Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1017. Spiritual understanding of the Bible is not the same thing as being able to read it, and the difference has real implications for how we do evangelism, how we engage non-Christian friends around Scripture, and how we understand the Holy Spirit’s own work in a person’s life. Whether an unbeliever can understand the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4055. The word of wisdom is easy to confuse with wisdom in the broad biblical sense, the kind James promises every believer may ask God for in James 1:5, but Paul has something more specific in mind when he lists it as a distinct gift in 1 Corinthians 12:8. Getting the distinction right matters…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4054. The word of knowledge appears exactly once in Paul’s list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, and that single appearance has carried an enormous amount of theological weight ever since, not least because charismatic ministry has attached a very specific meaning to it that may or may not reflect what Paul had in…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4053. I get asked about the gifts of the Spirit more than almost any other subject in pastoral ministry, and the gift of discernment of spirits sits near the top of the list of things people misunderstand. Some picture it as a kind of spiritual x-ray vision, a superpower for spotting demons in a…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 4143. The spiritual man and natural man in 1 Corinthians 2 are Paul’s two categories for describing how human beings relate to the things of God, and the difference between them is not intelligence, education or moral effort but whether or not a person has the Holy Spirit. “The natural person does not accept…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 4052. The gift of miracles tends to be handled in one of two unhappy ways. Either it is inflated into something sensational, a kind of spiritual circus act, or it is quietly ignored in churches that feel awkward about anything they cannot tidily explain. Neither response does justice to what the New Testament plainly…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 4051. Few subjects in the church today generate more heat and less light than the gift of healing. On one side the airwaves are filled with dramatic claims and conference stages where healing is promised on demand. On the other side many cautious evangelicals quietly file the whole category under “things that stopped with…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4050. The interpretation of tongues is the gift that quietly does the heavy lifting whenever tongues are used in the gathered church, and yet it is the one we hear about least. It sounds technical, and because it is tied so closely to tongues themselves, many believers pass over it without realising that Paul…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 4049. The gift of tongues has caused more heat and less light than almost any subject I deal with as a minister. In some circles it is treated as the badge that proves a person has truly received the Holy Spirit. In others it is written off entirely as a first century oddity that…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 4048. The gift of prophecy is one of the most discussed and most misunderstood of all the gifts the Spirit gives to the church, and I want to take my time with it. Some believers treat every passing impression as a word from the Lord, while others are convinced that genuine prophecy stopped dead…