Spiritual Gifts

God does not call His people to accomplish His work and then leave them without power to do it. He gives gifts of the Spirit according to His wisdom so that His children may be strengthened, His Church may be edified, truth may be made known, the weak may be helped, and the work He appoints may be accomplished. These gifts are not merely natural abilities or personality traits. They are endowments from God, given according to His purposes and exercised through faith.

Scripture names many gifts. To some it is given to know by the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. To others it is given to believe on their words. Some receive wisdom or knowledge. Some receive faith to be healed, while others receive faith to heal. Others are given miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, or the interpretation of tongues (Doctrine and Covenants 46:13–26; Moroni 10:8–17; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11). Scripture also speaks of ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, mercy, helps, governments, and charity (Romans 12:6–8; 1 Corinthians 12:28–31).

These gifts do not all appear in the same form or measure. Some are public and easily recognized. Others work quietly in a home, a conversation, an act of service, a warning, a blessing, or a moment of needed understanding. One gift is not made greater merely because more people can see it. The question is whether the gift accomplishes the work for which God gave it.

Gifts Are Given for the Work

Spiritual gifts belong to the same order as faith. God gives, and His children must receive and act. A gift that is never used cannot accomplish the purpose for which it was given. A person should therefore not ask only what gifts they desire, but what God has already placed within their stewardship and whether those gifts are being exercised faithfully.

This does not mean that spiritual power is manufactured through effort. The gift comes from God. But obedience creates the condition in which the gift may become useful. As a person listens, acts, serves, teaches, blesses, comforts, warns, or ministers according to the gift given, that person learns how the Lord works through it. What first seemed small may become steady and effectual because it is repeatedly placed in the service of God.

Unbelief can obstruct this growth. A person may receive light and then continually refuse to act upon it because of fear, embarrassment, doubt, comparison, or the belief that the gift is too small to matter. In that condition, the gift remains largely unused. Faith does the opposite. Faith receives what God has given and places it into His work.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost

The first great spiritual gift formally bestowed after baptism is the Gift of the Holy Ghost, received through confirmation. This is not a small addition to baptism. Through this gift, a disciple begins learning to live by continuing revelation and sanctification. The Holy Ghost bears witness of Jesus Christ, teaches truth, enlightens the mind, warns, comforts, corrects, and gives divine impressions according to the will of God.

Others may feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and receive truth through Him, but those who have entered the covenant through baptism and received confirmation are given the right to seek His continuing companionship. The Doctrine of the Law therefore teaches that baptism and confirmation begin the covenant foundation and that the disciple must learn to recognize the Holy Ghost, receive revelation, obey Christ, and live according to that gift.

Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost does not mean that every thought, feeling, or impression is automatically from God. The disciple must learn His voice. That learning takes place through prayer, scripture, repentance, obedience, experience, and careful discernment. The Holy Ghost teaches a person how God communicates and helps distinguish divine revelation from fear, personal desire, confusion, and the influence of the adversary.

This is why the gift must be honored. If the Lord gives warning and the warning is continually ignored, or gives correction and the correction is continually resisted, the person becomes less responsive to the light being given. But when the disciple receives the light, tests it righteously, and obeys, spiritual sensitivity increases. The person becomes more capable of recognizing what comes from God because they have learned through repeated experience to hear and follow Him.

Baptism by Fire and the Greater Witness

The Lord does not intend His disciples to remain forever at the beginning of spiritual life. As they learn to recognize the Holy Ghost and follow Christ, He leads them into deeper surrender.

Baptism by fire is part of that proving. It is not merely choosing Christ when obedience is easy. The disciple yields the life to Him and is tested in that yielding. Scripture repeatedly shows servants of God passing through trial, sacrifice, correction, loss, waiting, and circumstances that expose whether they will still obey when obedience costs them something.

This requires what may be called redemptive faith. Preparatory faith trusts the testimony and light already received. Redemptive faith goes further: the disciple trusts Jesus Christ enough to surrender in advance to what He may require. The person is no longer asking only whether Christ has been trustworthy in the past, but whether He is trusted completely with what has not yet been revealed.

When a disciple has been brought through this fire and remains faithful, a greater witness may be given. In this teaching, the Spirit of Christ refers to this greater personal manifestation and union with Christ, received in addition to the continuing witness and companionship of the Holy Ghost. Christ makes Himself known to the disciple according to His will, and the Holy Ghost bears witness of what has been received.

The Holy Ghost prepares the disciple for this because He has already taught the person how revelation is recognized, tested, and obeyed. The greater gift does not discard the Holy Ghost or make His witness unnecessary. The Holy Ghost continues to testify of truth and of Jesus Christ. Greater light builds upon faithful reception of the light already given.

The Gift of Prophecy

One of the gifts that may grow from this relationship with Christ is prophecy. The gift of prophecy is not the ability to speak persuasively about Jesus Christ, explain doctrine from personal understanding, or express strong spiritual opinions. It is the gift of speaking the words of Jesus Christ as He gives them.

The distinction is essential. A person exercising the gift of prophecy is not speaking his or her own words and then asking others to receive them as though they came from God. Christ is the source of the message. He gives the words, and the servant speaks them. The words pass through a mortal voice, but their origin is Jesus Christ. Prophecy is therefore not merely human speech concerning divine things. It is Christ speaking His words to His people through a person who has received them from Him.

The Lord may give those words in different ways. At times they may come during prayer, while studying scripture, through a direct revelation, through a dream or vision, or through a clear communication of the Spirit before the person ever speaks to anyone else. The servant then carries the words received and gives them to the person or people for whom the Lord intended them.

At other times, the servant may not know beforehand what is to be said. The Lord may simply command, “Speak.” The person may open his or her mouth in obedience without having prepared the words in advance. As the person begins to speak, the words are given. The Lord speaks to the servant and through the servant in that moment, placing in the mind and heart what is to be said and giving utterance according to His will. The servant does not need to know the entire message before opening the mouth. The act of faith may be to obey the command to speak and trust Christ to supply the words as they are needed.

This pattern appears throughout scripture. The Lord promised His servants that they should take no thought beforehand concerning what they would say in appointed moments, because the Holy Ghost would give them what they ought to speak (Matthew 10:19–20; Mark 13:11). He likewise promised that if His servants would treasure up His word, it would be given them in the very moment what portion should be meted unto every man (Doctrine and Covenants 84:85). The prophetic gift therefore may operate through words received beforehand or through words given in the moment of obedient speech.

This does not mean that every spontaneous religious thought is prophecy. Emotion, confidence, excitement, personal interpretation, imagination, and strong conviction do not become the words of Christ merely because they arise while someone is speaking. The source still matters. The servant must be receiving from Christ. Prophecy occurs when Jesus Christ communicates what He would have said and the servant faithfully gives those words rather than substituting personal opinion, embellishment, speculation, or desire.

For this reason, a person exercising this gift must learn not only to speak, but also to refrain from adding to what has been given. If Christ gives a warning, the servant gives the warning. If He gives comfort, the servant gives the comfort. If He gives correction, instruction, testimony, or prophecy concerning things to come, the servant speaks what was received. The servant is not authorized to enlarge the message merely because additional thoughts seem reasonable or because stronger language might seem more persuasive. The holiness of prophecy is found in faithfully transmitting what Christ actually said.

This also explains why prophecy may sometimes surprise the person through whom it comes. The servant may hear words coming from his or her own mouth that were not previously formulated or understood in full. As those words are spoken, the servant may receive the revelation at the same time as those who are hearing it. The person remains conscious and acts willingly, but the content is being supplied by the Lord. In such moments, obedience comes first: Christ says to speak, the servant opens the mouth, and the words follow according to His Spirit.

Because prophecy is the speaking of Christ’s words, it carries a weight beyond ordinary teaching or counsel. A person must therefore never casually attach the Lord’s name to private thought or personal desire. To say, “Thus saith the Lord,” or otherwise represent words as coming from Christ when He has not given them is a serious matter. The Doctrine of the Law already establishes that claimed revelation must be discerned by its fidelity to God, its fruits, the witness of the Holy Ghost, and, where a specific future event is declared in the Lord’s name, its fulfillment.

A true prophetic gift turns people toward Jesus Christ, truth, repentance, righteousness, holiness, and obedience because its source is Jesus Christ Himself. The prophet or prophetess does not become the source of truth. The servant is a vessel. Christ speaks, the servant receives, and the servant gives His words to those for whom they were appointed.

Prophetic Gifts Do Not Create Governing Authority

A spiritual gift does not create jurisdiction.

A person may receive revelation, prophecy, visions, dreams, discernment, healing, wisdom, or another genuine manifestation of the Spirit without thereby receiving authority to govern another person, household, church, or stewardship. The Doctrine of the Law distinguishes between receiving truth from God and receiving governing responsibility from God.

A mature disciple may become prophetic in the scriptural sense: able to hear God, receive revelation, testify of Jesus Christ, and speak according to the Spirit. Christ may personally make Himself known and call a person a prophet or prophetess. But that experience alone does not establish presiding authority.

Governing revelation follows stewardship. If Christ gives a person responsibility over a household, that person may receive governing revelation for that stewardship. If Christ appoints a prophet over His Church and Kingdom, governing revelation for that work belongs to the stewardship He has actually given. Spiritual power must never be turned into self-appointed authority over others.

This protects both revelation and order. The people of Zion are not asked to choose between living by spiritual gifts and respecting divine stewardship. Both come from the same God and must remain within the order He establishes.

Do Not Compare Spiritual Gifts

No person should despise a gift because it appears small or because it does not resemble the gift of another.

One person may be given unusual power in testimony. Another may teach with wisdom. Another may discern danger. Another may comfort those who are suffering. Another may give generously, administer wisely, show mercy, heal, lead, exhort, or quietly strengthen those around them. Some gifts may be seen by many people. Others may perform most of their work where almost no one notices.

The purpose of a gift is not to establish rank. Paul taught that there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit, and that the members of the body need one another (1 Corinthians 12:4–27). A gift should therefore create service rather than pride.

Comparison can cause a person to neglect what God has actually given while longing for what He gave someone else. That is a misuse of attention. The proper question is not, “Why do I not have their gift?” but, “What has the Lord entrusted to me, and am I using it faithfully?”

Seek Greater Gifts by Being Faithful With What Has Been Given

Scripture teaches the Saints to seek earnestly the best gifts (Doctrine and Covenants 46:8; 1 Corinthians 12:31). Seeking greater gifts does not mean chasing spiritual experiences for status, excitement, or proof of personal importance. Gifts are sought so that God's work may be accomplished and His children may be blessed.

The safest place to begin is with what He has already given.

Has the Gift of the Holy Ghost been honored? Has the light already received been followed? Have warnings been obeyed? Has revelation been acted upon? Has a gift for teaching, mercy, healing, discernment, service, leadership, testimony, or another work been used when the opportunity came? Has fear or unbelief caused the gift to remain unused?

A person must not judge revelation merely by whether something visibly bad happened after they refused to obey it. Some have received a prompting, chosen not to follow it, and later concluded that because life appeared to continue normally, the prompting must not have been revelation. That conclusion is false. The absence of an immediate negative consequence does not prove that God did not speak.

What may have happened instead is much more serious spiritually: the person did not trust God. They did not act in faith. They were given an opportunity to obey and chose not to take it. The missed consequence may not have been calamity, but the loss of an opportunity to serve, to grow, to receive greater light, to bless another person, or to draw nearer to Jesus Christ.

A failed prompting is therefore not something to celebrate or use as a method of discernment. It should humble the heart. If a person recognizes that God prompted them and they knowingly refused Him, the proper response is repentance. They should acknowledge that they failed to act, seek forgiveness, and ask the Lord for another opportunity to obey more faithfully when He speaks again.

There is an important difference between testing whether an impression is truly from God and knowingly refusing what a person has already recognized as revelation. Discernment is necessary before action when the source is uncertain. But once a person knows that the Lord has spoken, continued refusal is not discernment. It is unbelief and disobedience.

Those who repeatedly excuse disobedience because no immediate harm followed are placing themselves in spiritual danger. They are training themselves not to respond when God speaks. Over time, this weakens spiritual sensitivity, hardens the heart, and makes it more difficult to recognize and follow revelation. A person who treats ignored revelation as evidence that obedience does not matter is grossly erring and must repent, or that pattern will lead them away from Christ.

When a disciple fails to follow a prompting, the right desire is not to justify the failure, but to grieve the missed opportunity and ask for another chance. The prayer of the faithful heart is that the Lord will speak again, trust again, and give another opportunity to act differently. Growth comes when a person learns from the failure and becomes more willing to respond the next time the Spirit calls.

God gives according to His wisdom. What He gives, He gives for a purpose. When a disciple believes Him and faithfully exercises what has been received, the gift becomes a channel through which God's power meets God's work. What seemed small may prove sufficient. What seemed hidden may become fruitful. What seemed beyond the disciple's natural ability may become possible because the power did not originate in the disciple.

The purpose of spiritual gifts is therefore not to make remarkable people. It is to accomplish the work of Jesus Christ through people who are willing to believe Him, obey Him, and use what He has placed in their hands. As they remain faithful in what has already been given, He may entrust more according to His wisdom and the needs of His work.