David Diga Hernandez - 9 Gifts of the Holy Spirit CLEARLY Explained

Every believer has been given a spiritual gift, that includes you. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, «But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal». The Holy Spirit has given you a spiritual gift that you might be of benefit to your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. That includes every believer, whether you feel like you have a spiritual gift or not, whether you’ve discovered your spiritual gift or not, the Holy Spirit has given to you a special ability.

«For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; and to another diverse kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one in the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will». So the Holy Spirit decides who gets these spiritual gifts. So I’m gonna explain to you what each of the spiritual gifts are.

Let’s start here with the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Now, the spiritual gifts are special abilities that are empowered by the Holy Spirit, so they’re supernatural in nature. Now, wisdom on its own without a supernatural element is the ability to solve problems, the ability to perceive properly a situation. Knowledge is information. So the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge are similar to their, we’ll call them material counterparts, but in the Spirit they have a supernatural touch. So the word of wisdom is the Spirit-empowered ability to see people in situations with the wisdom of God. An example of this in scripture, of course, is Daniel. We also see it working in Joseph. We see it in the Book of Proverbs. That wisdom working through these vessels of God was divine wisdom. Wisdom comes by the Holy Spirit to the one who has the word of wisdom.

The word of knowledge is similar but with a distinction. The word of knowledge is the acquisition of information through supernatural means. For example, a word of knowledge can be something like what I encountered when I was ministering at a Bible study, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me a word to say to a gentleman. The Holy Spirit said to me, «This man knows someone, a woman who was in a car accident two weeks ago, she drives a silver car. I want to heal her». Now, that information, had I discovered or had I known through natural means, wouldn’t have been supernatural. Let’s say the man said, «Hey, my sister was in a car accident. She drives a silver car. She’s injured, and we’re praying for her healing». That would be the acquisition of knowledge through natural means. But that same knowledge came to me, though it was natural knowledge and knowledge that could have been acquired through natural means, it came to me through the Holy Spirit and was therefore a word of knowledge. I got on the phone with that man’s sister. It turns out everything was true that the Holy Spirit had said, and the Lord healed her. But that’s an example of the word of knowledge in action. And again, in a similar way, the word of wisdom works kind of like the word of knowledge except it’s the acquisition of wisdom, the supernatural acquisition of wisdom.

Then we see the scripture talk about the gift of faith to another faith. Now, this could not be saving faith because every believer has been given saving faith. This faith is the gift of faith. Now, what is the gift of faith? Is the gift of faith the ability to believe? Is the gift of faith an increase in your faith? I don’t think so. Why? Because 1 Corinthians 12:7 clues us in to the purpose of the spiritual gifts. So the purpose of the spiritual gifts are to help, to serve, to edify our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, not necessarily ourselves. So the gift of faith couldn’t be the increase of my faith. It would have to be the ability to increase the faith of others. I think Ms. Kathryn Kuhlman operated in the gift of faith. In her meetings, when the people would arrive, there would be such a faith for miracles that miracles would abound. So that’s an example of the gift of faith in operation.

Next we see on the list to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. Now, how is the gift of healing different than the function of healing that we see, for example, in the Book of Mark, Chapter 16, where the Bible says that, «Those who believe will lay hands on the sick and see them recover». Well, it has to be that the gift of healing is a more potent ability to heal the sick. Now, I know that doesn’t necessarily sound right, but again, that’s the best way I can word it. If the gift of healing wasn’t a next level healing ministry, then there would be no need of the gift of healing if every believer functioned in healing in the same way and at the same level of power. So the gift of healing has to do with an assignment to the healing ministry and it has to do with the greater level of potency on that healing gift.

To another, the working of miracles. This is the same thing as healing, but it also applies to miracles. Every believer is going to see miracles in their lives. Every believer is a miracle because they’ve been born again. So the gift of miracles, again, has to be this intensification or potency of the gift of miracles or the operation of miracles. Whereas all believers can see miracles, the one with the gift of miracles is more likely to see miracles and has an assignment in a ministry sense to the ministry of miracles.

To another, prophecy. Now, specifically, this gift of prophecy has to do with speaking forth the oracles of God and declaring things that will happen in the future. When someone is gifted with the gift of prophecy, they are given assignments, messages, like a mailman. This isn’t to say that God doesn’t speak by his Spirit to other believers, rather this is a certain type of ministry where someone receives an assignment to deliver messages to other believers or groups of believers from the Lord himself. And this is different from the office of the prophet that we see in Ephesians 4:11–12 because the gift can be upon any believer, whereas the office of the prophet has to do with leadership, authority, and influence.

To another, the discerning of spirits. Now, the gift of discernment is not the gift of criticism. And I think all too often we mistake our own discomfort for discernment. We say things like, «Well, my spirit doesn’t feel right» or, «I don’t know how I feel about this». And many times, not all the time, many times, when we say things like that, really what we mean is it’s not according to my preference, so I’m gonna try to shift that onto the Holy Spirit. When in fact, sometimes we mix our emotions and our own thoughts with what the Holy Spirit is actually saying. So know the gifted discernment is not the gift of criticism. The gifted discernment is not the gift of nitpicking. The gifted discernment is not the gift of attacking others in ministry. The gifted discernment is simply the ability to tell whether someone is coming in the spirit of God, a satanic spirit, or the spirit of the world, and that’s it.

To another, diverse kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. Now, if you follow my teachings, you know that there are three expressions of the gift of tongues. There’s the personal prayer language, there’s the gift of tongues that is evidence to the unbeliever. But this specific gift of tongues that’s mentioned here in 1 Corinthians 12 is what is called the prophetic tongue. It’s prophetic in that it helps to deliver a message to the local body of believers who are gathered. This gift works in conjunction with the interpretation of tongues. So no, not every believer has the gift of tongues that works with the gift of interpretation of tongues, but every believer can have their prayer language, as we see in 1 Corinthians 14:4 and verse 14. Here though we’re seeing the two gifts, the gift of tongues and tongue interpretations, that’s a very specific type of gift of tongues. This is the one that you see in operation in a church setting or public gathering where someone stands, speaks in tongues, and then another individual stands and interprets those tongues to communicate what God is speaking to his people for that moment that they are gathered. Now, verse 11 ties the threads all together. «But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will». The Holy Spirit decides who gets what gifts. But we know because of verse seven that every single believer has a gift from the Holy Spirit.