Maturity in the use of gifts
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: Spiritual leaders should not suppress teaching about spiritual gifts as it robs people of a valuable resource. However, there needs to be a balanced approach to their use and we need mature leaders who can guide believers in their proper use. There is much abuse of the gifts, and we need apostolic correction to establish a nuanced framework for their healthy functioning. Gifts are not an end in themselves and need a framework of love and wisdom to function properly. We should not be dazzled by the gifts but subject them to the principles of Scripture and the understanding of God within us.
A serious mistake a spiritual leader can make is to suppress teaching about spiritual gifts, or to teach his congregation that gifts are not for our time. This robs them of the greatest resource that God has provided for the effectiveness and vitality of his people.
It is urgently required, however, that God's people rescue the biblical, balanced use of the gifts, and lift them out of the extremes of both fanaticism and denial in which we have now plunged them.
Spiritual leaders with a mature understanding and experience of the gifts and mysteries of the Spirit are required as never before. We urgently need pastors and teachers capable of introducing believers to the healthy use of the entire armor of God. That knowledge will allow them to stand firm against the devil's wiles, and effectively carry out the tasks God has assigned them.
Sadly, there is much abuse regarding the use of the gifts in a large section of God's people throughout the world. Admittedly, much of what passes for prophecy, spiritual warfare, and apostolic ministry today is far from it.
It must be emphasized that we are desperately in need of truly apostolic correction regarding the biblical use of the gifts. In 2 Chronicles 18 we are shown how the gift of prophecy can be totally abused and distorted. If we learn anything from that passage, it is that there are true prophetic gifts and false prophetic gifts. Zedekiah, who builds iron horns to encourage Ahab to go to war against Ramoth-Gilead, is the very essence of the false prophet, self-deluded into the idea that he possesses a true gift, but, in reality, sadly subject to the diabolical deception.
We need sound instruction that teaches the proper balance between the gifts and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, and that establishes a complex and nuanced biblical framework for the healthy functioning of the gifts in God's people. That was what motivated the apostle Paul to write chapters 13 and 14 of 1 Corinthians, for example.
Gifts are not an end in themselves. They need a framework of love and wisdom to function properly. Let us not be dazzled by the gifts, becoming their servants. Let us hold them to the other principles of Scripture. And let's subject them to the understanding of God within us. God's move occurs within a framework of order and discipline. After all, as the Apostle Paul makes clear, "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" (1 Corinthians 14:32).