1 Corinthians 12:1

You know that you were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led... Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit... For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings... For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. — 1 Corinthians 12

Five gifts of the Spirit—mercy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, and healings—and what they reveal about the God who gives them.

One Body, Many Members

The more I study this text before us, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 dealing with spiritual gifts, the more I am convinced that God has positioned us as a fellowship for such a time as this. God desires to do a work in and through the body of Christ here, and He has given the leadership a vision far greater than anything we can fulfill without His Spirit empowering the body to do it.

If you read through 1 and 2 Corinthians, there are very few places where Paul addresses Christians individually. He speaks to the body corporately. We are to function as one body together, and within the body there are many members, each gifted by God. Every Christian, I believe, is gifted by God to do the work of the ministry.

What a Spiritual Gift Is—and Is Not

A spiritual gift is a God-given empowering for service, given to every believer by the Holy Spirit as He wills, for the glorification of God and the edification of the body of Christ. Verse 7 says the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man for the profit of all—an ability the Spirit gives that allows us to express our faith and build up the faith of another.

These gifts are not the same as natural talents, and they are not a sign of spirituality. The church at Corinth stumbled here, thinking that if you had a certain gift you were really spiritual, and if you didn't, you weren't. Spiritual giftedness is not a measuring rod. A gift is not an end in itself; some people seek a gift and feel they've arrived once they have it. As I've said each time, it is not a toy to be played with, a trifle to be passed over, or a trophy to be paraded around. It is a tool to be used for the glory of God and the edifying of His body. It should not be envied, but it should be desired and pursued.

There are four lists of gifts in the New Testament—1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4—amounting to about twenty gifts. But this is a selective, not exhaustive, list. Previously we considered prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, and leadership. Today we continue with mercy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, and healings.

The Gift of Mercy

Romans 12:8 says, "he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness." There are those gifted within the body to show mercy. But step back and recognize: just because you feel you don't have the gift of mercy does not mean you're excused from giving it. People say, "I don't have the gift of evangelism, so I'm not supposed to evangelize"—not true; Scripture says do the work of an evangelist. People say, "I don't have the gift of giving, so I don't give"—not true. We are all called to be merciful.

Micah 6:8 says He has shown you what is good and what the Lord requires: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. But our carnal nature switches it around. We want to love justice—justice for others, and mercy for ourselves. I can prove it by how we drive the 15 freeway. When someone doing 85 cuts you off, you cry, "Where's the CHP? That guy needs justice!" That's why millions tuned into the O.J. Simpson trial, and why people danced outside the White House when news came that Osama bin Laden had been killed. We love justice—until we're the one doing 85 and we spot what looks like a motorcycle cop. Then suddenly: "Please God, I repent, I need mercy."

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." We're called to be merciful because God is merciful. Yet Scripture also reveals those gifted with an extra capacity—people who deeply empathize and engage with compassion those going through suffering, trauma, and grief. They're drawn like a magnet to the hurting person I might walk right past. But all believers are called to mercy. Some think, "I have the gift of judgment." No, you don't—God does. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." Christian, be merciful.

The Word of Wisdom

First Corinthians 12:8 says, "to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom." It is the ability to apply the principles of Scripture, God's heart and God's Word, in the right way at the right time for the right person in the right place. Proverbs calls it a word fitly spoken, like apples of gold in settings of silver.

There's a great example in Acts 23. Paul stands before the Sanhedrin—Pharisees and Sadducees together, the same ruling court that condemned Jesus and tried Peter and John. Paul knew them well; his teacher Gamaliel was a member. God gives Paul a word of wisdom: "Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called into question." The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, so suddenly the council that was united against Paul is fighting each other—and Paul simply steps back. Right word, right time, right place.

Sometimes the word of wisdom manifests itself in shutting up—my brother-in-law knows this well. As the Proverbs say, even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace.

The Word of Knowledge

Very closely related is the word of knowledge—speaking forth something that could not be known except from God. Peter revealed this in Matthew 16 when Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" and Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon... flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven." That was a word of knowledge.

Jesus Himself, the fullness of all the gifts, exercised it in John 4 with the woman at the well. "Go get your husband." "I have no husband." "You have rightly said you have no husband; you've had five, and the one you're with now is not your husband." She said, "I perceive you are a prophet." That is the word of knowledge—knowing exactly what is happening in a situation by revelation from God.

The Gift of Faith

Scripture says God has given to every man a measure of faith—the ability to believe and place trust in Him. Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, so that faith can be encouraged to grow. Faith is like a muscle: it grows when exercised. We don't like exercise; it's hard, it hurts, and it takes willpower we don't always sustain when we're stretched further than before. So when someone says, "We really could use your help in the children's ministry," or "We'd love for you to go on this mission trip," it stretches our faith—but as we step out, our faith grows and strengthens. This gets harder as the Christian life goes on, because the steps of faith get larger.

But there are those gifted with a greater capacity of faith. Our missions director, Kelly Kirstead, showed me a video about the Free Burma Rangers—Christians ministering in Burma, where state-sponsored persecution means imprisonment or death by terrible means. One American, with his wife and three children all under ten, travels twelve to fifteen miles a day on foot from village to village sharing the gospel. Watching it, all I could think was, "That's the gift of faith." Me going alone is one thing, but taking my family there—I struggle with that.

Those who lack the gift often look at those who have it and call them fools. But God did call them to do that, and He gave them the faith to step out. We need such people in the body. When we say, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief," He doesn't chastise us; He knows we are weak.

This faith is childlike. I see it in my daughter Addison—she'll stand on the fourth stair and jump out to you, fully expecting to be caught. Thank God I've caught her, because I don't want that faith shattered on the wood floor. Our son Ethan is more measured, but Addison just trusts completely. This is why Jesus told His disciples to become like a child in their faith—not foolish, but banking on God: He is able.

When someone exercises that faith, they often see God do amazing things—sometimes in proportion to their faith. People ask why we don't see more healings and miracles in the church today. Often you see them on the cutting edge of missions, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the "stans," where people step out and need God to show up. Sadly, in America we've cut faith out of much of life, because we have bank accounts and credit cards. But God has a way of shaking the things we trust in so we recognize He alone is to be trusted.

The Gifts of Healings

In 1 Corinthians 12:9 the King James reads "gifts of healing," but examining the original language and the commentaries, it should be translated gifts of healings. As John Piper observed, this likely means different kinds of gifts for different kinds of healings are given to various people according to God's sovereign will—so no one person has a monopoly on every healing, and there will be many times a person with some gift to heal will not be able to heal.

This is important, because in American evangelical Christianity today there have been abuses and misuses of healing, miracles, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. As a reaction, respected Bible teachers like John MacArthur and Alistair Begg have stepped back, holding that these "sign gifts" ceased with the apostles—a position called cessationism. They are not heretics or false teachers; I simply disagree with their interpretation, which I think is an expositional stretch. But I understand the reaction. Consider Todd Bentley in Florida, who would kick a person in the stomach and declare them healed. That is not the Spirit of God.

When someone is healed, scholars debate who received the gift at that moment—the one being healed, or the healer through whom God worked as a conduit. Either way, God is the healer. And whenever the human is glorified and honored—"the healing ministry of so-and-so," who becomes wealthy and famous—I question whether God is in it, because the gifts of God always exalt God and build up the body. Some faith healers may once have been used genuinely as conduits, but then claimed "I'm a healer" and went forth bringing glory to themselves. Like the Pharisees, they have their reward.

God still heals in miraculous and powerful ways. But not every apparent healing on TV is of God. Jesus warned that in the last days false teachers and prophets would come with lying signs and wonders—they too will heal. The enemy can do these things to deceive, and many have been deceived into Eastern mystical practices by apparent healings from gurus.

Paul as a Case Study

Paul is a good case to study. God used him as a conduit to heal the crippled man at Lystra (Acts 14), the demon-possessed woman (Acts 16), and many at Ephesus (Acts 19). In Acts 20, Paul preached past midnight—you think I'm long-winded?—and young Eutychus, asleep in a third-floor windowsill, fell to his death. Paul went down, embraced him, prayed, and he was raised, then went back up and preached till daybreak.

Yet Paul was not always able to heal. In 2 Corinthians 12, he prayed three times that God would remove his thorn in the flesh, and God said, "My grace is sufficient for you; my strength is made perfect in your weakness." This is a hard theological truth: sometimes God allows illness in a believer's life to glorify Himself. Lazarus's death was along this course—Jesus said it happened for His glory. We struggle with this in American Christianity, with its health-and-wealth, prosperity doctrine that says you're not healed only because you think you're sick. But God sometimes allows sickness for His glory. So Paul boasts gladly in his weakness, that Christ may be magnified.

Paul wasn't alone. Timothy had stomach problems, so Paul told him to drink a little wine (1 Timothy 5)—surely Paul prayed for him, yet he was not healed. Epaphroditus nearly died of illness (Philippians 2). Trophimus fell sick, and Paul left him behind at Miletus (2 Timothy 4). So gifts of healings are not guaranteed; just because God used you once does not mean the next prayer brings the same result. I have a friend, a pastor at Maranatha Chapel, whom I called the pastor of death because the first several people he prayed for in the hospital died within hours—people started saying, "Don't send him to pray for me!"

We must grasp that ultimate healing is spiritual, extending to eternal life. This temporal life is quickly perishing. Hate to break it to you on Mother's Day, but unless you're raptured, you're all going to die. Every person Jesus healed eventually died—the woman with the issue of blood, the widow's son at Nain, Lazarus, Jairus's daughter, the man with the withered hand, the lame man at Bethesda. Their healings were real but temporary. Ultimate healing is spiritual healing.

So the question—does the healee or the healer have the gift?—ultimately resolves this way: the Spirit of God holds the gift of healing and chooses, as He wills, to heal for His glory and the building up of the body. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father, we endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I recognize, Lord, that within a group this big there is disagreement on these issues. Help us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Father, if anything I have said today is of me and not of You, let it fall to the ground. We want to be directed by Your Word and filled by Your Spirit in exercising these gifts to Your glory and the building up of the body. We yield ourselves to You, confessing it is not by our might or our power, but by Your Spirit. Lord, work in and through us as we go from this place. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.