The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Syllabus tag: Kenya CBC | Grade 9 Christian Religious Education | Strand 4.0 The Church | Sub-Strand 4.2 The Gifts of the Holy Spirit (8 Lessons)

Lesson objectives

By the end of this sub-strand, you should be able to:

• Explain the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.
• Identify the gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in the New Testament.
• Distinguish the gifts of the Spirit from the fruit of the Spirit.
• Explain how to utilise the gifts for the good of the community.

Summary

Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit gives different abilities to different believers, and that all of them come from the same Spirit and are given for the common good. The key distinction to grasp is between gifts and fruit. Gifts vary from person to person and equip people to serve. Fruit is the character every Christian is expected to develop. A person may have impressive gifts and poor character, which is precisely why Paul places his famous passage on love in the middle of his discussion of gifts.