The Gifts Part 30
Miracles continued...
Although the gift of faith, the gifts of healings, and the gift of the working of miracles are three distinct and individual gifts, you will often find them working together or complementing each other. All three of these gifts are known as gifts of power, wherein a demonstration of the power of God is not only visible but evident to all who behold them.
While those who doubt the continuity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that we as children of God are entitled to receive them are great in number and vociferous in their opinion to boot, it is not me that they have to contend with, but rather Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Although an exegetical study of a certain passage in Corinthians proves out that Paul never intimated that gifts would end, but rather when that which is perfect has come and we see Him face to face we will no longer have need of the gifts, there are still the words that Jesus spoke shortly before He was received up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God that we must either dismiss or do away with in order to doubt the veracity of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Mark 16:17-18, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”
One would think that after enumerating all the things that those who believe would do in His name, and after insisting that these signs would follow them, Jesus in all His wisdom would have included the fact that it was only a temporary situation, something that a singular generation would be able to do, if it were so.
Although I keep trying to move ahead, I keep returning to this notion of how grand and wondrous an entity the congregation of God would be if only they believed Him at His word, and pursued those things He encouraged us to pursue.
Jesus did not quantify His statement, He did not say that signs would follow those who believe for a season, for a time, or for a generation, He did not intimate that once the last of the disciples went into the earth the Holy Spirit and the gifts thereof would return to the Father from which they came, because this was not the case.
‘Well brother Mike, but Jesus didn’t say that the Holy Spirit would remain in perpetuity either, so it’s a stalemate. You believe what you want to believe, we’ll believe what we want to believe, and it’ll all sort itself out in the end.’
Contrary to popular sentiment, Jesus did say that the Holy Spirit would remain in perpetuity, He did say that the Holy Spirit would abide with us forever, and the reason that the ‘it’ll all sort itself out in the end’ mentality just won’t cut it, is because we will need all of the power of God in the coming days, we will need all the gifts of the Holy Spirit operating within the church so that we might stand against the darkness, resist the devil, and proclaim the truth fearlessly.
John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
Although I think we covered this some time back, it is worth revisiting, because it is of great import that we stand on a foundation of truth, rather than a manmade foundation that will soon crumble into the dust.
Yes, forever meant forever even two thousand years ago, even in the Greek, or in the Hebrew, and those who would oppose the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, can’t get around the words of Jesus so readily.
All I can do is defend the truth of scripture, even if that makes me sound combative at times, and no I cannot abide the ‘it’ll all pan out in the end’ mentality because there are certain things within the Word of God that are worth standing for, fighting for and even dying for.
We will not be able to blame God for our impotence in the face of darkness, we will not be able to blame God for our lack of discernment when deception threatens to deceive even the elect, we will not be able to blame God for our lack of wisdom or knowledge when those of the world will seem wiser than the children of God, because God extended His hand toward us, and we slapped it away, He desired to give us spiritual gifts, and we shrugged our shoulders and told Him to His face that He couldn’t do that anymore. If we bend, if we break, if we break faith, if we are deceived, if we grow indifferent, we will have no one to blame but ourselves, because we refused that which God desired to give us, readily believing the doctrines of men over the Word of God.
Romans 15:15-20, “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the gentiles obedient – in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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