The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: - Vital Christianity

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Purpose: Service
THE GIFTS OF HELPS (I Cor. 12:28) and SERVICE (Rom. 12:7)
Description: The ability to serve the physical needs of the body of Christ in a way that
strengthens others spiritually.
“The special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to invest
the talents they have in the life and ministry of other members of the body, thus enabling
the person helped to increase the effectiveness of his or her spiritual gifts.” 1
The word for “helps” (antiepsis means “to aid and assist another in need.” The word “help” is
used in Scripture to refer to assisting the poor, weak and sick (Acts 20:35; Lk. 1:53, 54).
This was also a technical word used in the field of banking and refers to the administration of
money. 2 This gift, then, would be closely associated with the gift of giving and mercy.
“A deeper understanding of this word can be determined from a Greek noun:
antilambanomai which describes the acceptance between a person being helped
and another person giving the help. This implies not an objective, passive association
between the giver and the receiver, but a deeper reciprocal relationship. The ‘receiver’
offers himself as does the giver in the same opportunity to minister. The stem of the
word lambano describes receiving something through the senses, an active and lively
experience.” 3
“This gift is the ability not only to aid or assist objectively a person in need, but also to be
mutually benefitted (built up or edified) by the needy person in what he brings to the relationship,
thus fulfilling both needs of giving and receiving.” 4
The person with these gifts is grateful for the opportunity to serve in God’s name, and he finds
fulfillment, satisfaction and blessing in helping another.
“The person with the gift of helps feels compelled to give from his talents to help
another. He delights not so much in what he is helpfully doing as in the dynamics
of the relationship between him and the helped. He rarely, if ever, questions the
legitimacy of the needed aid. He sees the person in need not as an object of charity,
but as a part of himself in the sense that they are together in the body of Christ.
He feels as though he has done something for himself when he has done it for another.” 5