On the topic of spiritual gifts you will find a wide variety of views. Some have merit and some don't. How many are there? How many are still in effect? Can we even know how many there are? How many can you have? What do they mean? Lots of various ideas. But what is not in question is that there are spiritual gifts. The New Testament talks about them in a variety of places (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Eph 4:11-12; 1 Peter 4:10-11). There are a variety of lists, but all agree that these gifts are gifts of the Holy Spirit. And they have a purpose.
Scripture is quite clear that no believer in Christ -- no truly born-again person -- is without a gift. That is, a minimum of one (1 Cor 12:11; 1 Peter 4:10). What you or I get is up to the Spirit (1 Cor 12:11), but all certainly receive at least one gift. All gifts are not "self-powered" -- they are Spirit-powered. "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit," Paul writes (1 Cor 12:11). Peter divides the gifts into two categories -- speaking and serving (1 Peter 4:11). He also says that both categories are from God and for the glory of God.
It's interesting how we neglect these gifts these days. On one end of the spectrum there are those who revel in the gifts, especially the miraculous kinds, thinking themselves a bit more spiritual than the rest. They take great delight in prophecy and tongues and such, but so many seem to think of them as their own. "What does God want me to do with it?" seems to be a rare consideration. On the other end you have the cessationists who say that all those miraculous gifts are outdated -- replaced by God's Word -- but they don't seem to be too concerned about the remaining ones. As a whole, as a rabble, we modern Christians just aren't really much into that kind of stuff. I can't tell you how many have told me, "I know my gift; it's the gift of gab." Like that's a spiritual gift designed for God's glory and to serve God's people.
God is explicit; we all have at least one, specific, Holy-Spirit-powered gift given to each of us for the building up of the Body of Christ and glorifying God. And we seem to shrug and say, "Well, I don't really know what mine is, so I just won't worry about it." So many Christians these days (thanks, in part, to COVID) are "remote" -- they're no longer closely tied to the Body of Christ. And they're fine with that. They don't exercise the gift they've been given and they don't seek to serve God or His people in it. They don't trust the "spiritual gift tests" (and I don't blame them), so they don't really seem motivated to find what God has given them and use it.
You've been there, haven't you? You know ... someone gives you a fine gift -- Christmas, birthday, something -- and, well, it's just not up your alley, so to speak. You aren't particularly interested, but you don't want to hurt their feelings. So you thank them warmly and keep it and maybe, years later, find it again. "Hmm, I wonder where that came from?" That's us. Except the gift we've been given isn't for our personal pleasure and the Person we're offending is God. "This ol' thing? What good is it? I don't even know what it is." It is given and empowered by the Spirit and it is aimed at serving God's people and, ultimately, glorifying God, and the best we can do is hide it in a closet. Unfortunately, He has access to our closets. And He knows.
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