The Gifts of the Holy Spirit by Zac Poonen

Spiritual gifts are essential for building up the Body of Christ. There are three lists of spiritual gifts given us in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Romans 12:6-8 and Ephesians 4:11).

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, the exercise of spiritual gifts is compared with the functioning of the members of our physical body. A man may have life and yet be blind, deaf, dumb and paralysed. Many churches are like that. Their members are born again; but they have no gifts of the Holy Spirit with which to serve the Lord - and so they are powerless.

The gifts of the Spirit are what enable the Body of Christ to see, hear, talk and walk. Godliness is the life of the Body of Christ. But what can Christ’s Body do for others without the gifts of the Spirit? What would Jesus Himself have been like if He had no gifts of the Spirit? He would still have overcome sin and lived a holy life. But without the anointing of the Spirit, He would not have been able to preach the way He did, heal the sick, cast out demons or do any miracle.

Jesus’ anointing with the Holy Spirit at the age of 30 did not make Him any holier than He was earlier. His 31st year was not any holier than His 29th year. But with the anointing of the Spirit, He received power to serve others. If Jesus had merely gone around showing people His holy life, He could not have accomplished His Father’s purposes. Neither can the church today accomplish God’s purposes by merely manifesting holy living to others. Jesus had both holiness and the gifts. His Body today must have both of these too.

The tragedy in Christendom today is that some groups emphasise holiness of life while others emphasise the gifts of the Spirit. But these are not "either-or" options. The Bible says, "Let your clothes be white all the time (live a holy life at all times) and let not oil be lacking on your head (live under the anointing constantly)" (Eccl.9:8). We need both.

The gifts of the Spirit do not make anyone spiritual. The Corinthian Christians had all the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor.1:7). They exercised "the word of wisdom" (one of the gifts of the Spirit) in their meetings. In spite of that, there was not one wise (spiritual) man among them (1 Cor.6:5). A word of wisdom can come through a carnal person; but wisdom itself is found only in a spiritual person. One can receive a word of wisdom from God in a moment; but wisdom itself can come only through many years of taking up the cross.

We cannot choose our spiritual gift ourselves, because it is God Who determines what gift will best fit us for our ministry in Christ’s Body. But we are told to seek earnestly for those gifts that will build up the Body - and especially for the gift of prophecy (1Cor 14:1,12).

"One can receive a word of wisdom from God in a moment; but wisdom itself can come only through many years of taking up the cross."

This is not so as the Apostle Paul instructed the young man Timothy who was great in wisdom, not to let any despise his youth and the Welsh revivals were led by a young man that is to say Evan Roberts. A man who is holy ie one who has been baptised by the Holy Spirit, is given Gods wisdom, and even the ancient Greeks understood this, that the more morally pure the man the greater his wisdom. It is never a matter of time, it is a matter of obedience.

When the Holy Spirit came upon me in baptism, He taught me with great intensity over three days of dwelling in the heavenlies, most of what I know and opened the scriptures up to me in a way I had not known previously.

For sure the passing of time does build wisdom into those saints of God who walk with him. But with the urgency of the hour there may not be that luxery. It may be that God will impart a supernatural wisdom to those hearts who are yielded to him. For the time grows even nearer to his return.

Blaine

I was so excited when I read the name Jackie Pullinger. I was saved in Prison in 1984 whist reading her testimony. I am so pleased to hear her name may God bless her forever.

I too spent 3 days in a state of ecstasy after I was saved and during that 40 hours, spanning a 3 day period I received everything I have ever known about God's calling and His divine work in Christ. I must say that Zach is probably right though. It is not normal for God to translate a man to such an awareness and certainty of faith, with all the attendant revelations, visions etc which normally come through time. Wisdom can be and is easily expressed through any man if it pleases God to so purpose it. On the other hand there is a wisdom which comes by walking and obedience to our calling which is rather more like a well springing up to eternal life and constrains a man to speak or not to speak according to wisdom. This is definitely a matter of time.

I would that I had understood this when I first believed. I would have saved myself many tears.

God bless Jackie for what God has done in her life.

Of course, there is a form of wisdom gained through trails and time, but my point is that, it is not the only means by which wisdom is imparted. I was stressing that what Zac Poonan said is not scriptural because he said that only through time can we gain wisdom and this is obviously not true when we look at examples and especially at the experience of Paul who was taught direcly from Christ in the three years he was away from the rest of the apostles.

The wisdom which is imparted directly is from my own experience, understanding of scripture and the way of holiness, though it will be modified over time and the wisdom gained through time is regarding spiritual warfare and learning the ways of God more deeply.

Both are required.

Great testimony btw.

I suppose that the best scriptural example of what you are speaking about is of course Solomon. Im not sure that what Paul received in the three years you mentioned was the wisdom which Zac was driving at. I do believe that the times we live in will make necessary a quickening of this effect in all believers, especially newly saved souls. No doubt God has his plan for this. I certainly hope so. Things can't go on as they are for much longer. I once saw in the spirit that wisdom to resist deception and heresy for any believer was rather like a well from which if you knew the source you could drink freely. This is confounding to Satan who knows very well that wisdom is a keeper of souls from many dangers and pitfalls. Thanks for your encouragement.