Nine Spiritual Gifts In the Body

The nine spiritual gifts are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12. I want to look at these gifts and how they operate in the lives of believers.

The Day of Pentecost

“⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. ⁸ For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; ⁹ To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; ¹⁰ To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: ¹¹ But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

The apostle Paul writes in verse seven that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every believer for the common good. Every believer is to be a visible manifestation of the invisible Spirit in us. It is not that there is a preacher and the rest spectators, but that there are active participants in the work of the body of Christ. Notice what Brother Branham writes in the “Church Ages” book:

“What it was, was organization. That separated the people. God’s people are sup-posed to be one. By ONE Spirit are they ALL baptized into one body and EVE-RYONE is to be moved upon by the Holy Ghost and EVERYONE is to partici-pate in the worship of God.” [1]

Paul details, in verses 8 through 10, what these manifestations are. It is the Spirit of revelation that grants all these gifts to the body and every believer is subject to each of these gifts. There are people that are born with gifts of prophecy, etc. and then there is the sign of the Messiah, which was present in the ministry of Brother Branham. Someone that is born with a gift of prophecy and discernment would be a prophet in the five-fold ministry. But then there are these nine gifts of the Spirit which are operating in the body of Christ. Each one of us is subject use any of these gifts at any time, the Spirit wills.

“For instance, if this tent here tonight concealed the entire body of Christ. The Holy Spirit leads the body of Christ. And in this body there’s nine spiritual gifts. They are here in the body. Gifts of healing, gifts of prophecy, it might fall upon someone here tonight, this lady setting here, this man, or this man; and he may give a prophecy and it would be true. But it would never work on him maybe again. It might come back at the…

See, that doesn’t make him a prophet. That makes… We’re in the body. By one Spirit we’re baptized in the body and subject to these gifts. And when the body’s setting here… Remember what Paul said, “If something be revealed to one setting by, let him hold his peace and so forth,” like that? That’s the apostolic church. That’s where it should be now. And in that…” [2]

Let’s look at each of the gifts. The first gift spoken of is, the “word of wisdom” and this would be a supernaturally given revelation regarding how a situation should be handled. Wisdom speaks of knowledge applied to life. This is God showing a person that way to behave or respond to a particular situation. An example would be telling someone, The Holy Spirit spoke in my heart to tell you not to go home your usual way, there’s going to be something dangerous happen there; go home another route.

The next gift spoken of is, the “word of knowledge” would be something revealed to a believer that would give them knowledge about something that happened in a person’s life in the past or present. An example would be, receiving a revelation that a specific person is watching pornography or that they are hiding adultery from the church and their spouse.

The next gift spoken of is, faith. We are all given faith as a gift from God to believe unto salvation. This one of the nine spiritual gifts is faith to believe for specific things, like the faith to move mountains. It is a specific faith or an impulse that gives you faith that a specific matter will be performed regardless of how much the odds are stacked against you.

The next is, the “gift of healing” which is the ability to pray and see the sick healed. Healing is God speeding up the natural process of health and deliverance.

Then the “working of miracles” which is a case where God overrides the laws of nature, like when a stage four cancer patient who is dying is healed, or a person that doesn’t have a limb and one is created for them. Another is casting out devils or even inflicting judgements upon people like in the case of Ananias and Saphira.

Next, the “gift of prophecy” is spoken of. It refers to predicting future events whether it be for individuals or a nation. This is not merely preaching, but rather a specific revelation for a specific situation, outside of the Scriptures.

“Discerning of spirits” is a gift that really explains itself. This gift is, a particular sensitivity to spirits and can detect when there are demonic forces and even the type of demon that is working in a particular situation; or the person is able to detect clearly the work of the Spirit of God in a particular situation, more-so than what any believer would normally have.

Then, two of the nine spiritual gifts that go together are spoken of which is: “divers tongues” and the “interpretation of tongues”. The word tongues simply denotes language(s). This is God supernaturally enabling speakers to speak in a language that they do not know or understand. The interpretation of tongues is the ability to interpret languages that are spoken, but you do not know. In modern Pentecostal movements you will see that someone raises up in the service and speaks in an unknown language and then another interprets that language. Sadly, this is often a manufactured sort of thing that has no foundation in the genuine gifts of the Spirit. In the book of Acts the 120 in the upper room were given the ability to preach of the great works of God in languages unknown to them, and others from other nations could clearly understand. It didn’t need any interpretation in those instances. Other times, perhaps, in an American service, someone is given the ability to speak Arabic and then someone raises up and gives the interpretation in English to the people.

In verse 11, Paul says that all these are given by the same Spirit who distributes them to each one individually as he wills. The gifts are for the whole body and operate when and upon whom the Spirit falls. All these gifts are for us today; we are not in a Pentecostal age and operating them as the Pentecostals of the past have. The Bride is to operate them in order, in the humble way that God ordained them in the beginning.

[1] Cab 03, Ephesian, 3 – The Ephesian Church Age, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[2] 50-0810, Expectations, Rev. William Marrion Branham

Jason DeMars