The third day of the end of year retreat was packed with teachings, prayers, praise and worship.
Evangelist Victor Ejimadu the Chief Missions Coordinator of Greater Evangelism World Crusade taught on the topic: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. As part of his introduction into the message, he explained that the gift of the Holy Spirit are God’s supernatural ability given to the church in fragments (1 Corinthians 12: 8-10) and it is the divine expression of God’s grace in and through believers. It is a supernatural ability which the Holy Spirit distributes to individuals according to His will. The gift of the Holy Spirit are: Word of wisdom, Word of knowledge, faith, the gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
He continued by highlighting on things to know about the Gift of the Holy Spirit and they are as follows:
- The Gift of the Holy Spirit are exclusively meant to glorify God (John 16:14).
- God does not want us to be ignorant of them (1 Corinthians 12:1).
- It is given for the overall benefit of the Church (1 Corinthians 12:7).
- The Spirit works through the gifts and gives it to whomsoever He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11).
- The gifts are meant to complement one another and not to compete (2 Corinthians 10:12, 1 Corinthians 12:15 – 27).
- Establishes the believers (Romans 11:1).
- The gifts are given to the believer according to God’s grace (Romans 12:6).
He taught the church that the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be classified into three:
- Revelational gifts
- Vocal gifts
- Power gifts
He went further to give detailed explanation on the gifts as classified above.
The revelational gifts includes word of wisdom, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits.
The word of wisdom is the supernatural application of knowledge and understanding to resolve certain difficulties. Examples include; the stoning of the adulterous woman (John 8:7); Jesus versus the Pharisees (Matthew 22:20-22); Solomon’s landmark judgement (1 Kings 3:16-28).
The word of knowledge is receiving facts supernaturally by the working of the Spirit. It can also be described as the unveiling of things that could not have possibly been known. Biblical examples include: Elisha and Gehazi (2 Kings 5); Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3); Elisha and the King of Syria (2 Kings 6: 8-12); Jesus and the fake converts (John 2: 23 – 25).
The discerning of spirits is the supernatural ability to perceive the source of the manifestation of a spirit, whether it is from God, devil, man or the world. Biblical references include: Peter vs Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:23); Paul vs the diviner (Acts 16:18); Jesus vs James and John (Luke 9:54-55). This gift is pertinent in today due to the rise of deducing and deceptive spirits.
The second category of the gift is the vocal gifts which includes: The gift of speaking divers kinds of tongues, the gift of prophecy and the gift of interpretation of tongues.
Speaking of divers kinds of tongues - It is the divine ability to speak languages that are not learnt (1 Corinthians 14:5, 18, 39). Tongues can be classified into the following:
- Tongues of men – 1 Corinthians 13:6, Acts 2.
- Tongues of Angels – 1 Corinthians 13:1.
The third classification of gift are the Power Gifts which includes the gift of faith, working of miracles and healings.
The Gift of faith is the supernatural ability to believe God to intervene in challenging circumstances. This is different from “saving faith” given to every believer and faith as the fruit of the Spirit. For example: Elijah and the drought (1 Kings 18-18).
The gift of working of miracles is the manifestation that is against natural law. Whereas healing is a work of restoration, miracles are creative against natural law and order. For example: Creation of womb, breast, Jesus multiplying bread, water turned into wine, raising the dead, walking on water (Acts 4:6; 19:11).
He taught the Church that no one will want to give a gift they count as precious to someone who will not handle or use it properly. Therefore some of the traits that could deprive us from receiving the gift are:
- Spiritual Immaturity (Hebrew 5:14).
- Unprepared hearts (Matthew 7:6).
- Wrong motives (James 4:3).
- Being a novice (1 Timothy 3:6).
- Doubtful/double mindedness (James 1:6).
- Unfaithful with little things (Luke 16:10 – 12).
With the right attitude, spiritual hunger and prayers, we can position ourselves for the impartation of the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37 – 39, Luke 11:9 – 13, Psalm 42:1, 2, 7).
