What does Mormonism teach about spiritual gifts

[msnobody]

In many evangelical and Protestant churches, members sometimes take spiritual gift inventory surveys.

Is there anything like that done in the LDS Church?

What does the LDS Church teach about spiritual gifts? Who has spiritual gifts?

[malkie]

In my 50 years in the church, I've never heard of anyone making an inventory.

It's fairly common, however, for members to talk, for example, about a priesthood holder who gives "good" blessings - usually comfort blessings, of course, since nobody, including GAs, seems to have the ability to consistently give healing blessings that actually heal.

I assume you watched BYP's video on spiritual gifts. What did you think of the list of "lesser" gifts that Elder Bednar gave - the gifts of asking, listening, weeping, etc. I wonder if these gifts might appear in an evangelical inventory.

[msnobody]

I will listen to the BYP about Elder Bednar and lesser spiritual gifts on my home from work today. I had been thinking of asking this question and BYP's post prompted me to follow through.

The ones that typically appear on the EV inventory are:

Leadership
Administration
Teaching
Wisdom
Prophecy
Discernment
Exhoration
Shepherding
Apostleship
Service/Helps
Mercy
Giving
Hospitality

https://explorethebible.lifeway.com/wp- ... Survey.pdf

I just retook it after all these years and my results remain the same:

1. Mercy
2. Discernment and Faith (tied)
3. Apostleship-- which surprised me and I'm not sure what that means.

One purpose of the inventory is to guide you to areas where you may be best equipped to serve.

[JohnW]

I will listen to the BYP about Elder Bednar and lesser spiritual gifts on my home from work today. I had been thinking of asking this question and BYP's post prompted me to follow through.

The ones that typically appear on the EV inventory are:

Leadership
Administration
Teaching
Wisdom
Prophecy
Discernment
Exhoration
Shepherding
Apostleship
Service/Helps
Mercy
Giving
Hospitality

https://explorethebible.lifeway.com/wp- ... Survey.pdf

I just retook it after all these years and my results remain the same:

1. Mercy
2. Discernment and Faith (tied)
3. Apostleship-- which surprised me and I'm not sure what that means.

One purpose of the inventory is to guide you to areas where you may be best equipped to serve.

Interesting! I appreciate you sharing this msnobody. I didn't know these efforts to explore gifts of the spirit existed in other Christian religions. I have never seen anything as organized as this for Latter-day Saints. Everyone is encouraged to seek out and pray for the gifts of the spirit, but it is always posed as a personal endeavor. I haven't seen it organized for the general membership like this. The closest thing I can think of right now is our new home-centered curriculum for studying the scriptures. There would be space to take notes as you explore spiritual gifts you may have, but a quiz like this wouldn't be part of the culture in the church.

To answer your other initial questions, the church's teaching on spiritual gifts is very similar to other Christian churches, at least from my perspective conversing with mainstream Christians. It would be fair to say the church emphasizes gifts of the spirit. The church even has various scriptures in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants where spiritual gifts are listed and we are encouraged to seek them out. As mentioned above, there is probably a general feeling that there were "more" manifestations of gifts of the spirit in the early days of the church than in the current days. I'm not sure about that. I sometimes hear similar thoughts from Mainstream Christians about the New Testament times.

I will speculate here (which often gets me into trouble). I personally think the idea that there are fewer manifestations of spiritual gifts may stem from a combination of three things: 1) Stories from the past tend to be a little polished, meaning when someone is miraculously healed, that story is passed down. When someone receives a blessing as is not healed, that story is not passed down. Also the stories of people being healed in the past tend to be simplified, meaning the weeks that it took for the person to be healed is not mentioned. Going over old stories of my ancestors that experienced miracles in the early days of the church, I think they were the type of miracles that are as "complex" as the ones we have today. I put the word complex in scare quotes on purpose. There is enough room for both belief and unbelief in that word. 2) We don't have as much need in modern times for the same level of miracles. One of the reasons we might see more miracles per capita in the stories of the early church is that there was dramatic need in those early days. God doesn't go around healing and dramatically intervening willy-nilly. Sickness and death are part of this life, but in the early days of the church, sickness and death could have scrubbed the whole thing. Therefore, there may have been more need in those days. I believe I saw this on my mission to Peru. The members down there had extreme need. I saw a fair amount of miracles there. Make no mistake, it wasn't dramatic miracles left and right (unless you count the simpler, but no less dramatic ones that changed people's hearts), but I saw what seemed like more than I had seen up to that point in my life. Of course, as a missionary you tend to be in those situations more, so it isn't like I can produce a reliable probability density function. 3) We tend to not share stories of dramatic miracles as much in the modern church. I don't know whether we feel uncomfortable sharing these experiences because our culture is more science-based when compared to the early days of the church, or whether people are more fearful of ridicule today than back then. Maybe information just gets around more, so people are worried their experiences would get legs and end up all over the internet to be picked apart. Overall, there is a general culture in the church of not sharing the "biggest" spiritual experiences you have had. I don't necessarily disagree with this. It is probably an appropriate thing to not share too much.

Sorry for the super long response. I just really enjoyed learning something new about Mainstream Christianity. Hopefully you learned something new from my comments.

[msnobody]

Interesting! I appreciate you sharing this msnobody. I didn't know these efforts to explore gifts of the spirit existed in other Christian religions. I have never seen anything as organized as this for Latter-day Saints. Everyone is encouraged to seek out and pray for the gifts of the spirit, but it is always posed as a personal endeavor. I haven't seen it organized for the general membership like this. The closest thing I can think of right now is our new home-centered curriculum for studying the scriptures. There would be space to take notes as you explore spiritual gifts you may have, but a quiz like this wouldn't be part of the culture in the church.

To answer your other initial questions, the church's teaching on spiritual gifts is very similar to other Christian churches, at least from my perspective conversing with mainstream Christians. It would be fair to say the church emphasizes gifts of the spirit. The church even has various scriptures in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants where spiritual gifts are listed and we are encouraged to seek them out. As mentioned above, there is probably a general feeling that there were "more" manifestations of gifts of the spirit in the early days of the church than in the current days. I'm not sure about that. I sometimes hear similar thoughts from Mainstream Christians about the New Testament times.

I will speculate here (which often gets me into trouble). I personally think the idea that there are fewer manifestations of spiritual gifts may stem from a combination of three things: 1) Stories from the past tend to be a little polished, meaning when someone is miraculously healed, that story is passed down. When someone receives a blessing as is not healed, that story is not passed down. Also the stories of people being healed in the past tend to be simplified, meaning the weeks that it took for the person to be healed is not mentioned. Going over old stories of my ancestors that experienced miracles in the early days of the church, I think they were the type of miracles that are as "complex" as the ones we have today. I put the word complex in scare quotes on purpose. There is enough room for both belief and unbelief in that word. 2) We don't have as much need in modern times for the same level of miracles. One of the reasons we might see more miracles per capita in the stories of the early church is that there was dramatic need in those early days. God doesn't go around healing and dramatically intervening willy-nilly. Sickness and death are part of this life, but in the early days of the church, sickness and death could have scrubbed the whole thing. Therefore, there may have been more need in those days. I believe I saw this on my mission to Peru. The members down there had extreme need. I saw a fair amount of miracles there. Make no mistake, it wasn't dramatic miracles left and right (unless you count the simpler, but no less dramatic ones that changed people's hearts), but I saw what seemed like more than I had seen up to that point in my life. Of course, as a missionary you tend to be in those situations more, so it isn't like I can produce a reliable probability density function. 3) We tend to not share stories of dramatic miracles as much in the modern church. I don't know whether we feel uncomfortable sharing these experiences because our culture is more science-based when compared to the early days of the church, or whether people are more fearful of ridicule today than back then. Maybe information just gets around more, so people are worried their experiences would get legs and end up all over the internet to be picked apart. Overall, there is a general culture in the church of not sharing the "biggest" spiritual experiences you have had. I don't necessarily disagree with this. It is probably an appropriate thing to not share too much.

Sorry for the super long response. I just really enjoyed learning something new about Mainstream Christianity. Hopefully you learned something new from my comments.

Absolutely, I loved your comments and appreciate the time you took to prepare it. I think there are modern day healings. I think it is best to pray for God’s will with the knowledge that He is very capable to do so, but only if it is His will.

I’ll add too, that God gives spiritual gifts to His children, to build up and edify the body of Christ.

[Markk]

What’s interesting is the first members were seeking the gifts of the spirits, similar to the Pentecostal churches today. Yet it has simulated into what they have today. Vogel wrote a book on this and is coming out soon…he gives a preview in an interview on Mormon Stories, or Mormonism and the Murph, I can’t remember which.

https://www.amazon.com/Charisma-under-P ... 156085460X

[msnobody]

What’s interesting is the first members were seeking the gifts of the spirits, similar to the Pentecostal churches today. Yet it has simulated into what they have today. Vogel wrote a book on this and is coming out soon…he gives a preview in an interview on Mormon Stories, or Mormonism and the Murph, I can’t remember which.

https://www.amazon.com/Charisma-under-P ... 156085460X

Thanks for the link.

In my case I see spiritual gifts as God-given at regeneration, and not something that is sought after, or attained.

[Dr. Shades]

In my case I see spiritual gifts as God-given at regeneration, and not something that is sought after, or attained.

When and how does “regeneration” occur, and what happens during it?

[msnobody]

In my case I see spiritual gifts as God-given at regeneration, and not something that is sought after, or attained.

When and how does “regeneration” occur, and what happens during it?

I’m not sure how detailed of a reply you were asking for.

Regeneration— the act of God by which the principle of the new life is implanted in man, thus the governing disposition of the soul is made holy, and the first holy exercise of this disposition is secured (Louis Berkhof).
- the act of the Spirit of God in the elect individual to radically change the governing disposition of the soul, giving birth to a life that moves in a Godward direction
- the “removal” of the old heart (i.e. the control center of a man) which has been corrupted by the Fall, and remains in open rebellion against God, with a “new” heart which has a disposition towards loving God and his law and actively pursues what God desires

When does regeneration happen? When God has determined would be my simple answer.


For a deep dive into Reformed Soteriology and the ordo salutis, specifically regeneration
https://www.thbg.org/

Study (tab at top)
Series
Theology

The Doctrine of Salvation Part 16 (Discusses Regeneration by the Spirit, page 18-19 in the Outline)
Audio (only works on laptop for me and not cell phone)
https://www.thbg.org/?Z4i=mp3&t=study&g ... heology10p

Outline: The Doctrine of Salvation (Parts 1-25, 30 pages)
https://www.thbg.org/?doc=study/topic/t ... heology10a

[huckelberry]

The Catechism of Catholic Church speaks same general ideas in a somewhat different fashion. I prefer it with my aside that I suspect all people including saints have at time struggled to follow the Holy Spirit.

1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

1831 The seven gifts of the Holy spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.

Let your good spirit lead me on a level path. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God , if children the heirs, heirs of God a fellow heirs with Christ.

The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit

1. Charity
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Generosity
8. Gentleness
9. Faithfulness
10. Modesty
11. Self Control
12. Chastity