The Complete List of Spiritual Gifts in the Bible (With Scripture)

This is a reference page. Below is every spiritual gift named in the New Testament, grouped by the passage it comes from, with a short definition you can actually use. Where a gift appears in more than one list, it is noted rather than repeated.

If you want the background first — why there are four lists and what each one is for — read What Are Spiritual Gifts? before this one.

The seven motivational gifts — Romans 12:6–8

Paul's list of seven describes motivation: not what you are able to do, but what you are driven to do. These are the gifts the Romans 12 assessment measures, because they are the ones a person can recognise in themselves.

Each of those links opens a full study page — the Greek word and its roots, biblical examples, mature and immature expressions, and where the gift belongs in a church.

The manifestation gifts — 1 Corinthians 12:8–10

Nine items, given "for the common good." Paul frames these as the Spirit acting through believers in specific moments rather than as fixed personal traits.

• A message of wisdom — knowing how to apply God's truth to a situation that has no obvious right answer.
• A message of knowledge — grasping or being given an understanding that could not have been worked out unaided.
• Faith — a settled confidence that takes God at his word when circumstances argue otherwise.
• Gifts of healing — God restoring a person's body or mind through the prayer of another.
• Miraculous powers — acts that only God can account for.
• Prophecy — speaking a word from God that convicts, comforts, or clarifies. (Also in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4.)
• Distinguishing between spirits — discerning what is genuinely of God and what only sounds like it.
• Speaking in tongues — prayer or praise in a language the speaker has not learned.
• Interpretation of tongues — rendering that speech intelligible so the church is built up.

The second Corinthian list — 1 Corinthians 12:28

Sixteen verses later Paul lists again, differently — which is itself the strongest evidence that he is illustrating variety rather than cataloguing it.

• Apostles — sent ones who establish new work. (Also Ephesians 4.)
• Prophets — those who habitually speak for God to the church. (Also Ephesians 4.)
• Teachers — those entrusted with sound instruction. (Also Romans 12, Ephesians 4.)
• Miracles and gifts of healing — repeated from verses 9–10.
• Helping — the gift of coming under a load so someone else can carry it; close kin to Romans 12 service.
• Guidance — steering and directing the body; close kin to Romans 12 leadership.
• Tongues — repeated from verse 10.

The equipping roles — Ephesians 4:11

Five roles, with one stated purpose: "to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."

• Apostles — those sent to pioneer and lay foundations.
• Prophets — those who keep the church accountable to what God has said.
• Evangelists — those who carry the good news to people outside.
• Pastors — those who shepherd, protect, and stay.
• Teachers — those who ground the church in truth.

The two categories — 1 Peter 4:10–11

Peter sorts rather than lists, and his framing is stewardship: "each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms."

• Speaking gifts — "if anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God." Prophecy, teaching, exhortation, evangelism belong here.
• Serving gifts — "if anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides." Service, giving, mercy, helping, administration belong here.

Gifts sometimes listed that are not in these four passages

Several items appear on popular inventories but come from elsewhere in Scripture, or from inference. They are worth honouring — and worth labelling accurately.

• Hospitality — commanded of all believers (Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9) rather than listed as a gift.
• Intercession — modelled throughout Scripture; not named in a gift list.
• Celibacy — Paul calls his singleness a gift in 1 Corinthians 7:7, outside any list.
• Craftsmanship — Exodus 31:3 describes Bezalel filled with the Spirit for skilled work; Old Testament, not a New Testament gift list.
• Music, writing, worship leading — real callings, exercised through the listed gifts.

How many spiritual gifts are there, then?

Counting every distinct term across all four passages, and merging the obvious repeats, gives about twenty. Traditions that publish 19, 21, or 23 are making defensible judgement calls about whether helping and service are one gift, or whether the apostle is a role rather than a gift. There is no biblical number to be right about.

Finding yours

A list can tell you what exists; it cannot tell you what you carry. Start with Romans 12 — the seven motivational gifts are the ones you can identify with reasonable confidence. The free assessment ranks all seven for you and reveals your top gift at no cost, and How to Discover Your Spiritual Gift covers the four confirmations that matter more than any score.