A Christian theological definition of Gifts, Spiritual Gifts according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Gifts, Spiritual Gifts

See also: Gifts, Spiritual Gifts , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

A Christian theological definition of Spiritual Gifts according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Spiritual Gifts

See also: Spiritual Gifts , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Spiritual Gifts

The Christian doctrine that certain gifts are given by Jesus to his church. There are some that are obviously supernatural in the usage: speaking in tongues, discerning of spirits, healing, etc. There are others that are not so supernatural: administrations, help, admonition, etc.

There is debate over the continuance of the gifts. Some say that the gifts have ceased because we now have the Bible. They argue that the gifts were used for the building up the church during its beginning when the Bible was not complete. Since the Bible is complete there is no further need for the revelatory gifts like speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Others maintain that the gifts are all for today though to a lesser degree.

(See also: Spiritual Gifts, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Spiritual Gifts

According to Christian doctrine, special abilities given by God to worthy believers. Every Christian has at least one

Following is a list of the gifts arranged in two groups.

• The first are gifts that require supernatural intervention and are possessed only by true Christians.
• The second are gifts that do not require supernatural intervention. Even non-Christians can have the second group of gifts.

A further issue is whether or not the gifts are still in use today. Some believe they ceased with the apostles and the completion of the writings of the Bible) and they are no longer needed for the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. 4: 12). Others believe the gifts are still in use but not in the pure apostolic sense. In other words, they are still in use but not in the same way possessed by the apostles. Instead, they are available to the believer if and when God decides it is beneficial to use them.

The first group of spiritual gifts are: Salvation, Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Distinguishing of Spirits, Tongues, and Interpretation of Tongues.

The second group of spiritual gifts are: Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leading, and Showing mercy.

(see Psychic Gifts)

(See also: Spiritual Gifts, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Spiritual Gifts

According to Christian doctrine, special abilities given by God to worthy believers. Every Christian has at least one

Following is a list of the gifts arranged in two groups.

• The first are gifts that require supernatural intervention and are possessed only by true Christians.
• The second are gifts that do not require supernatural intervention. Even non-Christians can have the second group of gifts.

A further issue is whether or not the gifts are still in use today. Some believe they ceased with the apostles and the completion of the writings of the Bible) and they are no longer needed for the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. 4: 12). Others believe the gifts are still in use but not in the pure apostolic sense. In other words, they are still in use but not in the same way possessed by the apostles. Instead, they are available to the believer if and when God decides it is beneficial to use them.

The first group of spiritual gifts are: Salvation, Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Distinguishing of Spirits, Tongues, and Interpretation of Tongues.

The second group of spiritual gifts are: Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leading, and Showing mercy.

(see Psychic Gifts)

(See also: Spiritual Gifts, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Charismatic Gifts

According to Christian doctrine, the special spiritual gifts given to members of the Christian church. They are for edifying and building up the church. They are: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. Christians use the term to avoid using the term psychic.

(See also: Charismatic Gifts, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

gifts of the spirit

Inherent psychic abilities in all human beings

(See also: Gifts of the spirit, Body Mind and Soul)

A Christian theological definition of Charismatic Gifts according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Charismatic Gifts

See also: Charismatic Gifts , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Sabha (Sanskrit). An assembly; a place for meetings, social or political. Also Mahasabha , "the bundle of wonderful (mayavic or illusionary) things" the gift of Mayasur to the Pandavas (Mahabharata.)

(See also: Sabha, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Urlak (Scandianvian Norse). The same as "Orlog" (q.v.). Fate; an impersonal power bestowing gifts "blindly" on mortals; a kind of Nemesis.

(See also: Urlak, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Toralva, Dr. Eugene. A physician who lived in the fourteenth century, and who received as a gift from Friar Pietro, a great magician and a Dominican monk, a demon named Zequiel to be his faithful servant. (See Isis Unveiled, II., 60.)

(See also: Toralva, Dr, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Dakshina: An offering or gift to God or the Guru. Traditionally, when one seeks the teachings or blessings of a saint, one brings an offering; this act of giving invites grace. The practice of giving dakshina is an expression of gratitude and love for what has been received on the spiritual path.

(See also: Dakshina, Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

COMING OF AGE RITUAL: At age thirteen for boys, and at the time of a girls first menstral cycle, Pagan children are considered to be spiritual adults. They join with other Pagans to celebrate their new maturity with rituals and parties and are permitted full membership in covens. This is also the time when ritual tools are given to them as gifts, or else the are allowed to choose their own.

(See also: COMING OF AGE RITUAL, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

siddhi: (Sanskrit) "Power, accomplishment; perfection."

Extraordinary powers of the soul, developed through consistent meditation and deliberate, grueling, often uncomfortable tapas, or awakened naturally through spiritual maturity and yogic sadhana.

Through the repeated experience of Self Realization, siddhis naturally unfold according to the needs of the individual. Before Self Realization, the use or development of siddhis is among the greatest obstacles on the path because it cultivates ahamkara, I-ness, and militates against the attainment of prapatti, complete submission to the will of God, Gods and guru. Six siddhis in particular are considered primary obstacles to samadhi:

-       clairvoyance (adarsha siddhi or divya siddhi),

-       clairaudience (shravana siddhi or divyashravana),

-       divination (pratibha siddhi),

-       super-feeling (vedana siddhi) and

-       super-taste (asvadana siddhi),

-       supersmell (varta siddhi).

The eight classical siddhis are:

1)    anima: to be as small as an atom;

2)    mahima: to become infinitely large;

3)    laghima: super-lightness, levitation;

4)    prapti: pervasiveness, extension, to be anywhere at will;

5)    prakamya: fulfillment of desires;

6)    vashitva: control of natural forces;

7)    ishititva: supremacy over nature;

8)    kama-avasayitva: complete satisfaction.

The supreme siddhi (parasiddhi) is realization of the Self, Parasiva.

See: ahamkara, prapatti, siddha yoga, psychic ability.

(See also: Siddhi, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Abhijna (Sanskrit). Six phenomenal (or "supernatural") gifts which Sakyamuni Buddha acquired in the night on which he reached Buddhaship. This is the "fourth" degree of Dhyana (the seventh in esoteric teachings) which has to be attained by every true Arhat.

In China, the initiated Buddhist ascetics reckon six such powers, but in Ceylon they reckon only five. The first Abhijna is Divyachakchus, the instantaneous view of anything one wills to see; the second, is Divyasrotra, the power of comprehending any sound whatever, etc., etc.

(See also: Abhijna, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Upasruti (Sanskrit). According to Orientahists a "supernatural voice which is heard at night revealing the secrets of the future ". According to the explanation of Occultism, the voice of any person at a distance -  -  generally one versed in the mysteries of esoteric teachings or an adept -  -  endowed with the gift of projecting both his voice and astral image to any person whatsoever, regardless of distance. The upasruti may "reveal the secrets of the future ", or may only inform the person it addresses of some prosaic fact of the present; yet it will still be an upasruti - the "double" or the echo of the voice of a living man or woman.

(See also: Upasruti, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Madhyamikas (Sanskrit). A sect mentioned in the Vishnu Purana.

Agreeably to the Orientalists, a

"Buddhist sect, which is an anachronism. It was probably at first a sect of Hindu atheists. A later school of that name, teaching a system of sophistic nihilism, that reduces every proposition into a thesis and its antithesis, and then denies both, has been started in Tibet and China. It adopts a few principles of Nagarjuna, who was one of the founders of the esoteric Mahayana systems, not their exoteric travesties. The allegory that regarded Nagarjuna’s "Paramartha" as a gift from the Nagas (Serpents) shows that he received his teachings from the secret school of adepts, and that the real tenets are therefore kept secret.

(See also: Madhyamikas, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Nabia (Hebrew, Jewish). Seership, soothsaying.

This oldest and most respected of mystic phenomena is the name given to prophecy in the Bible, and is correctly included among the spiritual powers, such as divination, clairvoyant visions, trance-conditions, and oracles. But while enchanters, diviners, and even astrologers are strictly condemned in the Mosaic books, prophecy, seership, and nabia appear as the special gifts of heaven.

In early ages they were all termed Epoptai (Seers), the Greek word for Initiates; they were also designated Nebim, "the plural of Nebo, the Babylonian god of wisdom." The Kabalist distinguishes between the seer and the magician; one is passive, the other active; Nebirah, is one who looks into futurity and a clairvoyant; Nebi-poel, he who possesses magic powers. We notice that Elijah and Apollonius resorted to the same means to isolate themselves from the disturbing influences of the outer world, viz., wrapping their heads entirely in a woollen mantle, from its being an electric non-conductor we must suppose.

(See also: Nabia, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Yene, Anganta. The meaning of the Anganta Yene is known to all India. It is the action of an elemental (bhut), who, drawn into the sensitive and passive body of a medium, takes possession of it. In other words, anganta vene means literally "obsession".

The Hindus dread such a calamity now as strongly as they did thousands of years ago. "No Hindu, Tibetan, or Sinhalese, unless of the lowest caste and intelligence, can see, without a shudder of horror, the signs of ‘mediumship’ manifest themselves in a member of his family, or without saying, as a Christian would do now, ‘ he hath the devil’. This ‘gift, blessing, and holy mission’, so called in England and America. is, among the older peoples, in the cradle-lands of our race, where longer experience than ours has taught them more spiritual wisdom, regarded as a dire misfortune."

(See also: Yene, Anganta, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Euthanasia (from Greek eu well +thanatos death)

Easy death, a painless death; used for the practice of mercifully killing people who would otherwise suffer a painful death. To decide if a person should or should not be kept alive by artificial means or a life ended by artificial means requires almost superhuman discernment. An individual is not his body nor even his mind, but fundamentally a spiritual being.

Physical suffering from bodily ills, however unpleasant, provides an opportunity to meet and dispose of certain karmic causes, and thereby learn and grow. Aside from the difficulty of preventing abuses in legalized euthanasia, the ethical and spiritual questions surrounding artificial prolongation and shortening of life remain extremely complex. The Stoics held that life is a gift of the gods and therefore no person has the right to reject that gift -- for oneself or another -- until the gods themselves call it back.

Also used for the power possessed by adepts to quit or drop their physical body painlessly, in order to work as nirmanakayas, which is the meaning of the stories in the Bible which speak of men being taken to heaven without dying.

(See also: Euthanasia, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)