When you are sick, you can’t always go to a General Practitioner or GP doctor. Sometimes you have to go to a specialist that has majored in your more unique problems and needs. Also, when you go to the store, you can’t always shop at the same store. There are times when you can go to a super store or a department store and get most of the things you need. But, there are times when you have to go to a store that specializes in certain products that represent your needs and wants.

God knows you have all kinds of needs and problems and has given gifts to various people so they can address those needs. You saw in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 that there are three groups of gifts that God gives people:

• In 1 Corinthians 12:4 you are told that the Holy Spirit gives gifts that are used as spiritual tools so you can help people in a God-sized, supernatural way.


• In 1 Corinthians 12:5 you are told that Jesus gives special gifts to people to establish their spiritual career or profession.


• In 1 Corinthians 12:6 you are told that the Father takes the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the ministerial gifts of Jesus and works them together to produce unique ministerial gift for each person to serve the body of Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 you have a general list of the equipment or tool gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:27-28 and in Ephesians 4:7-13 you have a general list of the gifts Jesus gives to define the type of profession or ministerial career you will have. These gifts from Jesus empower, inspire certain interests, shape the interpretations the Holy Spirit gives each Scripture, produce certain talents and skills, and prepare your heart for certain equipment gifts from the Holy Spirit.

The “different kinds of working” described in 1 Corinthians 12:6 shows another aspect of how the Father takes the equipment gifts of the Holy Spirit and the professional gifts of Jesus and shapes people with the same or similar gifts for different assignments. Peter was an apostal but was given the responsibility to work with the Jews most of the time. Paul was an apostle but was assigned to work with the Gentiles most of the time. In other words, the Father decides when, where, and how all these gifts are to be used.

1 Corinthians 12 takes the human body and illustrates how Jesus’ body works. You have seen how Jesus used the situations, configurations, and functions on this earth as illustrations for how things are in the spirit realm and in the Kingdom of God. Jesus is teaching you by using the medical field and its systems and attitudes to look at the proper function of the church in the local setting and at large around the world.

All the local churches are a part of the universal or global Church; all the local bodies of believers are a part of the complete Body of Christ. It can sometimes get confusing as to which meaning of church or body the Bible is referencing. The best way to know is to look at the context and see how these words are used in the sentence, the verse, and chapter.

A local church would meet in someone’s house; Jesus told Peter that he was going to be one of the small rocks that would form the large rock upon which He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18). This last last word “Church” that Jesus used was in reference to the universal or global Church that would spread around the world.