‘Do people in this church have the gifts of the Spirit?’ That was the question that a visitor to the church asked me recently. I knew straightaway what she meant. The New Testament writers talk in a number of passages about gifts given by the Holy Spirit. Here’s one of them:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
In those verses Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit giving special abilities to different believers. He lists nine such gifts, some of them clearly miraculous, including the ability to heal, to work miracles, to prophesy, to speak in tongues (languages that the speaker had never learned), or to interpret those tongues.
