Spiritual Gifts: Finding Your Position on Team Jesusமாதிரி

Sign Gifts

Growing up, I did not know the Lord. What I was sure of, however, was that there was a God, and my mom knew Him. Her prayers were answered, and she had supernatural revelations and actions from God in her life that she told us kids about. My mom came to know the Lord and grew in her relationship with the Lord through power. To this day, her relationship with the Lord includes a lot of supernatural elements and has been a huge witness to my faith. 

In another book I wrote with my wife Grace called Win Your War, we establish the necessity of embracing the supernatural to be a Bible-believing Christian and we will summarize portions of that book in this one to lay the groundwork for understanding the supernatural spiritual gifts. You cannot believe God’s Word or understand God’s world unless you embrace the supernatural. From beginning to end, the Bible is about an unseen realm as real as the visible world. Spiritual warfare is like gravity–it exists whether or not you believe in it, and it affects you every moment of every day. 

We will explore four main supernatural gifts: 

• Miracles: The gift of miracles is the ability to call on God to do supernatural acts that reveal His power by special moments of divine anointing from God the Holy Spirit. People with the gift of miracles see God show up in extraordinary ways from daily little events to major public displays. Examples from the Bible include seeing demons cast out of people, nature obeying God’s authority, people being healed, animals and objects speaking and acting in extraordinary ways, divine appearances of angels and other divine beings, and the dead being raised (Acts 2:1-4, 22; John 20:20-31; Mark 4:35-41; Mark 5:1-13; Mark 6:45-51; John 6:1-14).

Do you have this gift?:

When you read of the many miracles in the Bible, are you encouraged because you love to see God made known in ways that cannot be ignored? 

Do you use stories of God’s miracles to help prove to others that Jesus is God? 

Do you find God does supernatural things through your times of prayer and worship? 

• Healing: The gift of healing is the ability to call on God to heal the sick through supernatural means for the purpose of revealing God and His Kingdom where all sickness will be forever healed. Those with the gift of healing trust that God can heal the sick and pray in faith for the physical restoration of those in need. These people see healing as a sign that God uses to reveal His power to people so that many will come to believe in Jesus. People with this gift do not see someone healed every time they ask God, since healing is something that God alone decides to do (Matthew 4:23-24; Acts 3:1-8; Galatians 4:13–14; Philippians 2:27; 1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20). 

Do you have this gift?:

Do you enjoy praying for people who are sick, whether that be from a distance or up close through the laying on of hands? 

Do you have an interest in medicine and finding ways to help people be most physically healthy? 

• Prophets/Prophecy: Like a mail delivery person who does not write or edit the mail, but collects and delivers it, the prophetic calling combines two ministries. First, prophets received specific revelation directly from God. Second, they speak that revealed Word to the people God had called them to with the expectation of an obedient response to God. Prophets communicate their God-given message either by speaking or in writing. Roughly 25% of the Bible is prophetic in nature in that it tells us future details that God promises will happen. There is an entire genre of biblical literature called the “prophets” that includes both major (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). John the Baptist (Matthew 11:7-11), along with Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32) and John (Revelation) all have this gift in the New Testament. There are times where the Holy Spirit falls on the church and numerous people prophesy (Acts 19:6)

Do you have this gift?: 

Would you rather speak God’s Word to others without much explanation than taking time to explain every detail? 

Do you get frustrated when people are not obeying God or have no urgency about obeying Him? 

• Tongues: The word “tongues” is best translated “languages” from the Greek, so speaking in tongues is a supernatural ability to pray in the Spirit in the language of Heaven, or speak to others in their native language, which is unknown to the speaker (1 Corinthians 14; Acts 2:4)

Do you have this gift?:

Are there times in your private prayer that you communicate at a soul level too deep for words that unburdens you and unlocks spiritual growth? 

Do you have an ability to learn and master languages more easily than most people? 

Do things like Bible translation and getting Bible teaching out in multiple languages to reach people from as many nations as possible matter a great deal to you?