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1 Corinthians 12:28
And in the church God has appointed first of all
apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
workers of miracles, also those having gifts of
healing, those able to help others, those with
gifts of administration, and those speaking in
different kinds of tongues.
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August 9
Gift Lists
There are four different lists of spiritual
gifts in the New Testament. Some gifts
overlap while others are only mentioned once.
In all, there are twenty spiritual gifts that
Paul lists.
It is easy to become obsessive over lists and
who has what gifts. The Corinthians had a
problem with attempting to determine which gifts
were most important. But Paul makes it
clear that all gifts are important.
While we should want to know what our gifts are
so that we can use them, we should be careful
not to obsess over them. Nowhere does Paul
say that these are the twenty exclusive gifts of
the Holy Spirit and everyone falls into these
nice little categories. But they are a
nice place to start when examining them.
Our gifts will even manifest themselves in
different ways depending on our other gifts.
Someone with the gifts of music and evangelism
may spread the gospel through singing while
someone with the gifts of teaching and
evangelism may have a teaching ministry.
Both are great ways to use one's gifts.
In the end, these gifts are valuable tools for
learning about spiritual gifts but we need to
understand that God made us all unique and our
gifts will be manifested in many different way. |
