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GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 20, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 42.

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GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT.

“The Gift” and “Gifts.”

KEEP ever in mind that the gifts of the Spirit are distinct from the gift of the Spirit, or “the gift of the Holy Ghost.” The latter, as intimated in past articles, comes to every child of God, in what may be called its regular order, at baptism, sometimes following baptism, and sometimes by the laying on of hands by those who have received the gift.
A most definite promise of the gift of the Spirit is found in Acts 2:38, 39, in Peter’s answer to the question from penitent hearts, “What shall we do?” His reply is: “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him.”
This is definite, explicit, positive, and general. It includes every soul that comes in the name of Jesus—emptied of self and sin—that God may fill him and fit him for service. If men fail to receive it at baptism, it is because they do not know that it is for them, or their faith does not grasp and appreciate the promise. But it is there, for every one. O, the barrenness of the church of Christ when God has such a well-spring of abundant fulness and fruitfulness awaiting her demand and reception!
In Acts 10:44 we are told that “while Peter yet spake these words [to the Gentiles, Cornelius, and his company], the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word.” This was before baptism, and also beyond Peter’s faith. It seemed necessary that God should thus work because of the limitation of Peter’s views and the Jews who were with him. He then baptized them.
In Acts 8:15–17 is a record of where the Holy Ghost was bestowed some time after baptism, by prayer and the laying on of hands.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify, cleanse, and fit for the service of God every believer. See 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thess. 2:13. But the gifts of the Spirit are the Spirit’s equipping for service, not as the believer will, but as the Spirit will, “dividing to every man severally as He will.” 1 Cor. 12:11. Whether we shall be “by one Spirit” “baptized into one body,” “the body of Christ,” is a matter of our will. We may be if we so desire. God longs so to baptize every one of us. But the place we are to occupy in that body is not a matter of our will, but of God’s will. By the gift of the Holy Spirit “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” (Rom. 5:5); by the gifts of the Spirit we are made ministers of that love to the needy everywhere. See 1 Peter 4:10, R.V. Blessed is he who learns these lessons.

Knowledge and Wisdom.

“For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.” These are both gifts necessary to the church. Knowledge is accumulation of facts. The gift of knowledge would be that which would more readily enable its possessor to grasp the great facts of salvation, the great truths of the Word of God. It is a most necessary gift for a preacher, or a teacher.
Wisdom applies rather to the use of what we know, the best disposition of the means at hand, rather than to an accumulation of knowledge. Cowper has beautifully expressed the difference in the following:—
“Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have oftimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place, Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.”
And yet the knowledge given by the Spirit is good. If it be coupled with wisdom in the possessor, it is better. If alone, let it possess this knowledge, to seek wisdom’s aid. How many times we find in a church a person with a wonderful grasp of knowledge! He is a prodigy of accumulated facts. He knows much of Scripture truth. And yet the knowledge never amounts to anything. He does not know how to use it himself; and sometimes he is “puffed up” and is not willing to be counseled. Such an one should lay it upon God’s altar, and ask in faith for wisdom from Him “that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5, 6. But let him be willing to humbly receive it in any way God may send it; for He may choose to send wisdom by some poor, unlettered brother upon whom the Spirit has bestowed the gift of wisdom. The wise, unlearned brother may be able to tell the brother of knowledge what to do with his knowledge, how to use it, so as to glorify God. And if one received and the other gave in the love of God, both would be helped, their hearts knit together, and the world made better.
The members of the church should prize both gifts. They should not condemn the wise brother because he has no more learning, nor the knowing brother because God gave him so little wisdom; but they should praise God for the gift of each, and that one supplements the other, even as the eye the hand, and the ear the eye; for “the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.” “There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and [by knowledge, of course] built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. . . . Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength.” How muchGod’s Word, especially the book of Proverbs, has to say of wisdom and knowledge. God’s Word is full of it. And while all may not be especially endowed with these as spiritual gifts, they may “know” God in Christ, and be “wise unto salvation.”
Other gifts of the Spirit will be considered in future numbers.