The three categories of the spiritual gifts for prayer are:

SIGN – WORD – INTELLECTUAL
(These gifts are symbolically represented as trees of grace. They help us to grow in the power of God’s love.)

1. THE SIGN GIFTS give witness to God’s Love and presence in our lives

These Gifts refer to the faith to move mountains, the Gift to pray for all forms of healing and the Gift of miracles (1 Corinthians 12:9).

They are called signs, the term used by Jesus in John’s Gospel, to describe the great works He did to convince His people that God sent Him.
“If you don’t believe me believe the works or signs I do” (John 10:25).
God shares with us in these Spiritual Gifts, for His power to do divine things.

2. THE WORD GIFTS are the power to receive, allow and understand the Holy Spirit praying in us.

They are the Gift of Tongues, the Interpretation of Tongues and the Gift of Prophecy.

The Gift Of Tongues.
When we don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit prays in us in a way that cannot be put into ordinary language (Romans 8:28).

A person hears and gives God’s message in sounds like a language unknown to him or to the community present.

This way of praying empowers us to praise God in perfect prayer. It also enables us to express and release our suppressed or unresolved emotions that remain in our body, soul and spirit.

The Father hears our cry as we pray in this Language of Love. It is actually His Holy Spirit praying in us for healing through Jesus for our wounded lives.

The Interpretation of the Tongues
is the Gift of Understanding in a general sense of what God is saying.

Developing this Gift begins as we learn to listen to the pitch, tone and expression of the consonants or words being prayed.

Pause and then ask the Holy Spirit for an interpretation. It usually begins with a strong thought or impression of one word being imprinted in our mind and in faith we believe that this inspiration has come from the Spirit.

Translation is not word for word but intuitive concepts prompted by the Holy Spirit. We will never receive an exact communication as we are imperfect. But what we are given is beyond anything that we could attain by our own efforts.

The Gift of Prophecy
(1 Corinthians 12:10), enables a person to pray and then proclaim God’s message for individuals or communities in their own language.

A supernatural Gift that is for the building up of people to grow in God’s Love and follow His Ways.

3. THE INTELLECTUAL GIFTS are God given abilities to know what God is saying to us when He shares His Wisdom, Knowledge and the Gift of His Discernment with us.

The Word of Wisdom
The Word of Knowledge
The Gift of the Discernment of Spirits

The Word of Wisdom:
Flows from the Holy Spirit’s Love that guides or leads us how to speak or reach out to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
(Mk 10:20)

The Word of Knowledge:
Is usually one word or fact given by which we gain information necessary to heal and renew members in the Body of Christ. It is a thought, word picture or insight that seems to come into mind as we pray with others.
(Ephesians: 1)

The Gift of the Discernment of Spirits:
This Divine Gift supernaturally enlightens us to discern where an inspiration or thought is coming from. Is it from God? Is it from a human source? Is it from an evil spirit?
Discernment or the recognising of spirits helps us to avoid being deceived by the Devil. This Gift enriches our spiritual growth and in the ministry of intercession is an invaluable Gift in Spiritual Prayer Warfare for the salvation of souls.

St. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem tells us simply and beautifully. “If there is anyone of you who needs wisdom she/he must ask God, who gives to all freely and ungrudgingly; it will be given him.” You will find this message in James 1:5.