Spiritual gifts are gifts given by God through the Holy Spirit to His people. These different gifts are talents or abilities given to all Christians so they can contribute to the work, mission, the benefit of the Church, and in serving one another as Paul explains in 1 Peter chapter 4. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 7:7 that each person has been given at least one gift from the Spirit. 

There are multiple places in the Bible that identify many different spiritual gifts. Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 28-30, Ephesians 4:11, 1 Peter 4:9-11, all provide examples of spiritual gifts, through there are other verses that provide examples of spiritual gifts. These gifts include leadership, administration, teaching, knowledge, wisdom, prophecy, discernment, exhortation, shepherding, giving, helps, hospitality, mercy, service, interpretation, and teaching. We do not believe this list is exhaustive, or that every spiritual gifts is listed revealed to us in scripture, but these are generally the gifts that have been identified, and are currently give to follows of Christ. 

Tongues were clearly given to believers in the book of Acts. In Acts there are three instances we see tongues appear. At Pentecost, (Acts 2:4) the conversion of Cornelius, (Acts 10:46) and at the baptism of 12 men at Ephesus. In each of these cases tongues were given by God to people to demonstrate a new people group was being added to the church. At Pentecost it was a sign for the Jewish people, with Cornelius it was an indication that the Samaritan people were being added to the church, and finally with the twelve men in Ephesus it was to indicate the full acceptance of gentiles into the Church. It is important to note these were not lost languages, but languages that people spoke around the world at that time, and always included people who could understand what was being said.

While we do not believe that this gift of tongues is currently in use at this time, we do not believe this is something that should cause division between believers. It is ok to disagree and still have unity. What we do know is that it does seem God still gives people the ability to pick up on new languages quickly, and we have seen this especially for some called to missions in other countries. This would seem to be more of the interpreting aspect of tongues still being given to the church, and not spontaneous ability to speak in known languages.

Generally speaking all Christians have at least one gift, and there is no one disciple of Christ that has every spiritual gift. We are all given some gift that adds to the whole of the body of Christ. In most cases many people have two or three spiritual gifts, and what the primary gift in their life is may fluctuate between their gifting depending on what season of life they are in. The role we have in our job, life, or ministry, and domain or function can contribute to which one of our gifts are primary in our life. (See image below)