Spiritual Gifts: Week One

  • Part One: What is a Spirit?

    • A Spirit is the non-material part of a being
      • Biblical terms
        • Pneuma (Greek) and rĂ»aáž„ (Hebrew) both have three definitions: “breath” (Exodus 15:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:8), “wind” (1 Kings 18:45, John 3:8), and “spirit” (Numbers 11:25, Matthew 10:1).
        • psychē (Greek) and nep̄eĆĄ (Hebrew) has to do with life force/a living being. One definition said “a breathing creature”. It can mean breath, but the connotations of the word have more to do with a living being than a mere breath/spirit (Psalms 69:1, Matthew 6:25).
      • Genesis 2:7 paradigm.
    • When a spirit comes upon someone or something, you can expect that someone or something to manifest the activities of that spirit
      1. They might begin to have thoughts and feelings that come not from themselves, but from that spirit.
      2. Their physical bodies might begin to react to that spirit’s presence.
      3. They might have capabilities that they didn’t have before.
    • It is the same with God the Holy Spirit
      1. When you have the Holy Spirit, you will begin to experience God thinking his thoughts and feeling his feelings inside of you.
      2. Your physical body might begin to react to God’s Spirit (ecstatic prophecy, slain in the Spirit phenomenon, etc.).
      3. You might begin to have capabilities you didn’t have before (supernatural knowledge, supernatural strength (Samson), speaking in new languages, healings); this is the idea behind the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit.
    • The Bible never teaches anything about how to activate any of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it’s assumed in the premodern worldview. The instructions of the Bible are unique because YHWH says to only consult him, and to not flirt with any other spirits through the pagan prophets. The category of “true” and “false” prophet was invented by YHWH in the Torah to signify those who claimed to speak for YHWH, but were impostors (see Balaam in Numbers 22-24).
    • The difference between Christian spirituality and witchcraft is that in witchcraft, people attempt to use earthly means to manipulate spiritual powers for their own purposes, whereas in Christian spirituality, God uses people to accomplish his purposes in the earth.

  • Part Two: How the Gifts of the Holy Spirit Work

    • The two works of grace
      • 1st work of grace
        • Salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
        • Holy Spirit comes within you to connect you to God and transform who you are on the inside.
        • Accomplished on Easter Sunday.
      • 2nd work of grace
        • Not salvific in any way. Not necessary for justification, not necessary for sanctification. In fact, many people excel in the 2nd work of grace to very advanced degrees, but are extremely immature in their sanctification through the 1st work of grace. Some people with the 2nd work of grace might not even be saved at all (King Saul is a perfect example).
        • The Holy Spirit come upon you to empower you to love people beyond human capabilities. We call this the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”.
        • Accomplished on Pentecost Sunday.
      • The two works of grace are independent of each other.
        • Someone may excel greatly in their personal sanctification and love God and their neighbor really well, but not have the power of God to love people through miracles, and another may have great power and miracles and various manifestations, but severely neglect their own sanctification and not love people super well.
        • It is semi-mysterious why God operates this way. On the one hand, it makes sense that God would empower absolutely anyone who was willing to partner with him to reveal the Gospel to the world. On the other hand, it seems like a bad idea to entrust all that power to someone who might not use it properly. It’s important to trust that God knows what he’s doing.
        • Remember, when it comes to receiving ministry from people: You can affirm that God is at work in someone even if you believe that the minister is a total mess (Samson is a great example, so is Jonah), and you can also affirm that someone is a righteous and a mature person of God even if you don’t see many (or any) manifestations of God’s power.
        • Also keep in mind that although it is very much God’s will to manifest his spirit in you through this second work of grace, God always prefers a holy and mature man or woman of God to miracle worker.
    • Spiritual gifts as manifestations of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit
      • The term “gift” of the Holy Spirit simply refers to manifestations of the activity of the Holy Spirit through this baptism in the Holy Spirit.
      • Common objections:
        • Some people believe you can only have one gift. In my interpretation of the scriptures, this doesn’t make sense in context of the teachings on the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
          • “Do all speak in tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:30)
As Art says: “Do all wear blue shirts?” and “Can all wear blue shirts?” are two totally different questions.
          • “The Holy Spirit gives gifts as he determines” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 11)
Some interpret that to mean that you only get one or two gifts, but this doesn’t make sense in light of the purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Firstly, that’s not the only way to interpret those verses, and there aren’t any other verses in the Bible that support this doctrine (never build a doctrine off of a single verse). Secondly, it makes more sense within the context to interpret the passage within the context of a meeting (1 Corinthians 14, cf. ch. 11), wherein the Spirit is likely going to use multiple people to accomplish his purposes (also, this makes much more sense given the communal nature of God).
          • Paul seems to teach in 1 Corinthians 14 that the Corinthians can “try to excel” in certain gifts of the Spirit, strongly implying that gifts aren’t binary (you have it or you don’t), but rather can be intentionally practiced and grown. This doesn’t work if you only get one or two gifts and not others.
          • Therefore, instead of viewing the gifts of the Spirit like the incredibles movie (where each “super” has one or two superpowers, but has no access to others), it’s better to view the gifts of the Spirit like a house: if the house is connected to the power grid, anything in that house has the power to turn something on, but only when the owner turns on the switch. In the same way, you who have the Spirit also possess all of the infinite abilities (“gifts”) of the Spirit, but only when he activates them.
        • There is some debate about this, but I believe that although the Bible does contain lists of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they aren’t meant to be exhaustive. There are an infinite number of ways that God chooses to manifest his power through you.
          • The gift lists in the Bible are not identical (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, etc.)
          • There are gifts exercised in the Bible that are not any of these gifts (artistry of many kinds, multiplying food, casting out demons, receiving and/or interpreting dreams and visions, walking on water, supernatural strength, spirit-empowered physical combat, and so on)
          • Church fathers seem to indicate an infinite number of gifts: “It is not possible to name the number of gifts which the church throughout the whole world has received from God.” (Irenaeus c. AD 180)
          • Experientially, we at Roots have encountered numerous gifts that aren’t listed in the Bible.

  • Part Three: 3 Basic steps for activating spiritual gifts

    • 1. Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is accomplished simply by asking for him to come into you and empower you to love people. Laying on of hands may or may not help, but is not always necessary.
    • 2. Ask the Holy Spirit to have HIS way (Matthew 6:9-13, James 4:3) 
    • 3. Obey the Holy Spirit immediately when he begins prompting you.