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: 9 minutesQuestion 4071. When I am asked to compare the doctrine of the Spirit across the Reformed, charismatic and dispensational traditions, I always begin by reassuring people that the disagreements, real and important as they are, sit on top of a vast shared foundation. On the doctrine of the Spirit these three great families of Bible-believing…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4090. People are sometimes genuinely surprised that the gift of administration appears in the Bible at all, as though spreadsheets and rotas and Spirit-given gifts belonged to two entirely different worlds. But there it plainly is in Paul’s list, and the gift of administration is a Spirit-given ability to steer, organise and steward the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4088. I have a real and settled fondness for the gift of helps, because it is the gift that the church most takes for granted and could least possibly do without. The gift of helps is a Spirit-given ability and gladness in practical, hands-on service, the quiet support of others that frees them for…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4085. When people ask me about the gift of pastoring, I always start with the picture buried right inside the word itself, because the word pastor simply means shepherd. The gift of pastoring is a Spirit-given heart and ability to shepherd the people of God, to feed them, to lead them, to guard them…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4067. Few slogans have travelled further or faster through Christian circles than let go and let God, and I am regularly asked whether it is actually biblical or just a comforting piece of folk wisdom. My honest answer is that it is a half-truth, and half-truths are slippery, dangerous things, because the half that…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4064. Of all the gifts I could be asked about, the gift of teaching is one I hold especially dear, because it is the gift God has largely given to me, and I have watched it feed and steady His people over many years. The gift of teaching is a Spirit-given ability to take…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4043. In Galatians 5 Paul sets two lists side by side, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, and I cannot think of a passage anywhere that more honestly maps the daily battle of the Christian life. The works of the flesh are what my old fallen nature produces when…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4030. When I trace the Spirit’s work from the opening chapter of Genesis through to the book of Acts, I find one and the same Person at work throughout, and yet a real and glorious change in the way He works once Jesus is glorified. The Spirit’s work did not begin at Pentecost. He…