GETTING STARTED WITH SPIRITUAL GIFTS
Whether you’ve grown up in the Church, heard a sermon series about serving, or gone through a program like Rooted, you’ve probably heard about Spiritual Gifts. The truth is I’ve been through all of these situations. I’ve also personally led events and preached about Spiritual Gifts. Let me admit something I’d rather not...up until the last year, I still found them to be pretty confusing. So if you haven’t grown up in the church you’re probably even more bewildered.
Who gives these gifts? What are these gifts? How do you know which ones you have? Where should I use my gifts?
Things get even more difficult when we give people a link to an online test and say, go fill out these questions and you’ll find out what your spiritual gifts are. Depending on who put the test together, the results will either leave out certain signs gifts (tongues, prophecy, healing, etc.), or it will leave them in. Some test results don’t give definitions and some do, but unless you’ve got some theological background, it’s like being handed a book in Chinese. I took one recently and one of the gifts was Ekballism. I’ve been in church since I was born and have a masters degree from a seminary and still had to google that one to figure out what it was. (It’s exorcising demons by the way!)
I feel like if God was going to give these gifts to the ancient church, they wouldn’t need the internet to figure out which gifts they had and how to use them. So where do we go to figure this whole Spiritual Gifts thing out? Enter...
THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS
There are 3 major passages of scripture that list spiritual gifts as well as some additional gifts scattered throughout the rest of the new testament. The three big ones are Romans ch. 12, 1 Corinthians ch. 12, and Ephesians ch. 4. Some of the lists have gifts mentioned in all three places. Some are only listed in one or two. Some are only listed in one. Depending on your church background, some people will say not all of these gifts are still in operation today. People who believe that the Holy Spirit has quit doing certain things won’t acknowledge tongues, miracles, etc.
I’m not here to try to settle that debate. I grew up in a cessationist background (meaning certain gifts "ceased" after the last of the 12 original disciples died) that was skeptical of charismatic displays. However, I don’t see biblical evidence that the Holy Spirit can’t and won’t do the things he has done in the past. The scriptures used to support this view have been misapplied in my opinion as well. I believe the Spirit still moves like the wind, wherever and however he wants regardless of what we say about it. So which list do we work from?
In his book Building a Discipling Culture, Mike Breen makes the argument that since the book of 1 & 2 Corinthians was written to address specific issues arising when the Church gathered together for worship and that the list of gifts may manifest themselves from time to time as the Spirit moves. Then the passage in Romans was written specifically to address the growing rivalry and division between Jews and Gentiles in the church at Rome. He is pleading for them to act as a single united church. He’s telling them, keep your eyes peeled for ways that the Holy Spirit will empower you to teach and serve. Then he goes on to say that “The book of Ephesians, though, was not written to just one church for a special moment in time, but for all the churches in Asia Minor. Ephesians is a memo of sorts to many churches…It outlines foundational teachings for how a church should function."
Later on he says “When we look at each part of the passage in context, it becomes clear that the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 are roles or functions given to each believer, and that the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians and Romans are tools to enable every believer to function more effectively in their role.”
Let me summarize…
Ephesians 4 gives us 5 foundational roles: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher. (APEST)
Since it was written to all believers and not a specific group, it is a foundational passage for all believers.
That means that every believer is called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live into at least one of those five.
The other gifts mentioned in the other scriptural passages are tools that help a believer be a better Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher.
So good news! Instead of 12, 16, 18, or 24 spiritual gifts (again depending on whether your background affirms some of them still happen) you don't have to figure them all out. Start with these 5! Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher. We will also call this grouping of spiritual gifts APEST.
In the following posts in this series, I’ll spend some time unpacking what these gifts are. I’ll talk about how they can overlap with our natural gifting and how they can be used to build the kingdom outside of the Church family.
Until then, let us know what your experience has been like in learning about Spiritual gifts!
