1 Corinthians 12:8-11 Many Gifts, One Spirit
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 17, 2020 1 Corinthians 12:8-11
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
(Understanding the Text) Paul gives here examples of different gifts of the Spirit: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, and interpretation. We do not get to choose the gift we are given. We receive the gift according to the Spirit’s wisdom. Paul has already said that the purpose of these gifts is to uplift others and build the church on a strong foundation and maintain connections between believers to uplift each other. These are not selfish gifts or gifts to benefit ourselves. They are to benefit others, so understanding them needs to rest on the foundation that they are to build up believers and take the message to non-believers.
Utterance of wisdom: I think this is giving heavenly-inspired advice on what to do. For example, having church services during the virus. Is it right, or wrong for this tiny church? I don’t know. God has not given me any wisdom in this area. I just know that my 90+ year-old friend shouldn’t go. I hope someone else has this gift of wisdom. I don’t think the elder has the wisdom to decide what we should do about church service. (Note: the pastor settled the matter . . . No church service for the duration. There was no need for a gift of wisdom because there was another method of deciding.)
Utterance of knowledge: I used to think that this was knowledge from studying, but I now know that it has to do with just knowing something without having anything to base it on. For example, when Pastor Lee Venden talked about when the Spirit told him that he needed to call a certain person at a certain time in his YouTube series “All About Jesus.”
Faith: I used to think that this meant my own faith, but if the gifts are for other people, then this must have something to do with imparting faith to others. This may have to do with the ability to encourage others to trust God. It may also have to do with acting out in faith trusting God to bring success even when there is no sign of success at the time of acting.
Healing: This one is fairly obvious from the examples in the Bible. However, it may also mean the gift of emotional healing, which would be less obvious.
Miracles: These would be the non-healing signs, like when Paul caused the magician to be temporarily blind.
Prophecy: This gift is telling the future, but it is also simply giving messages from God to people. Sometimes, we need to hear God’s message from someone else so that we don’t self-doubt. It is not having knowledge without any basis in our experience; that is a different gift. Prophecy is exhortation and presenting judgments from God and warning away from actions that God doesn’t want us to do and encouragement that the present reality is not going to be our reality.
Distinguish between spirits: I may have this gift, but unfortunately, I have no confidence in my knowledge, so I didn’t warn the church when I should have. I was protected, but the church wasn’t. I’m sorry. Help me to have confidence in You the next time.
Tongues: I don’t have this gift. I need to study Spanish more so that I can speak it without the Spirit’s gift.
Interpretation: I think this has to do with running into a situation where people of another language are trying to communicate something, but there is no shared language. The interpreter understands and relays the message to others.
(Revelation of God) God deals with each of us uniquely. He gives us the tools that we need, but He spreads them out among the various church members. I think that this is because He wants us to depend on each other. He values each of us uniquely, and He wants to teach us to value each other, regardless of our differences, our strengths, and our weaknesses. In some ways, I feel like we are a complex puzzle that God has put together so that we may learn how to fit with each other even though we would have never naturally gravitating together without the leading of God.
(Application / Prayer) These were gifts that were needed in the early church. We may need a different combination of gifts nowadays. Thus, these gifts are not as prominent now as they were then. However, some other gifts might be more prominent. Unfortunately, we don’t notice these gifts much and don’t have confidence, just like I didn’t realize that the gift of discerning spirits was important for the church when that knowledge was given to me. We don’t know how to listen to You. Help me to listen and act on Your leading.