Training for spiritual gifts should include the following, as a starting point.
  • List the spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) (1 Corinthians 12:28)
  • Define or describe each gift in the list.
  • Discuss how you might recognize your gift(s).
  • Who will coordinate where in your church you might use your gift?
The purpose of spiritual gifts is to edify, or build up, the Church. (1 Corinthians 14:26) Edify means to instruct religious knowledge and to improve Christians' abilities to contribute to the Body of Christ. But I don't think I have ever gone to a church that taught its members about spiritual gifts. However, to teach a matter, you have to know something about it. I don't remember seeing a class offered. Just the pastors glossing over what the Bible says about them, moving very quickly.

Of course if any kind of training is considered, there is effort involved, and time, and often money... Oops! Lost most of the congregations already. But say you have some dedicated leaders of a church sincerely desiring to lead some kind of Scriptural-based training... Oops! You just said Scriptural-based. They don't want to use a list of gifts taken from the Bible. They want to make up their own lists of gifts. Some churches will tend to lean toward the glamour gifts. Some will lean toward the more mundane gifts. So some churches ignore gifts and some even make up their own that are based on human abilities, not power from the Holy Spirit.

So where is the dividing line between these two categories of gifts: glamorous and mundane? Ahhhh, yes. Dividing line is the perfect choice of words. Most churches won't provide any type of training concerning spiritual gifts. Why? Because they are afraid! (I earned the title of “Tell-it-like-it-is Jeff” from writing articles in my church newsletters.) The leaders are afraid of their own members. And the members are afraid of each other. Spiritual gifts become a dividing line in a church. You can't avoid a discussion about whether certain gifts have ceased. They are hoping that most of the gifts would just disappear because they don't have the courage to face the Holy Spirit when He divvies out the goods.


It's not difficult to imagine comments from members. One member is saying, "Ain't no one in MY church gonna start doing something like that!" While the woman next to him is thinking, "Please, Dear God, make sure Tongues is not on the menu this week. Can we ask that they already used it all up in the Bible, so there isn't any left for us? Thank you! Can't I just bake a 3-bean casserole for the church dinner instead?"

They don't want to come face-to-face with God or His Spirit. Or any kind of deity or divinity or whatever they have chosen to call it. They don't want things happening that they can't control... understand... or manipulate.

So see what you did by asking a simple question, “Does the church provide training where gifts are concerned?” Oh no! Someone said something they didn't want to hear! You just split the church in half. That's where the concept about people allowing themselves to fail comes in. You have to take a chance on falling flat on your face. (The real concern is that someone will see you do this.) When you bring up the subject, while you are receiving training, and as you explore the possibilities, you will discover more about what God has done for you. And more about the other members.

I led a series of video-based courses on prayer. I was worried I might fall flat on my face. Did I? No. What was the methodology in the prayer classes I taught? Study actual Scripture to learn who God REALLY is. Know who you are talking to. And build from there. How could this be applied to training on spiritual gifts? If you know who God is, what His NATURE is, what He wants for His kingdom, and where we fit into all of that... THEN you realize that this isn't about competition or running a circus. There's work to be done! We must use our spiritual gifts to build up the Church! God doesn't want you to stumble. But He wants to hear it from your own lips that you won't say God tripped you, if things turn out differently than what you expected.

You really do need to learn to interact with God. You need to know that God is listening to your story. And you can work together. On second thought, go ahead and ask God to trip you. So you get messed up. So someone heals you. Now you comprehend what I have been telling you for 18 years.

Sometimes spiritual gifts are like little kids playing with firecrackers. You want to see the glitter, the glow, the magic. Sometimes spiritual gifts are like BIG kids playing with firecrackers. But where the little kids saw magic, the adult kids see power.

You want to get into new things, as if you're taking drugs for a new experience. Only you want to feel the rush of the Holy Spirit and go off on some glory trip. Only you don't know how to get your butterfly wings fluttering all nice and pretty and get you off the ground. Here, I'll help you. I wave my magic wand. You're flying gracefully along. Eewww! Now you're splattered all over an SUV's windshield. Such a tragic loss.


Now, how could this scenario have gone, had you listened to me sooner? You should have looked up Bible references to spiritual gifts. You should have asked God to show you the way. That's right, just spit it right out. You should have asked God to do things for you, to cause things to happen in your life that you could have found the answers. That's right. You can ask God for things. And it's much more likely you will get what you're asking, if your mind and God's mind are the same mind. (1 Corinthians 2)

Ask God for the tools you need. Do some research, find someone to discuss it with. Can't find anyone to talk to? Then just ask God to bring someone into your life that you can trust and give you some good information and ideas. God will do a lot for you. But you have to ask. What a thrill when the Creator of the Universe provides things you ask for! But you aren't on an ego trip asking for the glitter... the glow... the magic... the power.

It shouldn't be a matter of arguing over whether some gifts have ceased, or whether God has given you a favored status because you think your gift is better than someone else’s. It is a matter of opening up to the decisions of the Holy Spirit. Remember 1 Corinthians 12:25 "so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other." An employment agent asked me if I wanted to be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond. It’s a matter of perspective. All fish do their part. But that doesn’t make any one fish bigger than the other fish, regardless of which watering hole God has placed you in.

Training on spiritual gifts may help you discover your gift -- what kind you have and how to use it. But it is the Holy Spirit who decides who gets what. No amount of research is going to change that fact. So instead of jumping forward and making assumptions and drawing conclusions about the end result, why not take a step back and see where it all begins?

"But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way." (1 Corinthians 12:31) "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy." (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Don't wait for the gifts to come to you. Sometimes that will happen. However, God is telling you that He expects you to come to Him. This may be a little too much for conventional thinking – but you have to stomp your feet, jump up and down, and grab the Holy Spirit by the collar, and demand (respectfully), “God sent me to see you. He said you have something for me. Where is it? I am ready!”


When you ask for the tools to serve God, He won't go to the store and buy them. He won't make them miraculously appear. No, that isn't God's style. He will go to His own personal workshop and get His own Toolbox. And He will give you... His own Toolbox. (Like He gave us His Son.) And He even gives you His Toolbox presented in a beautifully wrapped Giftbox. You get something to open on your re-birthday! You gleefully open the Giftbox, as if with child-like innocence, to see what is in the Toolbox.

And you say, "Daddy, show me which end of the hammer to hit the nail with." And God patiently replies, "Son, you already know which end of the hammer to hit the nail with. Look at my Son Jesus' hands and feet."

But God goes ahead and lets you keep His Giftbox and His Toolbox anyway. That's His character. That's His nature. Why would you worry about what you will find in God's Giftbox and His Toolbox… now that you know the Person giving them to you?


Now that God has given you His Giftbox and His Toolbox, whatcha gonna do with it? Dave and I have discussed dreams that I have had, and some of these past discussions can be found in the articles I have written.

I have been having a series of impressions. (You can call them dreams or visions or whatever you like. I call them impressions because they leave an impression on me.) It is always in the same room, with the same group of men. The room is open to the main hallway of the church where people are walking by and sometimes looking in. So the group must be a common, normal thing for them. Group does not mean clique, it refers to the group's function.

The men are elders or in some positions of responsibility, leadership, or authority in the church. And spiritual gifts coordinators. Anything you need. I don't see their faces. I don't bother looking because I am there to observe the supernatural and I don't care what they look like.

Sometimes they encourage me to use specific gifts. Or they know more than I do and present to me something/someone to try out, that they already know will fit my gift. Or they may just bring people who need things and see if I fit their needs, see what I am drawn to. Nothing really concrete, just ideas floating around.

The really interesting impression was the last one I had. I was in the same room with the same men. This was either my first visit at this church, or if not, the first time I met with anyone outside of the standard sanctuary worship services.

One of the men invited me to become part of their group. I was startled, thinking the group is a place you work for months or years toward, before you can gain their trust and be considered to get in.

So I said to him, "But you don't even know me." He said, "Someone here prophesied about you and someone discerned that you are safe." The exact definition of prophecy here is unclear. There was an inference that they were anticipating my arrival. I came. I seemed ok, so I am the man for the job. Or the church had a need and they prayed for help. They were watching for someone (anyone) who might be the answer to their prayers. I popped up, so again, I am the man for the job. During the impression, I was thinking they were looking for me specifically. But I don't know.

In review, I said to the man who invited me into the group, "But you don't even know me." Then he said, "Someone here prophesied about you and someone discerned that you are safe." Then he added, "That's all the screening we need!"


So I asked a brother what he thought about this. Here is what Dave said.
The prophetic dream is very interesting. It has elements of external and internal prophecy. Internally it appears that you have finally arrived at that outlet and you are allowing yourself to be accepted and re-integrated. I think this is pretty significant. The actualization of that may be still emerging but the understanding and acceptance is something that you have given back to yourself. You have accepted who you are and that has been played back to you in a spiritual message.

The larger, external message also bears truth and is significantly prophetic. I have received and understood this kind of prophecy before. Remember, prophecy is something that is God's will and many times it is a response to prayer… not necessarily yours, but in this case a real group. Do not play humble and underestimate this thing Jeff. Be aware that this is a very real and genuine spiritual communication and we spooked out Christians do get this kind of stuff. There is a real group who has put out a call for you.

God puts out the call a lot and all we have to do is respond. I am pleased with the internal prophecy though and that's for you. Like it or not, Jeff has accepted Jeff into the group based on God's recommendation and no one else's. Yes, the Spirit's recommendation is all that anyone needs and that's your resume. (2 Corinthians 3:1-6) Congratulations. It's been a long hard trip to acceptance.”
Thank you, Dave.



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