“The power to work miracles” – We see this supernatural gift of the Spirit operating, for example, when Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11) and multiplies the bread in John 6.

“The gift of prophecy” – 1 Cor. 14 in its entirety deals with the importance of this gift. The verses of particular interest are 1, 3, and 29 to 33. This is the one gift of the Spirit we “can desire” from God. We can therefore ask God to use us more and more in this gift in people’s lives. The other important passages of Scripture in this regard are 1 Thess. 5:19 to 21 and 1 John 4:1 and 2.

“The gift of discerning between spirits” – This is about the supernatural ability that God gives to be able to distinguish who is at work in a particular situation. Is it God or is it demonic? Eph. 6:12 is therefore important here.

“The gift of tongues” – Here it is about what we usually refer to as a “heavenly language,” which is usually unintelligible sounds that God’s Spirit supernaturally gives us to speak or pray with. Cf. 1 Cor. 14:2,4,15 and 18 and Rom. 8:26 in this context.

Sometimes God’s Spirit also supernaturally gives believers other existing “languages” that they can then speak even though they never learned them anywhere themselves. We read about this, for example, in Acts 2 for example.

But among these supernatural “tongues” also falls the gift that God’s Spirit supernaturally gives when He gives a word in an unintelligible language through a believer or two, in the gathering of believers. But then He will also give the next gift, the “gift of interpreting it”. Cf. 1 Cor. 14:26,27.28 and 39.

“The gift of interpretation” – 1 Cor. 14:13 and 28 is important here. Verse 25 then shows what God’s intention is with it in the gathering of believers.

I hope I have helped you to have more clarity about this.

Let us turn to 1 Cor 12:7-10.

Let me try to briefly explain the different gifts that Paul mentions here in these verses against the background of the entire context of 1 Cor. 12 to chapter 14.

Without the cocoon of the loving community between believers in the congregation (or “ekklesia” as it stands in Greek), the gifts of the Spirit cannot truly come to their full potential as God intended. (Please read 1 Cor. 13 in this context.)

The first few verses of 1 Corinthians 12 further explain that we are dealing with “gifts” or gifts that God the Son, through the operation of the Spirit of God, gives to His people.

This is important to understand because a gift is not something you can boast about as if it were your achievement.

I always use the image of a fruit tree planted and rooted in the right soil to represent a Christian’s life in Christ. If we are rooted in Christ and His Spirit in us is in control of our life, we will see the “fruit of the Spirit” in our life, of which Gal. 5:16 to 26 speaks.

The “gifts of the Spirit” are like different kinds of lights that God the Son, as Baptizer with the Spirit, Himself hangs in our lives when He wants to do so.

It is not meant to be a permanent part of our lives. He wants and can, when He wants, let that gift or gifts flow to serve someone with it as and how He wants.

Therefore, I further compare the flow of the gifts to you and me being like a garden hose that must remain connected to the faucet, namely Christ Jesus.

As long as we are connected to the faucet, He can turn on the faucet whenever He wants, and He can let whatever He wants flow through us to others.

We just need to be sensitive to His voice to be where He wants us to be (as the tip of the garden hose), to experience how God ministers to others with the “streams of living water” that Jesus spoke of in John 7:38 and 39.

Let’s look at the different “lights” or “gifts of the Spirit” mentioned here:

“A word of wisdom” – This is not the same wisdom that James 1:5 refers to. This is “a word of wisdom” that comes supernaturally from God in a specific situation or to a specific person or persons. We see this gift operating in, for example, 1 Kings 3:10 to 12, in the life of Solomon, and Matt. 22:15 to 22, in the life of Jesus. The “wisdom” spoken of here is insight into God’s will. It is about a perspective on events and matters that you get directly from heaven so that you, and the hearer or hearers, are, as it were, lifted out of the insight-obstructing circumstances in which you find yourself, which make you stare at them all the time, to then be able to see how things fit into God's plans and activities.

“A word of knowledge” – This is about supernatural, detailed knowledge that God's Spirit serves to people. This detailed knowledge usually comes to the one whom God wants to use in this way, and that person must then serve exactly in this way, to whom the Lord says it is intended. We see this gift operating in the life of Jesus, for example, in John 4:15 to 19.

The gift of extraordinary “faith” – This is not about ordinary faith that is required of each of us as believers. It is about God's Spirit giving believers “supernatural faith” in certain situations to trust God to intervene miraculously and perform a miracle or a healing miracle.

“The gifts of healing” – Note that the gifts of healing are referred to in the plural here, because there is more than one gift of healing. God heals people in their spirit, which we speak of as “born again”. But also in their soul area, when He ministers to people emotionally, or supernaturally changes and heals their thoughts or will choices. But then there is also physical healing that God can do through His Spirit supernaturally, instantly or over time.

Next time, we will discuss the other gifts mentioned in this section.

Let’s talk a little about the gifts of the Spirit with which God equips His people during the baptism with the Spirit.

Turn to a passage like Romans 12:6-8 to hear what the Lord Himself reveals about this.

Remember that we are dealing here with supernatural gifts that God Himself gives to His people as and when He wills.

The gifts mentioned in this passage are:

“Prophecy – by the faith you have” – As you learn to trust and obey God if and when God wants to use you, you will learn to trust God to give you not only a word of prophecy for one person, but also in other cases for many more people (we will refer to this further when we talk about 1 Cor. 14 specifically).

“Service” – Here we are dealing with a supernatural desire and ability to be of service to people, to wash feet or to make a difference behind the scenes. (So, ​​it is not just a personal trait or part of your normal personality.)

The gift of “teaching” – Is a supernatural gift to teach people the truth in Scripture and explain it so that it begins to make sense to them.

The gift of “encouragement” – Here we are dealing with a supernatural ability to “encourage” others. When you are done, people experience that God Himself spoke to them in the situation.

The gift of “giving” – Here we are not dealing with the “giving” in the lives of others that all of us do according to Scripture, out of love. No, this is about a supernatural gift that God gives to certain individuals to truly be “Kingdom stewards”, God’s bank and asset managers in this world. This is about people who give in an extraordinary way and can create new channels so that the Kingdom of God can come faster and more effectively.

The gift of “leading” – This is about supernatural leadership, with the accompanying dedication and zeal, that God gives to people in specific situations. (Again, this is not so much something that is simply part of your natural personality.)

The gift of “helping” – Remember again that this is a supernatural gift that God’s Spirit gives as and when He wants, to be able to help others where it can make a supernatural difference. This is about a supernatural ability to assist others compassionately.

Let me just quickly summarize again for clarity:

So, when we talk about “gifts of the Spirit”, as here in Romans 12, it is about supernatural gifts that God’s Spirit gives to believers when and where He wants.

When Paul talks about “serving”, “teaching”, “encouraging”, “leading”, and “giving”, it is not about natural aptitude. Nor is it about the kind of “serving,” “encouraging,” and “giving” that is called for in Scripture from all of us who are Christians as part of our normal Christian life. When we speak of “gifts of the Spirit,” the Bible means supernatural abilities that God gives through the working of His Spirit as gifts (when and where He wills), which have nothing to do with our natural abilities or personalities.

As I have testified and confessed so many times, even with all my Doctoral oral exams in New Testament Greek behind my name, in 1992, as a Dutch Reformed minister after a ministry of about 12-13 years, I never really discovered Jesus's title of “Baptizer with the Spirit” and certainly did not understand it!

Yes, even though I accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour on October 10, 1969, it was only in January to March 1992, in my three-month study of all the verses in the Bible that directly referred to the Person and the working of the Holy Spirit, that I really “discovered” this title of Jesus for the first time and began to understand it.

This is found in so many places in the New Testament.

Let me quote one or two here.

John the Baptist had already spoken about this in Matthew 3:11: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is greater than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Which is also repeated in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and John 1:33.)

Then we hear how Jesus taught His disciples the following after His resurrection from the dead:

“He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses to these things. And I will send you the gift my Father promised. But stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”

We also read about this there in Acts 1.

“While he was at the table with them, he commanded them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift that the Father has promised, which you have heard from me.’

John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”

I hope you hear that Jesus will “baptize his people with the Holy Spirit”!

Let me now take you to the events of that day when these promises were first fulfilled, where Jesus, as the Baptizer with the Spirit, himself “baptized” and “filled” his people who believed in him with God the Spirit.

You must notice this important distinction: God the Holy Spirit, who has already lived in every believer since their rebirth, will now “come upon” them to supernaturally equip them with power and the gifts to be His witnesses. Because remember, it is every believer's calling to testify about an invisible God and to be used by this God to do "the same and even greater things that Jesus himself did!"

Therefore, the people of God in whom the Spirit of God already lives must also be "baptized" with this Spirit to be equipped with His power and His gifts!

This happened for the first time on that day of Pentecost, on May 30, after Christ, which we read about in Acts 2.

Here, God baptizes His people with the Spirit. And after this, we see it happen again, for example in Acts 4:31, but also in Acts 10:44 ff.

Although God does this here and there himself, as in Acts 2, most of the time it happens when new converts are baptized in water and then hands are laid on them by other believers and we hear them praying that Jesus as the Baptizer with the Spirit himself will “baptize” them with His Spirit and so supernaturally equip them with the gifts and power of the Spirit!

Go and read it yourself in passages like Acts 8:4-25; Acts 9:15-22; Acts 19:1-10.

Then thank Jesus again for the miracle of God the Spirit living and working in you. However, I also trust the Lord that you can testify how and when God the Spirit also “came upon” you and supernaturally equipped you for your calling and task!