Earnestly Desire the Spiritual Gifts

Introduction

David Pothier opens a new five-week series at the chapel on spiritual gifts. It's a massive topic that can never be fully covered, but here the choice was made to focus on the gifts we talk about less often: prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, tongues, interpretation. This first message is an overview, an introduction grounded in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, Paul's great discourse on the gifts. And right from the starting point, one very clear conviction: aspiring to spiritual gifts isn't a matter of personality or style preference, it's a biblical command. But right away, a safeguard: without love, no gift is worth anything.

Outline of the message

1. Corinth, a church full of gifts... and full of disorder

Paul writes around the year 54 to a church he had founded four years earlier. Christians who were new in the faith, often very immature, shaped by a culture that pursued prestige, permissive sexuality, spectacular spirituality, competition, and individualism.
"It sounds like a modern, post-Christian Western society." This message is deeply relevant to you today.
Paul acknowledges it: the Corinthians lack no gift. They love the gifts, they practice the gifts, but their practice is disorderly: rivalry, comparison, people talking at the same time, prophecies that are a bit haphazard, pride, isolation of those who don't have "the right gift."
David admits it: in Paul's place, he would have said, "folks, let's set the gifts aside until you're more mature." Paul does exactly the opposite.

2. "Earnestly desire the gifts": a command, not an option

The last word of chapter 12 is a command: "Earnestly desire the higher gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:31). Paul repeats it in 14:1 and again in 14:39.
"It isn't an option, it isn't a matter of preference or personality or style. You can't pray to find out whether you'll obey a command, you can pray for the strength to obey it, not to decide whether you should."
Verse 14:39 sums up the pastoral heart of the chapel: "Earnestly desire to prophesy, and let all things be done decently and in order."

3. A clear definition of spiritual gifts

Here is the definition David offers after a week of working on it: "Spiritual gifts are gifts of God's grace, distributed by the Holy Spirit, to equip us to build up his church and accomplish his mission in the world."
What are they? A supernatural grace. The Greek word for "grace" is charis, and the most common New Testament word for "spiritual gift" is charisma. The connection is direct. Romans 12:6: "We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us."
Who distributes them? The Holy Spirit. "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills" (1 Corinthians 12:11). You don't choose your gift. It's a gift.
What effect do they have? They equip you, they enable you to fulfill the calling God has placed on your life. And you are called, without exception: inside the church and outside it, in different proportions according to your calling.
What's their purpose? To build up the church (Paul in the epistles) and to accomplish God's mission (Luke in Acts). Both, not just one.

4. Natural talents or gifts of the Spirit: a difference you already know

There's a huge difference between fulfilling God's calling through your natural talents and fulfilling it through the Spirit, supernaturally.
Teacher, nurse, plumber, entrepreneur, you already know it: showing up to work in your own strength, or depending on the fullness of the Holy Spirit, doesn't produce the same fruit.
In ministry, it's the same. "When we try to carry out our ministry on our own talent, we quickly get tired, we quickly get drained. But when we depend on the Holy Spirit, the impact isn't the same."
If you haven't yet received Jesus, you don't have the Holy Spirit in you. Entrust your life to him, repent: the Holy Spirit comes to live in you, and you gain access to his gifts.

5. Nine gifts from 1 Corinthians 12: an overview

The New Testament gives five lists of gifts (two in 1 Corinthians 12, one in Romans 12, one in 1 Peter 4, one in Ephesians 4) totaling around 22 to 23 gifts. No list is identical to another, and none is exhaustive.
Four broad categories: word ministries (teaching, exhortation, wisdom, knowledge); signs (healing, miracles, tongues, interpretation); service gifts (faith, service, generosity, leadership, helping, hospitality, mercy, discernment); ministries (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher).
The first man "filled with the Spirit" in the whole Bible is neither a preacher nor a prophet: it's Bezalel, a craftsman to whom God gives wisdom, understanding, and skill to build the tabernacle. Any ability God entrusts to you for building his kingdom is a spiritual gift to be nourished by the fullness of the Spirit.

6. Word of wisdom: knowing what to do at the right moment

Definition: an inspired application of God's truth to a concrete situation. Knowing what to do in a complex situation, bringing direction that combines biblical truth with discernment for the moment.
Often tied to decision making, conflict resolution, leadership. When someone gives you a genuine word of wisdom, you don't walk away wondering what to do, you know exactly what to do.
David testifies: he exercises this gift regularly in his office. With no new information, wisdom comes clearly. He also received it from a mentor pastor the day his family was hesitating over buying a house marked by a heavy past.
Biblical model: Solomon before the two mothers and the baby threatened with being cut in two.

7. Word of knowledge: information only God could give

Definition: information received from the Holy Spirit that couldn't have been known naturally. A fact, a situation, a hidden detail, impossible to know humanly.
Jesus displays it with the Samaritan woman in John 4: "You are right in saying you have no husband." Peter displays it with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.
David recounts: as a youth pastor in Sherbrooke, he watched a young man in his group describe to a non-Christian visitor a specific living room (fireplace, hearth, a "Pray without ceasing" poster) that the boy had lived in months earlier. God wanted to shake that young man up.

8. The gift of faith: believing God in an exceptional way

This isn't the saving faith every Christian receives. It's an ability given by the Spirit to believe God in an exceptional way in a specific situation.
It isn't presumption, it isn't positive thinking. It's an amplified faith that lets you persevere in prayer when everything seems impossible, and that strengthens the faith of others who are worn out.
The testimony of the Cartierville project: for more than a year, a shortfall of nearly a million dollars. David felt he shouldn't relaunch the assembly. But in his heart, he carried a precise faith for that amount, he spoke about it to the staff, he prayed, until the call where a friend pastor committed to cover the sum.

9. Gifts of healings: plural, and for good reason

Definition: manifestations of the Holy Spirit through which God brings physical, emotional, or sometimes spiritual restoration to a sick or suffering person.
Why the plural? Because it isn't an ability you can produce at will. It's a gift God grants in the moment. Your responsibility stays the same: pray in faith for the sick.
Another nuance: God sometimes grants certain people a special favor in a specific area (deafness, fertility, cancer, and so on). David has seen God heal spectacularly (little Karine, given a year to live, alive and healthy at 35), but he warns: "You can't manipulate God. Wanting to control God is falling into Christian magic."

10. The gift of working miracles

A supernatural intervention that goes beyond the laws of nature. Resurrections (Peter and Tabitha in Acts 9), miracles over the elements.
A family testimony: David's father, in his youth, saw a man of God pray in the middle of an open air Christian gathering, under a sky entirely black with no clearing announced. All around, rain. Over the gathering, a circle of light.
"It isn't because we don't see many miracles that they don't exist." The only reason to stop believing in them would be if the Word had abolished them, and it says exactly the opposite.

11. Prophecy and discernment of spirits

Prophecy: a human word reporting something God places on the heart, for edification, encouragement, or comfort. It takes several forms: an impression, an image, a word, a Bible passage, a burden. An entire message will be devoted to it later in the series.
Discernment of spirits: the ability to recognize the spiritual source of a manifestation. Paul in Acts 16 discerns that a servant girl is speaking the truth... but is driven by an evil spirit.
"Not everything that shines is Jesus. The enemy doesn't come with horns, he comes disguised as an angel of light."
In a world experiencing an explosion of the spiritual (astrology, magic, witchcraft, communication with the dead), the only true light is called Jesus Christ.

12. Tongues and interpretation

Tongues: an ability given by the Holy Spirit to speak of the wonders of God in a language not naturally learned (Acts 2, 10, 19; 1 Corinthians 12-14).
Interpretation of tongues: giving the meaning of a message in tongues to build up the church (1 Corinthians 14).
These gifts are less well understood, sometimes a source of abuse, often a source of fear. The series will devote a full message to them, in the spirit of verse 14:39: earnestly desire, but "decently and in order."

13. The most important thing: love activates the gifts

Paul doesn't stop at chapter 12. He continues: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong... And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Then verse 14:1 continues directly: "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts." The order matters: you don't seek the gifts while also "earnestly desiring" love. It's the reverse.
"If your desire for the spiritual gift is greater than your pursuit of love, it will end up being about the gift. And being about the gift is being about yourself."
"We use God's gifts to fulfill ourselves instead of serving. We use them to be seen instead of God being glorified. Look at our churches, look at social media: it's an epidemic."
Faith lets you exercise the gifts. But it's love that activates them. If you want to see more gifts manifested in your church, God has already deposited them, it's love that unlocks them.

Key Takeaways

Earnestly desiring spiritual gifts isn't a matter of preference or style: it's a command Paul repeats three times in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14.
Spiritual gifts are a grace (charisma) sovereignly distributed by the Holy Spirit "as he wills." You don't choose your gift, but you are responsible for desiring it, praying for it, and exercising it.
Their purpose is twofold: building up the church (Paul) and accomplishing God's mission (Acts). Both together.
Your natural talents produce a certain result; the gifts of the Spirit produce a spiritual fruit the flesh can never produce, no matter how well executed.
The biblical lists aren't exhaustive: any ability God gives you to build his kingdom (building a wall, singing, serving, helping the needy) is a gift to be nourished by the Holy Spirit.
Without love, no gift matters. Love isn't an accessory to the gifts: it's what activates them. Pursue love; earnestly desire the gifts as well.

Personal Application

Do I treat "earnestly desiring the gifts" as a command to obey, or as a personality preference I can set aside?
Am I fulfilling my calling (at home, at work, in the church) through my natural talents or through the fullness of the Holy Spirit? What signs of fatigue and drain reveal that I'm walking in the flesh?
Do I regularly pray to receive and exercise gifts (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healings, prophecy, discernment) in service of the people God places in my path?
Have I ever turned down a practical service in the church (welcome, parking, kitchen, cleaning) on the excuse that "it's not my gift"? What does that answer say about my understanding of love?
Is my pursuit of love greater than my desire for the gifts? Or am I wanting a gift so I can be seen, valued, recognized?
If love activates the gifts, what needs to change in my actual relationships this week so the Holy Spirit can release what he has already placed in me?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Is earnestly desiring spiritual gifts really a command for all Christians?

Yes. David Pothier insists on this point: Paul states it three times in his great discourse on the gifts, "Earnestly desire the higher gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:31), "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts" (14:1), "Earnestly desire to prophesy, and let all things be done decently and in order" (14:39). So it isn't a personality preference, a temperament, or a "charismatic" sensitivity reserved for some. It's a biblical command addressed to every believer. You don't need to pray to find out whether you should obey a command: you can pray for the strength to obey, but not to decide whether you will. To earnestly desire is to long for intensely, to ask, to pray, to stretch your heart toward what God wants to place in you to build up his church and accomplish his mission.

What's the difference between a natural talent and a spiritual gift?

A natural talent is an ability God gave you from birth or that you developed: teaching, communicating, cooking, building, singing. A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability distributed by the Holy Spirit to equip his people to build up the church and carry out its mission. The two can overlap (David explains that he naturally communicates well and has a gift of preaching), but they don't produce the same fruit. Doing your job (teacher, nurse, plumber, parent) by talent alone gives a certain result. Doing it in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, with his gifts, produces a spiritual fruit the flesh can never manufacture: peace, love, a changed heart, the advance of the Kingdom. You're called to far more than "doing a good job": you're called to bring Jesus into your environment.

Why is love presented as "greater" than the gifts?

Because without love, no gift is worth anything. Paul is writing to a church full of gifts (the Corinthians lacked nothing), and yet he sends them 1 Corinthians 13 like a whistle blast: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith that moves mountains, extreme sacrifice, "if I have not love, I am nothing." David goes further: love isn't just the moral backdrop of the gifts, it's what activates them. A prophetic gift, a gift of faith, a gift of service that isn't exercised in love stays blocked, silent, sterile. That's why Paul, right after chapter 13, writes: "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts." The order isn't incidental: when your pursuit of the gifts outpaces your pursuit of love, the gift becomes a way to prove yourself. It becomes "about me," and God can't use that. If the Church wants to see more gifts in action, what it needs first and above all is more love.

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