Spiritual gift is a decisively important subject among churches today because it is an endowment from the Lord for us. The topic is definitively needed in our church ministry personal ministry, evangelism etcetera and a lot of it has to deal with edification, building up one another. And to miss that it’s such a shame. And that’s why today we want to make it very clear so that we can all be encouraged to pursue spiritual gift that God has given to us for the tasks of the ministry of the gospel.

• 1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV)
• 14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

Paul wrote to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts first Cor 14 especially the gift of prophecy. As I wrote earlier in my podcast, the absolute majority of churches today remain very silent about spiritual gift, tacitly in essence do not endorse spiritual gifts. Which is a sad news. That’s right and the reason is most pastors do not believe in the continuation of spiritual gifts as in a lot of the reformed churches, they are neutral about it but they don’t know what to do with them because it is controversial especially prophecy and tongues. And the other reason of course, they themselves do not possess those gifts. In the Pentecostal charismatic churches however they do exercise healing and prophecy to some extent, but a lot more should be taught with good grounding theology.

Jack Deere wrote, “Some fear that because the Holy Spirit gives gifts just as he wills, it is useless to pray for gifts. But this is both a misunderstanding of God’s sovereignty as well as a misunderstanding of the scriptures. God is sovereign. He does everything just as he wills [see Ephesians 1:11]. But this does not mean that our actions have no effect on God. We can grieve God (Eph 4: 30 ) and we can delight God (Psalm147: 11).” [1]

¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will

• Psalm 147:10–11 (ESV)
• ¹⁰    His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
• nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
• ¹¹    but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
• in those who hope in his steadfast love.

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love. You see God responds to those who put they have faith and hope in him and fear him. If you are passive and do nothing about reaching out to God, he is not going to respond. He responds and he likes, did you see that, he delights or takes pleasure in those who actively seek him, fear him and hope in his unfailing love.

James also wrote, you do not have because you do not ask God, James 4:2. Jack Deere writes, “Ultimately, the reconciliation of divine sovereignty and effective human prayers is a mystery. The scripture teaches both. So, pray for the gifts you want, because your prayers may affect the Holy Spirit’s desire to give you gifts.” [2]

Jack Deere is absolutely right as he writes, “The Holy Spirit give gifts “just as he determines” also encourages readers to pray for new spiritual gifts for themselves. If someone speaks in tongues, he or she should pray for interpretation first Corinthians 14:13, which is also a spiritual gift, see 1 Cor 12:10. God is answering prayers today for spiritual gifts. If you want to give the prophecy, pray for it.”

That’s why the sovereignty of God and our prayers is a mysterious combo that we should leave his sovereignty to God, and what we need to do now is to ask and use them and not being passive about it.

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[1] Jack Deere, The Beginner’s Guide to the gift of Prophecy, (Grand Rapids, MN: Chosen Books, 2002), p 33

[2] Ibid