When trying to understand the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, begin this way: gifts are the way the Holy Spirit operates. It was true in the life and ministry of Jesus and it is true in your life if you desire to minister effectively to others. Here are five ways to break through with the gifts of the Holy Spirit:

 

1 – The idea of doing ministry, praying or talking with others can drastically improve if you can become sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Your skills in this area will progress if you will accept all nine gifts as valid in the life of a Christian. Rejecting even one gift will diminish your vision and skills. Remember that the Holy Spirit wants to be Himself in you. For that to be accomplished, you must let Him be Himself!

 

2 – Each gift has its own mind and engine. In John 1:48, the Holy Spirit recollected to Jesus that He had seen Nathanael earlier under the fig tree, a fact unknown by Nathanael but well-remembered by the Holy Spirit to Jesus. Each gift searches for the need before you. In John 1:49, Nathanael declares Jesus to be the Son of God. He was convinced because when Jesus allowed the Holy Spirit to bring a word of knowledge, it was sufficient to bring conviction to the heart of Nathanael.

 

3 – All nine gifts are interrelated. The revelation gifts (word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits), the power gifts (faith, healing, working of miracles) and the vocal gifts (prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues) operate together to achieve the goal at hand (See I Corinthians 12:4-11). You can expect help from the Holy Spirit when the first gift begins to operate. The first gift will be followed by two others to complement the first. You can predict the second movement in an act of ministry by the content of the first gift to operate. In Mark 10:46-47, a word of knowledge came to Jesus about what Bartimaeus was saying. It was followed by a gift of faith. Jesus then said, “Your faith has healed you.” The blind man was, after all, a man of faith waiting for a miracle from the Son of God.

 

4 – When praying for someone, the first piece of information received from the Holy Spirit needs to be assessed carefully. If the first sign of the Holy Spirit points toward revelation, you are dealing with three factors: a word that can keep your prayer on target (knowledge), a word that will point toward the future, (wisdom) and a word toward the now, to the moment (discernment). You must not move by yourself in prayer. The Holy Spirit does the work and you must follow. Listen to the first sign, follow to the second and speak what you hear!

 

5 – The act of prayer for someone is a holy act, for you are talking with God through Jesus Christ. Hearing is essential, not for words from heaven but for predictable moves of the Holy Spirit. When you are able to do this, it becomes second nature. You will never again pray an empty prayer which comes from your mind and struggles with faith. You will have a strange authority, a bold determination and the fruits will be many. I have seen this for myself in my days serving the Lord in prayer for others.

Rick Bonfim

Edited by Betty Mckinney