The following is a brief description of spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament. There is no way of knowing if this list is complete as there may be other gifts not named in the Bible, but is a good place to start in understanding how God may have gifted a person.

Read more: Spiritual Gifts of the New Testament

The New Testament talks about spiritual gifts in several places, yet the knowable facts surrounding them are few. On the other hand, there is a whole lot of opinion that is often taught as fact regarding gifts. Some may wonder, “Is it important to speak in the tongue of angels?” What language do angels speak anyway? As far as I can prove Biblically they speak Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek. I can guarantee that many who claim this gift do not speak (or pray in) any of those languages. So how do we separate the fact from the fiction? We have to go back to the Word of God.

Read more: Spiritual Gifts: Fact and Opinion

The subject of man’s will is fraught with peril because it has and does change throughout the course of our life on this planet. In the beginning, before the fall of man, Adam and Eve were inclined toward righteousness. This means that their will was for those things that drew them into relationship with God. After the fall their will was inclined toward rebellion from God. Unregenerate man inherits this bent of the will toward rebellion and error and is powerless to resist it, unless he submits to Jesus. Regenerate man has a unique position; still inclined to rebellion due to the sin nature, we are empowered by God’s Spirit in us to choose otherwise. The more we choose truth over error, righteousness over sinfulness, love over apathy our will changes from one bent toward rebellion to one inclined toward righteousness. All of this may seem complex but at least it is straightforward. Where it gets uncomfortable is when our will is directly interfered with.

Read more: God's Overpowering Will

Years ago I attended a Promise Keepers event in Boulder, Colorado. Upon leaving the event I saw a man holding a sign asking a question, “Doesn’t God love homosexuals too?” I approached the man and asked him a question of my own, “Do you want an answer to your question, or are you just here to cause trouble? Because there is an answer.” He told me he wasn’t interested in an answer, so I respected his choice and walked away. There was no point in pushing or forcing the conversation, he wasn’t ready to hear it.

Read more: Reaching the LBGT Community

Though not Spiritual Gifts, the following have been seen as gifts from God’s Holy Spirit at some point in Scripture. These gifts are different from the spiritual gifts of the New Testament in that they are temporary. While the Holy Spirit played a role in the lives of believer’s before the time of the Messiah, he did not permanently indwell believers. This explains David’s plea in the Psalms (51.11), “Take not your Holy Spirit from me” and the description in 1 Samuel 16.13-14.

Read more: Other Gifts

Now that we have a clear definition of what a spiritual gift is (a God-given ability to serve the body of Christ wherever and however He directs), how are they to be understood? Let’s begin by defining what a spiritual gift is not.

Read more: Uncovering Spiritual Gifts

Yesterday we left off with a question: if we have free will then couldn’t it trump God’s will, making us more powerful than our Creator? Whether admitted to or not, this is the motive behind the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community. It is an attempt to say to God “I am my own man/woman/transgender person and there is nothing you can do about it. My will trumps yours.” It appears that we can indeed thwart God’s will.

Read more: God's Will Versus Ours

Tabloids and even respected news outlets are eager to report the recent decision of Bruce Jenner, a former gold medalist in the 1976 Olympics, movie actor and TV reality personality to announce himself a trans-woman. He admitted to struggling with gender dysphoria since his youth, cross-dressing, and even undergoing hormone replacement therapy for a time in the 1980’s. He has undergone cosmetic surgery as a part of transforming himself into the feminine person he wants to be, though has not (yet) undergone gender reassignment surgery. He is possibly America’s most famous transgender persona. Learning what we did yesterday, the issue of “gender identity” raises a series of serious questions.

Read more: Gender Identity

While it is important to discover one's spiritual gift through serving the body, there is one more aspect to the gift and the service we have not yet discussed: how it is to be exercised. Our gift, exercised as a service, is to be done out of love. As we grow in love for one another, we never miss an opportunity to serve each other. By serving we learn what gifts God has already given us, and we leave ourselves open to God's enabling us with another gift. Why does God give good gifts to his children? Because he loves us. Why do we exercise our gifts in service to each other? Because we love God and each other. And what is the greatest gift ever given to mankind? Love. Immediately following Paul's lengthiest discussion of gifts, he concludes, “Let me show you a more excellent way.” That most excellent way, far more excellent than any gift he discussed before, is the way of love. God has modeled his love for us in the following ways.

Read more: The Greatest Gift

If you have been a believer very long you will have heard of “spiritual gifts” If you are a believer in the Baptist or Evangelical traditions, this may be a topic you’ve only heard of and never explored; if you are a believer in the charismatic or Pentecostal traditions you may have heard of it all too frequently. This week I hope to demystify for some, and correct the thinking of others, about a reality that is imperative for Christian maturity.

Read more: What is a Spiritual Gift?

Over the last month we’ve talked about demon possession and oppression, how badly sin wants to master us, and about what choices God made when he designed us both as humans and as individuals. Whether it be an evil spirit, an evil nature or God’s providence it would seem there is very little in our life that isn’t attempting to exert control over us. Where does the will of man fit into this discussion? Does man have any choice in his eternal destiny? Any decision as to his fate?

Read more: Battle of Wills

In the late 1990’s the band Dishwalla released their only hit song, Counting Blue Cars, in which the lead singer crones, “Tell me all your thoughts on God, cause I'd really like to meet her. And asked her where and who we are.” The song vocalizes a modern struggle to define the nature of God, and in a culture that is distracted by sexuality and gender identity the gender of God has become hotly debated. The ancient paradigm of God as our heavenly Father fell into question and was a philosophy quickly picked up by liberal and feminist theologians alike.

Read more: Does God Have Gender?