What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy SpiritIn theological review

The short answer

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are abilities God gives to believers for serving others and building up the church, not for status or display. Paul lists wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation in 1 Corinthians 12, with further lists in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. The same Spirit distributes them as he wills, so every Christian has a part and no one has everything.

The fuller answer

Paul introduces the gifts by stressing both variety and unity. There are different kinds of gifts, different kinds of service, and different workings, but the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God behind them all. He then names gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. His key point is distribution: the Spirit gives to each believer as he wills, for the common good. Gifts are therefore received with gratitude, never grasped as proof of spiritual rank.

There are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all people. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (BSB)

The list in Romans 12 widens the picture beyond the spectacular. Alongside prophecy, Paul names serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, and showing mercy, in Romans 12:6-8, and he urges believers to use each gift honestly and cheerfully. This matters because many Christians quietly assume they have no gift since theirs is ordinary. Paul disagrees. The person who gives generously, leads diligently, or shows mercy gladly is exercising the Spirit's gift just as truly as anyone else, and the church would be poorer without them.

We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Romans 12:6-8 (BSB)

Ephesians 4 looks at gifts from another angle: the risen Christ gives people themselves to the church. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are named in Ephesians 4:11, and their task is to equip God's people for works of service so the whole body grows up into maturity. Put the lists together and no single list is complete, which suggests Paul never meant a closed catalogue. The pattern is what counts: one Spirit, many gifts, given through ordinary and remarkable service alike, always aimed at building others up in love.

And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

Ephesians 4:11 (BSB)

One caution runs through all three lists: gifts are given for others, so the test of a gift is never applause but usefulness in love. Paul will spend the next chapter of 1 Corinthians insisting that a gift exercised without love amounts to nothing, however impressive it sounds. The healthy question for a Christian is therefore not how spectacular a gift appears, but whom it serves, how faithfully it is used, and whether the church around them is genuinely stronger, humbler, and more united because they exercised it.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)

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What does the Holy Spirit do?He convicts the world of sin, guides believers into the truth, teaches and reminds them of Jesus's words, and produces a different kind of life in them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. His work always points to Jesus rather than to himself, and its fruit shows up in character, not in show.Who is the Holy Spirit?The Holy Spirit is God himself, the third person of the Trinity, not a force, a feeling, or God's power in the abstract. He is there at creation, hovering over the waters. He speaks, teaches, and can be lied to, and when Peter confronts Ananias he says the lie told to the Holy Spirit was a lie told to God.What is speaking in tongues in the Bible?Speaking in tongues in the Bible is speech given by the Holy Spirit, first seen at Pentecost when the disciples declared God's works in languages their hearers understood. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul describes tongues speech directed to God that needs interpretation in church and must never crowd out clear teaching. Christians differ on exactly what the gift involved and how it should be practised, and those main readings are set out fairly below.Do the miraculous gifts still happen today?Christians differ on whether the miraculous gifts, such as healing, prophecy, and tongues, continue in the church today, and the Bible texts each side leans on are set out fairly here. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13 that gifts like prophecy and tongues will cease when the perfect comes, and believers disagree over what that means and when it arrives. No side in this debate questions that God himself can act miraculously whenever he pleases.What is the church?The church is the people of God, not a building, a brand, or an audience. Jesus called it my church, promised to build it himself, and the first picture of it is a community devoted to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. If you belong to Christ, you already belong to his church. The local congregation is where that belonging takes flesh.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.