Holy Spirit – Gifts of Distinguishing Spirits, Faiths & Miracles.
DISTINGUISHING SPIRITS
“to another distinguishing between spirits…” (1 Corinthians 12:10)
A definition:
“…the ability or capacity to differentiate between when, where and what the Holy Spirit is
doing or saying, on the one hand, and what demonic or human spirits are doing or saying on
the other.” Sam Storms – Understanding Spiritual Gifts
Biblical Example:
Acts 16:16-18 “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female
slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for
her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are
servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for
many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In
the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left
her.”
Also, it is a helpful gift in church life for distinguishing between God’s Spirit directing us and
our human spirit.
FAITH –
Surly we all have the gift of faith if we profess to be followers of Jesus. But this is a specific
gift rather than a response to the Gospel. This gift is often misunderstood and enigmatic.
It is similar to word of wisdom, word of knowledge and distinguishing between spirits as the
only place it is mentioned is here in 1 Corinthians 12.
A definition:
“Paul must be referring to a unique and quite extraordinary manifestation of faith that only
some Christians experience.” Sam Storms – Understanding Spiritual Gifts
Also, a helpful way of understanding this gift:
“Those who testify to having received this gift speak often of a dynamic but ultimately
inexplicable surge or eruption of assurance in their hearts that God not only can do something
powerful in a particular challenging situation but that he will do it.”
Sam Storms – Understanding Spiritual Gifts
Living By Faith – we are all called to live by faith but it appears that some people, either due to
circumstance or calling, have a specific gift of living by faith, depending on the Lord for even
the basic necessities for living. There are many examples of this in the modern world, I
encourage you to read about George Muller and Heidi Baker.
MIRACLES –
“to another miraculous powers…” (1 Corinthians 12:10)
IT LITERALLY MEANS WORKINGS OF POWERS.
“…praying and pressing into God for a display of supernatural power… is what Paul had in
mind when he spoke of the gift of Miracles. The Holy Spirit who alone has authority to bestow
or withhold all spiritual gifts empowers a person in a particular circumstance to address a
unique need in order to accomplish whatever purpose God desires.”
Sam Storms – Understanding Spiritual Gifts
God is always moving and working for the good of His church, the Spiritual gifts are exactly
that – presents he gives to his followers to aid us, encourage us and to glorify his name.
Miracles are happening more often than we might know, in the small things and the big.
