13 Aug. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

13 Aug. Spiritual Gifts from the Holy Spirit

"Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand about spiritual gifts. You know the way you lived before you were believers. You let yourselves be influenced and led away to worship idols - things that could not speak."

"So I want you to understand that no one who is speaking with the help of God's Spirit says, 'Jesus be cursed'. And no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord', without the help of the Holy Spirit."

"There are different kinds of gifts, but they are all from the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve but the same Lord to serve. And there are different ways that God works through people but the same God."

"God works in all of us in everything we do. Something from the [Holy] Spirit can be seen in each person, for the common good."

“The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak with wisdom, and the same Spirit gives another the ability to speak with knowledge. The same Spirit gives faith to one person. And, to another, that one Spirit gives gifts of healing."

"The Spirit gives to another person the power to do miracles, to another, the ability to prophesy. And he gives to another the ability to know the difference between good and evil spirits."

"The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak in different kinds of languages and to another the ability to interpret those languages”

"One Spirit, the same Spirit, does all these things, and the Spirit decides what to give each person."

          (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)

In this section of his letter, Paul teaches the new believers about the different kinds of spiritual gifts that God bestows on those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

He describes nine different spiritual gifts which believers may receive from God. These gifts were common amongst early Christians, and Peter and Paul expected all new believers to use at least some of these gifts (see Acts 8:14-17).

'Wisdom' means heavenly inspiration beyond ordinary human wisdom (see Acts 13:1-3 & 16:6-10).
'Knowledge' refers to information about someone or something revealed directly by God (see Acts 9:10-19 & 11:27-28).
'Faith' signifies the kind of firm belief, given by God, that is strong enough to ‘move mountains’ (see Acts 9:40-42 & 12:5-10).
'Healing' includes the use of the power of the Holy Spirit to heal the sick (see Acts 3:1-10 & 5:12-16).
'Miracles' means using the power of the Holy Spirit to do things that seem impossible in order to bring glory to God (see Acts 4:30-31 & 13:11-12).
'Prophesy' means speaking God’s message about the Good News of Jesus (see Acts 2: 14-41 & 4:8-13).
'Discernment' indicates the ability to know the difference between those who are using gifts from the Holy Spirit and those who are not (see Acts 8:18-23 & 13:9-10).
'Languages' signifies speaking in heavenly languages (‘tongues’) or earthly languages that have not been learnt (see Acts 10:44-46, Romans 8:26 & Acts 2:4-12).
And 'Interpretation' involves interpreting these heavenly or earthly languages in order to share their message with others (see 1 Corinthians 14:27-29).

Paul says the same Spirit gives each of these gifts, and decides what to give to each person. But they are for everyone: "Something from the [Holy] Spirit can be seen in each person, for the common good." (1 Corinthians 12:7)

The photo shows spring flowers in Solihull town centre.

You can read more from 1 Corinthians 12 @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/…/14-pauls…/spiritual-gifts/