First Corinthians 12:7 says, “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable.” All the different gifts are the manifestation of the Spirit in that the Spirit is manifested in the believers who have received the gifts. Such manifestation of the Spirit is for the profit of the church, the Body of Christ; that is, for the growth in life of the members of the Body of Christ and for the building up of Christ’s Body.
In verses 8 through 10 the apostle lists nine items of the Spirit’s manifestations as an illustration. Among them, there is the word of wisdom, the word that concerns Christ as the deeper things of God, predestined by God to be our portion (1:24, 30; 2:6-10). There is also the word of knowledge, the word that imparts a general knowledge of things concerning God and the Lord (8:1-7). Furthermore, there is faith, like the faith that can remove mountains, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:2 and Mark 11:22-24. There is healing, the miraculous power for healing different diseases. There are works of power, referring to miracles, works of miraculous power other than healing, such as the case of Peter raising Dorcas from death (Acts 9:36-42). There is prophecy, which is to speak for God and to speak forth God, including foretelling and predicting. To speak for God and to speak forth God are gifts out of life, gifts developed by the growth in life; foretelling and predicting are miraculous gifts and have nothing to do with life. There is the discerning of spirits, which is to distinguish the Spirit that is out of God from those spirits that are not out of God (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 4:1-3). There are also the various kinds of tongues, referring to proper languages or dialects (Acts 2:4, 6, 8, 11) either of men or of angels (1 Cor. 13:1), not meaningless voices or sounds. Finally, there is the interpretation of tongues, referring to the gift to make the unknown tongues known, understandable (14:13).
Although Paul lists nine manifestations of the Spirit, the manifestation of the Spirit by the believers is more than nine items. Of these nine items, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are listed as the last two, because they are not as profitable as the other items for the building up of the church (vv. 2-6, 18-19). Of these gifts, prophecy as prediction, faith, gifts of healing, works of power, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues are miraculous. The rest-a word of wisdom (like the word of the apostles), a word of knowledge (like the word of the teachers), speaking for God and speaking forth God in prophecy by the prophets, and discerning of spirits-are gifts developed by the growth in life (3:6-7), like those listed in Romans 12:6-8, out of the inward, initial gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:7.
First Corinthians 12:11 says, “The one and the same Spirit operates all these things, distributing to each one respectively even as He purposes.” The Spirit not only distributes and manifests but also operates. To operate is to move, to manifest the function. The life-giving Spirit works within us to cause us to have the manifestation of gifts and thus make us proper, functioning members in the Body. Moreover, the one Spirit operates all the various aspects of His manifestation, distributing them to many believers individually, the many members of the Body, for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose to build up the church, the Body of Christ, for His expression.
Hebrews 3:7-8 says, “Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of trial in the wilderness.’” Here, the Holy Spirit quoted the word in the Old Testament to warn us not to come short of the promised rest. The children of Israel, as people of God, are a type of us, the New Testament believers. Their entire history is a prefigure of the church. The Holy Spirit used the history of the defeat of the children of Israel to warn us not to repeat their failure so that we lose the Sabbath rest which God has prepared for us, that is, the participation in and enjoyment of Christ as our rest in the church age and in the millennium.
In the book of Revelation we see that the Spirit speaks to the churches (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13). Revelation 2:7 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” At the beginning of each of the seven epistles in chapters two and three, it is the Lord who speaks (2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). But at the end of all seven epistles, it is the Spirit who speaks to the churches (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). This not only indicates that the Spirit is the Lord and the Lord is the Spirit, but it also emphasizes that in the darkness of the church’s degradation the Spirit is vitally important. The One who speaks to us today is not the outward, objective Christ but the inward, subjective Christ. He speaks not only in the letters of the Bible but also in our spirit. Whenever we hear His speaking, Christ is wrought into us.
On the one hand, each of the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3 is the word of the Lord to a particular church; on the other hand, it is a word of the Spirit to all the churches. Hence, every church should give heed not only to the epistle written to her particularly but also to all the epistles written to the other churches. Because the Spirit today is speaking to the churches, we need to be in the churches in order to be rightly positioned to hear the Spirit’s speaking.
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