There's one spiritual ability that's piqued my attention. I'm sharing my story in the hopes that other people with similar experiences can provide insight into the why and how of this phenomenon. It would seem that the "why" question is far simpler to answer than the "how" one.
Our spiritual growth cannot occur without the assistance of spiritual talents. They are gifts or roles that the Holy Spirit bestows on people and the Church for the sake of edification and growth in Christ. How we interpret these presents will determine what they are.
So-called charismatic talents include things like the ability to speak in tongues (or interpret others who do), the ability to cure, and so on.
The ability to serve as an apostle, evangelist, teacher, giver, etc., are all examples of function talents.
The gift of celibacy, the gift of interpreting dreams, the gift of voluntary poverty, etc., are all examples of spiritual gifts that fall beyond the first two categories I described.
The present I am about to explain is not listed in the Bible, but it is depicted there. Some people are discussing it in a roundabout manner, but that is not what I want to express here. Others compare financial growth to the multiplication of seeds. The ability to make more of anything is the kind of gift I have in mind, like Jesus's alleged multiplication of bread and fish in the Gospels.
In two separate instances, we are told that Jesus caused food and fish to multiply. The Israelites were fed by manna that fell from the sky in the Old Testament. Similarly, God increased the availability of food.
In contrast, very few of us, if any of us at all, have seen the miraculous phenomenon of food multiplication. In other words, "none of us" will believe it unless we have photographic evidence that food has miraculously increased.
It has occurred to me on rare occasions, and I've always been fascinated by this "gift of multiplication," the same ability or power that Jesus displayed in the miracle of the multiplication of the bread and fish. Neither my volition nor my desires had a role; it just occurred.
In 1982, while eating a dish of rice, I counted and found that the amount of rice remained the same after 15 minutes. Before my eyes, the cooked rice had expanded. To be honest, I didn't want it to happen. I didn't want to. The quantity of rice in the rice cooker was plenty, however, the amount on my plate rapidly increased. That lone occurrence was the only one of its kind. It might happen again, however.
Food, of course, can be easily duplicated, but so can many other things. Cash increases in value as well. The sum in question is little, but it is very real. When I need a certain sum, like enough for a bus fare, for example, that's when it tends to increase. Specifically, I tucked a particular bill inside my pocket to use as transit money. When I want to go out of the house, I take the bus. That's the fare I give to the conductor. The spare coinage goes back into my pocket. Then I see that the dollar bill is still there and hasn't changed.
This has happened not just once, but several times.
The fact that I can't just wish this multiplication away is fascinating. I have stopped praying about it altogether. Everything simply falls into place.
Why does it seem that even relatively little quantities of food or money seem to multiply? The fact that a person needs it is one possible explanation.
However, how can this occur? Honest to God, I have no idea. Some forms of duplication are well-known to us, such as the reproduction of prints by carbon copying or Xerox machines, or the duplication of visual and auditory media via tapes and other storage devices. However, the mechanisms by which real-world items like food or money grow without the need for machinery remain a mystery.
Nothing is impossible in theory, but why certain possibilities materialize while others do not is something science or religion will have to shed light on in the future. While we wait, please provide any relevant insights you may have gained in the meanwhile.