Gifts of the Spirit - 1 Corinthians 12:4-9

The only way that someone can know if Jesus is truly the Christ is through the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. This knowledge, testimony and confirmation is a spiritual gift, but there are many others. Paul lists several of the Gifts of the Spirit, such as: 

Differences of administration – The IM defines this as, “Leadership or ‘administrative ability,’ which is ‘used in administering and regulating the church.’ The ability to discern correctly how the Lord governs His Church through councils, quorums, auxiliaries, and so on.” Effective and motivational leadership truly is a gift because most people aren’t born with those abilities, it must be trained into someone. Understanding the structure of the Church and everyone’s responsibilities is also a gift because the way that the Church is organized is pretty unique, there are not many organizations that are structured in this way and it can be confusing and frustrating to those who are unfamiliar with it.

Diversities of operations – I have no idea what this means, but the IM says, “The ability to distinguish between things that are of the devil and those that are of God.” This might be similar to discernment, and is handy now because of the way that issues are spun by the media and other people. There are so many issues that are presented in a way that it makes a reasonable person think, “of course I support that cause,” but what we don’t know is the backside and what all that entails. Take for instance Prop 8 in California, when I first heard about supporting gay marriage, I was very adamantly like “of course people should be able to marry whoever they want.” But when the Church came out in favor of defining marriage as being between one man and one woman, I really had to re-evaluate my stance and why I felt so strongly the way that I did. It was very much a learning experience for me, especially in the 12 years afterward, seeing the fallout of everything.

Word of Wisdom – The IM says, “Includes sound judgment and the proper application of gospel doctrine and principles, particularly in decision making. Paul’s use of ‘word’ shows that the gift of wisdom shows that the gift of wisdom includes the ability to teach a message of wisdom by the power of the Holy Ghost.”  Going back to the concept of having wildly varying opinions presented to us about the same issue, I think that “wisdom” would include an eternal perspective and how earthly matters operate within gospel doctrine. Let’s take Prop 8 again, one gift allows us to understand the true motive behind it, and from where it came, but wisdom would also allow us to recognize that those who are gay are children of God and worthy of our love, respect, and kindness. Kind of like when the church opposed gay marriage as a governmental definition, but advocated for equal civil rights for those who were gay including housing and employment protection, civil unions, and sponsorship on a partner’s health insurance and medical decisions equal to that of a spouse. But that aspect of the Church’s stance didn’t fit the narrative so it wasn’t a very hot topic discussed in the media.

Word of Knowledge – The IM says, “’An endowment of knowledge, not random knowledge, not knowledge in general or as an abstract principle, but gospel knowledge, a knowledge of God and his laws.’ Again, Paul’s choice or ‘word’ emphasizes that this gift includes the ability to teach knowledge by the power of the Holy Ghost.” I think we have all had someone in our lives at some point who was just a phenomenal teacher, someone who could present the material of the scriptures and gospel doctrine in a way that was engaging, enlightening, uplifting, and interesting. There are a lot of psychology aspects that go into the teaching, such as feeling like an imposter, or issues with public speaking. And it very true that whom the Lord calls, he qualifies, but it is also true that some people are just gifted teachers.

Gift of Faith – The IM doesn’t comment on this one, but I had a friend tell me once that she has just always known that the Church was true, and she’d never questioned it and she’s always had a strong testimony. She had mentioned this to a bishop or something who told her that it was one of the gifts of the Spirit to have always known and believed. I also had a friend once who was a Christian and we had many discussions about gospel doctrine and it was really amazing because we were talking about how exactly Christ died for our sins. Her answer was that he died on the cross for us, but I just kept asking, “how does that absolve us of our sins,” and eventually she just said, “I don’t understand it, I just know that He did.” That’s when I realized that she had so much more faith than I do because that would be a pretty hard sell for me. Don’t get me wrong, there are things that I don’t understand that aren’t deal breakers for me and there was a time when I didn’t understand how Christ died for our sins, and honestly I don’t understand it all now either, and I still carry on. But her ability to believe with so few answers was incredible for me.

Gift of Healing – The IM says, “Manifest through priesthood ordinances.” So this automatically means that it only applies to men. I’ve always struggled with the concept of healing because I don’t want my physical condition to be based on anyone else’s gifts or powers or anything like that. Kind of like praying for someone, I don’t want my blessings conditioned on anyone else’s efforts, so why would I try to make anyone else’s blessings conditioned on mine? I know that that’s not how prayer works, but in my mind, that’s kind of where I’m at with it right now. Although I have been making an effort recently to pray for specific people, I don’t know what good that is doing for them, but I am trying harder. I will say about the gift of healing, that when I got thrown off that horse last month and I was in sososo much pain that I wanted to just die, I had a blessing from my brother that promised an expedited healing process and he commanded my body to start healing quickly. At the time I was like “why am I not better yet?” but now I’m only about 6 weeks out and I’ve been back at jiu jitsu for about 2 weeks and I’ve been back at work for 5 weeks. There was a very noticeable change in my healing about 2 weeks ago though because I went to jui jitsu one a Thursday night and was in so much pain, I just sat on the wall awkwardly and cried (inside of course). But then I went the next Tuesday and I was healed enough that I could do the moves and even roll at the end with people, and honestly it was such a miracle. My back still hurts some, but it’s getting better and it’s only been 6 weeks and I’ve read and heard about people who have permanent damage and extensive recoveries from these types of injuries, so I truly believe that I was blessed with by the gift of healing.

Praying with faith sufficient for healing – This is mentioned in the IM but not in Corinthians, but I still think it’s important enough to mention. This is what probably applies to the women and those men and children who don’t hold the priesthood authority for healing. When I explain how priesthood power applies to woman even though we don’t have priesthood authority, I cite one of the general authority’s comments that there is nothing more powerful than the prayers of a righteous woman. And even though we might not be able to lay our hands on someone and invoke God’s power, I don’t think for one second that we are any less capable of pleading to heaven for someone’s relief. If access to God’s power is contingent on righteousness and God’s will, as it says in the scriptures, then it would have to be accessible to all the righteous, even if it was done through different methods, i.e. priesthood blessings vs. prayer. I’m not saying that women should start prayer circles around afflicted people, that’s not what has been prescribed. But how many times has a mother plead with the Lord for her children, how many of us are here because of the prayers of our grandmothers? When women kneel before God and beg for the benefit of their friend, neighbor, community, or family, could those fervent prayers be any less powerful than a priesthood blessing by a man?