What actually happens at the moment you receive a spiritual gift? Do you get a little buzz when it comes? Perhaps a rush? On the day of Pentecost, there was a sound like a rushing mighty wind and the appearance of fire from the ceiling descending on each of them. Obviously, it can’t always be like that, but should we expect a physical sign of the receiving of something that is not physical? Or is it possible that the moment God bestows a gift of the Spirit it goes entirely unnoticed? Is it possible that the gift only becomes apparent when it is at work?

There is a lot of conversation these days about spiritual gifts. Books have been published explaining how a person can discover his gifts and how a church can take inventory of the gifts of its people. But I can’t help wondering if something spiritual can be so easily quantified.

What I will have to say in this essay will be based strictly on the Bible and my own 40 years of experience in the ministry. The Bible has some very important and revealing things to say on the subject. There were spiritual gifts in abundance in the early church and there is no reason to doubt that these gifts would be with God’s people in all ages. So where are they? Who has them? And how can you tell? Maybe you have to know what to look for. And maybe the gifts are not in evidence at all times.