Gifts of the Holy Spirit in Ministry

by Norma Dearing
Summer 1999

In the last edition of The Healing Line, I began an article on the importance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in ministry. Gifts covered previously were wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing and miracles. In this edition, we will cover the final four: prophecy, discernment, tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

Prophecy: Paul places great emphasis on the gift of prophecy in relation to the church. "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy ... But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church" (I Cor. 14: 1 , 3–4).

The gift of prophecy is for the edification of believers first, and secondly for unbelievers. In The Holy Spirit and You, author Dennis Bennett states that Scripture gives us three ways in which prophecy ministers to believers: edification, exhortation and comfort, or building up by encouragement.

Years ago, when I was very new in the power of the Holy Spirit and knew absolutely nothing about the healing ministry, a very mature Christian woman prayed a word of prophecy over me. She prophesied that God was going to call me into the healing ministry and use me not only in the healing of others, but in teaching about the healing ministry as well.

She was very specific in describing her vision of my standing in front of people in churches teaching about healing. She said God would call me to pray for the sick and He would give me guidance and wisdom as to how to pray for these people.

I left that day perplexed, sure she had me mixed up with someone else! Evangelism was the only thing I was remotely interested in at that time. However, within five years, everything she prophesied was realized. And here I am today, Director of Prayer Ministry at CHM, where I've been on staff for 12 years.

Discernment: The gift of discernment is a supernatural gift for prayer warriors for the express purpose of ministering to those held in bondage by the enemy (oppressed, beaten down and not able to live in the fullness of life in Christ, often because the person is burdened with such things as fear, rebellion, rejection, etc.). This God–given ability enables us to distinguish whether a person is influenced by the Holy Spirit; by natural, human, psychological or created causes; or by an evil spirit.

According to Francis MacNutt's book Deliverance From Evil Spirits, discernment operates on two levels. The first is the ability to recognize the presence of an evil spirit, and the second is the ability to identify it.

Discernment is given in order to help Christians know how to best minister to a person. For example, before attempting to cast out a spirit you have discerned, bind the spirit from operating in any way. Then, pray for healing: renouncing occult involvement, repenting of sin, praying for generational healing, and praying for deep inner healing. Usually, a combination of these various forms of healing prayer are used.

It is very important to mention a word of caution here to those who may become overzealous operating in this gift. After being given discernment, it is vital to ask the Lord what you are to do with this information. Do not begin praying immediately for deliverance for a person. Above all, the person probably needs deep inner healing. We never want to do anything that would further hurt one of God's lambs.

Tongues: Much confusion about the gift of tongues exists in the church today, particularly in mainline churches, where we've only been involved in the charismatic renewal for some 30 years. There is a lot of misconception about prayer language, the gift of tongues, and the differences between the two.

Prayer language is a gift God gives to believers when they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is one of the evidences the disciples looked for in the book of Acts to see if someone had received the Holy Spirit. This is what Vicki Dearing describes in her article in this issue of The Healing Line.

Prayer language is distinguishable from the gift of tongues Paul talks about in I Cor. 14:27. Paul says there should be no more than two or three occasions where tongues are used in a meeting, and then only with interpretation. That's different from prayer language.

When we talk about "the gift of tongues," we are speaking about the public manifestation of tongues, which should be interpreted. This gift edifies others by the gift of interpretation which follows.

There are two ways the gift of tongues can be a sign. The first is that the message and the interpretation have such a powerful impact that the listener is profoundly affected, seeing it as a definite sign from God. The second is that the tongue may be God speaking directly to a person in a language known to the listener but unknown to the person speaking, such as Chinese, Swahili or Slovak. This is what happened in Acts on the day of Pentecost: "Are not all these men Galileans? ... how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ... we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues" (Acts 2:8–11 ).

Interpretation of Tongues: When the gift of tongues is used at a public meeting, the interpretation of the tongues is given afterward to bring meaning and understanding for the group. Interpretation of tongues is similar to prophecy in that its purpose is also "edification, exhortation or comfort" (1Cor. 14:3–5).

Interpretation of tongues is a transitory gift: it may be given only at a certain time for a certain situation. These gifts are Holy Spirit–inspired and Holy Spirit–directed.

My father–in–law, the late Father Frank Dearing, used to say the gifts of the Holy Spirit were like carrying tools in a tool box. As God gave you a particular job to accomplish in His kingdom, you were to utilize the necessary tool for the job. The important thing in the healing ministry is to have access to these necessary tools and gifts of the Spirit.

Many people do not operate in some of these gifts because they have never asked for them. These are serving gifts to be used in ministry to God's people, but some of us experience fear or anxiety at the very thought of prophesying or interpreting an unknown tongue. The real question is: Are you available to step out and be used by God, empowered by the Holy Spirit to promote healing to a broken world?

"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?" (Matthew 7:11)

Norma Dearing is the Director of Prayer Ministry at CHM.