5.5 Spiritual Gifts
Christians generally agree that spiritual gifts exist, but they disagree about what the gifts are, how they operate, and whether all of them are still active today.
In the New Testament, spiritual gifts are described as abilities given by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of others and the building up of the Church. The main biblical passages usually discussed are 1 Corinthians 12–14, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4.
These passages mention gifts such as teaching, wisdom, knowledge, leadership, administration, service, encouragement, giving, mercy, prophecy, healing, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, discernment of spirits, apostleship, evangelism, and shepherding or pastoring.
The major disagreements begin when Christians ask more specific questions. Are all of these gifts still active today? What exactly is prophecy? What is speaking in tongues? Can miracles and healing still occur? Can ordinary Christians possess these gifts now, or were some gifts limited to the early Church?
Catholic Perspective
The Catholic Church teaches that spiritual gifts are real and continue today. Catholics often use the word “charisms” to describe these gifts. Catholicism generally distinguishes between ordinary charisms and extraordinary charisms.
Ordinary charisms might include teaching, leadership, hospitality, service, administration, and encouragement. These are gifts that help the Church function in everyday life. Extraordinary charisms might include healing, miracles, prophecy, and tongues. Catholics believe these can occur, but they are usually treated as uncommon and requiring discernment with a priest, confessor, or spiritual director.
In the Catholic view, spiritual gifts exist to serve the Church, not to elevate the individual. A person claiming miraculous or dramatic gifts is expected to remain humble and accountable to Church authority. The gifts are not meant to make a person spiritually superior to others. They are meant to build up the body of Christ.
Eastern Orthodox Perspective
The Eastern Orthodox Church also believes spiritual gifts continue to exist, but Orthodoxy is often cautious about discussing them publicly or seeking them directly. Orthodox spirituality tends to emphasize humility, prayer, ascetic discipline, repentance, and transformation into Christlikeness rather than pursuing dramatic supernatural manifestations.
In Eastern Orthodoxy, spiritual gifts are often associated with holiness and spiritual maturity. A saint may be understood to possess extraordinary wisdom, discernment, healing, or prophetic insight, but these gifts are not supposed to be chased after for their own sake.
Orthodox writers frequently warn that seeking visions, miracles, or supernatural experiences can lead to spiritual deception. The gifts may be real, but they must be approached with humility and caution.
Protestant Perspectives
Protestant perspectives vary widely. Many mainline Protestant, Reformed, Calvinist, and Baptist churches emphasize gifts such as teaching, service, leadership, mercy, administration, evangelism, and pastoral care. In these traditions, spiritual gifts are often understood as God-given capacities used to serve others and strengthen the Church.
Some Protestants are cessationists, meaning they believe certain miraculous gifts largely ceased after the apostolic era. This view is especially common in some Reformed, Calvinist, and Baptist circles. Cessationists often argue that gifts such as tongues, prophecy, miraculous healings, and apostolic authority served a special purpose in establishing the early Church and authenticating the message of the apostles. Once the foundation of the Church was laid and the Bible was canonized, they believe those particular gifts were no longer needed in the same way.
Other Protestants are continuationists, meaning they believe all spiritual gifts continue today. A continuationist Protestant may still be cautious about dramatic claims, but would not say that prophecy, healing, tongues, or miracles have necessarily ceased. Many Baptists and Reformed Christians fall somewhere in between: they may believe God can still perform miracles, but they are cautious about making miraculous gifts a central part of church life. A common Protestant concern is that any claimed spiritual gift must never contradict Scripture.
Pentecostal and Charismatic Perspective
Pentecostal and charismatic churches place much stronger emphasis on the continuing activity of all spiritual gifts. Groups such as the Assemblies of God and the Church of God teach that gifts such as tongues, prophecy, healing, and miracles are still active today and should be expected as part of the Spirit-filled Christian life.
Pentecostals and charismatics often view the events of Pentecost in Acts as a continuing pattern for the Church rather than only a historical event. Speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, and other supernatural gifts are not usually treated as rare exceptions. They are often seen as signs of the Holy Spirit’s active presence and power among believers.
Holiness-Centered Perspective
Some Christians understand the Holy Spirit primarily as God’s Spirit of Holiness. In this view, spiritual growth involves increasing alignment with God’s holiness, truth, wisdom, and will. From this perspective, spiritual gifts are not necessarily supernatural powers granted to a select few. Instead, they are human capacities that become aligned with God’s purposes.
To understand this perspective, it is helpful to begin with a simple observation. People naturally possess different strengths and abilities.
Some people are gifted teachers. Others are natural leaders. Some are compassionate caregivers. Others excel at organizing, solving problems, encouraging others, communicating difficult ideas, or bringing order to chaotic situations.
In everyday language, we often refer to these abilities as gifts. We might say that someone has a gift for teaching, a gift for leadership, or a gift for helping people.
The question then becomes: what makes a gift spiritual?
Many people possess natural talents. According to this interpretation, the answer is not found primarily in the ability itself. The answer is found in the purpose toward which the ability is directed.
In this view, a gift becomes an authentic and sanctified Christian spiritual gift when it is aligned with and directed by the Spirit of Holiness—God’s holiness, truth, wisdom, and purposes.
The ability is the same, but its orientation is different.
Whether gifts are supernatural or not is not the central issue within this interpretation. The central issue is whether the gift is aligned with God’s holiness, truth, wisdom, and purposes.
Teaching becomes a spiritual gift when it helps people understand and align themselves with God’s truth and wisdom.
Leadership becomes a spiritual gift when it guides people toward God’s purposes and encourages justice, responsibility, and service.
Mercy becomes a spiritual gift when it reflects God’s compassion while remaining grounded in truth and righteousness.
Wisdom becomes a spiritual gift when it helps people discern God’s will and live in accordance with it.
Encouragement becomes a spiritual gift when it strengthens people to remain faithful to what is true, good, and holy despite hardship.
The emphasis is therefore placed less on extraordinary powers and more on the relationship between ability, responsibility, and purpose.
A prophet, for example, may be understood as someone unusually sensitive to truths that others have not yet recognized. Such a person may perceive dangers, opportunities, patterns, or moral realities before they become obvious to everyone else. The distinction between a true prophet and a false prophet then is found in alignment with God’s truth, holiness, and will.
A healer may be understood as someone who helps restore wholeness. This restoration may be physical, emotional, relational, psychological, or spiritual. The distinction between a true healer and a false one is found in whether genuine healing and restoration occur.
A teacher may be understood as someone who can communicate truth in a way that transforms understanding. The distinction between a true teacher and a false teacher is found not merely in novelty or eloquence, but in whether what is taught leads people toward truth and holiness or away from it.
From this perspective, spiritual gifts are inseparable from responsibility and accountability to God.
Within this interpretation, baptism of the Holy Spirit is understood as immersion into holiness and truth. Once immersed in holiness and truth, a person’s abilities are no longer viewed merely as advantages. They become responsibilities that carry obligations toward God’s holiness, truth, justice, wisdom, mercy, and service.
For this reason, spiritual gifts cannot be separated from character. A person may possess remarkable talents while using those talents selfishly, dishonestly, or destructively. Such a person still possesses the ability, but Christians from this perspective would argue that the ability is now functioning as a counterfeit spiritual gift because it is no longer aligned with the Spirit of Holiness.
In this understanding, spiritual gifts are the ways individuals participate in God’s work within the world. They are patterns of capacity, responsibility, and service through which people contribute to the flourishing of their families, communities, and society.
The Main Divide
The largest divide among Christians is not whether spiritual gifts exist. Most Christians affirm that they do. The biggest disagreement is whether gifts such as prophecy, tongues, healing, and miracles still operate today in the same way they did in the first century.
Some Christians believe those gifts were primarily for the apostolic age. Others believe they continue but should be handled carefully. Others believe they should be actively expected and practiced in the Church today.
Because of this, the topic of spiritual gifts sits at the intersection of Scripture, church authority, worship practice, and beliefs about how directly God still acts through ordinary believers.
Despite disagreements, Christians generally agree that spiritual gifts are intended to benefit others rather than elevate the individual possessing them.
While spiritual gifts focus on what a person is able to do, many Christians believe an even more important question remains:
If spiritual gifts describe what a person is capable of doing, what determines whether those gifts are being used rightly?
Christianity traditionally answers that question through the concept of the fruits of the Spirit.
Gifts describe capacities. Fruits describe character. Gifts describe what a person can do. Fruits describe who a person is becoming.
In section 5.6, we will examine the fruits of the Spirit.