The revelation of the gifts of the Spirit was given when a number of us in the ministry felt a greater need for God. We, and a number of other Christians, gathered to fast and pray for several days of reading the Word and waiting upon God.
Then, a brother stood, and our hearts were thrilled as he began to prophesy: "If you will reverence God and His presence, He will restore to the Church those things which are lacking and the gifts of the Spirit will come into operation!"
If the Bible tells us to "covet earnestly the best gifts," (I Cor. 12:31) is it not reasonable that we should do so? Does it make sense that we should neglect the importance of the Divine enablements of God?
Someone might say, "Well, what is the best gift?"
The best gift for each of us is whatever complements our God-given ministry. He has given each member in the Body of Christ a ministry, and I personally believe He wants to give us a complementary gift to help that ministry to function.
There can be no question that these gifts of the Spirit were all in operation in the early church. It is obvious that in the Acts of the Apostles, all the gifts were in operation. It is significant that those who attack the teaching on the gifts, argue that these manifestations of God's Spirit were done away with at the end of the Apostolic Age. They state that the gifts were of no further value after the written Word was given--the Canon of the Scripture, the New Testament. This may seem to many to be a plausible argument, but it should have occurred to us all that nearly 2,000 years subsequent to the Apostolic Age, we are still in the Church Age!
Hear the Apostle Paul when he says in I Cor. 12:28: "God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues."
What else can we take from the Scripture except that, as long as God has a Church, She will need the gifts? Yea, God has set them in, therefore they are beneficial and absolutely necessary. Did not the Son of God, Himself, say in Mark 16:17-18, (unless you are one of those who take this passage out of the Canon) that "these signs shall follow them that believe: in My name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."
If supernatural gifts, operating in holy men today, are Satan's counterfeits (as so many declare they are), why is it that the same gifts were "of the Lord" in Apostolic days? If these gifts are counterfeits, then it stands to reason that the "real thing" Is still in operation since you cannot have a counterfeit without it. There couldn't be a counterfeit dollar bill if there were not a real one from which to copy.
Some counter with the argument. "If these manifestations were of the devil now, they were of the devil then." I maintain that if they were of God then, they are of God now (based both upon the foundation of the Scripture and the testimonies of millions who have experienced these manifestations). We can be tremendously thankful to God that during the past 40 years we have seen every disease and affliction known to mankind healed by the power of God in answer to prayer. Not only so, but we have seen all the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation. If we had the whole record written by an unbiased mind, we would have to agree that the wonders of these last days would compare extremely well with the stories found in the Acts of the Apostles.
We regret that there is a great debate under way in these days about the wonderful things which have been performed by the power of God because the darkness and unbelief of professing Christians is deepening.
Should Christ delay His coming any longer, there is every reason to hope for another great outpouring of the Spirit of God--one which will eclipse all the previous revivals for might and power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost! It is for this reason we wish to lay down a simple outline of the spiritual gifts in order for men and women to understand them better and thus seek them earnestly.
It's always proper to seek the things of God, but I believe that if we spent the same amount of time seeking God that we spend seeking the things He brings, our lives, and the lives of those in the Church, would be thoroughly revolutionized! The apostle, nevertheless, exhorted us to "covet earnestly the best gifts." Let us examine the statement for a moment. First, what are the best gifts? It has always been confusing to me to hear the various opinions on this:
One brother talks about the gift of prophecy and declares that it's the best. Everything else is less than this and they believe that prophecy is the very zenith of spiritual gifts.
Another man chooses the gift of healing.
Another the working of miracles.
Further, another chooses the word of wisdom, and claims this is by far the most essential and valuable gift of all.
And so it goes on through the whole nine gifts.
Undoubtedly many people could be found who were content with any one of the gifts, all claiming that such and such was their greatest desire and the best gift. After much meditation and listening to many opinions I contend that all these views are wrong and that it would be impossible for any man or woman to pick out two or three gifts as the best of all.
To illustrate , let's suppose we were working in a carpenter's shop and in this shop there were nine different types of saws. At the first bench was a handsaw; second, a crosscut saw; third, a ripsaw; fourth, a keyhole saw; fifth, a fret saw; sixth, a hacksaw; seventh, a jigsaw; eighth, a band saw; and ninth, a cordwood saw.
Now, let's suppose that the head carpenter says to you, "I have a sawing job to do; get me the best saw." You'd look at him with surprise and say, "But sir, what work are you going to do?"
When he tells you he wants to make a keyhole, you immediately know which is the best saw. It's the keyhole saw. For this job, thats the best tool, and all others would be useless. If, however, he says he wants to cut a piece of iron, the best saw for that is the hacksaw, and all others are useless. If you want to cut a log in half you get the crosscut saw. You see, dear friends, the point is that all of them are the best saws; there's not one among them that is better or more useful than the other. It all depends on the type of work to be done. Yes, the carpenter must have his tools. The mechanic has to have his tools. The dentist has to have his tools in order to do his job.
Now, let us apply the same principle to the nine gifts of the Spirit. The best gift for you is the one which the Holy Spirit sees will be the most beneficial in the ministry He has cut out for you. This, then, is the best gift. The gifts of the Spirit are given to equip us as we minister to the Body and to make valuable members who may each contribute--that the Body may make increase of itself in love.
The gifts of the Spirit are also continual manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the Body, reminding us of the presence of the power of God. These gifts are spiritual and God will not have it otherwise, nor would He have us to be ignorant of this.
In I Corinthians 12:8-10, these nine gifts of the Spirit are named: "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith; to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another diverse kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues."
Notice that these nine gifts can be divided into three different groups or categories:
(1) There is the gift to know supernaturally (revelation gifts)--the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits.
(2) The power to act supernaturally, which includes the gift of faith, the gifts of healing and the working of miracles.
(3) Then, the power to speak supernaturally: prophecy, tongues, the interpretation of tongues. And so we have this list in the Scripture that God has given us.
The gifts of the Spirit are like faculties in the human body. As I have already mentioned they are in three categories: The power to know, the power to act, and the power to speak supernaturally. We will begin with the order found in the scripture: