God’s supernatural power of grace in every Christian is why fellowship is powerful. Spiritual gifts turn followers of Jesus into mighty servants of God that help other believers. Through fellowship God expresses His love through each believer of the local church.
1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-6
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:
4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. (NKJ)
Because there are three different aspects of spiritual gifts, we need to be careful and accurate in our application.
Verse 4: First God gives grace (divine influence upon the heart) to every believer by gifting and strengthening them to focus on one of the seven ways that the Holy Spirit ministers to the church (God’s called out people).
Verse 5: Secondly, God raises up and gives the church gifted servants to lead His church and fulfill His purposes.
Verse 6: Then, God pours out his powerful presence to turn the hearts of men to repentance when and how He sees it is important and necessary.
1/ So first, the supernatural grace that flows inside each believer causes them to desire to fulfill God’s will while they receive the power and strength to accomplish the ministry they are to focus on. Romans 12 lists seven specific motivating gifts that could be flowing through you after you are born again. Each believer is motivated to see from this specific viewpoint and focus his attention to serve through supernatural strength.
God’s gift to each believer is His grace. Verse four is describing grace gifts because the very word used in the Greek is from the word grace. Remember grace is defined as the divine influence upon the heart through which the Spirit of God causes a Christian to desire God’s will and empowers him, and that simply means, gives him the strength to do it. Therefore, a grace gift is a motivational force from within the believer causing them to desire and focus upon God’s will and being empowered to accomplish a godly action.
2/ Verse five speaks of a different aspect of spiritual gifts, the aspect of how the believer will minister (serve) to his fellow believers. The Greek word used is the same for deacon, and is simply used as an aide, server, minister, ministry, etc. God’s gifts to the church are spiritually gifted people He calls to serve fellow Christians, His team of disciples. He leads His saints to serve other believers through fellowship inside the church and to minister to the world through outreach by all His saints as the local church. Fellowship is the focus on loving fellow believers. Outreach is the focus to make disciples of all nations.
We see grace gifts are given for serving fellow believers in 1 Peter 4:10-11 which says, “As each one has received a gift,” [this is what verse 4 above is pointing to and means each Christian receives one grace gift]
“minister it to one another,” [this is what verse 5 is describing, the gift is given to a Christian to help other believers through fellowship]
“as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” He clarifies that this is God’s grace flowing from the Holy Spirit inside each believer and it is our responsibility to manage this flow of grace through serving others as the Holy Spirit drives and leads us. It is not for your selfish pleasure.
“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (NKJ)
Romans 12 lists prophecy [preaching], teaching, and exhorting as the speaking gifts. While serving, giving, leadership, and mercy [showing kindness] are action grace gifts. Your gift is your almost naturally feeling strength and focus.
This is important as we understand the value God puts on humble service to others. Let’s read in Matthew 20:26-28, “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (NKJ)
3/ Finally verse six speaks about the diverse ways the Holy Spirit reveals His power through His saints. These manifestations of God can be the gripping conversion of sinners, miraculous answers to prayer, miracles, and supernatural signs that prove to be from God. Paul met Christ in a supernatural way on the road to Damascus. Peter found tons of fish when he previously caught nothing. People were healed from diseases and some were raised from the dead. Crowds received food from a few little fish and some bread.
Here is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 ”But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”
Let me be clear, there is not an equal distribution of manifestations from the Spirit of God, but instead, it is completely in God’s hands as He chooses to hide or reveal Himself by divine will. If God wants to show great mercy to accomplish His will He will show himself. At other times of history and in different places He will choose to hide His power as He wills. There is no formula. This is why you can see the first Christians prayed and asked for God to do this. It was not assumed or expected to happen, so they plead with God to show His hand of mercy to their generation [Read the Book of Acts].
God’s sovereign choices are His and for His divine purpose as He sees fit. If in our day God does not act visibly and powerful He has a reason and it does not mean a certain church or group is disobedient. If He decides to have the sound of a hurricane force wind blow through Jerusalem, show fire over the tops of the Christians’ heads, and give human language gifts to attract men like He did in Acts 2 it does not mean He will do it again. Only one donkey spoke in the Old Testament, only one bush burned to get Moses attention, and God will or will not do things, as He pleases when He pleases, and if He pleases, or He may never repeat the action if He so decides.
This is different from the grace gifts where Peter said, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
The real charismatic gifts are not what you think! Romans 12 gives the list of charismatic gifts and they do not include tongues, healings, uncontrolled laughs or signs. “Charis” is grace from the Greek language and “charisma” translates as “gift.” These words are directly used by Paul when describing the motivational gifts of the indwelling Holy Spirit inside every true Christian, not the physical manifestations of the Spirit.
For example in Romans 12 Paul explains, “For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him..”
And Peter states each Christian has ONE such gift to be used to love and serve other Christians. This gift is for your ministry to help fellow believers, not your Kingdom mission for the lost world.
Paul continues in Romans 12: “For as in one physical body we have many parts (organs, members) and all of these parts do not have the same function or use, 5 So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ (the Messiah) and individually we are parts one of another [mutually dependent on one another]. 6 Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith; 7 [He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching; 8 He who exhorts (encourages), to his exhortation; he who contributes, let him do it in simplicity and liberality; he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind; he who does acts of mercy, with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness.” [Romans 12:3-8 AMP]
Paul specifically lists only seven gifts as “charismatic” because grace is Holy Spirit power or energy that motivates and drives a believer to do His will and to see things from a very specific viewpoint.
In Revelation 5:6 John states, “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” (NKJ) The original Greek is just as clearly translated here “ the seven-fold Spirit of God,” which makes more sense because we know there are not seven different Spirits of God.
The seven eyes are significant in understanding God’s seven motivational grace gifts. There are seven different ways He leads people to focus and see the needs and ways to help those around them. And God wants us to team up together to fulfill His purposes. A sports team has positions that have a different focus for each player. This is the same idea.
These seven grace gifts control the viewpoint [the eyes] of each believer, and cause them to see through one of the Holy Spirit’s passionate eyes. And let me remind you again, we always define grace as the divine influence upon your heart that releases new desires to please God and the needed power or strength to obey and fulfill God’s will.
So God’s grace bubbles through your soul impacting how you look at the world around you. Yes, your charismatic gift creates a deep passion to serve fellow believers from a very specific godly perspective. It is like putting on one of seven different color sun glasses. For example, like a person wearing a pair of red glasses and seeing everything tainted red, a Christian who has the gift of leadership filters everything through this driving force from within his spirit. He wants to organize! He wants things orderly! Every gift has this type of motivation pressing through them.
Remember each believer has one of these gifts! No more than one, no less than one. The Spirit sees with His seven different eyes through His indwelling presence in Christians. One believer looks through the eyes of a prophet. Another saint sees through the filter of God’s servant heart. The next sees the world from the perspective of a teacher. And on we go through the other gifts until we have some believers who express God’s mercy as it pours from their soul.
But we need each other, so we must learn to trust and rely on each other to fulfill the will of God. And we must learn from each other and mature by growing up in the other six areas of spiritual strength and ministry. For example, since I am a prophet, I only learned mercy by watching and copying a friend who was a strong mercy giver. You will appreciate and love other believers when you stop demanding they see the same things you see or do things in the same way you do them.
Much research and study have been done on motivational gifts with evidence of very consistent characteristics surrounding each gift. This post does not have the space to cover this. But, a hint to knowing your gift is found in your reaction to the following scenario.
A friend brings a tray full of drinks into your group meeting but trips and falls right in front of everyone. A mercy feels sorry for the person and wants to comfort them. The giver will offer to supply more drinks. The organizer jumps up and gives everyone a job in cleanup and recovery. The servants jump up to get the mop, bucket, and to pick up the mess. The exhorter encourages the poor soul, while the prophet wonders if he needed to be humbled because of unconfessed pride and desires to pray for him. The teacher looks to find truth in the situation or applies this new research and gives the poor soul a book the next day. Was the carpet the problem, or maybe he has a physical problem with his eyes? Obviously, I exaggerated to illustrate the various perspectives.
| The Grace Gift | Their Viewpoint of the Perfect Church | The Spiritual Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Prophet/Preacher… (The watchman and spiritual doctor) | A church that preaches and declares the Word of God without compromise by confronting sin! | sin, repentance, prayer, and true change in people’s lives |
| Servant/Minister… (The helper and builder) | A church that works hard at helping the needy and being involved in the community. | physical work such as cooking, cleaning, building, etc |
| Teacher/Tutor… (The keeper of truth) | A church that has in-depth Bible studies, classes, small group studies and has a school or education emphasis. | THE DETAILS OF TRUTH AND ORGANIZED EDUCATION |
| Exhorter/Encourager… (The coach and trainer) | A church with a strong ministry of counseling, personal growth teaching, and encouraging “how to” sermons. | spiritual growth and restoration of relationships |
| Leader/Organizer… (The planner and administrator) | A church that is well organized, careful plans, meeting goals, consistent, focused and stable. | advancement of God’s Kingdom |
| Giver… (The resource collector) | A church that is loving through organized ministries of relief efforts, missions, and productive outreach activities. | finding resources to advance God’s Kingdom |
| Mercy/Comforter… (The comforter of the broken) | A church that is tenderhearted and does not hurt anyone’s feeling, very loving to everybody, and very friendly. | the hurting and wounded |
The longer you are a born again Christian the more you see from one of these seven God given perspectives, judge everything from that perspective, and are driven by that specific passion of holiness. Your spiritual gift is your ever increasing strength to obey God’s will, and even though it feels like it comes naturally, it really flows supernaturally from the Holy Spirit inside your spirit. But, you must also learn and follow the example of others Christians to practice the other love one another commands. For example, you still must show mercy, serve, and give to others, even if you do not have that spiritual gift.
Paul explains this holy force from within you. “Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ). 13 [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. [Phil 2:12-13 AMP]
This means, every true believer is alive from his spirit as the Holy Spirit is placed in them when they are “born again” spiritually. This is the down payment or seal of our eternal life. Once you know your spiritual grace gift, God wants you to be a good steward, which means get busy and become a good manager of your gift. He wants to love people through you, and to be at your most useful state, you need to know and rely on your spiritual strengths, because the Holy Spirit is releasing His strength into you so that you can accomplish your ministry. That is why it is your spiritual gift.
For example, His grace inside our spirit ignites our conscience in the same way that we ignite a lamp when we plug it into the electric socket. The energy explodes through the lamp and forces the bulb to shine. This is the same way God’s holy presence burns into our conscience, making right and wrong become very clear. This is sure evidence of new life as the Holy God floods the human spirit of a new convert awakening the spirit with holy life energy. If a true believer is tempted and considers disobedience to God the burning and growing desire glows from within to stop them before it is too late. This driving force from the Spirit within expands to spiritual gifts also.
Because the seven motivational gifts are the complete aspects of the Holy Spirit, He freely gives each believer one. “As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God’s many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor].”
“Whoever speaks, [let him do it as one who utters] oracles of God; whoever renders service, [let him do it] as with the strength which God furnishes abundantly, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever (through endless ages). Amen (so be it).” [1 Peter 4:10-11 AMP]
This means God demands that in each city, churches form, teaming up individual believers into spiritual families to locally fulfill God’s will. All seven gifts must be used to build a glorious church that God loves. Each disciple must see, respect, and lean on the six other perspectives or viewpoints of the body of Christ and wholeheartedly join the team.
Churches missing even one gift are unhealthy, imbalanced and weakened in life and functionality. It would be the same as a baseball team that does not have a right fielder, or a football team without a right guard. Therefore, it is imperative that Christians do not just learn about gifts and exhibit the emptiness of “ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.”
Instead, each local church must rise up and discover the truth of spiritual gifts and exhort [encourage] their members to immediately obey the call of God to serve one another as given in 1 Peter.
God’s love language is exhibited through the spiritual energy of the Holy Spirit gifts. This is how we love one another!
Through exhaustive research on the part of many different Christian teachers and groups a very clear cut description of characteristics and tendencies have been found to distinguish each motivational gift. Defining terms becomes critical to understand God’s Word and experiencing God’s gifts. Let’s start with prophecy.
The ministers of the Word (1 Peter 4:10)…
1/ PROPHET Many want to make a prophet to be a charismatic future teller who gives all kinds of predictions and specific directions to individuals. Their word is supposed to be God’s and therefore if you question them you are rebelling against God and blaspheming. Well, when we examine the scripture we find this describes Old Testament prophets who gave clear future predictions.
But, by the time of Jesus, this was not the usage in Israel. Even in the Old Testament times the majority of claimed “prophets” proved to be false and deluded. Reread the Bible and start counting, there are far more false prophets then true prophets. What is really interesting is when you define “prophet” as it really is designed by God for the church and use the American term “preacher” you have gotten to the real truth.
Yes, the preacher is a man of God who speaks God’s word. And when you look closer at the Bible you find even the prophet of old was a spiritual doctor sent to call God’s people back from sin, and to again, obey His clear revelation already spoken from His written Word.
Nothing new or unusual was added. The message was repent, you have willfully disobeyed the Law of God as recorded from the early days of Moses leadership.The spiritual doctor was focused on the sin disease of the people and was called to warn them of the consequences of continuing their rebellion. Some then gave future predictions of judgment or promises of future forgiveness and restoration.
Once you understand the true prophet’s role, you can then begin to compare your motivations to determine if you are a gifted preacher. It does not demand that you are a dynamic speaker. The prophet looks at the church and sees sin and desires a restoration of true spiritual life. He sees the nation in trouble because their actions are motivated by selfishness and pride.
Burdened from within [energized by God’s holiness and truth] the prophet prays for purity in the church and preaches repentance to the city he lives in. The growing motivation to challenge people to change is a sign of a prophet’s heart. An impulse to expose hypocrites, combat injustice seen in government, strengthen the tiring saints who seem to always suffer, challenge the status quo, caution and discipline slackers, and convince the hardened sinners with truth all points to the gift of a prophet.
2/ TEACHER Another servant of the Word is the teacher. This motivation is for truth and accuracy to be established. A deep desire and pleasure of studying the Bible is a good sign this is your gift. The teacher is called to lay down a solid foundation of truth by clarifying the words and meaning of minute details.
For example, a basketball player may have great heart and talent but if ignorant of the rules the player will cause more damage to the team with fouls, mistakes, and disruption of the teams rhythm and chemistry. But, a player with full knowledge of the game becomes a powerful force for the team. If you have a growing desire to analyze, investigate, examine, and research scripture and its ramifications in life you could be separated unto the Lord to be a teacher.
3/ EXHORTER The third minister of the Word is the exhorter. The difference between an exhorter and a teacher is in the people level. Exhortation means personal encouragement. The exhorter is a people person where a teacher can be happy to sit in a library and read for two years.
The exhorter will take the teachers research and help people apply it in a practical “how to” way for blessing and results. The exhorter loves to simplify the truth into easy steps that will bring lasting solutions to life’s problems. Driven by the inward concern for struggling and broken people, the exhorter has a strong desire to help people with their problems and relationships through the truth of God’s Word.
The ministers of the work (1 Peter 4:10)…
4/ LEADER We will first examine the leader who is an organizer, or some would use the term administrator. They are goal setters and managers. When you think of Ezra you see an organizer in his true element. Overwhelming troubles are challenges and stepping stones to success. The church needs these visionaries who see past roadblocks, are able to gather resources, and pool help into a God given project with joy and excitement.
If you enjoy schedules, supervision responsibilities, government and law, able to delegate responsibilities, guide and coach teams, and plan and strategize… you may be raised up for a specific task or project God is going to do.
Also remember, if you are judging your church because it is not organized like you think it should or not setting or reaching goals, it does not mean the church is disobedient to God. But on the other hand, perhaps you see the need because God has called you to take leadership responsibility under the authority of your pastor to fulfill a project. If so, be faithful to him, and volunteer your service for the ministry you are driven to.
5/ SERVANT The servant is the “regular guy” who is good with his hands, enjoys to build things, constantly wants something to do, enjoys entertaining people at home, meeting the physical needs of people, and helping people in very practical ways. Servant ministers are an important laborer of God and who the Bible calls a “deacon”.
If you have a growing desire to see the needy helped, the widows cared for, and the orphans given a hand you may be called to serve.
The servant helps the ministers of the Word by keeping the place repaired, building sets, designing sound systems, working in the kitchen, mowing the lawn, and a thousand other necessary tasks.
But normally he does not want to organize, lead or preach. In fact, in many instances he would rather do a task all by himself to make sure it is done right, and completed correctly. If you do not feel useful unless you are doing something, or think the church is not right because it is not doing enough useful things, you are probably a servant.
Learn to submit to leadership and follow the master plan.
6/ GIVER The giver is focused on the materials needed for Christ’s church. Funding outreach projects, gathering donations, balancing the checkbook, and a strong desire to reach the city and world for Christ are a good sign you are graced with the spiritual gift of giving.
Do not be confused with a love of things and money, as this does not prove you are a giver.
A giver loves to share, give faithfully to the church, rescue people in financial troubles, bless others with surprise gifts, invest in the work of successful ministries, support missionaries, support orphans, and assist ministers as they sacrifice financial stability for the work that they are called to.
Finding the best bargain with excellent quality saves the church and extends it’s power to serve the Lord, and a giver is focused on these things. Givers guided by their spiritual leaders are great assets to reaching the world for Christ.
7/ MERCY GIVER The mercy giver is very sensitive to the hurt and emotionally damaged people all around them. Their focus is to make them feel better and to nurse them back to health. They want to repair the brokenhearted, rescue the downtrodden, sympathize with the hurting, and comfort and assure the fainthearted.
If you have a growing desire to be a caring friend to the hurting get past your indecisiveness and use your gift!
So remember narrow road follower of Jesus, our Lord tells us the greatest among you is the servant of all. Rest in the power of the Holy Spirit within you and serve your fellow believers in your local church. Make your team strong and united to fulfill the mission tasks the Lord gives your team. Be diligent and become great and glorify the Lord your God! “As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God’s many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely Diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor].”
Is your next step to discover your spiritual gift?
This is a story about 4 people. Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. One day there was an important task to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it! Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. But, Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody would not do it. Sadly, Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!!! – author unknown
1 Corinthians 15:58 (AMP) “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord], knowing and being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose].”
God will push you past your understanding to fulfill His will. You will need to have faith that God will give you more grace to accomplish His assignments for you, and together as a body of believers, you will glorify God in your city. Learn and prepare yourself for the greatness God intended for you, mature and become a mighty SERVANT OF GOD.
To learn more about how to practice fellowship study the following:
The Power of Restoration: How To Help a Defeated Believer
The Power of Public Encouragement: Watching Over One Another
The Power of Public Testimony: Making Truth Real To Others
The Power of Public Confessions: How To Strengthen Others
The Power of Restitution: How To Prove You Are Sorry
