“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” 1 Corinthians 12:1
Spiritual gifts are non-carnal, or divinely supernatural gifts, and the giver of them is God through the Holy Spirit. In a natural state or carnal state people are in a state of powerlessness when dealing with God in any way. In a natural state people have fallen into a bondage to sin and cannot overcome it. You might say, they are under the mastership of sin, and they have “zero” ability to not sin. God said in the fall people died, that death included their spirit. The human being consists of a tri-being, body, soul, and spirit, and it is the dead spirit that prevents any relationship with God. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24. The first process of salvation is for the Holy Spirit to enter the person and quickening their dead spirit. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;” Ephesians 2:1 This is first because a sinner cannot be saved without this gift from God, salvation is spiritual and if your spirit is dead then it has zero ability to do anything good. This is called “total depravity”, meaning without this quickening, people are incapable of choosing God or achieving salvation without the Power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must consider our quickening a spiritual gift from God, non-carnal, and divinely supernaturally given. This means without God’s gift of our quickening people are totally without power to please God or to serve Him in any compacity, even in salvation. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:8
A lost sinner with a dead spirit is incapable of repentance, because we’re are all born in sin. Because of the fall were cursed by that sin and more so we are born at enmity with God, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God…” Rom. 8:7a and Jesus Christ must have abolish that enmity the sinner is born with. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity…” Eph. 2:15a. Therefore, since sin has been abolished by Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit enters the lost sinner, quickens their dead spirit, and calls them to come to Jesus Christ. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…” John 6:44a. And “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Rom. 8:14. Salvation, in its totality is the plan, work, power, and gift of God by the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23.
Everything we do for God is a spiritual gift, God’s Spirit working within us giving us spiritual gift after spiritual gift. As God reminds us, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26, 27.
Paul reminds in Galatians 5:22 & 23 of many more spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit gives us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Once we are saved by the power and giving of the Holy Spirit, all of our spiritual life is a gift from God. Paul recognized this in 1 Cor. 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” He recognized his unworthiness to ever serve God because he was a sinner against God, but God gave him countless spiritual gifts in life just as He has us, if we are serving Him. We cannot serve God in spirit and Truth if we fail to recognize God’s spiritual gifts in our Christian life, no matter what way we serve Him, it is by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Praise God for His Gifts to us!
