Understanding the Word Gifts of the Holy Spirit in Prayer Ministry
The gifts of the Holy Spirit play an important role in prayer ministry. These gifts allow us to minister with insight, wisdom, and supernatural knowledge that goes beyond our natural understanding. In general, there is a subset of spiritual gifts that are referred to as word or prophetic gifts. These gifts include prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
The early church understood these gifts as ways that the Lord spoke directly to his people and the general term of prophecy sometimes is used to encompass these activities. In the contemporary church, other Spirit-led instances of God communicating with his people sometimes are included in the prophetic conversation such as dreams, visions, and directive signs.
Word gifts focus primarily on prophecy, knowledge, and wisdom because they are part of prayer ministry that communicates what is spoken by the Holy Spirit. To the extent that tongues and interpretation of tongues may play a role in prayer ministry, the use of those gifts would be subject to the same principles in the context of prayer ministry. In general, the use of tongues and their interpretation often are de-emphasized during prayer ministry because one goal of ministry time is to help the person receiving prayer to not be distracted and to listen attentively.
As believers, we are called to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy" and this is, in part, because prophecy speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. The word of knowledge tends to provide insight into specific situations, while the word of wisdom involves understanding biblical truth and applying it skillfully to life situations.
Dreams, visions, and signs can play a role in prayer ministry but are less common. This does not invalidate their use in praying for others but are not ways that most people hear God’s voice in prayer ministry. As we use word gifts and understand their usage, we can see that they can add impact and clarity to prayer ministry.
