What are spiritual gifts?

This page gives some of the key concepts in spiritual gifts, lists the gifts explicitly described in the New Testament, and links to a Spiritual Gift Test specially prepared by Stechford Baptist for small churches in Britain.

Spiritual Gifts were the great discovery of the charismatic movement in Britain and the USA from the 1960s-1980s. Well, not quite. In Martin Luther's 1529 hymn "A mighty fortress" we read the line "The Spirit and the gifts are ours". On the other hand, there was a movement a the start of the 20th century which claimed that the "Spiritual Gifts" had died out at the end of the first century and were replaced by the New Testament. Although there are still some groups of Christians who do not include "spiritual gifts" in their theology, most churches accept them as the clear teaching of the New Testament.

However, this is one area where our thirst for knowledge outstrips what the Bible teaches. Amazon UK lists 207 books on "Spiritual Gifts", ranging from the completely Biblical to the completely not (one of the books is about 'spiritual gifts' in the occult religion of spiritism). Although it's encouraging and interesting to read Christian books, we need to recognise that the only authoritative source on spiritual gifts is the Bible. Current Christian practice, and popular interpretations of scripture can help us, but we need to go back to the source.

Key concepts on spiritual gifts

What does "spiritual gift" actually mean?

The best definition is in 1 Corinthians 12:7. The gifts are the "manifestation of the [Holy] Spirit given for the common good". If we keep this in mind we can get rid of most of the needless controversy about spiritual gifts. All Christians accept that the Holy Spirit is clearly at work (ie, manifest) in each Believer for the common good. If particular Christians do not want to talk about this as 'spiritual gifts', this does not limit the Spirit's ability to work in them. Equally, we should be wary about focussing on the names of spiritual gifts. The words that Paul uses to refer to the gifts vary from passage to passage. Sometimes they overlap, and not all the gifts are in each passage. We should understand that he is describing different ways in which the Spirit works in us, rather than giving us the 'official' list of names, with each name corresponding to one particular individual gift, which is different and separate from all the others.

What are the gifts?

There are a number of lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. The most important are in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:8-13. The lists do not all contain the same items. Many people believe that this means that the lists are not meant to be exhaustive, and that there are probably other gifts than those listed in the New Testament. An alternative view is that the lists go into more or less detail, but are essentially talking about the same gifts. We have grouped them together here:

People sometimes add music, craftsmanship, art and leading worship to these, because in the Old Testament it describes people who have been specially prepared by God in these areas. Hospitality is also sometimes seen as a gift, because it appears in 1 Peter 4:9 ahead of an instruction about gifts. But, strictly speaking, it is not described as a "gift".

What are the gifts for?

To build up the church —  and to accomplish God's work.

Are some gifts 'greater' than others?

Yes—  this is in 1 Corinthians 12:31. But it is not completely clear which ones are greatest. The clearest passage is 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, where Paul gives an order: (1) apostles, (2) prophets, (3) teachers, (4) workers of miracles, (5) gifts of healing, (6) helping others, (7) administration and (8) tongues. But it's not one hundred percent clear that Paul means that those at the top of the list are the most important — he could also mean that in a new church fellowship, God brings along the apostles (or missinaries) first, then the prophets, then the teachers, and so on.

Are they different from natural abilities?

Most Christians would say yes they are different, but this is not in the New Testament. Clearly some of the gifts — miraculous powers, healing — are not natural in any sense of the word. Other gifts — evangelism, prophecy, faith — only make sense if you are a Christian. But we could equally well ask "why did God give a person natural abilities if they weren't a preparation for spiritual gifts?" We don't have the answer to that in the Bible.

Are there counterfeit gifts?

This is not clear. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 makes it clear that there will be counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. We also read about false teachers and false apostles, although the New Testament does not suggest that these people have been given a counterfeit special ability, merely that they claim to be true teachers and true apostles when they are not. False prophets are an enduring problem in the Old Testament, some (such as Balaam) showing supernatural abilities. We never hear about false faith, false evangelism, false mercy or false encouragement, though that does not mean they do not exist.

Does every Christian have a spiritual gift?

1 Corinthians 12:7 says yes — whether you choose to call it spiritual gift, or some other name (and the New Testament uses several different words), the Holy Spirit is still at work in you, if you belong to God.

How do I find out my spiritual gift?

The New Testament does not lay down a system for discovering gifts. Some, of course, are obvious — if you find that you are praying for people and they are getting miraculously well, or that God leads you to perform miracles regularly, or that you are speaking in an unknown language which you never learned to praise him, or that you can understand when other people pray in strange languages and can interpret it, then you have (respectively) the gift of healing, miracles, tongues or interpretation. But how do you know if you have the gift of teaching, of apostleship, of prophecy, of mercy, and the others. As a general rule, the church will discover these things in you before you see them yourself. But you could ask yourself some questions which might help you to understand:

• What excites me and what do I long for? Very often a spiritual gift will first become apparent in things of God which capture your interest most.

• What irritates you most when it is done badly or not at all? The flip-side of this is that if God is preparing you for a particular gift, then you will be particularly irritated by (for example) poor evangelism, missionaries not sent out, teaching that lacks conviction and authority, and so on.

• What comes easy to you as a Christian? If you find it hard to explain passages of the Bible in a way that makes sense to other Christians, you probably aren't a teacher, but if you find it very easy to make the Bible and Jesus Christ relevant to non-Christians, and you can't stop talking about it, then you are probably an evangelist!

• What do other Christians keep asking you to do? If you keep being asked to do particular things, this can point to a gift developing (be careful – it can also point to someone else's gift of leadership and ability to delegate to you, and it can also point out a tendency of poor leaders to dump the tasks they don't like on the willing).

• What have you exprienced remarkable success in? If you've been a Christian a while, and you've been seeking to serve God, chances are that you have had at least one or two remarkable experiences. These don't have to be miraculous. If you go to a church that doesn't see many visitors, and you invited five people on different days of the week, and they all came the next Sunday, then chances are that you are an evangelist. If you felt it important (for no reason you could think of) to share a particular Scripture or encouragement with someone, and it turned out afterwards that this was absolutely the right thing they needed to hear at that particular moment, you may well be a prophet.

We've prepared a Spiritual Gift Test to do online. This is 114 multiple-choice questions about your longings, what seems easy to you, what the church asks you to do, remarkable experiences you may have had, and also what irritates you and how you cope with failure. It should take about 20 minutes, and you will get a bar chart at the end showing relatively where your gifts seem to lie.

If you've been a Christian for three years or more, this may be helpful in recognising what your gifts are. There are quite of few of these kinds of tests on the internet. Ours is unique in that it was specially prepared for a British small church situation (most of the others seem aimed at large, US churches). If this is a situation which matches yours, then this test may be more helpful. At the end of the day, though, the gift test is just a list of questions which an older Christian might ask you in helping you to discover your gifts. If you understand the questions differently from what we meant, then the results will be less useful. Equally, if your Christian life is relatively inactive, your personality will come out more strongly than your gifts.

How do I use my gift(s)

In proportion to your faith! This is in Romans 12. This means that if you are a new Christian, you should be looking to serve God any way He leads you. Don't worry about your gift or gifts until you've grown a bit. If you have been a Christian a couple of years, are diligently serving the Lord, then you will begin to discover gifts as God puts you in situations where He uses them in you. Remember that gifts are not gifts in the sense of a box of chocolates sent from God, for you to dip into whenever you feel like. They are the working of His Spirit in you— the more the Spirit has hold of you, the more He will work in you. As an example, if you believe you have the gift of faith, then start small. Start praying for things that are small but important — catching the train, exam results, job interviews, money that you need. Don't make the mistake of praying for a million pounds if you have never prayed for one pound. As you see God answer prayer, you will learn to trust Him more, and it will seem quite reasonable to you that you should ask Him for really enormous things — things which perhaps other believers think are ridiculous. But remember that you cannot manufacture any of the gifts — you cannot make yourself believe and trust God for things that He doesn't want to do. You cannot become a great Bible teacher simply by wanting to.

Remember also that most gifts require practice and development by you. If you are a teacher, you need to be studying the Bible daily, setting aside time to get deep into the Word. If you are an evangelist, you should be discovering and learning new ways to help make the Gospel make more sense to more people.

Are any of the gifts dangerous?

You can misuse any of the gifts. Teachers can turn to false teachers, and yet still carry authority with their congregations. Leaders can lead in the wrong direction. People with the gift of faith can start boasting about it, and step from faith into presumption. None of the gifts guarantees you against sin.

Stechford Baptist Church • Victoria Road • Stechford • Birmingham B33 8AH. Map. Stechford is in the Stechford and Yardley North Ward, and is close to Hodge Hill.