GIFTS FROM THE GODHEAD
Part 1
As a husband and father of five, there is no greater joy that I receive than watching my family open up their gifts on Christmas morning. Seeing their eyes light up with joy because they have received exactly what they have been hoping, wishing, and even praying for brings such a smile to my face and joy to my heart. I receive the utmost satisfaction in knowing that I have been the channel of blessing many times over that has provided the gifts that my family is now enjoying. It is truly more blessed to give than to receive.
As I reflect on those giving moments during this past Christmas season, I can’t help but to think of the parallels between my position as the giver of those earthly gifts and the position of my heavenly Father as the Giver of all good things. The Word of God states that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17). God is the consummate giver; and not just God the Father, but the Godhead in its entirety has made our lives better because of the gifts that they have given to us their children.
You might be saying to yourself, “What gifts are you talking about?” Well, I’m glad that you’ve asked. What I endeavor to accomplish by this writing is to help to bring you into fuller understanding about the various gifts given to us by the Godhead (When I say the Godhead I am making reference to God the Father, God the Son which is Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit), the function or purpose that those gifts serve, and how they operate and work today.
I will also give you practical examples of the giftings that operate in my own life and ministry with the hope that by giving those practical examples you will better understand the gift mix in your own life. My focus in this writing will primarily be on elaborating on the Gifts given by the Holy Spirit (a.k.a. The Gifts of the Spirit), so that you would not be ignorant concerning these gifts and their operations today as the Apostle Paul so desired (1 Corinthians 12:1). After further explanation of those gifts, I hope that you may better understand how the Holy Spirit works with you in your own life. Now, let’s begin.
After having had the opportunity to serve in a variety of capacities in the Church over the years, there has always been a resounding theme that I constantly seem to hear from the people of God. That theme is Christians not knowing their calling or gifting and how to go about fulfilling God’s purpose for their life. Well, first things ought to be first. You will never know the purpose of a thing unless you approach the One who manufactured that thing from start to finish. But in getting down to the nitty gritty, people essentially would like to know that the God that they serve has fully equipped them to do all the He has called them to do.
I have great news! He has done that and more! The key to unlocking the perpetual overflow of the working of the gifts that He’s given to you in your life, is to possess a working knowledge of the gifts that have been given. Your faith, which activates the operations of these gifts, has to firmly rest upon knowledge revealed to you by the Holy Spirit from His Word. It is then and only then, that you will have the confidence to function and flourish in every area whereunto you have been called.
With that being said I would like for us to take a look at these gifts that have been outlined in the Word of God that have been given to us “…for the profit of all.” (1 Corinthians 12: 7b). Every gift that you will find listed below were not just for “Bible times”, but are ALL still active and operative today where they are welcome, received, and embraced; particularly the Gifts given by the Holy Spirit. They all work together to serve a God-ordained purpose for His people and His church and can be found anywhere where God’s people dwell. I have categorized them to display the giver or distributor of each gift. The gifts listed below are as follows:
1. GIFTS FROM THE FATHER (Romans 12:3-8)
a. Prophecy
b. Ministry
c. Teaching
d. Exhortation
e. Giving
f. Leadership
g. Mercy
2. GIFTS FROM THE SON (Ephesians 4:11)
a. Apostles
b. Prophets
c. Evangelists
d. Pastors
e. Teachers
3. GIFTS FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)
a. Word of Wisdom
b. Word of Knowledge
c. Discerning of Spirits
d. The Gift of Faith
e. Gifts of Healing
f. Working of Miracles
g. Prophecy
h. Different Kinds of Tongues
i. Interpretation of Tongues
THE NUMBER THREE IN SCRIPTURE
I find it not to be coincidental that all three members or persons of the Godhead has distributed their own unique giftings unto men. Why is that important? Because biblically speaking, the number three has very significant meaning.
There are multitudes of numbers in the Bible all having their own meanings. For example, eight (8) typically represents a new beginning or a new start, while the number seven (7) usually denotes the completion of something. Although many times overlooked, the number three has its own unique meaning that I would like to briefly examine which you will find will aid us in our study of the Gifts of the Spirit later on.
The number three (3), biblically speaking, represents Divine Perfection. If you take the time to examine God’s pattern from Genesis to Revelation, I am certain that you will find this pattern woven all throughout scripture.
To prevent you from spending countless hours trying to either confirm or rebut my commentary, I have taken the liberty and have gathered some examples to further bring illumination to the points that I am trying to make. The examples that you will find listed below are all patterns of THREES (3) in the Bible, which again denote DIVINE PERFECTION. Please take a moment to look them over before we continue on with our discussion concerning the Gifts of the Spirit.
EXAMPLES/PATTERNS OF THREES=DIVINE PERFECTION
(Most are Biblical Examples while others are natural examples)
I. EXAMPLES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
• The first family on earth had three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth (Gen. 4:25-26)
• The three Patriarchs of the OT are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
• There were three rooms in the OT for worship purposes:
o The Outer Court
o The Inner Court
o The Holy of Holies
• The Ark of the Covenant contained three items:
o The Ten Commandments
o Aaron’s Rod (that budded)
o The Golden Pot of Manna
• There are three archangels mentioned by name in the Scriptures:
o Lucifer
o Michael
o Gabriel
• There are three lights that light the earth day and night:
o The Sun
o Moon
o Stars
• All sin (doesn’t matter what sin it is) falls into one of three categories:
o Lust of the Flesh
o Lust of the Eyes
o The Pride of Life
• God’s Financial Plan for His people also consists of three parts (not two like many have been taught over the years. This will be discussed in a later blog):
o Firstfruit (Distinctly different from the Tithe)
o The Tithe
o Freewill Offerings
II. EXAMPLES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
• God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit represents the Godhead or Holy Trinity Heaven’s Witnesses-1 John 5:7)
• The Spirit, Water, and Blood are referred to as Earth’s Witnesses-(1 John 5:8)
• Man’s bodily makeup is made up of three components: (1 Thess. 5:23)
o Spirit
o Soul
o Body
• There are three heavens (2 Corinthians 12:2); the sky, the galactic heavens and the the third heaven; This third heaven is where God Himself resides.
• There are three earths discussed in Scripture:
o The Original Earth (Genesis 1:1)
o The Present Earth (Genesis 1:3-2:7)
o New Earth (Revelation 21:1)
III. EXAMPLES OF THREES IN JESUS' MINISTRY
• Jesus was crucified the 3rd hour of the day (Mark 15:25); three hours later (the sixth hour) darkness descended across the entire earth; three more hours later (the ninth hour) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God why have you forsaken me?”
• There were a total of three people crucified at Christ’s crucifixion: Jesus and the two thieves (Luke 23:32)
• The sign that was placed above Jesus head which read “King of the Jews” was written in three languages: (Luke 23:38)
o Greek
o Latin
o Hebrew
• Jesus rose from the grave on the third day (Luke 24:7)
• Jesus was accessible to everybody but the most time was spent with his inner circle which consisted of two groups of three:
o First Group: Peter, James, and John
o Second Group: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
• Jesus’ ministry lasted approximately for three years
IV. NATURAL EVERYDAY EXAMPLES
• Children are reproduced by a process called a trimester which is made up of Three-3 month cycles.
• God has three attributes that He never passed on to man. They are:
o Omniscience
o Omnipotence
o Omnipresence
• Time is three-dimensional: Past, Present, and Future
I am sure that there are many, many other fine examples that you may know of that have not been listed here. But for the sake of time and space constraints, we obviously could not list each and every example here. I would hope though that after the many examples that I’ve listed, you would be able to clearly see now that God, in His infinite wisdom has clearly chosen the number three to signify His perfect will or to be a model of Divine Perfection.
As I mentioned previously, there are nine Gifts of the Spirit in all. I would like to show you how to better classify these gifts for ease of comprehension and use. After further explanation, I believe that you will find many ways that these classified gifts are interrelated to one another in terms of administrations and operations.
Let’s momentarily take a look at what the Apostle Paul had to say concerning these gifts in 1 Corinthians 12.
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:..."
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 OF:
GIFTS FROM THE GODHEAD
