The Gifts of the Spirit listed in the Bible re for Today

Romans 12: 6-8

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Ephesians 4:11-12

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ….

The church has wrestled for nearly its entire existence with the issue of the gifts of the Spirit, of which the gift of prophecy is just one. If all the gifts are for today, then prophecy is for today. If you firmly believe that the gifts are for today, you can probably skip this chapter. If you don’t, and have a strong position on it, I encourage you to read the following prayerfully.

Most church leaders and serious students of the Scriptures are familiar with Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit fell on the 120 disciples that were gathered. Verses 17 and 18 are well known:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.

Peter laid out in Acts 2:39, referring to both salvation and what he calls “the gift of the Holy Spirit,” what could be taken as a timeframe for them: “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” We could assume just from this scripture that since salvation is still being offered by a merciful God, then the gift of the Holy Spirit, as described in Acts 2, is still begin offered too.

But of course the scriptures go on to show the blessings of the Holy Spirit in action. Acts 2:43 says that “… many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.” The first example of that is the healing of the lame man at Solomon’s Porch, in just the next chapter.

Then the blessing of the Spirit began to move out beyond the Jews and Jerusalem, consistent with Jesus’s quote in Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Mein Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles in Acts 10, and the evidence is given that they spoke in tongues. Acts 13 introduces us to “prophets and teachers”— in particular, Barnabas and Saul. The Scriptures make it clear that it is the Holy Spirit that has called them to a particular work, and that they are being “sent out by the Holy Spirit” (13:4). In Acts 15:32, two prophets (Judas and Silas), after exhorting and strengthening the church at Antioch, are sent back to the apostles.

In terms of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and roles such as apostles and prophets, there are essentially two schools of thought. One says that these gifts and roles were just for the early years of the church, usually defined as the apostolic age or when the canon of the New Testament was agreed upon. (These are time periods separated by hundreds of years, and each approach warrants its own line of study. But we’ll place them together as beliefs that put the end of the gifts in the first centuries of the church.)

The other perspective is that the gifts may have diminished during certain ages of the church, but that they never completely disappeared and are making a remarkable appearance in this age. We’ll look at these two views later.

Then there is the belief that Christians “receive the Holy Spirit” when they believe and are baptized, and there is no other Holy-Spirit-related experience. For those who believe that, the Scriptures themselves are challenging. The first six verses of Acts 19, for example, makes no sense if “receiving the Holy Spirit” only refers to the moment of salvation.

And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciple, he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”

So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

According to this passage, Paul recognized these Ephesians as “disciples.” They had apparently come to faith, but didn’t even know about the Holy Spirit. Paul could have easily told them that once they believed, they already “received the Holy Spirit.” It would have been the ideal moment to express that. Instead, he laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they expressed the receiving of the Spirit by speaking in tongues and prophesying.

The rest of Acts takes prophets and prophesying for granted. Chapter 21 introduces us to Philip, who “had four virgin daughters who prophesied.” Shortly after, we meet Agabus, described as a prophet. In the last chapter of Acts, “the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him.” Clearly, the gifts are featured throughout the book that lays out the first years of the church, with no indication scripturally that they were temporary.

Historically, it’s uncontested that the gifts faded somewhat into the background after the first centuries of the church. The reasons why will be left to other historical and theological books, but nearly everyone agrees with that—those that believe they passed away for good and those that believe they remained and are being restored in fuller power today.

But a quick study of church history demonstrates that the gifts were referred to throughout church history as a present phenomenon, even when the church slipped into the Dark Ages. If you just do a quick web search on the following people, you can find more information on them. But even this quick list demonstrates the presence of the gifts throughout church history:

The Didache (early manual on church discipline, late first century) contains instruction on how to deal with traveling prophets.
Ignatius (late first and early second centuries) was known for his prophetic gifts, and actually settled a dispute by pointing to the authority of a prophetic word.
Justin Martyr (mid-first century): “For one receives the spirit of understanding, another of counsel, another of strength, another of healing, another of foreknowledge.…”
Irenaeus c. 150AD:” we hear many of the brethren in the church who have prophetic gifts, and who speak in tongues through the spirit, and who also bring to light the secret things of men for their benefit” which is the word of knowledge. Also: “When God saw it necessary, and the church prayed and fasted much, they did miraculous things, even of bringing back the spirit to a dead man.”
Tertullian (end of 2^nd cent.) reported prophecies, healings and tongues.
Origen (c. 210AD) reported healings and other charismatic gifts.
Others with similar reports include Eusebius, Firmilian, Chrysostom, and others.
Eusebius, the “father of church history,” spoke of how the church enjoys the gifts, including words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, healings and tongues.
Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, wrote in the fourth century about the contemporaneous use of tongues, prophecy, healings, miracles and other gifts.
Joseph Hazzays (8^th century in Syria) wrote of supernatural knowledge and tongues, which he called “a flow of spiritual speech.”
Anselm, bishop of Canterbury in the 11^th and 12^th century, performed miracles and ministered prophetically.
Catherine of Siena (14^th cent.) was known for her powerful gifts of personal prophecy, and words of wisdom and knowledge (even rebuking a pope for not fulfilling a vow that no one knew he’d made).
George Fox (17^th century), founder of the Quakers
Nikolaus, von Zinzendorf (18^th century), who founded the Moravian Brethren
Dorothea Trudel and Charles Cullis (19^th century)
Maria Woodworth-Etter (19^th and 20^th century)
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (mostly 20^th century)

Note: Augustine (4^th cent.), pondering the lack of gifts in his time, concluded that “miracles were not allowed to continue” as they were no longer needed to “kindle” faith. He was forced to rethink that stance after he carefully reviewed a wave of miraculous healings—70 in all—that hit his area in North Africa. He also reported two instances of healings that occurred after what we call being “slain in the Spirit.”

In researching the gifts, it becomes clear that they were often part of a mixed bag. There may have been superstition and false teaching mixed in with the gifts, but that doesn’t negate their presence throughout the years. One good reading of First Corinthians and a clear-eyed look around the church today tells us that these gifts have never been given to perfect people, nor have they escaped being mixed in with the flesh. (Has anything we have received from God ever not been mixed in with the flesh?) The Corinthians needed Paul, and the church today needs pastors and teachers who can instruct us on the proper purpose and expression of the gifts. This book specifically aims to help the relationships between pastors and prophets.

The Ironies

There are two great ironies a person believing that the gifts are alive and well today faces when explaining his beliefs, and that is that the two arguments for the gifts passing away are actually the best arguments for their being around today. One argument is experience, and the other is the Scriptures themselves.

We’ll begin with experience, which is an understandable and common complaint against those believing in the gifts, often called Pentecostals. Pentecostals are often accused of living by experience, referring specifically to their (perhaps fleshly) response to the presence of the Holy Spirit, which can lead to mistakenly building a theology or Biblical exegesis upon experience rather than the Word.

Building a theology or interpreting the Scriptures based on our experiences—or the experiences of others—is of course a dangerous approach, but of which some who don’t believe in the present manifestation of the gifts are guilty. Just because someone has grown up in a church without the gifts, or have read authors who never experienced the gifts, doesn’t mean we should build a theology on that lack of experience. Since we can agree that there are denominations that don’t believe in the gifts, and that there were periods of church history when they were minimally expressed, we can agree that there have been many people who have not experienced the gifts. As a famous writer once said about the first presidential win of Ronald Reagan: “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon.” At least this woman was aware of her insularity. We would do well to be aware of ours.

Most cessationists (those who hold the view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, such as healing, tongues, and prophetic revelation, pertained to the apostolic era only, served a purpose that was unique to establishing the early church, and passed away before the canon of Scripture was closed) have likely lived in and researched within a world where the gifts have never been expressed, or at least identified as being expressed. A more complete study of church history and a study of the Christian life in the rest of the world outside North America and northern/western Europe is helpful in seeing how these gifts have been and still are alive and well.

That leaves us with God’s word, which we can all agree is a more firm foundation for building our Biblical views than experience. The irony here is that the passage of Scripture most often used to “prove” that the gifts are not for today is actually the proof test for their presence in the church today. The passage of course is I Corinthians 13:8-12:

⁸Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

There are two time periods being written about here. One is the “now” of Paul as he is writing, and the other is some other time in the future. In that future, there will be no prophecies, tongues, or knowledge (which in this context refers to the spiritual gift of knowledge; see I Corinthians 12:8). They are for a season, and they are incomplete: “…we know in part and we prophesy in part.”

Skipping over verse 10 for the moment, we have Paul’s “story” in verse 11 that compares his actions and thinking of his childhood years to his adult years. He’s making a comparison, just as verses 8-11 do. He ends in verse 12b continuing his idea that we see and know in part, and makes his most specific description of the second time frame. Putting the verses together, it’s obvious that Paul means that when we are in the projected future time frame, we will “know just as I also am known.” Since Paul is known completely, as attested to by Psalm 139, he is referring to a time when we will no longer need these spiritual gifts, as we will know and understand all things in that second timeframe.

Let’s compare the two verses that point to the second timeframe, v. 10 and v. 12a

¹⁰But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

Paul here connects the “perfect” that is coming with the experience of seeing “face to face.” That future time where we will know as we are now known will be when we will be seeing “face to face.” As tempting as it may be to stretch in the direction of thinking Paul is referring to the creation of the New Testament canon, it doesn’t make sense in this context. Now that we have the New Testament in its final form, we still don’t know as we are known. That’s for the future, after the Second Coming. Too, Paul isn’t afraid to use more direct terminology for God’s New Testament words (2 Peter 3:16), and if he wanted to say that the spiritual gifts would disappear once the New Testament canon was recognized as complete, he likely would have been more direct. In any case, it’s clear that the second of the two timeframes Paul refers to here involves seeing “face to face” and is the time period when we will have all knowledge. That could only refer to His Second Coming.

Other Objections

There are other objections to the gifts (including the “people gifts”) being for today. One is that they were there to “get the church started” by validating the gospel message. Once the apostles died, they weren’t needed.

First of all, there is no Biblical evidence for this, as history or doctrine. Validation is not the only reason for the existence of the gifts, either. They were also intended to build up the body of Christ. I Corinthians 14:26 says

How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

The church is not certainly beyond the need for edification, and the people of God are in need of it as much as ever.

A related thought is that, like a rocket launch, the church needed the extra boost in its early stages, and this is what the spiritual gifts provided. But let’s look at three scriptures that speak to that:

Luke 24:49: ⁴⁹Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Acts 1:8 ⁸But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

The first two obviously refer to the experience of Pentecost. The only timeframe alluded to is the waiting period asked of Jesus before they are to go out to be witnesses, not any endpoint to the need for this power. There is no “until” in the equation.

Galatians is not specifically referring to the gifts of the Spirit, though a close reading of the chapter suggests that Paul is including them in his thinking. Yet this passage indirectly suggests that God wants us to continue to walk in the Spirit and “be made perfect” that way. Why would the church be in any less need of the gifts of the Spirit to continue its witness in this world? What God has begun “in the Spirit” and with the gifts of the Spirit needs to be brought to completion in the same way. We have the completed canon of the New Testament and the power of the Holy Spirit expressed in His gifts. We need both.

The last objection is that these gifts were connected solely with the apostles, and that when that first phase of the church ended, so did the gifts. But the gifts were not limited to the apostles, even in the scriptures. Take a moment to review how God used Philip in Acts 8:

⁵Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. ⁶And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. ⁷For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. ⁸And there was great joy in that city.

We don’t need to step outside of the first-generation church to see that the gifts were not limited to the apostles. They weren’t then, and they aren’t today.

There will always be fleshly expressions of the gifts, just as there are fleshly expressions of Bible teaching and preaching. We don’t negate the preaching or teaching of the word because of misuse. Nor should we negate the existence of the gifts for today just because of Corinthian-like abuse. We rightly cling to God’s provisions of His word and the preaching and teaching associated with it. So too should we put aside misuse and our own lack of experience with the gifts, and look solely to His word for our understanding of all of God supplies.

The Gifts of the Spirit listed in the Bible re for Today