The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: - Vital Christianity

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harmony with the God of the Bible, whose plans are eternal, to suppose that his spiritual gifts
dovetail with his natural endowments? Barnabas (Acts 4:36), who exercises his particular
ministry both by generous giving (Acts 4:37) and by personal friendship (e.g. Acts 9:26-27;
11:25-26), was already that kind of person, at least potentially, by creation?
“In this case we must look for the peculiarities of the spiritual gift of teaching and
encouragement in the heightening, the intensification, the ‘Christianizing’ of a
natural endowment already present, or at least latent. That a man may be a gifted
teacher before his conversion, and may after it be given the charisma of teaching to
enable him to expound with insight, clarity and relevance. . . .” 7
It is no accident that converted salesmen often make good evangelists. God is not
capricious. Although we must not limit the sovereign working of the Spirit, yet we
may normally expect some correspondence between a person’s ‘native’ abilities
and personality traits--latent or developed--and the spiritual gifts God will bring
forth in him.
However, the possession of natural talent doesn’t mean God will necessarily choose
to use it. Likewise, the Holy Spirit may choose to give a gift to someone lacking
natural aptitude in that line. A young man who stuttered seriously told his parent he
was called of God to preach. Though they ridiculed and threatened to withhold
financial help, he persisted till he became an effective youth evangelist. The Spirit
may well assign a gift of preaching to someone without natural speaking ability.
Someone may ask, ‘Is teaching a natural or a spiritual gift?’ For a non-Christian it’s a
talent. But when that person becomes a Christian, the Spirit may intensify that talent
with a supernatural power, heighten, reinforce, and transcend it with a divine plus,
to the edification of the saints.
Thus, spiritual gifts by their supernatural source, nature, and purpose, are to
be differentiated from natural talents, though often they may be interrelated.” 8
GIFTS FOR EFFECTIVE SERVICE
David Hubbard describes service that is Christian:
“Service begins with our humility.
Done in pride, service becomes display.
Done for reward, it becomes bribery.