Understanding spiritual gifts

The ruling factor in understanding spiritual gifts is that they are supernatural manifestations which r-equire much more than human insight, ability or even mature experience.  Also, the simple rule to remember in studying the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit is that everything must be done to help, edify or build up the church (see 1 Corinthians 14:26). The gifts of the Spirit as presented in 1 Corinthians 12 are nine and these can be grouped into three major categories namely revelation gifts, power gifts and vocal gifts.
The gifts of revelation reveal the omniscience of God and these are; the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge and discerning of spirits. Through the gift of the word of wisdom, the Holy Spirit gives to the believer a bit of God’s wisdom. 
In other words, it is a small portion of God’s wisdom spoken at the proper time. Please note that one cannot get a word of wisdom from God by going to school or by any other way, but he/she only gets it by the Spirit of God. A good example is in Acts 15:5-27  where a serious problem arose in the early church concerning Gentile converts and finally a word of wisdom came through James that settled the matter, as it was unanimously agreed upon as the solution.  Laurence J. Erasmus defines the word of knowledge as a supernatural revelation by the Holy Spirit of certain facts which are locked up in the omniscience of God.
Such revelations could be about the existence or the state of a person at any given time. Peter knew by the word of knowledge that Ananias and Sapphira were lying in Acts 5:1-10.
Discerning of spirits is a special ability given by the Holy Spirit to look beyond what ordinary men see when a spirit is manifesting itself. It is the ability to know by which spirit a man is speaking or acting. In Luke 9:55, Jesus discerned the wrong spirit influencing James and John to call down fire to destroy opponents.
Power gifts reveal God’s omnipotence and these are: faith, gifts of healing and working of miracles.  Faith here refers to a special faith, beyond ordinary faith which all believers have, given by the Holy Spirit to meet a special need. It is a small part of God’s perfect faith dropped into a believer’s heart at a special time for a special need. In Acts 3:6, Peter used special faith to command the lame man to walk. Gifts of healing are manifestations of the power of God in the area of disease to make whole the victims.
Working of miracles refers to the supernatural manifestation of the power of God that alters, suspends or controls the laws of nature. In Joshua 10:12-13, Joshua made the sun to stand still.
Vocal gifts manifest in the speeches of believers inspired to speak by the Holy Spirit and these are; tongues, prophecy and interpretation of tongues.  Tongues mean strange or unknown or unlearned tongues spoken supernaturally under the unction of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 records the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and believers began to speak in tongues.  It is a starter gift used to edify one’s self.  Prophecy is the ability given by the Holy Spirit to forthtell and to foretell.
Forthtelling is speaking forth as a spokesman of God, directly what is on God’s mind. To foretell is to predict future events. Jonah prophesied that in forty days Nineveh would be destroyed (see Jonah 3:4). Finally, interpretation of tongues is explaining or giving the meaning of what is said in another language and the ability comes only from the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues in a public service requires interpretation but when privately communing with God interpretation is not necessary.  

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