Spiritual Gifts~

The Article of Faith for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

7. We believe in the ^agift of ^btongues, ^cprophecy, ^drevelation, ^evisions, ^fhealing, ^ginterpretation of tongues, and so forth.

In the book the "Articles of Faith" by James E. Talmage he states: "The gifts here spoken of are essentially endowments of power and authority, through which the purposes of God are accomplished.....By such the sick are healed, malignant influences overcome, spirit of darkness subdued; the saints, humble and weak, proclaim their testimonies and otherwise utter praises unto God in new and strange tongues vigorated by the Heavenly touch of spiritual vision and dreams to see and comprehend things ordinarily withheld from mortal senses; direct communication with the fountain of all wisdom is established, and the revelations of the divine are obtained.These gifts have been promised of the Lord unto those who believe in His name, and are to follow obedience to the requirements of the Gospel".

Joseph Smith taught "....seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given. For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all of my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited..." (D&C 46:8,9).

The Gift of Tongues -

 Two of my children served Spanish Speaking Missions for our church. Both of them told me how amazed they were that they could speak and understand the Spanish language after just a  few months on their missions. Our daughter served in Aruba and had to learn a different dilect called Papiamento which she was able to do quickly. Thousands of missionaries each year learn languages that are spoken throughout the world. They testify that they have been aided through the spirit to be able to interpret and to speak the languages of the areas they are assigned too.There are many stories of moments when the words that needed to be said would come to their minds in the language of those they were speaking too.

The gift of Prophecy  -

Again in the book " Articles of Faith" by James E. Talmage,he stated the following:

To prophesy is to receive and declare the word of God, and the statement of His will to the people."
In Amos 3: 7 it states that: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets". The Prophets through the ages had the Gift of Prophecy. We believe that the Prophet and Apostles of our day prophesy and bare testimony of those things that we as a people need to know for our times.  Again, Elder Talmage stated: " The Church today constitutes a body of witnesses....one of the great gifts of God."

The Gift of Revelation -

I believe with all my heart that our Prophet and Apostles of this day receive revelation for our church. Modern day revelations come to us through the General Conferences that are held twice per year. At these conferences we hear the Prophet and other general authorities give messages that contain the Lord's will for us. Elder James E.Talmage gave the following thoughts: "The words of him who speaks by revelation in it's highest degree are not his own; they are the words of God Himself; the mortal mouthpiece is but the trusted conveyor of these Heavenly messages".

The Gift of Visions and Dreams -

Visions come through the waking senses whereas dreams are given during sleep. In both the Bible and The New Testament we find stories of those who have had visions and or dreams. Here are a few of those who received these gifts. Moses and the burning bush; Jacob, Job, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk and Zechariah received this gift. During the dispensation of Christ the following are examples such as the birth of John  the Baptist was foretold to his father. Joseph, betrothed to the Virgin, received a visit from an angel. Warnings and instructions were given to Joseph in dreams to care for the welfare of the Holy Child.The Wise men from the East were also warned in dreams. Saul, Peter, and John were also given visions. Dreams with special import were given to Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and others. In our day various Prophets have spoken of dreams and visions. Joseph Smith's First Vision was the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel. Others such as Joseph F. Smith received the vision of the Spirit world as found in D&C 138  .  Many individuals have received warnings through dreams and have been recorded in various books and I am sure many more have them recorded in their journals. I myself have had some very important dreams concerning my own family.

The Gift of Healing -

I believe in the gift of healing and have been healed many times through priesthood blessings. Here are a few of those experiences on being healed. I received a priesthood blessing and was healed of a disease called Sarcoidosis. I had a tumor under my clavicle bone and  after our family fasted, prayed and I received a priesthood blessing the tumor could not be found on the repeat x-ray.

My husband  had a heart attack when he was 45 years old. After receiving a priesthood blessing; it was found that he had minimal damage. Later on he had fluid on the lung the became like jelly and it look like he would need a procedure called a lung peel. We fasted as a family and he had a blessing given by our home teacher and on the repeat x-ray the jelly like fluids were gone.The physician said it was a miracle. We have our little granddaughter Averi who is a walking miracle today. 

There are many more examples within our family; so I can bare testimony that we have been healed of many afflictions. I know that the gift of healing is a wonderful gift from a kind Heavenly Father.

My favorite scriptures on Gifts of the Spirit are in Moroni 10: 8-18.
 Here is verse 8: "And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the ^agifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are ^bdifferent ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the ^cSpirit of God unto men, to profit them.
I believe in the 7th Article of Faith.