Finding Your Spiritual Gifts

Part 2: The Straightforward Gifts

Seven of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are rather straightforward and easy to understand. They are the most visible, thus the easiest to know when one has been given one or more of them. This section will provide a more in-depth look at the gifts of the Spirit that are obvious when they are granted. If you have these gifts, the Holy Spirit will need to train you in them. They usually cannot be taught from a book or through another person. and you will know, in God's time, how and when to use them.

The strength of spiritual gifts can be compared to physical strength, because the more they are practiced and used in faith, the stronger the gift grows within the recipient. I Peter 4:10 says "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." Therefore, as you become aware of a spiritual gift in your life, spend much time in prayer, in order to find out how God expects you to use it.

A word of warning comes from Matthew 25:14-29. When the Holy Spirit gives a gift, He expects it to be used for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. if it is squandered or ignored, then He will give it instead to someone worthy of the gift.

Sadly, many of these spiritual gifts are discounted by the mainstream denominations and churches. There are denominations and indeed, even pastors, who will tell you that these gifts don't exist anymore, that the Spirit doesn't work like that anymore. They have believed a lie spread by the enemy of our souls.

Hebrews 13:8 assures us that "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today and forever." I Samuel 15:29 tells us that "He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a human being, that he should change His mind." Further, Numbers 23:19-20 says, "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?" The Holy Spirit still grants the exact same gifts that He did at Pentecost and to the early Church!

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Prophecy

Trust me, if the Holy Spirit has given you the gift of prophecy, He will let you know. A word of caution from someone who has learned by experience; pay attention to your dreams! Prophetic dreams are unique in that, when a dream is from God, you won't forget it.

Almost thirty years after my first prophetic dream, I can still remember it in full detail, including the exact shade of aquamarine that I was wearing in my dream, the route that the truck took as I was carried from my home to where the prophet was (his place of employment at the time) and the shape of the beard of the man whose mantle I have inherited. That dream from the Holy Spirit was specifically sent to tell me that I had inherited the prophet's mantle in the same way Elisha did from Elijah in I Kings 19.

I feel incredibly foolish, however, that I did not recognize that, and many subsequent prophetic dreams for what they were. Had I known about prophetic dreams, I would have found out who the man was (I had last seen him many years before, as a small child, so I didn't recognize him in my dream.) I should have gone to the prophet, the way my dream told me to and learned from him, the way Elisha did from Elijah. As it is, the Holy Spirit has had to teach me to recognize them, and I still am learning to use this particular gift. It is slow going.

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Knowledge

The Word of Knowledge comes with a deep relationship with the Holy Spirit. The recipient of this gift must be able to hear the Holy Spirit speak to them as if He were a human person standing nearby, and be obedient enough to act on it without question or hesitation, even when the odds of being humiliated are high. If you are given this gift, by the time you know you have it, your relationship with God will be so close that you already know how to use it!