What are your gifts of the Holy Spirit as a Christian

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So nicely said and thank you Jakki and to you as well.

Perseverance.

(Closely tied to the gift of fortitude /courage).

As an adult with ADHD, Autism and mood issues (anxiety and depression) I have a lot of ups and downs. I keep coming back.

Isaiah 11:2-3 (NIV)
"The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord—
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord."

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NIV)
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom,
to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
to another miraculous powers,
to another prophecy,
to another distinguishing between spirits,
to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,
and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines."

Thank you for sharing Fenn.
Perserverance can be so important in life.
A friend of mine was very unwell with a chronic condition. Me and her have the same condition as well. I have several conditions and one is autism. However, her dad was a pastor and he used to comfort me as well and said to me we need perserverance and endurance at times in life. I loved it when he her dad said that to me and I like it now when you wrote it and know how true and needed and what a gift it is as well.

Thank you for sharing.

I sit down wondering sometimes how some people can cope without any support at all. Some of us have tougher rides than others. Still though, anyway.

I read the Gifts and do not believe I have any in abundance, but I think all are available to everyone at times and can be developed through practice. Discernment of spirits is an interesting gift to read about in the Bible and establishes a Biblical basis for scrying as practiced by the devout Dr. John Dee.

I foresee things that protect me often, particularly from the manipulation of others. It is what protects me in relationships, when I am vulnerable. Now a problem arises if emotions get too high, that the Thinker disregards what is foreseen, disregards the insight given, in order to persist in an unhealthy relationship, in which a neurotypical is attempting to manipulate the Thinker for his or her own ends.

I used to do Tarot readings sometimes to achieve clarity in prophecy, but stopped doing them simply because I don't want to know what lies in the future & am not terribly interested in that. Perhaps it has to do with age and sensing there isn't a ton of time left to fulfill any good prophecy, and that the Death card might have actually a literal interpretation.

Thank you for sharing. What you posted was interesting. This is the first post I have seen with your name I believe and know nothing about you. I don't know if you have a faith or any at all. We can all start at a basic premise. Perhaps you agree we are all humans and have a creator. I am a Christian but there is a basic premise. Now I am saying this as I observed a couple of things. You have gifts for sure. However, you said you do not have them in abundance. So, my question is have you been baptised as Christian as these gifts are for Christians and for the church. However, with people with conditions as I have seen with myself that doesn't mean I need to be attending all the time. It was more to take care of me it seemed as your post seems you also suggesting as well.

I thought to conclude this on my part I would highlight some of the newest research on Spirituality and autism from academic research which supports the potential of spiritual/supernatural experiences in some of the neurodiverse community.

I will also link to two videos of the work of David Derbyshire who I think perhaps for some people who have never heard of this before it may provide a good simple introduction. David Derbyshire is diagnosed with aspergers and is a graduate who has studied in this area and in 2022-2023 he ran a group for those with a neurodiversity to find out more about neurodiversity and spirituality. I did take part in the group and I found it useful. They have uploaded all the Zoom meetings with the participants removed to Youtube. They do have more uploaded but I will link to two about spiritual gifts and sensitivity.


Autism and Religion 2023

“We dispute the assumption that individuals with ASD are inherently less religious and spiritual than the neurotypical population. Religiosity is possibly expressed differently in ASD with unique spiritual experiences and beliefs (“gifted, visionary, and truth-seeker”)".
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10453845/


Sensory supernatural experiences in autism 2018
“non-autistic group participants, and current research suggests that unusual somatosensory experiences are prevalent in the autistic population. Attribution of invisible agency is understood as a sense-making coping strategy, and it is argued that esoteric content in fantasy literature, movies and computer games explain why these young adults prefer to attribute agency to ghosts, spirits and demons, rather than god(s). The study thereby extends and challenges the study of autism and religiosity by exploring the intersection between autistic embodiment and encultured cognition”.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 18.1548374


So, we now moving past singular theories of mind theories about religion and autism. We are moving into different ways of thinking about the neurodiverse community being eqiupped in different ways to embrace a faith that circumvents perhaps inherit traits of the condition.

Neurodiverse Spirituality Gifts and Challenges by David Derbyshire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8c1Ful8RVQ

Neurodiversity Sprituality and Sensitivity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxCi4p-5nrM

Well I'm still alive if that counts

It would be good if this thread could remain on topic for those who are personally interested in the topic or those who wish to contribute to the topic themselves.

It is time for perhaps another discussion to be considered for those who may wish to with all the out of date information that has existed previously on this nature in the academic world.

How does one distinguish gifts from the Holy Spirit from innate talents?

This is interesting to me, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit list 9 Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One of my friends who is extremly talented is a musician. On Sunday and at times it seems like she plays inspired pieces. I would say she has a talent of music but one that can be poured into when she appears very inspiried say at church or praticising, just my views. We all have our natural talents and some may be poured into or ehnacned. I had the pleasure to interact with a man who was limited in hearing. I am sure that condition may be used as well. I would say one of my natural gifts is to write as if I have enjoyed doing from early childhood depite my problems with English which could be used for service as well, like to write an article.

Hi Rachel !

Regarding differences I don't know.

But check out the life of other christians on the spectrum who received gifts of the Holy Spirit, like the amazing story of Josiah :

- https://the-art-of-autism.com/how-josiah-a-non-speaking-autistic-child-conveys-spiritual-truths/
- his mother's blog : https://tahnicullen.wordpress.com/josiahs-fire/
- https://kidsinministry.org/the-spiritual-lives-of-autistic-children-2/

You will see some epic gifts of the Holy Spirit manifested in a young autist !

Josiah is non verbal and God does extraordinary things in his life with prophetic gifts. The boy (now he has grown up, he's a teen) has words of knowledge and God speaks to him, teaches him such wisdom you know it doesn't come from the boy nor an adult...

Check out also about the autism pastor, he leads (or co-leads) a church and had many talks/podcast on Youtube about his journey, and ASD. Maybe you can find something about the gifts of the Holy Spirit there are so many videos...

Hope this helps

Thank you Scotia for posting this information. I wii definetly look through it today.

With what has been said in the past about autistics largely being atheists and also not able to have a faith-I felt the need to attention to this and the recent research about many autistics can have intense spiritual experiences with their faith and none but just spiritually.

I saw this today in a leaflet the definition of Spirituality in guide about counselling people and this fits all.

I see a number of posts at times of people telling themselves negative things about themselves repeatedly and we can all go through difficult times. I think if you do it too often, may be you may be almost spiritually void in a sense and then be wondering where is your motivation. We need to draw on this and build up the positives in our lives by telling ourselves positive things and trying to do helpful actions which help get us through difficulties. May be if you wish to not have faith, consider perhaps being spiritually aware of yourself.

"Our spirit can be described in many ways across different cultures. It can be recognised as the deepest part of ourselves – the part that gives us direction and motivation. It enables us to survive difficult times, to be strong, and to be ourselves"

Yesterday I went through and read the Art of Autism link about Josiah written by Ron Sanderson. What a gift to the world is Josiah. In God's world the name of gifts is not important-we are his chidren. Josiah clearly to me has one or many gifts of the Holy Spirit. I was told what mine was so that was quite easy for me.

I think trying to help things be understood it can be helpful if things like this are framed around the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I read some of his writing and the quotes are clearly very full of wisdom and that is a gift as well. I wouldn't be surprised if he had the gift of prophecy and more. According to Facebook he is 19! now and no longer a little boy.
What a delightful read that was to see someone non verbal being able to communicate with God and making the best use of his own talents. I always thought it was possible for God to communicate with people of all levels of autism.

People on the autism spectrum are much more than what the society currently knows. For many reasons:

- the identifier is mainly through the medical field; a percentage cannot access it or just doesn't need it.
- being open about ASD can be an issue at work, with the relatives
- it is right for any autistic to keep it to themselves; it is their life. So many won't talk about it.

That is why generally famous people who are open about being on the spectrum already have success (actors, scientists, business men and women, etc). - Well, also because now it is better known.

It's the same for christians on the spectrum. We have to add that faith can be for many something they live intimately.

Each human being is a spirit with a soul, living in a body :


The spirit is above the soul, the soul is above the body. Everyone has a spirit and therefore lives something at the spirit level (whether it is with Jesus or with other spiritualities or gods - humans can make glory their god, money their god, whatever is number 1 in someone's life is their god or ...God).

Being autistic is having a certain type of brain, but the spirit is above the brain. God speaks with his Spirit to our spirit. Then of course at the soul level we experience things. At the body level as well.

I hope I express my view clearly You may be interested in a famous astrophysicist who also is on the spectrum and christian :



Other articles of interest :

- Autism : a gift God can and will use - Hugh Ross, scientist explains

- Why did God create a world with autism? Scientist Hugh Ross answers



I agree. The Bible tells that we are beautifully made, that is how God sees every person.





Yes, how amazing !



God knows every thought, before we even think it :



I experienced this personally. When I faced inability to speak (a type of mutism or I don't know how to call it) I was able to pray and discuss with Jesus. That was the only way for me to interact. With thoughts and signs. Pointing the fingers to things as well.

I tried to reference my views with Bible verses, I hope you will find it helpful !

This topic is so interesting, thanks for posting it, Rachel

If you have other thoughts, please share !

Thank Scotia for all what you wrote. Even though I am Christian as well I really needed to hear some of this myself.It has been a tough few days and I needed some uplifting myself which you gave me with the clear distincitions in ourselves which was very well written. My mind has been giving me a rotten time at times-and is very easy to judge me on anything but not anyone else. God knows me better than myself. I love Psalm 139 as well. Thank you for bringing much light to this.
I will look at the information you provided as well. I had come across Hugo Ross, but check them all again.