Spiritual gifts

[CBE1]

The gifts are from the Spirit of God, and since the Lord has sent us the Spirit, all the gifts are available to those being lead by the Spirit!!

So I can understand how our human side will at one moment say all things are possible with God, then the next moment we say that He wouldn't give us all the gifts even though we are told to ask for them. We are indeed men of little faith just like He said, and we don't even seem willing to believe Him on that sometimes. How ironic.

I deleted most of your post just for the sake of space. Can you show me a definite scripture where it is stated that the Holy Spirit has given us all the gifts without us praying and asking?

Here is one that rebuts your contention...

Rom 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Rom 12:4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,

Rom 12:5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Rom 12:6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

I also disagree that prophecy holds any more tenure than does, say service. In no place in the NT does it state that one gift is more, or less important than another, just as no believer is seen differently in God's eyes from another.

The Lord sent the Spirit [you have read this] and the gifts are from the Spirit [which we have]. So in that sense, we have all the gifts with us, however we can only use them as the faith proportion to us allows us. [check the Scriptures you quoted above] That we have any faith at all, is because of God's grace. Therefore, since the Spirit has the gifts and we if we have the Spirit with us, we have the gifts, but because we have not all been given the faith to get at those gifts, in that sense we do not have them, even though the Spirit that has been sent to us does.

Now we are told to desire the gifts, and it is explained in the the Gospel of John that if we abide in Him, and His words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.

Jn 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Now if you are abiding in Christ are you going to just go around naming it and claiming it. If you are doing that, it is doubtful that you are abiding in Christ. Yet if you are abiding in Christ and it is written in the Scriptures that the Lord had written, to desire the gifts, then aren't you going to start desiring those gifts if you are abiding in Christ.

That is what happen in my life. The Lord came into my life, I started talking to Him as much as I could get myself to do. The first thing He ever said to me was, "Read Your Bible'. And in my Bible I notice where it said to desire the gifts. Now someone might say that it does say in the Scriptures that we can have all the gifts, but neither does it say that we can not have all the gifts. And again, it does say to "dsire the gifts", thereby not excluding any.

Now He has given me all the gifts, and I found it interesting that all the gifts are design to bring to the Word of God [Jesus Christ]. If you have the gift of prophecy, that does not mean that I can just say something and it will happen. It means that occasionally the Lord will give me prophecy to give. To recieve the prophecy from Him, I hear Him talk to me, and He tells me. So that gift is a gift of faith, which allows me to believe that He can give me prophecy.

Concerning the gift of healing: I don't have the power to heal someone that I know of. But He has given me the faith to pray for someone as He instructs and I have seen Him heal them. Again, the gift is a gift of faith to believe that He can tell me that He is willing to heal someone if I pray for them.

Concerning the gift of tongues: For me the Spirit seems to activate it. I will be just going along and suddenly feel like a burning feeling inside and I just have to start praying in tongues. However note: that it was written that if you pray in tongues, ask for the interpretation. If I am speaking in tongues, I don't even know what I am saying, and this cause me to wonder about what I am praying for. So I turn to the voice of the Lord and I hear the interpretaion from the voice of the Lord [Word of God].

So over and over we see that the Spirit is indeed working to bring you to seek the Word of God [Jesus Christ], that is what the Spirit does. He draws you to the Lord.

Rev 19:13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God.

It seems that all the gifts are gifts that require a proportion of faith. And if you want more faith, you can ask the Lord for that. Yet if all have not asked the Lord for that, the lack of asking maybe part of God plan. Maybe they have not been drawn by the Spirit to ask for a particular gift that the Spirit of God that is with them has. Still, it is available for the asking. Further more the Scriptures tell you to desire them, so shouldn't you desire them. Shouldn't you ask? He wants you to desire the gifts!!

One more thing: The Lord does not give me the same thing to do as every other member of His body. For example, I do not run a healing minsitry, but does that mean that I shouldn't have the gift of healing? I was running a Christian bookstore, when my friend came by because he was feeling bad that his landlady that he loved was about to die. So we prayed and asked the Lord to help her. So the gift of faith to believe that the Lord could heal even to the point of rasing the dead if we asked, did turn out to be important. My point is that, no matter what you are doing for the Lord, the gifts of the Spirit are important to have.

Ps I'm not sure that prophecy is more important than any other gifts either. Yet it was singled out and did seem to get listed first amoung the gifts, so where it is or isn't may not be important, but desiring that gift must be of more importance.

Edited February 12, 2010 by CBE1

[Botz]

Ps I'm not sure that prophecy is more important than any other gifts either. Yet it was singled out and did seem to get listed first amoung the gifts, so where it is or isn't may not be important, but desiring that gift must be of more importance.

I believe that even within the gifts of the Spirit there can be immature motivation, and the Corinthians were prime examples of how to misuse what G-d provides. What Paul seems to emphasize is that by understanding G-d's heart (preferring others over oneself) we will foremostly seek for the edification of the Body...thus bringing into question the whole motivation of what gets us earnestly seeking these gifts...eg. who is more important the individual, or the whole?

So it is not the gift that may be more important, but the motive and the object of the gift....which I think is what you were touching on.