He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 1 Corinthians 12:10
The Holy Spirit has the power and authority to give people gifts. These spiritual gifts are designed to help further and advance the name of Jesus. God spreads each of these gifts around for a reason. If any one person had all these gifts, they would have no need to work together with anyone else. If they had every gift, they could rely on their own strength, which could quickly lead to pride. The Holy Spirit wisely gives a few different gifts to each person, which forces us to work together in community. We need one another for the church to move forward.
Notice that one of the gifts that is listed is speaking in different languages. Here Paul acknowledges the gift of tongues as one of the spiritual gifts. It is interesting that Paul doesn't say that everyone has this gift, but only those who the Holy Spirit has given it to have this gift. This difference is important to note because there have been people and churches who say that everyone who is a true follower of Christ must speak in tongues. Here in the Scriptures, we see that it is just one of many gifts given to advance the name of Jesus, and not as proof or evidence of a person's salvation.
When God gave the gift of tongues, it was for a couple of different reasons. He gave this gift to share the good news of Jesus with those cross-culturally in their own language. This happened clearly on the day of Pentecost. He also gave this gift in Acts as a miraculous sign that a specific people group were included in the kingdom of God. The one occurrence of tongues in Scripture that is more difficult to understand is found in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Here this supernatural gift also appears in what seems to be a prayer language people may not fully understand. Not everyone had it in the church of Corinth, but those who did were constantly sharing it in the service, causing mass confusion and distraction. Paul encouraged those who had this gift to use it privately. When it wasn’t a language that could be translated or interpreted, it was best used to build up the believer in their personal prayer time.
God has gifted you with a spiritual gift to accomplish His purposes. The question is, will you use your spiritual gift to make Him known?
You may already know your own personal spiritual gift or you might be completely unfamiliar with how God has wired you. Knowing and understanding that we have lots of different believers at various stages in their journey, we would encourage you to take the online spiritual gifts assessment here. When you are done or if you already know your own spiritual gifts, write them in the notes section. Then, think through how you can best use your gifts to serve others. https://gifts.churchgrowth.org/spiritual-gifts-survey/
Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (NLT)
Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
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