God the Holy Spirit, Mentor's Guide, MG14

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G O D T H E H O L Y S P I R I T

1. The key passages for studying spiritual gifts: each of these chapters include examples of some of the spiritual gifts and instructions for how they should be used in God’s Church.

a. Rom. 12

b. 1 Cor. 12

c. Eph. 4

d. 1 Pet. 4

2. Inexhaustible gifts: there are an unlimited number of ways in which God’s grace can work through us and in which God’s Spirit can be revealed in us.

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Many people have tried to make out a list of the spiritual gifts discussed in the New Testament. This has often caused disagreement because each of the lists in the four major chapters on gifts is different and sometimes the same gift appears to be called by a different name. So if a person asks how many spiritual gifts there are, I would tell them that they are not asking the right question. Since anything the Spirit does to make his power and presence visible in the lives of believers is a spiritual gift (manifestation), there are potentially an unlimited number of ways in which the Holy Spirit can gift people for ministry. However, it does seem clear that the Bible expects that, at the very least, the specific gifts that are mentioned in Scripture will be present in the Church (although not, perhaps, each gift in each congregation) and that these gifts will serve as a foundation for understanding how God empowers his Church to do his work.

It is not possible to name the number of the gifts which the church throughout the whole world has received from God, ~ Irenaeus quoted in A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs . David W. Bercot, ed. Peabody, MA: Henrickson, 1998. p. 299. in the name of Jesus Christ . . .