Last night I preached at the young adult service on I Peter 4:7-11. Peter writes that believers should use whatever spiritual gift they have to serve others. The word translated gift is Charisma. That word is used 13 times in the New Testament. Charisma comes from charis, the Greek word for grace. The word here means a kind of active grace — a grace gift.
Whenever you find your spiritual gift, you find an individual, specialized charisma — an active gift of God’s grace that enables you to serve effectively within the Kingdom of God.
There are no Christians without charisma — without supernatural gifts of grace given to them by God to use for Kingdom work. As such, there are no non-charismatic congregations. The Apostle Paul evidently did not conceive of a congregation made up of charismatics and non-charismatics. All are charismatics, for that is what being a member of the body in Christ means.
If anything, the Church is a supernaturally created organism. It is nothing less than the ongoing body of Jesus Christ, conceived with the same Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus, and equipped Him with ministering gifts. (Acts 10:37-38)
(By the way, Wagner’s book, now updated, was a lot of help to me years ago when I started thinking about spiritual gifts.)
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