- Temporary spiritual gifts are supernatural sign gifts (supernatural abilities) that God gave to certain believers for a limited period of time so that they could authenticate their ministry and message about Jesus Christ.
- The primary purpose was not to cure physical or social ills.
- These gifts were operational only during the transitional first century.
- The Bible lists the following temporary spiritual gifts: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, working miracles or powers, apostle, prophet and prophecy, differentiating of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 28-31; 13:8-9).
- The principle of temporary spiritual gifts is found in Hebrews 2:3-4, 1 Corinthians 13:8-11, 2 Corinthians 12:12, and Romans 15:18-19. Paul, during his first Roman imprisonment in AD 60-62, was not able to heal Epaphroditus even though he had healed Publius’ father and others on the island of Malta two years earlier (Acts 28:7-9; Philippians 2:25-27). Paul could not heal him because God had withdrawn the gift of healing.