Spiritual Gifts

I read today Moroni’s list of spiritual gifts in Moroni 10:9-17 and asked myself, “Which of these gifts do I have?”  The answer wasn’t very encouraging  “Exceedingly great faith?”  I don’t think so.  “Gifts of healing?”  It doesn’t seem like it.  “Work mighty miracles?”  That certainly doesn’t sound like me unless getting children to bed in a timely manner counts (a miracle that I perform rarely at best).  “Prophesy concerning all things?” Definitely not, since I struggle just to understand what the voice of the Spirit is telling me for my life in the near term.  “The beholding of angels and ministering spirits?”  I haven’t had that gift yet.  “All kinds of tongues?”  I did learn one language on my mission and do know that the Lord helped me with that, but “all kinds” seems like a bit of a stretch.  “The interpretation of languages and of divers kinds of tongues?” Nope, especially when it is my 20 month old trying to tell me what he wants.  I thought that the only two that perhaps may be in reach someday are to “teach the word of wisdom” and “teach the word of knowledge,” but even that seems far off as I struggle to even teach my children the wisdom of some very basic good hygiene practices. 

But, Moroni suggests that I should have some hope, for according to him, “All these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as he will.”  This would seem to suggest that all of us have some gift of the Spirit if they come to “every man.”  Perhaps the key is in that last phrase.  I have often wondered who the “he” in “according as he will” refers to.  Is it according to our will or according to Christ’s will?  Both seem to fit the context of the verse, and perhaps the answer is indeed both.  Of course we won’t develop a gift of the Spirit that the Savior isn’t willing to grant, but certainly our will must play a part.  Indeed, Doctrine and Covenants 46 encourages us to seek them, showing the Lord that our will is to develop these spiritual gifts: “Seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given.”  Like Moroni the Savior also suggested that we each have at least one gift: “To every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God” (v8, 11).  But, another revelation would ask us, “What doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:33)  Surely that applies to spiritual gifts as well, and perhaps there is more work to be done to receive the gift of the Spirit that Christ has already granted unto us.  To “seek earnestly” requires more than causal wishing—I believe the Lord wants us to really want it.    

               I was touched by the previous verse today, one not normally connected with the discussion of spiritual gifts in Doctrine and Covenants 46, and perhaps it contains some keys to our development of spiritual gifts: “But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving” (v7).  We are told to “ask of God” in “all things” and, in case we missed it, do “all things with prayer and thanksgiving.”  The Lord invites us to seek His help through prayer in all things, and certainly that includes praying for the gits of the Spirit.  But that is not all; we must “do in all holiness of heart” whatever it is that the Lord inspires us to do.  I believe that means seeking to exercise whatever gifts we feel we might have been given, even if, like for me, we don’t feel we have made much progress on developing any of them.  Our prayers must be coupled with some kind of action to indeed show forth our wills to the Lord.  And He has promised that if we will so seek His blessings, He will give to us liberally.