The second grouping of the spiritual gifts is Other Ministry Gifts. Read Romans 12:6-13:1 Corinthians 12:28. Included in this group are (KJV) 1) Ministering or serving; 2) Teaching; 3) Exhorting; 4) Giving; 5) Ruling or Governments; 6) Showing Mercy; 7) Helps.

The Gift of Ministering or Serving

“...if it is to serve, we should serve” (Romans 12:7). In the KJV, the word for serve is “minister” or “ministering”. The word ministering is used several other times in the Greek New Testament (2 Corinthians 8:4 KJV). “Praying as with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of ministering to the saints.” In this case a group of people from the church in Macedonia wanted Paul and those who worked with him to join them in supplying the needs of some believers who were going through hard times. In 2 Corinthians 9:1 (KJV). “For as touching the ministering to the saints”... the idea here is the same as in 2 Corinthians 8:4. We can conclude that the gift of ministering generally has to do with serving the needs of others. In Acts 9:36-41 is the story of Dorcas. She had the gift of ministering. “She spent all her time doing good and helping the poor.” She sewed garments for poor widows. When she died “All the widows crowded around him (Peter), crying and showing him all the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made while she was alive.” Dorcas probably had natural talent for sewing and garment-making. Then, God by His Holy Spirit, added to her talent and deep concern for people in need. The result was the gift of ministering. Almost any natural talent can become a gift of ministering. This can happen if the person with the talent is filled with the Holy Spirit. Example... a person with the talent for singing. Singing is not a gift of ministering. It is a talent. Yet, when the person with the talent is filled with the Holy Spirit, his talent can become a gift of ministering. The gift of ministering is given to meet the need of people both inside and outside the body. One of the most effective ways of winning people to Christ is, first, through ministering to their needs.

Another illustration of how the gifts overlap and work together is found in John 9 where Jesus healed a blind man. The blind man had a great need, and Jesus ministered to it. Then Jesus, having won his confidence, said to him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?” (John 9:35-36, KJV). What Jesus had done for the man in ministering to his physical need made him ready to believe. Jesus operated in the gifts of ministry. Anyone of the five-fold members should be able to do this, but let us say Jesus operated here as an evangelist. In the other ministry gifts Jesus used the gift of ministering (serving) and possibly showing mercy (He had compassion). In the gifts of the spirit (supernatural gifts) He used the gifts of healing (some might include the gift of miracles); it makes no difference because it flows out of the same spirit. I believe this illustration shows us clearly how the gifts can operate and how God would like to see them operate.

The Gift of Teaching

The difference between the pastor/teacher and the gift of teaching is that the pastor/teacher is in the gifts of ministry or leadership ministry and the gift of teaching is not limited to certain church leaders. Any member of the body of Christ could have the teaching gift. Some are naturally talented to teach. When a person who has this talent is filled with the Holy Spirit, it is very possible he will discover that his talent has become a gift of teaching.

“...if it is to teach, we should teach” (Romans 12:7). Teaching as it is used here means showing how to do certain things; training, educating. Therefore, the gift of teaching means 1) the gift of showing others how to do certain things,; 2) the gift of training others how to do certain things; and, 3) the gift of educating others, including giving knowledge. Teaching can be done by example. Paul wrote to the pastor/teacher, Titus, about this in Titus 2:3-5. Part of Titus’ work was to teach. He was to teach the older women how to teach the younger women. He was to do this by showing the older women how to be good examples to the younger women.

Teaching can be done by imparting knowledge. Those who impart knowledge by teaching the Word are making faith possible. The gift of teaching can be in operation when a parent gives the meaning of the Word of God to his children, or a Sunday school or Bible school teacher is teaching a class, or when a friend disciples another person. The function of teaching is to impart knowledge. The purpose is to develop faith, making right living and doing possible. Teaching lays a good foundation for faith.

The Gift of Exhorting

“...if it is to encourage others, we should do so” (Romans 12:8). The word for encourage in the KJV is “exhort”. Exhortation serves many useful purposes in the body of Christ. Almost every believer needs to be exhorted often; some people, more often, as they face life’s trials and tests. The purpose for the gift is to call believers to a closer walk with God, and to develop the saints for the work of the ministry. We can continually see how the gifts constantly overlap for the same purpose; for the benefit of the body. Some examples in scripture: 1) to be faithful and true to the Lord (Acts 11:23), 2) to continue in the faith (Acts 14:22), 3) to perform a certain task (2 Corinthians 9:5), 4) to abound more and more in pleasing the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:1), 5) to warn the unruly, to comfort the feeble minded, to support the weak, to be patient toward all men, to not render evil for evil, to follow that which is good (1Thessalonians 5:14-15), 6) to work and eat their own bread (2 Thessalonians 3:12), 7) to make supplication, prayer, and intercession for all men (1 Timothy 2:1), 8) to be sober-minded (Titus 2:6), 9) to contend for the faith (Jude 3). All these Scriptures together give us a good idea of the meaning of exhorting. Almost every Spirit-filled believer can have the gift of exhorting. Hebrews 3:13 states, “You must help one another everyday.” The KJV says, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called today.”

The Gift of Giving

This is a gift of God which enables a believer to freely and generously give of what he has to meet the needs of other people and God’s work. It relates to our money, time, strength, and talents. “First they (the Macedonians) gave themselves to the Lord; and then, by God’s will they gave themselves to us as well” (2 Corinthians 8:5). In 1 Kings 17:8-16 there is a story about Elijah, the prophet, who went to see a widow woman during a time of famine. Elijah asked her to use all she had and make a loaf of bread for him. (An immature Pastor would criticize the prophet for being too insensitive when Elijah knew the principles of God’s word and was teaching her how to obey the Spirit of God and learn how to give.) “I want to see profit added to your account” (that is in heaven) Philippians 4:17. We lay the foundation for the gift of giving when we obey God as we give. The gift of giving does not just drop out of heaven into our hearts. To receive it like the other gifts, we must act/obey. We must give of what we have. The prophet, operating on divine love instead of an immature pastor’s human love, taught this widow that by giving to God of what she had, her own needs were supplied, for she had plenty of flour and oil to last until the famine was ended. The special purpose for the gift of giving is to supply the needs of the body of Christ to meet the needs of its members.

The Gift of Ruling

“Whoever has authority should work hard” (Romans 12:8). Authority is called ruling in the KJV; ruling means standing before; presiding. In 1 Corinthians 12:28 the gift of ruling is called the gift to direct. In the KJV the word for direct is government. This gift is given to certain members of the body for the purpose of standing before (leading) the body, for presiding over the body, and for directing the body.

Not all believers are to be rulers, but there must be some. Those who have this gift are given special ability to organize, to manage, and to lead. “If a man is eager to be a church leader (bishop in the KJV) he desires an excellent work (1 Timothy 3:1). There are qualifications the church rulers must have within their characters (1 Timothy 3:1-13), or else the immaturity of the ruler will prevent him from doing an adequate job. These Scriptures cover both the gifts of ministry ruler and the lay church ruler (deacon, elder, divisional, sectional, life leader ).

Because government (organization) within the body of Christ is necessary, the need for the gift of ruling is easily understood. One minister once told me “too much organization interferes with the work of God.” I responded “no, but not qualified rulers.” This pastor responded “but the Assemblies of God are so organized around the world they stop evangelism.” I responded, “The Assemblies of God have been in existence now for about eighty years. They are the strongest missionary organization in the entire world. They send out more missionaries than any other mission organization in the world. Part of their success goes to their organization throughout the mission. Where they are failing is not the organization, but it is in their relationship with God. They are not seeking (coveting) God first; consequently, they are not using or developing in the gifts of the Spirit, so God’s direct influence throughout the whole movement is lacking from the leadership/rulers on down. That is where the Assemblies of God are going wrong. I said, “we (CCC) might have a certain amount of spiritual zeal that the Assemblies of God need, but we do not effectively operate our organization and thus we have major problems”. I mentioned that if we had effective organization where people were following proper lines of authority with the direction of the Holy Spirit, then we would be most effective.

I did not tell the following to this minister; that one of our problems within our organized structure is that we are not following it because we either have the wrong people ruling where they themselves are not called or qualified (one does not have the supervisor of vehicle repair supervise the surgical operation of heart surgery), or the rulers are not at a level of maturity to govern. Moses placed men over tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands. One does not have an immature person filling the role in the gifts of ministry over a mature apostle or prophet. The immature person, whether he is truly called of God to be in the gifts of ministry as a pastor/teacher, cannot effectively rule. He will operate in human love, not divine love. His lack of spiritual qualifications (not growing or operating in the gifts of the Spirit called discerning of spirits, word of knowledge, faith,) will always cause problems within the structure he rules because he is not spiritually qualified to develop those saints (missionaries) under him for effective ministry. In reality he needs to be under someone for development. His immaturity will cause him to operate in human love and pride where he is not open for counsel. Some people who have the gift of ruling do not have the gift of ministry. They need to be ruling people under a ruler in the gifts of ministry or else within their own portfolio. For example, have them ruling people in the talent/gift as explained earlier. If an accounting is their talent turned gift, then let them be over people in accounting. If church organization such as charts, graphs, etc. is their talent in administration, then keep them over an office that specializes in that area, but do not try to transfer or confuse that talent/gift with one of spiritual development in the ruling position of the gifts of ministry.

The Gift of Showing Mercy

“...whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully” (Romans 12:8). Kindness in the KJV is “mercy”. Mercy means compassion or to sympathize. There is a great need to have this gift manifested through the life of the believer to fellow believers within the body and to the unbeliever.
Examples of how Jesus manifested some of the other gifts first through the gift of mercy:
1) “As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity (compassion, KJV) for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
2) “When he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them and he healed those who were ill.” (Matthew 14:14).
3) “Jesus had pity on them and touched their eyes.” (Matthew 20:34).
4) “Jesus was filled with pity and stretched out his hand and touched him.” (Mark 1:41).
5) “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days and now have nothing to eat.” (Mark 8:2).
6) “When the Lord saw her, his heart was filled with pity for her, and he said to her, Don’t cry.” (Luke 7:13). Some other gifts of the Spirit that were manifested because of this gift of mercy which falls under the grouping of spiritual gifts called other ministry gifts were the gift of faith, gifts of healing, and gift of miracles. The function of the gift of showing mercy is to enable believers to feel with and for others, and to sympathize with them. The purpose of the gift of mercy is to show the needy mercy by actually standing by and helping in times of need. Again, I believe these gifts are parts of God’s composition that we are supposed to grow into as Christians developing into perfection.

The Gift of Helps

“In the church God has put...those...to help others.” (1 Corinthians 12:28). Help means relief or assistance. The gift of helps is that gift by which a believer is enabled by the Holy Spirit to relieve or assist another by helpful deeds. Once again, any member of the body can develop this part of God’s nature.
1) “Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the believers in Ephesus helped him by writing to the believers in Achaia.” (Acts 18:27). Another translation suggests that the believers “encouraged” Apollos; also, an example of helping.
2) “Greetings also to Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ’s service.”
In prayer? Did they sew garments for Paul and his group? The gift of helps also includes menial tasks. In the early church a special name was given to women with the gift of helps. They were called deaconesses. “I recommend to you our sister Phoebe, who serves the church.” (Romans 16:1). The Greek word for serves, is “deaconess”. The men who had special gifts of helps were called deacons. “Those helpers (deacons KJV) who do their work well win for themselves a good standing.” (1 Timothy 3:13). The purpose for the gift is to help get the actuarial work done to extend God’s kingdom.

(Excerpts from “Spiritual Gifts” by Robert L. Brandt)

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE

World Ministries International (WMI) is The Church Without Walls
Read Jeremiah 14:11-16, Ezekiel 13:1-10, Ezekiel 14:13-20,
Ezekiel 22:1-31, Nahum 3:19, Jeremiah 30:12-15

Some people like to quote Daniel, suggesting that he stood in the gap, which is true. So did Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Noah and many others, but the judgments fell anyway. The population was destroyed in Noah’s time, but Noah and his family were saved by obeying God. The nation of Israel was taken into slavery. Daniel himself went into slavery, being taken to Babylon. Even though they all stood in the gap, unless the people themselves repented as the people of Nineveh did, the nation fell. God honored Daniel, and he became a leader in Babylon, but Israel was in slavery. Standing in the gap means more than praying. These men did more than just pray. They sounded the alarm! They warned the people in the nation that they must repent or suffer the consequences of their continued disobedience. They prayed, fasted, preached and the Holy Spirit convicted, but if the people of the nation did not themselves repent, judgment fell anyway. Moses stood in the gap, but the people died in the wilderness, never receiving the promises of God because of their continued sins.

People, we must continue to stand in the gap, pray, fast, and warn people to repent. If they ignore us, judgment will fall, but God will honor the believers who are righteous. God be with you. God wants the Church in America to understand His holiness and righteousness so deep that when judgment falls on the Whore and America’s de-christianized nation, they will rejoice, for this is an act of mercy and grace for repentance to come. America’s economy will crash overnight and eventually will be led by the Whore and the Beast of Revelation. The Church will rejoice when Jesus judges them both and returns! (Rev. 19:19-20)

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