Spiritual gifts are not natural talents or skills or aptitudes. They have nothing to do with our personalities, vocational choices, training or native intelligence. Just as God causes the rain to fall on everyone, regardless of their lifestyle (Matthew 5:45), so He indiscriminately fashions every person with qualities and talents suitable for offspring of the Most High. The fact that we have talents and jobs and skills, etc. is not in question; believers and unbelievers alike have such qualities as part of their God-fashioned being. One person has an eye for detail, and is able to remember what a friend was wearing when the two of them went to dinner three years ago; another individual is incredibly good at translating the most difficult concepts into easily understandable terms. These are wonderful attributes, but they are not spiritual giftings in the sense described in the Bible. Just as no one can truly say, “Jesus is Lord” except through the agency of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3-4, 8), neither can a person have or exercise spiritual gifts apart from the Holy Spirit. No one has SPIRITUAL GIFTS before being born again.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 13:51:52 +0000
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