1 Corinthians 12

http://www.esvbible.org/1+Corinthians+12/

Paul says that the Holy Spirit has many gifts to give to Jesus' followers to help them spread the word. Each person has different gifts, but it's the same spirit that gives them .These Spiritual Gifts, as they are known, are given for the good of every one. Some people speak with wisdom, which means they have some supernatural message about Christ from the Holy Spirit. There's the word of knowledge which many theologians say that this is the knowledge of the Christian doctrine that can be used to teach others. The same spirit can give courageous faith which entails the kind of faith that is so strong that people can literally heal the sick through prayer, cast out demons, and survive martyrdom without flinching (like the Apostle John who was put in boiling peanut oil). Some have the ability to heal, and they can heal the hurtings of others that come in any way, shape, or form. Other people can even perform miracles, like those Jesus did while He was on Earth. Some people can discern what the spirits, good or evil, are saying, and also links to another gift called prophecy because these people interpret that prophecy and know if it has come from God. The spirit gives people the ability to speak in tongues, which is when people start speaking languages that they have not learned because the Spirit is telling them what to say. This is usually recorded as other human languages, but some scholars think that this may extend to include unlearned heavenly languages. Other people are given the ability to interpret what is said in tongues. This is important in public settings, especially since Paul believed everything said in a churchly setting had to make some sort of sense. Paul compares each person with their unique gift to the parts of a body. Each body part has it's own different function, but they come together to form the whole body. If different body parts thought they weren't part of the body because their functions didn't match those of the parts around them, they would still be part of the body. We shouldn't be bummed if we see that our spiritual gifts are different from those around us. That's a good thing because if we all had the same gifts, then we could only reach some people, or take care of some of the tasks that God has set before us. If one of us is suffering, then we should all feel the pain because we are of one tight-knit body, but if one of us is praised, we should all rejoice. Some Spiritual Gifts may seem better than others, but God gave you the spiritual gifts He did for a reason, and Paul is encouraging and even tells us what we should do...