Generally speaking, Christianity can be divided into two camps regarding the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Paul discusses these extensively in 1 Corinthians 12-14. He adds another list of spiritual gifts in Romans 12:6-8 and a few are mentioned in other places. Nearly everyone agrees that the Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to believers. The divide comes when discussing certain gifts and whether the Holy Spirit still distributes those in 2026.
The Apostle Paul lists gifts such as mercy, encouragement, service, administration, faith, generosity, wisdom, knowledge, hospitality, teaching, and leadership. Nearly everyone is comfortable with these gifts because they are familiar. People who are not even followers of Jesus display these qualities in the natural realm. They have natural temperaments that lean toward mercy, compassion, hospitality, wisdom, etc. Others display qualities of leadership, effective communication, organization and so forth, that often carry the adjective “gifted.”
We frequently use that adjective when we talk about gifted artists, athletes, musicians, writers, singers, and actors. We mean they have exceptional abilities in their field relative to the average human being. In fact, many believers think of spiritual gifts as differing little from these natural abilities. We appreciate these gifts, enjoy them, are comfortable with them.
However, Paul lists other spiritual gifts with which we are not so comfortable since we don’t see them exercised in the natural realm. He lists gifts such as prophecy, tongues, miracles, healings, the interpretation of tongues, and distinguishing between spirits. These are often delineated as supernatural or power gifts. Many Christians hold the position that the Holy Spirit no longer grants these gifts to God’s people, but only the gifts that already function in the natural realm.
Let me challenge that assertion for a moment. First of all, every gift listed in these texts is given to believers…not unbelievers. Paul says, “Now about the gifts of the Spirit … to each one (each follower of Jesus) the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good’ (1 Cor. 12:1, 7).
In this section, the Greek word charismata is translated as “gifts” (1 Cor. 12:4). Churches that place an emphasis on all the gifts of the Spirit are called “charismatic churches.”
Paul clearly states the Holy Spirit distributes these gifts to the church as he sees fit. Since the nature of these gifts is spiritual and since they are given only to believers, they must differ in some way from natural talents or giftings. I believe that these gifts bear spiritual fruit that make an impact in the spiritual realm. In some way, they point people to Jesus and draw them to the Father. They differ from natural talents. I remember a woman who served in a church on the west coast. She shared that a well-known evangelist was coming to her church to preach and she was excited to hear him as she anticipated deep and moving sermons. When the day came, he preached and she said she was never so disappointed. His sermon seemed dry and flat and totally uninspiring. However, when the invitation was extended, hundreds came forward. He had a gift of evangelism that triggered something in the spiritual realm that wasn’t particularly evident in the natural. I believe all spiritual gifts are like that.
Since the exercise of spiritual gifts bears spiritual fruit and is uniquely given by the Spirit to God’s people, by definition these are all supernatural gifts. Supernatural simply means above or beyond the natural. Therefore, we can’t dismiss some gifts “because they are supernatural, ” since all the gifts are supernatural.
In the same way, believers who discount these gifts of the Spirit do not believe God intervenes in miraculous ways today…especially through the exercise of spiritual gifts. And yet, in just about every prayer we are asking God to intervene in the natural order of things to bring about a good outcome. Why would we ask God to do something that is going to happen naturally anyway? Do we pray each night that God will cause the sun to rise in the east in the morning? Do we pray earnestly that God will not irradicate the Law of Gravity? No…because that is the normal, natural order of things that we can all anticipate happening with or without our prayers.
When we pray, whether it is for “small” things or “big” things, we ask God to intervene to make sure things that often happen in the natural do not happen or pray for things that rarely happen to come to past. Either way, when we ask God to intervene in the natural order of things, by definition, we are asking for a miracle. So why should we try to exclude gifts that are more apparently miraculous when they are all miraculous at some level.
The theology that dismisses God’s supernatural intervention was born in the 1600’s when science, inventions and discoveries were burgeoning in the west. Science was based on the “scientific method” which required truth to be measurable and reproduceable in a lab. Science was deemed to be the new savior of mankind. Supernatural views were labelled as superstition. Human reason and accomplishments (humanism) were touted as the future of all mankind destined to bring in the golden age (How are we doing so far?). Theologians began to dismiss the miracles of the Bible as mythological and fictional or simply misunderstood by the ignorant cultures of the past. Some theologians found a middle ground where the miracles recorded in scripture did happen…then, but not now.
However, what justification is there to simply cut out certain gifts of the Spirit when the texts seem to make no difference in the gifts. A supernatural Holy Spirit gave them all and logically still gives them all unless we approach scripture with a presupposition that miracles and supernatural activity no longer function in a modern world.
But Satan is still alive and well on planet earth. Paul explicitly states our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12). You cannot wage war against spiritual powers through natural means. Spiritual power and weapons are required and those are made available to God’s people through spiritual gifts…including and necessarily gifts such as prophecy that alerts us to the strategies of the enemy, healings that include deliverance from evil spirits, or miracles that immediately demonstrate that Jesus is greater than Satan or any false god.
One of Satan’s greatest triumphs was to remove from the arsenal of the church the gifts that most directly confront his kingdom by removing our belief in those gifts. As that theology caught on, the notion of a supernatural realm intersecting with the natural faded away. As a result, like the invisible man, Satan could operate at will while the world looked everywhere but at demonic forces for causation.
Jesus declared in John 14:12 that whoever believes in him would do the same works he had been doing and would actually do even greater things. John also told us the reason Jesus came was to destroy the work of the devil…sin, disease, brokenness, bondage, injustice and so on (1 Jn. 3:8). The gifts of the Spirit are required if we are going to do what Jesus did…all the gifts. Satan was most often confronted through the miraculous. For us to fulfill his mandate, the charismatic gifts and their exercise are imperative. Paul commanded believers to eagerly desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1). Why? Because they are all necessary to fulfill the mandate of the kingdom and to do what Jesus did.
If you have never considered the supernatural moves of God through his people in 2026, I hope you will reconsider and even begin to eagerly desire them.
