Spiritual Gifts

Although I don’t speak of it much, I have no doubt that spiritual gifts are in existence today. There are a lot of times when I have gone to Church or to a Bible Study where I don’t have the faintest idea of what the leader or speaker is talking about. I believe that this is the gift of tongues in action. What the leader is saying sounds good. There seems to be a harmony, intelligence, and order to it, but it sounds very foreign to me. I am convinced that this is “tongues” in action because if I turn to someone to my right or to my left and I ask them, “Does that make sense?” They nod their heads emphatically up and down, as if to say, “Absolutely!” I believe that these people also have a gift; I believe that they have the gift of wisdom because they seem to totally understand what the leader is saying. I am in awe and am intimidated by these gifts and it makes me feel so lost, inadequate, and wanting to leave the meeting place.

On the other hand, one of the gifts that encourages me to stick around is the gift of interpretation. People with this gift explain to me what the speaker said (and what others obviously understand) in a language that I can grasp. This is the gift and the people that I really appreciate. It is little wonder that even the great Apostle Paul says, “…I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (I Corinthians 14:19).

The people with the gift of interpretation also demonstrate another gift to me. In the same portion of Scripture, Paul says, “…those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty…” (I Corinthians 12:22-23). When an “interpreter” takes all the time I need to help me understand, it translates into a gift of love.