Spiritual gifts, ministries and manifestation

Those who experienced renewal in the Holy Spirit consciously opened their hearts to the Holy Spirit. It is true about them: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1Cor 6:19) If He is in us, then it is true: “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” (1Cor 12:4) So the Holy Spirit is the Author and Source of all gifts, and if He is in your heart, in Him you have all His gifts. But the question is which gifts He wants to be manifested right through you. God ordained that gifts should be developed within the communion of the Church, and at the right time. There are some people who, being renewed in the Holy Spirit, started to serve with several gifts at once – the gift of interpretation, the gift of healing… But that’s rare.

Many are of the opinion that to ask for spiritual gifts is something inappropriate, something contrary to the spirit of humility and modesty. Some say: “Is perhaps the Scripture not enough for us? And why then do we have the sacraments? Asking for gifts only leads to spiritual pride. This is usually the interest of Christians who chase after sensations and miracles. We live a peaceful and honest Christian life and are content with what we have.” And we come across these opinions among many really genuine Christians. They are sincere in their views but mistaken from ignorance.

The will of God for us is revealed in the Scripture. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, we read clearly: “Pursue love, and eagerly desire the spiritual gifts!” So it tells us to desire eagerly, not carelessly or idly, and we should not say in false humility that we are not worthy of it. For who is worthy of being eternally saved? And what is more – the gift or the Giver? To be saved means to share in divine life. And eternal life already begins on earth. And then: “God wills everyone to be saved.” (1Tim 2:4)

God gives the spiritual gifts as the armour for us to attain salvation more easily, to persevere to the end and to help many enter the kingdom of God with the help of these gifts. The Apostle Paul beseeches us: “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God…” (Eph 6:11-13)

We are told to take up the whole armour of God – this is the concretely revealed will of God. In this fight we cannot rely on our natural gifts, intelligence, eloquence or familiarity with the Scripture. This all is good but it’s not enough. Your enemy is no human being but the powers of darkness. The spirit of evil is far more intelligent than all geniuses in the history of mankind. His intelligence is at a different level, for he is a spirit. You have to fight against him because he is your enemy too, if you are under the banner of Christ. It was not for no reason that Jesus gave His apostles and disciples power to cast out demons. And He also gave such power to all who fully believe in the Gospel: “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mk 16:17-18; cf. Mt 10:1.8)

Jesus speaks clearly and not symbolically – He enumerates the gifts which will be given to those who believe in Him. Realize that here Jesus means no obscure faith in Him – this can by no means be the faith of philosophers who believe in God as someone who is far from us. They express their opinion rather than genuine faith. Jesus means the faith of Abraham “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations” (Rom 4:18). “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” This is the faith which Jesus demands when He says: “And these signs will follow those who believe…”

This is the faith as a gift – the faith of God given us by the Holy Spirit. Human faith always leaves itself a loophole. Man asks, even sincerely and aloud, but he has doubts deep in his heart. He is afraid of being ridiculed, is unable to stand the test like Abraham. The Scripture says about human faith: “He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (Jam 1:6-8) So to be able to fight against the powers of darkness, being frail humans, we need the full armour, yet not ours but that of God! And this armour is the very gifts which the Apostle speaks about, saying that we should eagerly desire them. More than that, he says that we should eagerly desire the best gifts (1Cor 12:31). Our life on earth is an endless fight, and therefore Jesus calls us to be watchful: “Watch and pray!” (Mt 26:41)

The life of man is a fight, and if we rely on our weapons, we are ridiculous, to say the least. Pride, which blinds us and overestimates our abilities, rejects the armour of God – the gifts of the Holy Spirit – under the guise of humility. Let us imagine an undisciplined army where everyone fights on one’s own and their weapons are bows and arrows. The enemy, on the other hand, uses aircrafts, tanks, atomic rockets, and moreover, his army is subject to iron discipline. Is the fight not decided beforehand? Self-confident, armed with bow and arrows, we think, naively, that we do not need the modern armour of God – the gifts which God offers us.

If a soldier is to be prepared for a fight, he must be trained in self-discipline first and then in the use of arms. He must obey the commanding officers without fail. He cannot start shooting whenever he likes. We men know very well what absurd things a soldier must do during military service in order to unlearn rationalizing and to learn to implicitly obey commands. Next we know that nonobedience in a state of war carries the death penalty, however absurd the command. A soldier is a soldier and not a debater. These are the established rules in every army: self-control, the use of arms, implicit obedience. The same rules are applied in the spiritual battle.

1. Self-control: Who has power over you? How often you are governed by disordered passions and inclinations – you are sensual, lazy, softy, you lack self-control. Original sin caused great disharmony within us.

2. The use of arms: You first need to have the spiritual armour – to put on the whole armour of God. Then you have to learn to use it, to be trained.

3. Obedience: To obey is better than sacrifice or burnt offerings. To learn to hear God’s voice in your heart and to obey Him – to stop for a while before you start working or doing something, to give it all to the Lord and to ask Him for the light, to ask Him if He wants you to do this or that or to go to this or that place. To learn to perceive the right time: God inspires you to go to a certain place. But ask Him with faith if you should do so now or later. In this way you should learn implicit obedience like a good soldier. You must be neither hot-headed nor lazy.

So after the renewal in the Holy Spirit, the Lord has gifts prepared for you not to give cause for pride but to help you fight for the sake of God’s kingdom. God wants to arm you with power (Greek dynamis). Remember that Jesus “taught them as one having authority (power), and not as the scribes and Pharisees” (Mk 1:22). The Apostle Paul testifies: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God” (Rom 1:16). And today we lack this power. Why? Because we do not give faith to the Gospel but rather to our reason or idle philosophizing. The secret lies in this: begin to live the Gospel and the power of God which is hidden therein will begin to become manifest. To live the Gospel means to receive Jesus as your Lord and God, to give Him your heart, to rely on Him and to give Him the first place in your everyday life. And this is not possible without the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle says that the Church – the Body of Christ – has different spiritual gifts (charisms). In the Epistle to the Romans, he mentions four of them (Rom 12:6):

In 1Cor 12, he mentions nine gifts but he makes it known beforehand that each individual is given the gifts for the common good:

To avoid treating the bearer of a certain gift with special consideration, the Apostle points out: “One and the same Spirit works all these things” (1Cor 12:11). Let us notice that in verses 4-7, the Apostle Paul does not speak about gifts only. He says: “There are different kinds of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different kinds of workings, but it is the same God who works all in all. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

So, what does the Apostle mean by the word ministry? There is missionary ministry (1Cor 14:12), apostolic ministry, prophetic ministry: “You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” (Eph 2:20) Then there is deliverance ministry (expulsion of demons), the ministry of deacons (Acts 6:5)…

And what does the Apostle mean by different kinds of workings and manifestation of the Spirit? E.g.:

Vision

The Acts of the Apostles often mention this gift. The Apostle Peter saw a vision while praying in the house of Simon the tanner: “While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending…” (Acts 10:10)

Cornelius the centurion saw in a vision an angel of God: “One afternoon about three o’clock, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius!’” (Acts 10:3)

The Apostle Paul was converted after he saw in a vision Jesus Himself: “Suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. He fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’” (Acts 9:3)

A believer in Damascus named Ananias had a vision too: “The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Rise and go to the street called Straight, and look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.’” (Acts 9:10)

A vision at Corinth: “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you.’” (Acts 18:9)

A vision at Troas: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’” (Acts 16:9)

We also read about visions in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, particularly in Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah and others.

In 1Cor 13, the Apostle Paul speaks about the greatest gift, the gift of LOVE. We meet with a false opinion of those who have no idea about what love is. They say: “The greatest gift is love, so what good will gifts do without love?” Answer: God wants us to desire gifts, and this greatest gift too. All other gifts should be aimed at love and lead into love. It is ridiculous to set them in opposition. The Apostle says clearly: “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.” (1Cor 14:1)