

Return to thisGospel.com's home page.