God has granted each of us with spiritual gifts to use in expanding the Kingdom. However, it can be tempting to make these spiritual gifts an end in themselves. Pastor Sam Storms shares how we can have a healthy perspective on the exercising of spiritual gifts in our every day lives.

“Unfortunately, people have taken the Spirit of God, His power, His gifts, and His many blessings and in a sense, they have severed those things from the person of Christ himself. We need to understand the Spirit of God is here to equip us and bless us so we can be built up and so that we can build others up in our knowledge and experience of the person of Christ.”

We are equipped with spiritual gifts to bring Glory to God, not to about elevating ourselves.

“When we lose that focus, often times, church life becomes celebrity-centered instead of Christ-centered. It becomes all about the man of God or the woman of God, or whoever is more anointed then another. We tend to fixate on people. We fixate upon power itself rather than realizing the power is there to illumine and magnify the beauty and the majesty of who Jesus is.”

Sam says we can safe-guard against this celebrity culture by staying tethered to Scripture as the basis for all we do.

“Often, Christians become untethered from Scripture. When I teach, I want everything to be tethered to Scripture. I want it to be rooted and grounded in the text. I don’t want to endorse any practice if I can’t justify it from the Word of God. We are rightly centered when we remember the Spirit of God is here to equip and empower us to live lives that become rooted in the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ.”

In order for our expression of spiritual gifts to be pleasing in God’s sight, we must have a heart that yearns to bring attention to the name of Jesus, not our own.


Sam Storms is founder of Enjoying God Ministries, which provides biblical and theological resources to the body of Christ. He is also the senior pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and a former professor. Storms travels both in the United States and abroad, speaking at churches and conferences. He is the author of over two-dozen books and a contributor to the Zondervan Counterpoints volume Are the Miraculous Gifts for Today?.

Sam Storms on welcoming the gifts of the Holy Spirit in your life