A Gardener’s Gospel - Week 17
About six years ago I planted a handful of chili seeds, and within six months I had two beautiful indoor pot plants that continued producing fruit for over four years. But then, for reasons I still have not been able to fathom, they died. Undeterred I planted another crop last year and was very excited to see some young plants sprouting up.
High achievers
But one plant outdid its siblings. The shoots were greener, the leaves bigger and the first flower was enormous. It was only when the fruit began to form and became round and bulbous that I realised this wasn’t a chilli but a cantelope pepper. I now have a scrawny chilli plant in the same pot as this high achiever but because their root balls are so entwined I can’t separate them. I’m still waiting for the chilli to bear fruit, but I’m sure it will; in its own way and its own time.
Last week I spoke about my experience of receiving charismatic gifts from God. Some of you might be confused or dismissive of my story, others envious or in awe. But let me get one thing straight: exercising spectacular gifts is no guarantee of spiritual maturity or even happiness as a Christian. In my job as an editor of a writing website I recently read a novel set in an evangelical Christian fellowship that was torn apart when what the author referred to as the ‘special blessing’ arrived. The members of the fellowship were divided into the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, with those receiving the gifts passing judgement on those who did not. They were ‘better’ Christians, ‘real’ Christians, ‘obedient’ Christians, seeking all that God had for them, while the others floundered in the shallows. Some of the ‘have nots’ faked the blessing, while others just left the church in disappointment or anger.
Dishing out the blessing
I’ve been part of fellowships like that one and, I must admit, even shared some of the attitudes of the ‘haves’ in that story. My experience of God through the release of His Spirit in my life was so awesome that I couldn’t understand why every Christian didn’t have the same. Surely God would want all of His children to be as ‘blessed’ as I was; surely every Christian would desire to have the same thing. But I was wrong on both counts.
Dividing the gifts
Firstly, there are different kinds of Gifts that God apportions according to His knowledge of what ‘fits’ us best and matches our ‘natural’ being. In 1 Corinthians 12 we read about gifts of wisdom (being able to bring God’s perspective to a situation); messages of knowledge (when you know things you couldn’t ordinarily know about a person); faith (not the ‘ordinary’ faith that all Christians have to some degree, but a supernatural ability to believe God for the most incredible things); gifts of healing (the ability to be a channel for God’s healing power); miraculous powers (to be able to pray and see God affect the natural world in a miraculous way); prophecy (the ability to ‘see’ what God will do in the future or understand the spiritual dimension of what God is doing now); distinguishing between spirits (the ability to discern the spirit – good, evil or ‘wordly’ – behind supernatural manifestations); speaking in tongues (the ability to speak in another, usually ‘heavenly’ language as an aid to worship or vehicle for prophecy); and the interpretation of tongues (the ability to interpret – not translate – the essence of the message in tongues into the language of the community). In addition, in Romans 12, there are gifts of serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership and mercy, and later in 1 Corinthians 12, administration is also mentioned.
The quieter gifts
You’ve probably noticed that the latter gifts are far less ‘supernatural’ or overt. People can have the gift of administration and quietly get on with it, contributing to the smooth running of the community without others knowing, or even recognising themselves that they have a spiritual gift. It’s the same with serving, teaching, giving, mercy and leadership. People like me can stand up and make a proclamation in another language or tell someone quietly a secret of their heart, and it is obvious there’s something other-worldly going on.
So is it possible for people who say they don’t believe in the charismata to have them? I believe so, yes. God is not just going to give His gifts to people who claim to be charismatic; He gives His gifts for ‘the common good’ (1 Cor 12:7). A balanced community of believers will exercise all of these gifts in different measure so that the love of Christ will be shown to operate within it.
Latent gifts
And can people have the more overtly supernatural gifts and not operate in them? I believe so too. One of my abilities – I think it’s related to the gift of knowledge – is to be able to discern a person’s latent gifts. I frequently know when someone has a gift of prophecy, for instance, but has not yet had it released in their life. Why is this? It’s to do with their personal relationship with God. And like my release into the gifts was a process, their’s will be too. Just like my ‘have not’ chilli plant, they will bear fruit – in God’s time, in God’s way. But I’m not talking about the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ here; I’ll get to that next week.
From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:16
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Welcome to my site - I'm Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, author, playwright and writing teacher. This site contains thoughts and articles I've written on a range of topics. I hope you find them useful.
I’m worried about the ’special blessing’ / ‘baptism in the holy spirit’ / other title. Mainly because the New Testament knows nothing about it. Not only that, but it invariably has a history of bringing division between Christians, meaning that the Holy Spirit is definitely not involved (or is silenced). Yes, there IS a baptism WITH the HS in the NT, but it is invariably a part of conversion - never post conversion. THAT really goes back to circa 1890.
Sure, God can bestow new gifts (even the more dramatic ones) at any time - but to call it ‘the baptism with the Holy Spirit’ is to abuse the term. Rather in the same way that ‘anointed’ is terribly abused to the point of becoming meaningless - but that is a further story!
I agree Nick, the terminology is confusing and often divisive. My preferred term is a ‘release of the Spirit’. I do not use the terms you referred to - I mention them in the previous post as ‘what some people refer to’ or words to that effect. The fact remains that some people, myself included, have a tangible experience as the gifts of the Holy Spirit are ‘released’ in our lives. But as I spoke about last week with the dam analogy, for some people there is a damming up of what, as I agree with you, is already there - I agree too that the HS comes on us at conversion and that’s what the NT teaches. I do not believe that the release of the charismata in people’s lives should bring division or for that mattter that it ‘invariably’ has, it is just how it is handled by those on both sides that causes the rifts. By denying the validity of other people’s experience or, worse, labelling it hysterical, unbiblical or demonic (as some ‘have-nots’) do, just makes things worse. But as I say in this post, I don’t believe there really are ‘have-nots’ as some people just naturally operate in their gifts in a quiet way. My intention with this post was to confess the wrongs perpertrated by people who have experienced what I have experienced and hopefully bring about healing.