Could THIS Help You Discover Your Spiritual Gift?

Did you know that the Holy Spirit has given you a spiritual gift? The Bible says…

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. (1 Corinthians 12:7, NLT)

The Bible is clear: every believer has something to contribute to the body of Christ. However, many believers are confused or unaware of what their spiritual gifts are. If you are praying about or wondering about what spiritual gift God has given to you, I invite you to take the Spiritual Gifts test available at www.spiritualgifttest.com

It’s absolutely free and will only take a few minutes. While only the Holy Spirit can ultimately confirm your gift to you, you can use our test as a helpful resource. In fact, you can choose from three of the Biblically-based tests we offer.

The Spiritual Gifts test will assess your “power gift” - as written about in 1 Corinthians 12.

The Leadership Gifts test will assess your “leadership gift” - as written about in Ephesians 4.

The Service Gifts test will assess your “service gift” - as written about in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.

Again, it’s absolutely free. You can get started now by going to www.spiritualgifttest.com

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.

What is Speaking in Tongues?

What is speaking in tongues? What is actually happening when you’re exercising this powerful gift? Why does it strengthen your spirit so effectively?

As a believer, you have a deep connection with God.

10But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:10-12, NLT)

On a 24/7 basis, whether you’re aware of it or not, your spirit is fellowshipping with God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Who knows God perfectly, communicates with your spirit.

Now consider these three realities:

#1 The Holy Spirit prays for you

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. (Romans 8:26, NLT)

That verse is not directly referencing the gift of speaking in tongues, but it is connected.

#2 Your Spirit is one with the Holy Spirit

But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:17, NLT)

Your spirit is one with the Holy Spirit. So whatever He prays, your spirit prays.

#3 When you pray in tongues, your spirit is praying.

For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying. (1 Corinthians 14:14, NLT)

So if my spirit prays what the Holy Spirit prays, and if my spirit prays when I speak in tongues, then that means that when I pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying for me, through me. The surrendered syllables and sounds that are released when I pray in tongues carry upon them the Holy Spirit’s very own intentions and meanings.

When you pray in tongues, you declare aloud in the natural realm that which the Holy Spirit groans in the spiritual realm. When you pray in tongues, you pray perfect prayers, crafted by the Holy Spirit. You pray with His power, according to His will, surrendered to His leading.

The Holy Spirit wants to pray aloud for you, and when you pray in tongues, you give Him that voice.

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.

Can Every Believer Pray in Tongues?

Can every believer pray in tongues? What does the Bible actually teach on this topic? To answer this question, let’s first look at the portion of Scripture that seems to indicate that not all believers can pray in tongues.

29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? 30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? (1 Corinthians 12:29-30, KJV)

At first glance, that verse seems to indicate that the gift of speaking in tongues is not for every Christian. Paul’s line of rhetorical questioning communicates a clear message, right? Well, as with all Scripture, context and study are key. 

Consider these points:

Firstly, Paul lists several other gifts in that key selection of Scripture. Are all teachers? No. But the Bible teaches us in 1 Peter 3:15 that all believers should be ready to teach about their faith. So there’s a clear difference between having the gift of teaching and just being able to teach. Are all workers of miracles? No. But there’s a difference between the gift of miracles and experiencing miracles in one’s own life. Do all have the gift of healing? No. But the Bible teaches us in Mark 16:18 that all believers will be able to lay hands on the sick and see them recover. So there’s a difference between the gift of healing and a believer being able to lay hands on the sick and believe for a healing. The same reasoning would apply to the gift of the evangelist. Not every believer is an Ephesians 4:11 evangelist, but every believer should evangelize. 

So is the Bible contradicting itself? By no means. It’s clear that there’s a difference between a gift, which is a public and focused area of Spirit-enabled grace, and an everyday act of faith. Likewise, there’s a difference between the personal prayer language of the believer and the gift of tongues used in public Church settings (Along with the gift of tongues interpretation.) 

If the verses in 1 Corinthians 12 actually taught that the gift of tongues is not for every believer, then the same verses would also have to mean that not every believer can believe God for miracles, believe God for healing, or, if we applied the same logic to Ephesians 4:11, that not every believer can evangelize. 

The second point to consider about 1 Corinthians 12:29 & 30 is simpler. Note that it asks, “Do all speak with tongues?”, not “Can all speak with tongues?”

So can all believers pray in tongues? Here’s what Paul says:

I wish you could all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you could all prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:5, NLT)

Why would Paul the Apostle wish for something that was contrary to God’s will? And, if that wasn’t the will of God, why would the Holy Spirit allow that wish to be permanently recorded in the inerrant Word of God?

In Acts 2:4, the Holy Spirit didn’t discriminate. All spoke in tongues.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4, KJV)

And Peter clearly taught that all believers could do the same.

This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” (Acts 2:39, NLT)

What promise? What is for all who have been called?

And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today. (Acts 2:33, NLT)

That promise, for all who have been called, was both seen and heard. What was seen and heard? They saw them receive the Holy Spirit. They heard them speaking in tongues.

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.

Are the Spiritual Gifts No More? The BIBLICAL Answer

Have the spiritual gifts ceased to be? Are they no longer in operation in the church today? This is a fiercely debated issue, and I’m not going to be able to address every point of contention in just one article. My goal, rather, is to just get you thinking in the right direction, the Biblical direction. 

We must recognize, first and foremost, that our foundation is the Word of God - no debates there. So, does the Word of God teach that the gifts have ceased to be? Not by any stretch of the imagination. 

The belief that the spiritual gifts have ceased is called “cessationism.” Those who believe that the gifts have ceased are called “cessationists.” Of course, that’s an oversimplification of the terms, as there are varying beliefs even within cessationism. But, for the sake of conversation, we’ll stick with the simpler definitions I just gave you. 

So upon what exactly does the cessationist base their faulty interpretation of reality?

There are a few things. 

#1 Speculation

#2 Arguments from History

#3 Poor Biblical Interpretation

#1 Speculation

First, you’ll notice that cessationists use a lot of speculation - something they’d discourage in any other context. Here’s an example of speculation: Paul the apostle instructed Timothy to use wine as medicine. “Why”, the cessationist will ask, “didn’t Paul just heal him?”

Then they’ll conclude that because Paul didn’t heal Timothy or because Timothy didn’t just heal himself, that the spiritual gifts had already stopped operating. This is faulty logic for a couple reasons. 

Firstly, there are many examples in Scripture where godly men died, suffered, or remained sick. This by no means leads to the conclusion that therefore God just picked some subjective spot on the timeline of history to end His demonstrations of power. This just means that God’s sovereignty still applies even in the context of the miraculous. His sovereignty and His miracles have never been at odds with one another. So, there are instances, both in the OT and NT when God didn’t demonstrate his power as people thought He should. Simply put, God exercising His sovereignty to withhold a miracle never means that miracles are no more.

Secondly, the other problem with speculation is that it’s just that - speculation. There’s nothing in all of Scripture that even comes close to indicating that God’s power has stopped working. Now here’s where things get interesting. Once you show through Scripture that God’s power still works today, the cessationist will dodge the point. 

They might interject, “Oh, we believe that God still demonstrates His power. We believe He still does miracles. He just doesn’t do miracles through the spiritual gifts anymore.” And what a telling dodge that is on the part of the cessationist. They have to play semantics, word games to hold their position. 

But the position of those who believe the spiritual gifts are still in operation is quite simple: just as God moved sovereignly and miraculously through men and women in the past, so He still moves today. As believers who embrace the spiritual gifts, we don’t actually believe that we carry power of our own or that we wield a gift independently of God’s will - nor does the Scripture teach that. Again, God’s sovereignty applies even when spiritual gifts are involved.

Sadly, the cessationist rejects God’s sovereignty because they box him in to their worldview. They rely on their own personal experiences - or lack thereof - rather than the Word. That’s ironic being as how the spirit-filled believer is the one often accused of relying upon or focusing too heavily upon “experience.”

#2 Arguments from History

But if it’s not speculation the cessationist is using, it’s going to be an argument from history. For example, the cessationist may say that the early church fathers didn’t pray in tongues or that there were some early believers who believed the gifts had ceased. 

In the first place, there are thousands of actions all of us perform every week for which there will never be a historical record. How can we know what the early church didn’t practice? We’d need a complete record of every early church member’s life to know that. The cessationist is in a tough position, in that he has to prove that the early church - all members and leaders -stopped practicing the spiritual gifts.

Still, the cessationist might be able to point to some early church father who believed the gifts ceased. But all that does is demonstrate that there were even cessationists back then. There were debates and differences of opinions even then. We honor the early church, but we shouldn’t idolize it. The Bible, not historical Christian figures, is the final authority. The question is not, “What did the early Church believe?” The question remains, “What does the Bible teach?”

So then after you rightfully dismiss the cessationist’s philosophical or historical arguments, the question arises: does the cessationist have any good Biblical reason for his position?

#3 Poor Biblical Interpretation

The best a cessationist can offer is a poor interpretation of this verse:

8Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10, NLT)

So the gifts will cease to be in operation at the time of perfection. So when does that take place? The Bible clearly tells us in the next two verses:

11When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12, NLT)

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone on earth (besides the Holy Spirit) who knows everything “completely.” The Scripture, in this context, is most certainly talking about eternity. Until then, the gifts are still available to the Church. 

Now, I can already see the comments. Of course, there are angles that I couldn’t address in this short article, but I assure you that whatever the angle, whatever the argument, cessationsm has been Biblically, thoroughly debunked. And I want you to pay close attention to the comments that cessationists might leave on this post. Notice that all of the dissenting comments will fall under the categories of personal attack, speculation, historical arguments, or forced interpretation of Scripture. Many will reference their bad experiences with the spiritual gifts. Many will misunderstand several of the points made in this article.

Some will say I misrepresented cessationism. I didn’t. Some will say I twist the Scriptures. I don’t. Some will say that there’s plenty in Scripture to show cessationism to be true. There isn’t. No amount of scriptural gymnastics can produce such a counter-biblical view. So the next time someone tries to tell you the gifts have ceased, ask them for the specific chapter and verse. Don’t be intimidated by those who love to debate. Stand on the Word. There’s no debating with the Word of God.

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.

The 3 Expressions of the Gift of Tongues

There are three expressions to the gift of speaking in tongues. Here’s how I’ve termed them:

1: The Personal Tongue

2: The Proof Tongue

3: The Prophetic Tongue

Though you won’t see those exact terms in the Bible, when you study the Scripture, you’ll clearly see that there are, in fact, three expressions to the gift of speaking in tongues.

The Personal Tongue 

Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy. For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them. A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church (1 Corinthians 14:1-4).

The personal tongue does not benefit others, but that doesn’t mean it holds no value. The Bible says, “A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally.” The personal tongue is for self-edification, and it’s a heavenly language. Those who use it aren’t speaking an earthly dialect; they are speaking mysteries—only God can understand them.

This personal expression of the gift of tongues strengthens you personally.

The Proof Tongue 

The second expression of the gift of tongues is the proof tongue. Now this is the expression of tongues that is heard as an earthly language. We see this demonstrated in Acts 2: 

And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers (Acts 2:4-6). 

Many heard their own languages being spoken by the believers. It was a true miracle. The Holy Spirit supernaturally empowered the believers to be heard speaking in earthly languages they did not know. The gift was a sign to the unbelievers; thus, I call it the proof tongue. 

The Prophetic Tongue 

The prophetic tongue is the expression of the gift that is used in the context of a church assembly. This gift, when used, commands the attention of the assembly of believers. Because this expression of the gift can disrupt the flow of a church service if misused, Paul put some regulations on it: 

Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you. No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately (1 Corinthians 14:26-28). 

The prophetic tongue is meant to be spoken aloud in a gathering of believers. The tongue is then to be supernaturally interpreted so that the believers present can be helped by the prophetic message. 

Now, allow me to embolden the lines of distinction between the three expressions of this gift:

The personal tongue benefits the individual (1 Corinthians 14:4).

The prophetic tongue benefits the Church (1 Corinthians 12:7; 14:26).

The proof tongue benefits the unbeliever (1 Corinthians 14:22).

The personal tongue requires no interpreter or interpretation to be beneficial to the individual (1 Corinthians 14:4).

The prophetic tongue requires an interpreter to benefit the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26).

The proof tongue requires no interpreter for the interpretation to be understood by the unbeliever (Acts 2:8).

The personal tongue is understood by no one but God (1 Corinthians 14:2).

The prophetic tongue is understood by the Church with the aid of an interpreter (1 Corinthians 14:27).

The proof tongue is supernaturally understood by the unbeliever (Acts 2:8).

One gift, three expressions. Each expression serves a different purpose.

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.