Spiritual Gifts

This week my focal passage is 1 Corinthians 9 to 12. In my usual, slow-reading habit of reading all four chapters on the first day and then going back and reading one chapter per day for the next four days, I naturally finished this morning's reading with chapter 12. In this chapter, Paul writes about "spiritual gifts." As he is defining what he means by spiritual gifts, he describes these gifts as manifestations of the Spirit (vs. 7). What a glorious phrase!

The real gift here is God's presence - the Holy Spirit of God showing up and showing out in our lives! And the Spirit may choose to do this in a wide variety of ways. Whichever way the Spirit chooses, however, will be "for the common good" (vs. 7). The Spirit is working to build the Kingdom, the church, the community of faith.

I have long thought that we in the Western expression of church often get our thinking about spiritual gifts a bit mixed up. We tend to start with the gift and then speak about the challenge of finding its application. The gift becomes something that we personally possess. It provides guidance for us in our service by shaping our expectations for what we might do and what we will not do in service to Christ.

Spiritual gift inventories have been developed to help us identify our giftedness and to channel our service in appropriate and fulfilling ways. But here is a curious thing about these inventories: they do not test for the presence of God's Spirit. Any person, regardless of whether they have faith or not, regardless of whether they have responded to the grace of God in Christ, can take these inventories and receive an outcome. So, for example, an atheist can take a spiritual gift inventory and discover they have the gift of prophecy.

That doesn't seem right.

I think it indicates a weakness in these inventories. They do not, and cannot, test for the Spirit. And the Spirit is what these gifts are all about! They can, at best, reveal personality traits and preferences.

But the Spirit often works with people to bring them into opportunities and activities that cut against personal preferences. Moses didn't volunteer to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage. Indeed, he tried to get out of it! And it was Barnabas who sought out Paul and enlisted his help in serving the church in Antioch. Paul did not choose the service for which he has become so famous. The Spirit glories in showing itself strong in the places of human weakness. The gift of the Holy Spirit's presence is not about human ability. The gift of the Holy Spirit is about the activity of God in the midst of all the strengths and frailties of human life.

A better way of looking at spiritual gifts is not to begin with the gift, but to begin with the opportunity and the need that God lays upon our hearts. Be sensitive to the leadership of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that wants to show up in and through our lives. The Spirit wants to show up in such a way that the community of faith is strengthened. The Spirit, when it shows up, will also want to show off so that God receives the glory.  We must be receptive to however the Spirit may choose to show up.

Who knows how God may choose to use us today? Are we ready and receptive?