Spiritual Gifts

The Spiritual Gifts

The Observations:

1)      Pursue love is the first spiritual advice the apostle Paul gives.

2)      Desire Spiritual gifts.- what are spiritual gifts? And what are they meant for?

a)(1 Cor 12:28) Gifts are distributed according to the Spirit’s choice (1 Cor 12:11),

b) gifts are manifestation of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:7) in which we must give glory to God in all cases. We always need to focus on praising God alone and give credit to Him alone.

c) Spiritual gifts are for the common good of  the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 12:7).

Tongues:

1 Cor 12: 4,7, 28,30-31.

The Background:  After the Lord Jesus returned to be with His Father, the church was at an infant stage , with a very few leaders, without the  Bible (the revelation was not completed yet by then), had absolutely no support from the government (in fact the government was trying to suppress), one would have thought that that would have been the end of the church. But it only survived but thrived, progressed and spread across the globe.  

How?

a)      The Lord empowered the apostles with gifts, powerful gifts ( Heb 2:3-4).

b)      Their message was authenticated by signs, wonders and miracles to avoid false teachers and heresy. There were signs, wonders and miracles existed in the early church to spread the truth.

Etymology:

a)      The Greek word for tongues is glossa  which means’ language’, a known and speakable  language. 

b)      On the day of Pentecost, the apostles preached in different known languages to spread the truth, it was a gift of the Holy Spirit.  (Acts 2:4-12).

c)       There are four  things that we have to look at to examine the gift of tongues in the light of the Scriptures

1)      Presence of tongues in the New Testament.

2)      Purpose of tongues in the New Testament.

3)      Principles of tongues in terms of their usage in the New Testament.

4)      Permanence of tongues.

                                                                               To be continued...