BACK
question is: "Has a person got one of these gifts or not" ?. It is simply a question of fact. A person may have faith as a gift as we see from the next chapter v.2. This is more than just the faith that a person has when he believes in Jesus for it involves removing mountains. There is also a list of gifts in Ephesians 4:11 and it is to be noted here that the gifts are those which will edify persons spiritually rather than gifts which relate to physical things such as healing of the body. Spiritual building up is more important than physical benefits, for the reason that the consequences of the former are eternal.

What we have said above amounts to this:-

1) We cannot expect spiritual gifts unless we are in a right state to receive them whether individually or corporately (Acts 10:44-48 and 15:8/9).

(2) We cannot expect spiritual gifts unless we are going to use them properly (1 Cor. 14:1-33).

(3) We cannot expect spiritual gifts except when the Lord chooses to give them, which is when he considers them to be beneficial to his Assembly (Ephesians 4:7-16).

We must not despise the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10). There is always the tendency to want to do and see great things when we should be accepting the limitations of the day in which we live (Ezekiel 17:1-10), just as sometimes we would want to deny God the right to act powerfully when it is his will to do so (2 Kings 13:14-19).

Sometimes there is the thought that persons are not healed because they have not sufficient faith. This may lead to persons trying to persuade themselves that they are going to get better. That is not really faith, but simply forcing themselves to think in a certain way. Persons may be suffering because of their own folly or sin (see 1 Corinthians 11:30-32). God may also allow persons to suffer to perfect his work in them (Hebrews 12:1-11). In such cases it may not be right to seek relief from the suffering, but to seek grace to go through it (2 Corinthians 12:9). In any case unless the Lord comes we shall all leave this scene sooner or later by way of death and any physical healing that takes place will in any event be only temporary. However, we shall all effectively be healed by receiving new bodies when Christ comes as these will be bodies of glory (Philippians 3:20-21) not subject to the infirmities of the present ones.

July 2000