The Bible doesn’t categorise the spiritual gifts, we just get given some (possibly not exhaustive) lists. But sometimes it is helpful to use a framework of categories to aid understanding. I have recently heard them broken into the categories of word, power and love. I don’t find this very helpful personally, but what I’m about to outline sits fine alongside that framework. A number of conversations I’ve been in about the gifts of the Spirit lately have been full of confusion (my own included). I’ve followed these up with a whole heap of other conversations and reading the scriptures to try and put my finger on what is confusing. I had a good conversation with my mum. I put forward this idea of 3 levels (which is how she talks about it and I found incredibly helpful) as a way of disambiguating some of the sticky points.
The issues
In my mind the issues that have come up have been ones about ‘what counts as having this spiritual gift vs just having a talent/skill/learnt ability?’ ‘how are we to understand the idea of different measures of a gift?’ ‘what about spiritual disciplines? Do spiritual gifts not invalidate those?’
Perhaps there are others. Perhaps only I am confused. But this helps me. I’ll outline what I’m talking about, illustrate it with some examples and circle back to these questions.
Three levels
God gives gifting on three levels. On level 1 there is gifting that everyone has access to by nature of being saved and baptised in the Spirit. On level 2 there is spontaneous, individual and powerful anointings of the Holy Spirit. Both these levels are freely available to all of us. We should desire the gifts, pray for them and seek to grow in them. We might experience level 2 infrequently in some gifts, and consistently in others. Some people might experience level 2 in lots of gifts, or a few. Level 2 is available to all, but not everyone will necessarily operate in each.
This is why we say that all believers can and should pursue (pray and ask God for persistently) the gift of tongues for their own private encouragement and edification, not all believers will ever share a tongue and/or interpretation in church (level 2) or speak in spontaneous other human languages. All believers are theoretically able to, but if any individual believer does is up to God. Level 1, however, is full of promises for all believers. God has already told us that all believers will be able to be led by the Spirit, hear God’s voice, speak in tongues etc etc.
Level 3 is the sort of positions found in Ephesians 4 and some other ‘offices’ that we can describe as a sort of parallel to these, but isn’t explicitly found in the Bible. This level 3 doesn’t exist for all gifts. The ones that do exist almost always have an aspect of there being a desire to equip the church in that thing.
For example, level 1 of a teaching gift is that all believers have the ability to read the Bible, be led by the Spirit to understand it and we all have a calling to minister to one another. We should all be learning from someone; we should all be involved in discipling someone. In this sense we all have a gift of teaching. The Holy Spirit enables it – it’s a gift. But we probably wouldn’t call it ‘having a teaching gift’ because it’s the normal Christian life.
Level 2 is when we see individuals who seem to have a particular (equally God-given) aptitude for reading the Bible and receiving revelation and communicating it to others. These might be people we see leading Bible studies at small-group, teaching at their CU, using their gift as a school teacher, teaching Sunday school, occasionally preaching on a Sunday as well as understanding the Bible for themselves and being active in discipling others. Level 3 is what we see in the Ephesians 4 passage where due to particular contexts and/or particular call in the lives of certain individuals it seems that God has set them aside to uniquely serve the church in this way. These people will be passionate also about equipping people on level 1 and 2. These are probably our elders and people who regularly preach on a Sunday, possibly amongst others.
Prophets is another example clearly seen in the Ephesians 4 passage. On level 1, all of us who are born again and baptised in the Spirit can hear God speaking to us and guiding us. That’s available to all of us and we should desire to grow in it. Likewise, we might be praying for a Christian friend who is, say, crying and find ourselves praying about loss, without really knowing that that is relevant and finding out afterwards that it was very apt and we had been led by the Spirit. This a sort of ‘grassroots’ prophesy that I think we should all expect to experience. Part of a naturally supernatural life. Then there would be level 2 which would be when people have distinct words and pictures etc that are for specific individuals, circumstances and for the church. This might happen frequently or infrequently, but I suppose if someone is regularly bringing prophecy like this, this might be what we describe as ‘having the gift of prophecy.’ Available to all of us, but not everyone will necessarily (the sort of mantra of group 2). There then, is also a level 3 ‘office’ of prophecy where someone perhaps has a track-record of hearing from God. Perhaps they are put in a position where they visit and serve different churches and they have a passion for equipping others to hear from God. This is what it is ‘to be a prophet’.
Healing is similar to prophecy in lots of ways. We can all pray for healing and see people healed. But some people seem to see it happen more than others, in God’s mysterious sovereignty (level 2). While there isn’t a position or office of ‘healer’ in the Ephesians 4 passage, we can perhaps imagine a helpful parallel. We do often see in churches there being people who are particularly passionate about healing: equipping the church, raising faith, praying for people. These people might go around equipping various churches in a similar way to prophets, so it might be helpful to see that there is a bit of a difference between this and the level 2 of healing. There are probably a few others that this parallel could be drawn for.
An administration gift is defined in my church as ‘steering the ship’. On level 1, we can all expect to be guided by the Spirit and we may all have differing levels of natural talent at administrating our own lives. At level 2 there will be instances where people have specific, effective, God-given strategies for various situations. Moses’ father-in-law is a great example of this. He came along and gave Moses a super specific and effective strategy for dealing with his problem that probably stretched above his own experience and understanding of the situation. I don’t think there is a level 3 for this gift, but I imagine most teams of elders look to have people with confidence and experience using this gift to have on their leadership teams. People with this gift might also find themselves in high positions in the marketplace and find God using them there. Possibly there is degrees in contexts that might give one person more influence than another, but I think this is different from there being a spiritual ‘position of administrator.’ (I talk about this a bit more below in the ‘measures’ bit.)
The gift of helps/service I think also doesn’t have a level 3. Except that we expect those who lead to be the servant of all. So we would expect all of our leaders to have a well-practiced gift and/or discipline of helps/service. It is clear to me there is a difference between level 1 and 2 of this gift because I have a desire to serve because I see Jesus doing it and because I love my brothers and sisters (the Spirit stirs all of us to desire to serve one another), but I have to fight through a lot of laziness and complacency to actually do it. Whereas others I know have an ease and a joy to doing these things that either shows evidence of a very practiced discipline, or an extra grace that God has gifted them with for these types of serving.
Apostleship is a tricky one. It is easy to see a level 3 for it (it is there in Ephesians 4 if nothing else!) Distinguishing the level 2 and 1 is a little trickier. I think at its heart, apostleship is about fathering (particularly other leaders) about laying foundations and it’s about pioneering. There’s actually an extra level of apostle I suppose – level 4, or all uppercase APOSTLE who were in the Bible. But if we talk about Apostles (level 3, capital A) who are, for us in Relational Mission, people like Stef, Mike and Morris we can see that they father other leaders, call out things they see where the foundations are wrong and help correct the foundations and help pioneer new churches, training courses etc. A level 2 ‘apostle’ (lowercase) might be someone like Dave Straughton at the New Frontiers church in Harrow who, while not an NF ‘Apostle’ does help father the church in Watford and so he acts in an apostolic way. Likewise, Angela Kemm is not an NF ‘Apostle’ but she does have an easily recognisable role travelling from church to church to help lay foundations, help people find freedom, and support leadership teams. A level 1 ‘grassroots apostle’ is perhaps even harder to identify, but maybe we see it in people who are particularly prolific in discipling others and helping them lay good spiritual foundations, who are regularly looking for places (tennis clubs, coffee shops, the school gates etc) where they can intentionally pioneer into. Some people who go on mission might have this. In a sense, my parents, who felt a call to go ahead of a team and lay foundations in a new country are functioning in an apostle-y way in a grassroots sense.
Level 2 vs 3
To avoid extra confusion, I would say that I don’t think you really need to know whether you are ultimately going to be level 2 or level 3 in many cases. I think the main difference is that level 3 is an official church position that you are invited to do and there is a sense that God has set you aside for this role, that it is to take up a large portion of your life.
An example is that I have asked God for a teaching gift and I have started regularly having opportunities to teach at my Christian Union. God seems to be blessing that. It’s clear he’s in it. It’s tempting to wonder whether I am therefore a level 2 teacher, or whether this is the start of a level 3 teaching/preaching gift. Will I one day preach regularly at church? Will I write good books? Will I lead women’s ministry? Am I going to travel around churches to teach and encourage? But really it’s irrelevant. God can do what he likes with my life and give me the contexts of influence that he pleases to. I can faithfully get on with what I currently have been given to do. Maybe it’s also practice for the future, or maybe it is what it is, and it’s completely valid and wonderful work for the Lord.
What About Talents?
I think these three levels help us to see where some gifts feel hard to distinguish from natural aptitude. For while gifts like prophecy have no secular counterpart, there are other gifts that also correspond to a natural talent or aptitude. For example, someone might be wise from personality, natural disposition, it might be learned and it might also be God given. I think we all (at level 1) operate with a mix of these going on. Being guided by the Spirit and also relying often on natural understanding and common sense. We can say someone has a spiritual gift of wisdom when they are operating at level 2 regularly.
If someone has begun to have spontaneous moments of ‘operating’ (not sure I love that word for this, but needs must) at level 2 then that might be a reason to encourage and disciple them to help them grow into it. To see if it’s something God has given them ‘as a gift’ (as it were.)
Measures
The Bible talks about measures of gifting. I find it comforting to know God will never leave me without something that I need. So I can trust him to give him any gift I need for a specific situation. So far in my life (I think) I’ve only been operating in a level 1 ‘discerning of spirits’ gift where I am sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is doing around me some of the time and occasionally I’m aware of a heaviness in an environment, or am getting better at identifying that certain thoughts in my own head are enemy thoughts. I’ve never been supernaturally aware of demons in a room or anything like that. But I know a more powerful moving in this gift is theoretically available to me and God would absolutely gift me with this in any moment he wills, if it’s his will. That might be a one off to deal with a specific situation and not happen again. Or perhaps there might be a season of this gift at some point in my life. Or maybe I will find that later in life I am consistently using this sort of ‘level 2 gifting’ and I suppose if that were to experience that I’d say ‘I have this gift’
Within level 2 there will be lots of different measures and different contexts with different levels of exposure and influence (which may or may not correspond to measure and confidence and experience). I think we should mostly take the exhortation to be faithful with what we’ve been given, understanding God will grow our gifting if he wishes to, and to be content if he doesn’t. Bigger isn’t necessarily better. And gifts are to serve those around us. So there is no value in a ‘bigger gift’ for boasting’s sake. Certainly, we can grow in confidence and experience. I think God can expand our context and influence. Maybe this amounts to a gift growing, possibly there’s a separate process of God growing a gift, but that’s His job to do if it is a thing, and not ours, so we can continue just practicing and trusting Him.
Disciplines
At level 1 it’s all a mix of gift and discipline. We should all be hoping to grow in discipline and praising God where things are easier (His grace and gifting) and praying for strength where things are hard to grow in. But none of us are excused from growing in the fruits of the Spirit and spiritual disciplines. We must all pray and grow in intercession whether or not we think we have a measure of the gift. All praying is through the Spirit and is a gift from God. But for most of us it’s also hard work. For some of us it is seasonally hard and easy. We must press on whatever state we find our prayer life in and learn and grow.
When someone has a level 2 gift (they consistently are operating at this level) in a thing, they might find they need less practice at the corresponding discipline. Someone with a gift of helps probably doesn’t need to practice it as a discipline like I do. But not all gifts have a corresponding discipline, and even where it does, there are other disciplines that become more pertinent to grow in if you are frequently operating in a gift. For example, if you’re regularly bringing directional prophetic words you might have to be really on it with the discipline of reading your Bible (to be able to weigh words well) and practicing the spiritual fruit of humility (so you don’t get big-headed or end up deflated when a prophetic word doesn’t ‘work.’) To help you use the gift well, you’ll need this foundation of disciplines. And, by stepping out with God, you inevitably end up growing in these other disciplines because God refines us as we work for him.
Final thoughts – a jumbled disclaimer? Application?
This is my current understanding and I imagine this will get refined as I pray, read my Bible and live amongst my community of believers. It felt helpful to write down my current understanding for my own clarity and to help contribute to current discussions going on around me in various circles. While this is mostly based on a conversation with my mum, probably it is based on numbers of preachers she has heard in NF (but who I cannot specify in order to give credit! Sorry if this is your idea and I stole it!). And I imagine I’ve added my own bias to what we discussed and so if there is heresy, it is my mistake of interpretation or expression and I’d love to know.
As I said, this was written with particular contexts in mind. In structure it’s a weird mix between a letter and an essay. I have written how it comes to my mind, mostly for myself, rather than directed at an exact audience. I hope, despite that, it has been accessible for those who end up reading it.
I would love this to be the start of a conversation rather than the end of it. If you have thoughts assenting or dissenting, and want to discuss them, please do get in touch. I’d love to grow in my understanding on this.
I hope also, that this will have the main application of us feeling encouraged that healing, prophesy, tongues, teaching etc etc are not for the spiritual ‘expert’ and are in fact for us, the ‘normal people’. Regardless of what ‘gifts’ we have received, the Bible promises certain things to all believers and we can all become more confident and experienced in those things.