God told us He would grant spiritual gifts. They can not be earned or merited, they are bestowed by God and are actual manifestations of the Spirit and have nothing to do with a person’s ‘giftedness’. This is different from the anointing He grants to us all. 1 Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians and 1 Peter all speak to the natural and miraculous spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit empowers us with. But the caveat to spiritual gifts is that they do not benefit us, they are only instilled to benefit others. While Paul did not list all the spiritual gifts, those he did share can be categorized as “gifts of knowledge” (word of wisdom, word of knowledge, distinguishing between spirits), “gifts of speech” (tongues, interpretation, prophecy), and “gifts of power” (faith, healing, miracles).

Since the age of 13, I have recognized the spiritual gift of knowledge/wisdom placed in me. Without any trial of my own, my heart and mind can distinguish spirits rapidly. My soul feels a sickness when the eyes of evil are near and there’s a tenderness present when God’s hand is upon a life. Its a ‘knowing’ that I can’t explain but can detect so clearly. I have used this to decipher those God is ‘calling me to’ and those ‘to stay clear of’. I cannot claim the spiritual gift of knowledge, but there have been instances that knowledge has been delivered to me… where I know of things to come in the lives of others or things past that I would otherwise have no way of knowing. I also cannot claim the word of wisdom, but I can say that many elders have spoken of a wisdom in my words that raises eyebrows.

The challenge to be given a gift like this from God is how to use it in reverence to those who may not understand or don’t care to understand. I can honestly say not many Christians even understand the complexity of spiritual gifts. While some gifts can be praised, others are chastised. I’m not sure if it’s an unbelief that the gift exists in such a person or if it’s just a lack of belief in the bible in general. I have been shunned, sneared at, put down and looked at as a liar for the knowledge I have been given. I wonder if our ‘selfish’ nature makes for an unbelieving society… that because we know our own selfishness and evil desires, we choose not to believe in a spiritual gift to protect ourselves from a possibility. So are we saving ourselves from a possibility of evil or the possibility of experiencing God?