Let me make something clear, there is a big difference between gifts and talents. A talent is a gift which does not require the Holy Spirit to manifest, while a true spiritual gift requires the Holy Spirit to operate through you. Things such as a beautiful voice, an ability to paint beautiful pictures, or design fantastic web sites are all talents which even non-believers can operate in and benefit from. Prophecy, gifts of healing, words of knowledge, etc. are all spiritual gifts which require the Holy Spirit to be engaged in order to work. You can’t give a prophecy without the Holy Spirit first revealing it to you. You can’t lay your hands on the sick and see them healed without the Holy Spirit’s power flowing through you.
One of my pet peeves is those churches which use the word “gifts” so freely, when they are merely referring to our talents, which has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. This is where I go back to the Bible and read what it has to tell us, not what some pastor thinks or was taught in seminary. Such false teaching is the very reason the church is so weak and helpless against real world problems today!
