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                                     GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

                  GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT: ARE THEY STILL NEEDED AND AVAILABLE?


Concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit, there are two main arguments which refute that they are still available or needed. The two main arguments that I'm aware of are as follows: the gifts were only for the apostolic age, and; they are no longer needed. In kind rebuttal, not only have I witnessed all of the gifts at one time or another, or known firsthand of their operations, scripture clearly does not substantiate either of the two arguments against them. Keep in mind that many, most or all of the New Testament gifts and miracles existed, were used and occurred in the Old Testament times, but sometimes there were long time spaces between instances of them being implemented.

The greatest gift of all is the gift of the Holy Ghost [Acts 2:38], which some also teach that we no longer need, equivalent to blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, if sustained [Ephesians 4:30, Exodus 23:20-22]. Grieve [Greek lupeo] means to cause pain or grief to, to distress, which many of the Pharisees did in resisting Jesus' teachings, and repentance unto salvation [Acts 7:51-54, II Timothy 3:1-8, Hosea 7:14-16, Matthew 12:22-37], and many do today. The spirit which influences, and in many cases possesses, people to teach that attributes of the Holy Spirit are evil is the spirit of antichrist [I John 4:1-3,6]. Of our own will and might we are not able to declare that Jesus is Lord [I Corinthians 12:3], because it is simply not in our being aside from the Holy Ghost [Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 8:21, Psalm 33:15, Ecclesiastes 7:20, I John 1:8,10, Romans 3:23, 5:12, James 2:10, Zechariah 4:6, Luke 22:31-34,54-62], and without the Holy Spirit, or Ghost, being inside us, we do not belong to Christ [Romans 8:9, Ephesians 1:13,14]. The Holy Ghost and It's attributes is quite essential, and we'll go on to show why.

The Holy Spirit took Jesus Christ's place upon earth, and is also to comfort, dwell with and in, and teach, us, the believer in Christ. The Comforter, or Holy Spirit, brings scripture to our remembrance, reproves of sin, righteousness and judgment, guides us into all truth, glorifies Christ, tells us what to say at times, shows us things and speaks through us [John 14:16-18,26, 16:7-15, Matthew 10:17-20]. The Holy Ghost can also give us physical power at certain times [Judges 14:19], and for things other than physical battle, and help us to do building projects for the Lord, and I believe even our jobs and such, which either directly or indirectly support the Lord [Exodus 31:3-6, I Kings 7:14].

Before exploring what the gifts of the Spirit are, let me review and then ask a question. We see from the above scripture, that Jesus sent to us the Holy Ghost to help us, and that the Holy Ghost is, for lack of a better term, Jesus' relief, or replacement upon earth and, for all practical purposes, as Jesus Himself to us, though not Jesus Himself [John 14:16-18, Matthew 28:19, 26:64, Colossians 3:1]. And the question I ask is, do we, as believers, have the liberty, or should we want to take the liberty, of only accepting part of what Jesus is? If we build a house, do we then close some of the rooms off and not use them? May not be the best simile, but it is the best I can think of at the moment, and I think it presents the idea. Or how about this? Do we, when accepting someone as a friend or a spouse, take only part of them, or do we take their whole being in as a companion? Can we say, well, I want to totally sever this attribute or that characteristic, and part it asunder from the rest of their being? Neither can we part any of the Holy Spirit's attributes from It (the Holy Spirit is referred to as an It [I Peter 1:11). Let's go on.

Lets now discover what the gifts of the spirit are, and what they are for, from I Corinthians 12:1,4-11,28-30. The word gift, concerning the gift of the Holy Spirit [Acts 2:38,] to all believers, either upon conversion, at water baptism, or through laying on of hands by other believers after conversion and baptism [John 20:22 > Luke 24:49 > Acts 1:5,8,9 > John 16:7 > Acts 2:1-4,38,39,Acts 8:5,6,13-17,18-24,27-31,34-39, 9:17,18, 10:44-48, 11:15-18, 15:6-11 [law-nomos-does not mean a forsaking of moral law, but rather the law is done away with as far as being a means to salvation or of justification, as in, we do not earn salvation, nor can anyone; ref. Romans 3:27,28, 4:2-7,14-16, 5:1,2,11-21, 6:1-18,22,23, I John 3:4, Romans 7:4-25, 8:1-7,13 > Ezekiel 11:19-21, Revelation 14:12, Ephesians 2:8,9, Amos 2:12-16], Acts 16:16-18, 19:1-7] is from the Greek dorea, meaning a free, supernatural gift, the Holy Ghost Himself. Gift [Greek charisma] of the Spirit is a gift involving grace, endowments of the operations of the Holy Ghost upon believers, but more specifically merismos, which is a "dividing". A dividing [Greek merismos] means a distribution [Hebrews 2:4, I Corinthians 12:11,28-31] to each believer with what God wants each particular individual to have, for His work.

We could rightly refer to the gifts of the Spirit as It's "tools of the trade", what the Spirit uses through believers to engage in and complete the work of Christ. Some think that all we now need are the scriptures which, concerning the New Testament, the early church did not have in writing. To this I begin with, Can we build a house with merely a set of instructions, a blueprint? Obviously not. We need tools with which to build the house [I Peter 2:5, II Corinthians 5:1, II Timothy 2:19-21, Hebrews 3:4-19 > Exodus 23:20-25 > Ephesians 6:12]. Do we, once our house is built, invite guests over to look at the tools? Of course not, they are there to view and enjoy the house, it's environment, how it was built, the finished project. We do not glory in the tools, the gifts of the Spirit, but rather in what the tools accomplish when rightly used by us. We should want gifts from the Spirit, in order to more effectively do our part to help build and edify the church [I Corinthians 12:31 (covet [Greek zeloo] here means desire earnestly, in a good sense)].

Having only a set of instructions, blueprints, that is, a book, profits us no more than the Old Testament profited the people practicing Judaism without the Spirit of God which, is not absent of helpfulness but is very incomplete and unable to convert the soul in itself. Reading the Old Testament without having the Holy Spirit is reading a sound set of precepts and examples, a good guide for living, but trying to live the commandments without the aid of the Holy Ghost is still an act of works, human endeavor. And that should be done, as part of Christianity is self discipline. However, with the Holy Spirit dwelling within [II Corinthians 1:22], the Old Testament comes to life, prophecies become understandable and the New Testament can be properly interpreted. Not only, but the Holy Spirit enables us to more perfectly obey God's commandments, which is a part of Christian living and God's original intentions for us [Ezekiel 11:19,20].

The Old Testament is the foundation for the New Testament, and the New Testament is the fulfilling of the Old Testament [Colossians 2:14,17, Hebrews 8:3-5, 10:1, Matthew 5:17-20]. And without the Holy Spirit, the New Testament is merely a set of unobtainable precepts, a dead letter, an instruction book, no more than a set of secular, academic lessons. Without the Holy Spirit, the attempt at attaining salvation becomes an activity of knowledge and human wisdom only, acts of works only, humanism [I Corinthians 1:17-31], which results in Biblically educated lost souls.

Many Biblical scholars and theologians, as well as pastors and other preachers, and teachers, somehow seem to think that we have "evolved", for lack of a better word, into being so educated that we no longer need the gifts of the Holy Ghost, or even the Holy Ghost itself. Far from it, because at this point in time, the United States has spiraled downward into such a state of spiritual degradation that we do indeed fit many, if not most or all, of the requirements for being apostate, similar to spiritual Babylon, if not the same. Much of the false doctrine of rejection of the Holy Ghost and/or His attributes began around 40 years ago, which is the point at which the USA really began it's moral decline. By denying the Holy Spirit to have course and reign, the church at large has let a corporate spirit rule over the church. Because of that and since denying and prohibiting the use of gifts [I Thessalonians 5:19] has become standard doctrine, there is very little movement of the true Spirit of God. That is why there is such an absence of Holy Spirit guidance and miracles. Note that, for instance, a person must have some faith in order to be healed [Mark 5:36, 9:23, 11:23-26, 16:17, John 3:12, 4:48, 6:29, 10:25,26,37,38, 11:40,42, Mark 9:14-29, Hebrews 11:6], even having some unbelief present, which is present to one degree or another, in every human's being [Romans 8:7], even though we, as a believer [I John 3:6,7,9, 5:1,4,5 > John 3:6, Hebrews 4:12], can know when we are right with the Lord [Romans 8:16, I John 3:24, Luke 21:29-31, John 7:17, 10:14, 27,37,38, I Corinthians 13:9-12 > Hebrews 5:12-14 > Malachi 3:18, I Corinthians 15:58, II Corinthians 5:1-11, Ephesians 1:18, II Timothy 1:12-14, Hebrews 10:30, I Peter 1:18, James 5:20].

As far as I know, most believers would agree that the Holy Spirit is necessary, at least they should, and do if they are genuinely converted and walking in the Spirit [Galatians 5:16]. So why would so many think that the gifts are no longer needed or even still available? It is due to false teachings by unsaved theologians, theologians and false prophets who have done despite to the Spirit of Grace, or believers who have been deceived by false teachings and do not know any better [Ephesians 4:30]. It is plainly stated in the Old Testament that God would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, in order to get us to repent of our sins, and bestow certain attributes upon believers [Joel 2:28-32, Proverbs 1:23-33, Isaiah 28:11].

Nobody in the church seemingly refutes the fact that the gifts of the Spirit were in operation during "apostolic" times. But some argue that the gifts disappeared with the closing of the apostolic age. Two main points here: where does the Bible say that the apostolic age ever closed, and; where does the Bible say that the gifts disappeared even if the apostolic age ended? The answer? Nowhere! The verses of Ephesians 4:11-13 are used by some to argue that the gifts did go away, citing especially verses 12 and 13. Perfecting [Greek katartismos] means preparing fully. Is there a point at which a believer can sit back, relax and consider him or her self to have "arrived"? I don't think so.

Paul the apostle did not consider himself to have been made perfect at any given time [Philippians 3:8-14]. Paul considered all things he had ever been or done under the Pharisaic religion (twisting of Judaism) of no account [3:5-7,8,9] [Isaiah 64:6,8]. He realized and accepted this, so that he may get to know Christ far better [v. 10], so that if by any means [Greek pos (v. 11)] he might (will) make it to the resurrection of life [John 5:28,29, Isaiah 26:19]. Means [pos] is defined as "at all, somehow, in any way. This corresponds with Ephesians 2:8,9, stressing that we are saved by grace only, not by anything that we do. Verses 12 and 13 clearly reveal that Paul knew that he couldn't just rest easy, thinking he had it made, probably not long before his beheading in A.D. 66, in Rome under Nero. He stressed that he had to keep pushing [v.14], to keep going forward. Until dying in Christ, a believer is converted. We are saved, once and for all, at the moment we die in Christ.

Back to Ephesians 4:12,13, the work of the ministry is always there [John 4:35, Luke 10:2], so that work is not complete, and the body of Christ, the church, the believers, always need edification, do we not? I do, always [Romans 8:16, I John 3:24]. Is the church, the body or group, of believers, in unity [Greek henotes], that is, of one accord [Romans 12:16, 15:6, Philippians 2:2, Ephesians 4:5, I Corinthians 12:13]? Is the church (true believers from any Bible believing congregation) a perfect "man", living up to the fulness of Christ [Ephesians 4:13]? I hardly believe or think so. Romans 11:25 tells us that Israel, as a nation, will be blind to Christ as Messiah until the fulness of the Gentiles come in. We are also told that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Repentance [Greek ametameletos] here means not repented of, unregretted, signifying "without change of purpose". Jesus Himself tells us that what He did while on earth, the same will we do [John 14:12].

The church is under the misconception that there were only twelve apostles, plus Paul, for a total of thirteen. But that is not so, nor is there any true indication that there was only a certain time frame for there to be apostles. Apostle [Greek apostolos] primarily means one that is sent, the main Apostle being Christ Himself [Hebrews 3:1, John 17:3]. Some will use Acts 1:22 to correlate with Christ personally commissioning the twelve as apostles, as being a requirement for being an actual apostle, and/or that to be an apostle one must also be a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To that I agree. Luke 10:1,17 tells of Christ personally commissioning 70 others as either apostles, or at least disciples with much of the same power as the twelve. Paul wrote of several other apostles, including Barnabas [Acts 14:4,14], Andronicus and Junias [Romans 16:7], two unnamed apostles [messengers from Greek apostolos, so translated], Epaphroditus [Philippians 2:25 (messenger also translated from Greek apostolos)], and Silas and Timothy [I Thessalonians 1:1, 2:6]. Matthias was also named an apostle, both he and Barsabas (Justus) having been eligible [Acts 1:23-25]. Concerning having physically seeing Jesus alive after His death, burial and resurrection, there many, over five hundred seeing Him alive at one time [I Corinthians 15:4-8 (note that 'last of all' in verse 8 suggests not the very last one to see Christ, but rather afterwards or later, as in Paul was the last of that group to see Christ alive in one form or another)].

Because Paul was never with the original apostles, other disciples or Christ, before the ascension, there has always been disagreement as to Paul's true status as an apostle, though he was accepted as a believer and a preacher. Concerning the definition of an apostle as one who is sent to do Christ's work, by Jesus Himself, separate from and above even the Holy Spirit, Paul certainly met those requirements, his ministry bearing witness to that. Paul was both converted and commissioned at nearly the same time, while on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians [Acts 9:1-20, Galatians 1:1,10-20], by the glorified Christ Himself. Paul, claiming the status of an apostle, would certainly have been upbraided by the Lord and prohibited from doing so, had he not truly been an apostle, and his ministry would not have been as successful as it was, if at all [II Corinthians 11:12-15].

The founding of the New Testament church was a special series of events, no doubt, but concerning the age of grace, the entire new Testament "era" is a special series of events, spanning from either the beginning of Christ's ministry, or the Day of Pentecost, depending upon how one views it, until either the "rapture" of the church, or the very last day, again, depending upon how one views it, noting that once the rapture occurs, an entirely different scheme of things will occur, which is an entirely different issue. Mark 16:17 tells us that these signs will follow them, meaning all, that believe: they will cast out devils, which is enabled with the gift of discerning of spirits, and speak with new tongues.

Signs [Greek semeion] is a mark, token or indication of Christ. Note that when Christ condemned a seeking for signs, it was not these kinds of signs that He condemned, but rather signs of a physical Messianic kingdom, material things. It is those kinds of signs, wonders and miracles that the false prophet will provide, persuading people to accept the antichrist spirit and the mark of the beast.

The fact that Paul was called to be an apostle, one especially sent by Christ Himself, thus being an eye-witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, after the ascension, strongly suggests that others, at any given time throughout the ages, could be called in that manner as well [I Corinthians 15:8-10, no respecter of persons], since one is not required to have been with Christ while He was on earth to be an apostle. Scripture certainly does not prohibit it as far as I can see. I do not know any apostles personally, nor am I one, although there have been a few accounts throughout the ages of someone having purported to have been.

The gifts of the Spirit, which are attributes of the Holy Spirit, an integral and inseparable part of the Holy Spirit, are as follows: (1) word of wisdom; (2) word of knowledge; (3) faith; (4) healing; (5) working of miracles; (6) prophecy; (7) discerning of spirits; (8) divers kinds of tongues; (9) interpretation of tongues; (10) helps; (11) governments. Now let's go over, with a "fine tooth comb", exactly what each gift is, what is is for, and why it is still needed. Note that the gifts were around during Old Testament times as well, which we will also go over.




Word of Wisdom

Word [Greek logos] means the expression of thought, relating to the Gospel, meaning discourse or speech of instruction, a message from the Lord. Wisdom [Greek sophia] is insight into the true nature of spiritual things, which relates to the Greek phronesis, which is the ability to "discern modes of action with a view to their results" [Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and new Testament Words with Topical Index. Vine, W.E., Unger, Merrill F., White, William Jr. Page 678. @ 1984, 1996, by Thomas Nelson, Inc, Nashville, TN.] This has to do directly with tangible things, because the world we see was both created and is influenced and run by, things that we do not see, spiritual things, even our very lives [I Corinthians 1:28, 2:7-16, Ephesians 1:21, 2:2,3:16, 4:23, 5:11,13, 6:10-18, Romans 1:18-20, Matthew 16:17, Deuteronomy 29:29, Genesis 2:7, 7:16, 15:1,17].

Is the 'word of wisdom' necessary? Let's see, from an earthly example. Ordinarily, older farmers are aware that fence rows and tree lines are needful in order to help prevent water and wind erosion of the soil. So they may impart that knowledge to younger or naive farmers who, in their thinking, figure that getting rid of tree lines and fences which are not used to retain livestock will benefit them in the long run by saving them time now. The older or more experienced farmers who admonish them otherwise impart wisdom to them, knowing that the wind and water erosion will, in the long run, end up costing them more than the time saved. So it goes with spiritual wisdom.




Word of Knowledge




Knowledge, the root, is "to acknowledge". It means cognizance, a range of apprehension, the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association; acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art or technique; the fact or condition of being aware of something; the fact or condition of apprehending truth or fact; the fact or condition of having information or of being learned. This has to be in conjunction with word [Greek logos], meaning expression of thought. This gift is one that teachers need in order to effectively teach. Some teach lengthy lessons regularly, others are not labeled as teachers necessarily but teach others more informally and more at random, maybe occasionally, often in just a few words as occasion permits.

Both the word of wisdom and word of knowledge gifts correlate with Romans 10:14,15, Luke 19:12-26 and Matthew 5:13-16. If we do not put the wisdom and knowledge which we have to use, both for ourselves and for others, we will lose out. The more we give, the more we will receive. Expression of though means an action, in this case conveying what we know. There are many teachers, but certain ones simply have the gift, an outstanding ability to impart wisdom and/or knowledge to others. These are two distinct and separate gifts, which are very much needed, and available [Proverbs 1:2-6].




Faith




All believers have faith, of course, to one degree or another, but there is a distinct gift of faith. Job possessed this extraordinary gift of faith, and Jesus exercised it while hanging on the cross [Job, Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34, Luke 23:46]. Forsake [Greek enkataleipo] here means to forsake, abandon, or leave in straits or helpless. It was at this point in time that God withdrew from Jesus all aid and comfort of the Holy Ghost, as He does us at times [II Corinthians 5:7], for the final and most critical test of His faith [Ezekiel 21:13, Hebrews 12:2,3, Isaiah 53:4-12, Hebrews 11:6,10,19,25, I Peter 1:7, 4:12-14, I Corinthians 10:13, Acts 17:3, Hebrews 2:9,10,16-18, 13:12, I Peter 2:21-24, 3:18, 4:1].

Jesus' dying words were illustrating total faith. It was during the final moments at which He was not seeing any visions nor getting any messages from the Holy Ghost, it was all faith then, and He had no regrets over anything He had ever done or failed to do, nothing at all to hinder His soul from being placed fully into God's care. He had always fully obeyed the voice of God in all things, and had run His race without ever sinning. He exemplified complete faith for us.

Faith [Greek pistis] is firm persuasion, fully believing God and acting accordingly. Abraham had the gift of faith. He was told by God to leave his native country, to just go, and God would show him where he was to go [Genesis 12:1]. So that is what Abraham did [Genesis 12:4], having no idea where he was going to end up, relying upon the Lord [Hebrews 11:8]. Faith, or firm persuasion stemming from experience, resulting in a strong conviction, is the assurance or confidence of what believers have an expectation of [Hebrews 11:1].

Faith is what Moses had, while leading his fellow Hebrews out of Egypt. Having been a general in Pharaoh's army [refer to Josephus] and being quite familiar with the territory comprising upper and lower Egypt (much of it now Africa) and the Sinai Peninsula, as well as other territories, the way God was leading them couldn't have always made sense, especially when He had them to turn south from their encampment at Etham, when they were likely almost around the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Egypt then controlled the Sinai Peninsula, so by going south into that, not only were the Hebrews entering an area having many Egyptian soldiers, who patrolled and guarded the copper and turquoise mines, they were also eliminating any escape route, since water surrounds that peninsula on the south, east and west [Moller, Dr. Lennart. 'The Exodus Case'. Pages 176-201. © Scandanavia Publishing House 2000, 1st Edition; 2002, 2nd Edition; 2008 3rd Extended Edition, 2012].

According to 'The Exodus Case', there was an Egyptian army garrison at Nuweiba, where the Hebrews ended up after traveling through a series of canyons. Moses would have known this, and that they would have been on a beach, surrounded by cliffs and water [Red Sea, Yam Suph, Gulf of Aqaba]. Yet, Moses obeyed the Holy Ghost leading [Exodus 13:21,22], even though it seemed to be leading them into a trap, or otherwise an impossible to overcome set of circumstances [I Corinthians 1:18-31]. The logical way for Moses to have delivered the Hebrews, his own people, from Egyptian bondage, would have been for him to have remained heir to the throne and, once his pharaoh died, let himself be named pharaoh and relieved the Hebrews. This was probably his plan but, since he murdered an Egyptian, that wasn't going to work so well [Exodus 2:11-15, Romans 8:28].

There are many times and circumstances today, during which entire congregations either give up on the Lord, or choose to go their way, what makes more sense to them, rather than obey the Lord, which is why there are so many false doctrines and apostate churches, having an intellectual, or head, knowledge of God and Christ, but nothing more [Romans 9:30-33, 10:2-21, II Timothy 3:5-9, Hosea 7:13-16, I Timothy 4:1]. Without people within or associated with that congregation who possess the specific gift of faith, often that congregation either breaks up or becomes apostate. So this gift is needed also [Matthew 17:20, 19:26, Luke 1:37, Hebrews 11:6, Psalm 145:4,10-12,14-20].




Healing




The gift of healing is very much needed. Not all ailments can be healed by man and medicine, not all can afford treatments, at times a healing is needed when away from civilization and, sometimes, God simply shows that He is in charge, not man.

Some have orchestrated frauds concerning this gift, much like the magicians of Egypt imitated the miracles wrought by God through Moses [Exodus 7:10-12,17-22,24,25, 8:5-8,12-19], up to a point, but no further, and some say that gifts are now the devil's doing, which is attributing the Holy Spirit's works to be satanic, which is an unforgivable sin [John 10:10, Luke 12:10, I John 5:16]. The word thief [Greek kleptes] means a literal thief and, metaphorically, false teachers, who are influenced by the devil [I John 4:1-3, II John 7, John 10:1-8], who has nothing good in him [John 8:33-44], no possible way to do any good at all, ever, though he seeks to imitate God and Christ's workings, but is a counterfeit.

The false miracles that the evil ones do, and will do in the end times [Revelation 13:14, 16:13,14, 19:20], are wrongly taught and believed to be the same miracles that Christ, the apostles and others have done, being translated wrongly. The word miracles in the passages listed in this paragraph is the Greek semeion, meaning a sign, mark or token, not miracle as such. One former U.S. president pledged during a campaign, "...a chicken in every pot...". If that had been accomplished, and if he had wanted to present himself as the Messiah, that would have been a sign, mark or token which we are discussing here. If someone were to invent and distribute a cure for cancer, and wanted to portray himself as Christ, the cure would be a sign, mark or token, being mistaken for a miracle. If a Christian were to invent a cure for cancer, that would not be a miracle, as a miracle [Greek dunamis] is a work from a supernatural source that cannot be duplicated by any other means, including natural, chemical or otherwise. That would be more in line with wisdom by the Spirit of God [Exodus 31:2-6, I Kings 7:14] or scientific and medical knowledge.

There are also "healings" or cures by natural healing abilities such as chiropractics, herbal practitioners and such, which in themselves are good, and not evil, nor necessarily having a direct connection with God. Note that Saint Luke was a physician, and we should never forsake sound medical practices in hope that God will heal.

The teaching that the devil will be granted special powers such as God has, during the end times, is rubbish, false teaching and is blasphemy. The devil is 100 % evil, and cannot do one good thing [

Hebrews 2:14, I John 3:8, Job 1:6,7,12-19, 2:1-7, I Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:10-16]. He can imitate, that is, either do bad supernatural things directly or through people, and he can make people believe that certain things are miracles when, in fact, they are either outright frauds, or are things which man's knowledge orchestrates. The sons of Sceva, exorcists (those who practice witchcraft), tried to use God's power for a wicked purpose and were hurt by the evil spirit [Acts 19:13-17]. God will share His glory with no one [Isaiah 42:8] and Christ is not divided [Matthew 12:22-35], and does not change [Hebrews 13:8]. Those who try to diminish the power of God and Christ through false teachings are deceived [Jude 3,4,10-16,19-25], most probably not knowing any better. It is not a valid argument that since after Acts chapter 19, there were no records of the continuance of certain of the gifts, that the gifts stopped, especially since there are records of some signs and gifts, and after chapter 19, most of Acts is about Paul. Lack of record is not proof of anything either way.

The gifts of word of wisdom and of knowledge are apparent [Acts 19:23-20:1], as well as the gifts of helps [20:2], healing or miracles [20:9-12], discerning of spirits and prophecy [20:28-31], word of wisdom or prophecy [21:4], prophecy [21:9-11], word of knowledge [22:24-26, prophecy [23:11], helps [23:16], prophecy and wisdom [27:7-11,22-26,34-36,41,43,44], faith and/or miracles [28:3-6], healing [28:8,9].

I will classify raising the dead under healing as well, though it could as well be placed under the gift of miracles. There are also misconceptions that the devil will raise from the dead the "antichrist", during the end times. That is another false notion, perpetuated by some popular movies and books. In Revelation 13:3, a head [Greek kephale] is symbolic for an imperial ruler of the Roman power. Since the actual Roman empire is no longer a visible power, the wound itself could be symbolic rather than literal. This thought is substantiated by two things: Revelation 13:3 says that one of the heads is wounded to, or towards, death, not that it actually dies, and; Revelation 13:14 states that a beast had a wound by a sword, and did live. Let's go into detail.

Wound is translated from the Greek plege, meaning plague, stripe or wound, and the Greek sphazo, meaning kill, slay, smite or wound, depending upon context. So from the true definitions we see that the head or beast is not necessarily killed or destroyed. Since the wound is to, unto or towards, death, so far the text is indicative of something not resulting in total destruction. We need more evidence in order to determine exactly what is meant.

Revelation 13:3 says that the "deadly" wound was healed, in the vision which John saw. Vine's Dictionary does not give an exact Greek word for deadly, suggesting that the word deadly may have been added by translators, which they often have done. But the word deadly [Greek thanatephoros and thanasimos] is found in James 3:8 and Mark 16:18, and a variation is found in Numbers 18:22 and Job 33:22, all indicating near death, a potential for death, but not actual death. The Greek words for death are thanatos, anairesis and teleute. Here we are concerned with thanatos. The meaning of deadly is strongly shown in Mark 16:18, where Jesus said, of believers, "...if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them...". It is documented that, during World War Two in Germany, two Christians captured by the Nazis were told that if they didn't recant their faith, they would die. They refused, and a liquid which had been concocted was given to a dog, the dog dying immediately upon drinking it. The pair still refused to recant their faith, and were forced to drink the poison. Imagine the Naziz' surprise when nothing happened to the Christian. That is a clear example that the workings of the Holy Ghost did not end with the deaths of the original apostles.

In the Revised Version of the Bible thanatos is translated death-stroke. A death stroke is, in the case of mortal combat, a stroke by the enemy intending to kill. The result is dependent upon how well placed the stroke or blow actually is. One word makes a big difference, in this case the word 'to'. The head was wounded "to", or "towards", death. If the head had been killed, John would have surely stated it plainly, such as the head was killed, or destroyed. But he did not. Everywhere in the Old and New Testaments, when a person or a people were killed, it was stated as such. In the verses in Revelation it is not so.

Heal(ed) [Greek therapeuo] in Revelation 13:3,12 means, primarily, "to serve as a therapon, an attendant"; then, "to care for the sick, to treat, cure, heal". The Greek words which mean to heal, make whole, save and save thoroughly are iaomai, sozo, and diasozo. A noun meaning to cure or heal, reaching completion, is iasis. Iaomai also means spiritual healing. So the head or beast was attended to, for a wound that could result in death, but so far as wording goes, death was not the result. Since there are other words meaning healing, as when Christ and the apostles healed people, scripture is at least strongly suggestive that the head or beast was not killed. Since this is an all important issue, not as much in whether or not the dead are still raised, or whether or not the sick are still healed, though that is part of the issue, but as to what spirit drives who and to whom or what certain power is given. Because if the devil is given certain attributes of the Holy Spirit, during the end times, then something is drastically wrong. Let's discover what the actual words and definitions of raising the dead are.

There is one Greek word listed for dead in Vine's, which is nekros, meaning either physically dead or spiritually dead, depending upon context. The two verbs listed for dying are nekroo and thanatoo, both meaning "to put to death". Thanatoo is, I believe, closely related to thanatos.

The dead were raised and the sick were healed during Old Testament times, on several occasions, and one man, having died, came back to life once his dead body touched the bones of Elisha the prophet [II Kings 13:14,20,21]. Most or all of the gifts of the Spirit operated at times during Old Testament times, but here, at least for now, we will primarily be concerned with happenings in the new Testament.

In Revelation 13:3, all the world wondered after the beast, and verse 13 tells of wonders [Greek semeion] that the second beast performs wonders, or signs. So we see that satan has his people show signs, such as God does. Firstly, Vine's describes it well, if you want to maintain the word wonder: "a sign is intended to appeal to the understanding, a "wonder" appeals to the imagination [Colossians 2:18], a power (dunamis) indicates it's source as supernatural". To reiterate, the magicians of Egypt, acting under satan's power, imitated a few of God's signs, but only up to a certain point. They couldn't undo even one act that they caused, and they couldn't cause lice to spring forth [Exodus 8:8,16-19], or anything thereafter.

Jesus Christ foretold that there would be false prophets that would show signs and wonders [Matthew 24:24, Mark 13:22], in order to seduce and deceive. Here is the difference: Signs of God confirm the teachings of Christ [Mark 16:20], whereas false prophets will not teach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God or was on earth in the flesh, and they will seduce [Greek apoplanao], meaning to cause to go astray from God's Word, to lead into error. The Lord has provided a way for us to discern between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error [I John 4:1-3,6, II John 7].

There is another specific key as well in verse 14 of Revelation 13. The beast shows people that they should make an image to the beast, and in verse 15, worship the image. That is idolatry, expressly forbidden in the second commandment.

The beast blasphemes God and dead saints and angels; makes war with the saints; makes fire come down from heaven (probably via satellites, my opinion); deceives people; makes the image seem alive; has people who refuse to worship the image killed; causes lost people to receive a mark in their right hand or forehead, so that they cannot buy or sell [Revelation 13:5-17]. Incidentally, it is a sin to make a mark [Greek charagma, an engraving] on our body [Leviticus 19:28 > Revelation 14:12], definitely forgivable, but a sin [I John 3:4]. We see from this that there are many signs which indicate what the wicked is.

In Revelation 13:4, the dragon [Greek drakon] is the devil, who gives power to the beast. The beast is portrayed as a wicked man in movies and books. But actually, beast [Greek therion] in scripture always refers to either an animal or, symbolically, a nation, kingdom or other like entity. The false prophet [Greek pseudoprophetes] in Revelation 16:13, 19:20 and 20:10 is certainly a human. The "mouth" of the beast is indicative of policies of a kingdom. Since a kingdom, or government, has representatives, and not just one, we can conjecture that the evil world kingdom has many different people speaking for it.

How about the sword that inflicted a deadly wound upon the head, or beast? The two Greek words for sword, listed in Vine's and used in the Bible, are machaira and rhomphaia. Both, literally, are physical weapons of various shapes and sizes. However, both words also refer to, metaphorically, other things: instrument of a magistrate or judge [Romans 13:4] [?Daniel 11:20] ; instrument of anguish [Luke 2:35]; the Word of God [Hebrews 4:12, Ephesians 6:17]; figuratively of the Lord's justice [Revelation 1:16, 2:12,16, 19:15,21].

According to Pastor Doug Batchelor's end times prophecy teachings on his website, 666truth.org, and others, the deadly wound occurred when Napolean sent General Berthier to arrest the then pope of the Roman Catholic Church, who apparently was way out of line, as some have been. It appeared that the bad things of the papacy were destroyed once and for all. But the deadly wound was healed in or around 1798, which is the lamb with two horns that spoke as a dragon [Revelation 13:11], coinciding with numbers of years in Daniel. I don't think this was a one-time event, as the worst is yet to be, though it is getting closer to the lamb with two horns speaking as a dragon which, I believe, will be both Catholic and Protestant apostates.

There are, in both Protestant and Catholic denominations, good and bad people and true and erroneous doctrines. Believers in all denominations who study prophecy and doctrine agree on many issues such as this. Concerning popes, there have been righteous popes and there have been a few wicked popes, just like there have been righteous Protestant preachers and wicked ones. For a much more comprehensive study on these end times prophecies, you will have to go to Pastor Doug's website.

All of this has been to say, that there are many things which indicate whether something is good or bad, truth or error, and that nothing in scripture indicates that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer available. God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are the same as they have always been, and do not change and, therefore, nor do their attributes and workings [Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8].




Working of Miracles




The working [Greek energema] of miracles doesn't mean that someone with this gift works miracles out, like organizing all of the details for a surprise birthday party or something. The word working simply means the operation of miracles under God's power. An example of this is found in Acts 19:11,12, when items Paul had touched were given to the sick, diseased and disturbed, and they were either healed physically or spiritually. This gift was even worked by God through a dead prophet's body, Elisha, as mentioned earlier when, while burying an unnamed dead man, he came back to life after his body touched the bones of the dead prophet.

This gift encompasses certain methods of healing and casting out evil spirits, raising the dead and likely many other instances of miracles. Elisha illustrated this gift when he told the messenger of Naaman, a leper, to go wash in the Jordon River seven times, and once doing so, Naaman was healed of leprosy [II Kings 5:1-14]. Though I don't know which gift was used, I have read of lepers overseas being healed during the near past, within the past ten years, as well

As many different types of miracles could be performed with this gift, it is much needed. More than once I have been given some item, some trivial item or something borrowed that I had to return later, by a Christian believer, and upon touching the item, felt at peace and serene, due to the power of the Holy Ghost upon it. Many exercise this gift, and may not even realize that it is an actual gift. It really blows my mind that Christians can appreciate the Holy Ghost and exercise discernment in many areas of their lives, yet be afraid of the gifts, as though the Lord would let them inadvertently delve into the dark side of supernatural things, like voodoo or something [again, I John 4:1-3,6]. Because of lack of true discernment in the church, the gift discerning of spirits is also much needed, especially for those times when the devil, via one means or another, has most everybody fooled. So next we will explore that gift, and then the gift of prophecy.




Discerning of Spirits




While all believers have a certain amount of discerning ability, there is a gift of it. Let's first define it. Discerning [Greek anakrino, diakrino and dokimazo] in general means "to distinguish, or separate out so as to investigate (krino) by looking throughout (ana, intensive) objects or particulars," hence signifies "to examine, scrutinize, question (in one's mind and heart), to hold a preliminary judicial examination preceding the trial proper" [Vine's].

This is like a secular investigation or inquiry, but to the Christian, every Christian, this is done in the mind and heart, and in the asking of questions of other believers, and tossing things around in one's mind in order to find the truth, the whole truth and the real truth. All people have this to one degree or another, believers in Christ and atheists, and everyone in between. But with Christians possessed by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit aids in determining the truth. A believer with the Holy Spirit can know in the heart if something is wrong, without being able to place a finger on exactly why, being much more than intuition.

This discerning ability [anakrino] can be taught, such as by an investigative school, to a certain degree, though some natural ability is also necessary for it's full function, but without the Holy Ghost the truth can only be determined and realized by tangible evidence and facts, and is only pertinent to earthly things. Some people not believing in Christ, or any Supreme Being for that matter, are exceptionally discerning and clever to certain things [John 9:41, Luke 16:8, Acts 8:9-23], yet are not wise to the things of God [I Corinthians 1:18-28, 2:5-16]. Christian discernment is much deeper, more profound and enabled only by the Spirit of God.

There are people who commit crime and get away with it, either because they fool investigators, or because of a lack of evidence to prosecute. In the case of fooling investigators, after the fact the unbelieving investigators go on believing that the person is innocent. But with a Spirit-filled believer, they can know that a person is guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt, yet be unable to explain or even know, in the mind's reasoning, why they are guilty.

Diakrino is "to separate, discriminate, decide" [Romans 2:14,15], then, "to learn by discriminating, to determine, decide" [John 7:24]. Some of this type of discerning is natural ability, such as ability to discriminate due to experience. But again, to the believer this carries a deeper ability and spiritual enabling.

Dokimazo is to test, prove, scrutinize, in order to decide. Again, unbelievers can also do this, but without spiritual ability, some things, most of the things of God, cannot be fully decided upon. A good example of this is the statement of science. "Although scientific methods can be used to debunk various paranormal claims, they have no way of accounting for testimonies involving the supernatural. The term supernatural literally means "above nature". Science works with nature, not above it" [Conceptual Physical Science Fifth Edition. Hewitt, Paul G., Suchocki, John. Hewitt, Leslie A. Page 6. © 2012, 2008, 2004 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley, 1301 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94111.] This statement illustrates the difference between earthly discernment and spiritual discernment, which states two main things: that science acknowledges a supernatural realm, and; that science is, in itself, inadequate to investigate events within the supernatural, even when they influence the tangible. Sadly, many people within the organized confines of the church, including teachers, pastors, theologians and scholars, refute things supernatural, because there are those within the organized church who are not born again, converted, regenerated, in other words lost souls who do not belong to the Lord. In perhaps some cases, there are those who may be born anew which, aside from the supernatural experience of being born again, do not recognize things supernatural.

Lastly, there is diakrisis, pertaining specifically to the gift discerning of spirits. Vine's definition is as such: "a distinghishing, a clear discrimination, discerning, judging," is translated "discerning" spirits, judging by evidence whether they are evil or of God". This means that those who have this gift are enabled to discern particular spirits that a particular person, or group of persons, is influenced by and in some cases possessed by, what spirit operates any particular entity and when a bad spirit is pervading a home, business, organization, area, realm, region, nation or even the world.

Again, all believers in Christ who are possessed of the Holy Ghost, meaning those who have not turned their backs upon Him and His ways, are enabled with a certain amount of discerning ability, able to tell the difference between good and evil, even if they are not always able to know exactly why something is evil or not [Genesis 27:53, 38:25,26, II Samuel 14:17, I Kings 3:5-9-12, Ezra 3:13, Job 4:12-16, 6:30, Ezekiel 44:15,16,21-25, Jonah 4:11, Malachi 3:18 > Hebrews 5:14, Matthew 16:1-4 > Isaiah 5:18-30, Luke 12:54-57, Proverbs 7:6-23, I Corinthians 1:17-31, 2:1-16, Jeremiah 33:1-3, Matthew 16:17, Deuteronomy 29:29, Ephesians 2:2,3]. There is also a dark side of the supernatural, which evil people delve into and gain their power from [Hosea 12:7,8, Ezekiel 28:1-19 > Isaiah 14:12-23, Luke 10:18, Jeremiah 2:31, I Timothy 4:1-3,7,12,14 > Isaiah 14:9, 58:3-7, Ephesians 1:21, 2:2, 4:8,14,17-19, 5:6, 6:4, Colossians 2:18, Isaiah 2:6-9, Jeremiah 14:18, Romans 1:18-32, Habakkuk 2:18,19, Jeremiah 2:5-13, chapter 7, Malachi 3:15, Hosea 4:1-14,18,19 > II Thessalonians 2:6-12, Micah 5:13-15, Jeremiah 5:3, 16:15-34,49-51 > James 4:17, Nahum 3:4-7, James 5:1-6, Amos 5:10-12, Isaiah 28:14,15, Micah 2:1-3, Psalm 10:2-13, Ezekiel 18:11-13, Amos 2:4-8, Zechariah 11:3-6, Isaiah 10:1,2, 9:9,10,13-17, 59:2-15,18, Daniel 3:1-7, 5:1-4, 8:12,20,22,23, 6:4-9, 7:4-8,19-21,23-25, 8:9-12,23-25, 11:12,14,17,20,21,27,30-32,36-39,43 > Genesis 11:1-6], which started right after the world-wide flood, having it's very root in the Garden of Eden [Genesis 3:1-19 > Isaiah 14:13,14]. And we don't need anyone to have the gift discerning of spirits? I think we do.




Prophecy




This is a rather interesting gift, as it is subject to various definitions. Concerning prophecy, to begin with, I will say two things: there are most definitely still prophets of God, and; even so, there will never be any new prophecies, only prophecies which correspond to something in the Bible [Deuteronomy 12:32, Revelation 22:18,19]. One verse that was thrown at me recently to try and instill in me that this gift is no longer available, is I Corinthians 13:8.

Prophecy [Greek propheteia] in 13:8 means the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God. Fail [Greek katargeo] means reduced to inactivity or, more perfectly, made of no effect, once the temporary use was fulfilled, not only of prophecy but of tongues and knowledge as well. In this regard, the short term, of course once we get the benefit from something, then it is no longer needed. The knowledge that touching a hot stove burner will result in a burn is no longer needed by any given person once that fact has been learned. But it will be needed by others at some point in time. We also know that with certain prophecies, once the outcome foretold has been achieved, or not achieved, then that particular prophecy is no longer needed by the people to whom it pertained.

Jonah prophesied that Nineveh would fall, implying that it would be shortly after he preached. It didn't happen then, because everyone in that city repented, so God spared them [Jonah 3:4-10]. Isaiah prophesied that King Hezekiah would soon be dying. Hezekiah cried to the Lord, and God granted him fifteen more years. So that prophecy failed. That didn't make Isaiah a false prophet because that was a conditional prophecy [II Kings 20:1-11]. Onward to see what the Bible tells us about prophets, beginning, to the best of my understanding and cognizance of what the Holy Spirit is telling me, at the very beginning of prophecy.

I have heard Adam, the first man, called a prophet, and that may be, because he did utter what could be called a prophecy, when speaking about the woman being created from the rib of a man [Genesis 2:23]. Enoch was a prophet, spoken of as being one in Jude, foretelling that the Lord would come to earth with His saints, in order to execute judgment upon the wicked [Genesis 5:1-24, Acts 1:11, Daniel 7:13, Zechariah 14:1-4, I Corinthians 15:24, John 5:25-29, Isaiah 26:19]. Abraham was also a prophet [Genesis 20:7], as he told others what God had told him, as with all prophets.

With just these three prophets, we can discern that a prophet is a messenger of God, telling what has been revealed to them, of something concerning the future, as well as something that has occurred. Adam prophesied of something he couldn't have known on his own: that the woman was made from a part of him, because he was asleep when that occurred [Genesis 2:21,22]. Enoch apparently prophesied about something that will occur thousands of years after his time, not his death, because he didn't die, God took him, but nonetheless well into the future from him. By the same token, only a prophet could have known that Enoch prophesied, and that prophecy is true, because it matches many other prophecies, as well as Christ's own Words, many of them also prophecies. Abraham passed on God's Word to many, telling of what would come to pass, and it has. There are numerous prophets and multitudes of prophecies, too many to list here, so let's see how the writers of the New Testament define prophets and prophecies.

Prophet [Greek prophetes] is "one who speaks forth or openly". We are dealing with true prophets right now, so we will not be concerned with the definition of false prophets. In the Old Testament the word seer is used instead of prophet, but is the same thing [I Samuel 9:9]. The definition is "one who has immediate communication with God", meaning that the Lord speaks directly to them, either verbally, through the mind as though talking or through visions. In the Old Testament days, God spoke to very few people in any manner, mostly the prophets, occasionally a "heathen" [Genesis 20:3,4]. It also means either one in whom the message of God springs forth, once God has spoken to them, and/or one to whom anything is secretly communicated from God. On the occasions God or Christ spoke or speaks to people, rather than to one person, that is not a message of prophecy as such, but simply a message, and sometimes simply a message when He speaks to one person [Genesis 12:1, 15:1,9, Luke 9:33-36, Acts 9:3-5, 23:11], while other messages are prophecy [Genesis 12:2,3, 15:4,5]. Now to determine whether or not this gift is still needed.

These uses of prophecy will be listed in order, the question of whether or not these uses are still necessary being decided in each reader's mind. Prophecy is used to:

wage a good warfare against evil [I Timothy 1:18, Ephesians 6:12]; to reveal to people that by following the Lord He will help them, and gain courage [II Chronicles 15:1-8]; to warn of mischief and false prophets [Nehemiah 6:1-13]; to teach things which are contrary to natural common sense [Proverbs 31:1]; to understand dreams, visions and prophecy (there are a multitude of texts on what various things in the Bible means, but without prophecy by prophets, it is impossible to know what is correct and true) [Daniel 2:1,14-19, 9:2]; to receive gifts of the Spirit when God doesn't bestow them directly [I Timothy 4:14, Numbers 11:25,26]; to assure believers that what someone is saying is from God, and not just the speaker [II Peter 1:19-21]; to help testify of Jesus [Revelation 19:10]; to prophesy against wicked people [I Kings 21:17-24]; to let people know if it is wise to do certain things, such as go to war [I Kings 22:4-23,30,34,37]; to prophesy in various ways [I Chronicles 25:1]; to tell people why they are having problems [II Chronicles 20:35-37]; to show God's people and sometimes the unbelievers, what will happen in the future [the prophetical books]; to rebuke false prophets [Jeremiah 28:1-17]; to confirm God's word [Ezekiel 12:27,28]; to edify, exhort and comfort the brethren [I Corinthians 14:3]; to reprove congregations that are in error [Isaiah 30:8-18]; to reveal what will happen to those who suppress God's word [Jeremiah 11:21-23]; to expose false messages of peace and false messages [Jeremiah 14:13-16, 23:25-27]; to prophesy against certain people, entities, regions or nations [Jeremiah 26:12, Ezekiel 6:2-8, 11:1-4, 13:2, 20:46, 25:2,3, 28:21-26, 39:1; to confirm how God will work with His people [Joel 2:28,29]; for unstated reasons [Acts 21:9]; to contribute to the body [Romans 12:1,3-6]; to aid in following after charity, and to edify, exhort and comfort [I Corinthians 14:1,3(love=I Cor. 13)]; to gain converts and condemn the wicked [Revelation 10:11, 11:3,4-13]; to serve the believers [I Corinthians 14:6,22].

These are just a few of the reasons why prophecy is needed. We are not to despise prophesyings [I Thessalonians 5:20]. Is not Paul speaking to all believers? Are we to believe that certain parts of the Bible are meant only for certain believers? We are told that God never changes, so if He never changes, that means also that His expectations from His people, all of His people, also never change, does it not [Revelation 22:18,19, Deuteronomy 12:32, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6]. By teaching that some of the attributes of the Holy Ghost, God or Christ are no longer valid, is that not adding to or taking away from God's Word? As I may have already stated, those who use the argument that we have enough knowledge to go on from the Bible and Bible related books, are walking on thin ice at best. They are among those who Paul spoke of in Corinth, those who had a vast head knowledge, but still did not know the Lord [I Corinthians 1:21,22, 2:5,9-16]. The natural man, and mind, can not know God or the things of God. It is impossible without the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit a person does not belong to Christ [Romans 8:9].

Most of us can remember a time when, for example, we wanted to go to town on a weekend, like many of us used to do when teenagers. But maybe just once, or maybe more than once, our parents said maybe we'd better stay home that evening. Maybe they didn't, or couldn't quite, explain exactly why, but we ourselves seemed to think that it was an acceptable idea, so we stayed home, not knowing exactly why either. Sometimes we find out why, other times we don't. Maybe the friends we were going out and about with got arrested, or had a wreck. Maybe it was a strictly spiritual reason. Most of us can relate to that. That is one instance of the gift of prophecy, and possibly the gift of discerning of spirits as well, though it is likely just a strong discerning power, which every Christian believer who is in tune with the Lord has, to one degree or another. There are many variations of this, and sometimes it is simply our parents, or someone, exercising human wisdom from experience. But it is prophecy more times than a lot of people realize.

One very important function of the gift of prophecy in the church, and I've seen this in action quite a bit, is to "monitor" what people say, including the preacher, pastor or evangelist. Even the best of them do at times wander out of the Spirit and say something amiss [Romans 7:14-23]. When something amiss is said, the prophet needs to follow the bidding of the Holy Ghost, and do what He bids to do. He may prompt to point out the error right then, to say something to the speaker later, or pray about it. If the speaker is of the Lord and in the Spirit, he, or she, will listen [I John 2:27, 4:6, Galatians 6:1-6].




Divers Kinds of Tongues




This is a subject and gift which "spooks" more believers than any other gift, but it is still as needed, and available, as any of the other gifts. Divers kinds of tongues [I Corinthians 12:28] is from the Greek genos, defined as "a kind, class or sort". So there are different sorts. Tongues [Greek glossa and dialektos] means a language of one type or another. Before going into detail on the kinds of tongues, note that even Vine's uses a logical fallacy, in that the writer, citing lack of evidence of the continuance of the gifts of tongues, prophecy and knowledge, in the Book of Acts, claims that thus they no longer existed. However, lack of evidence is proof of nothing. The writer of Acts wrote about the most important events and, besides that, the gifts are only available when needed, and are activated only by the Holy Spirit, not at man's insistence. However, the gifts of working of miracles and faith was illustrated as far along as the 28th chapter of Acts, when a poisonous snake bit Paul and had no effect [Acts 28:3-6]. Paul also exercised the gift of healing on the father of Publius and others [Acts 28:8,9]. I have been healed supernaturally of small ailments a few times, simply by prayer, and have been helped on several occasions by prayer cloths from believers.

According to Cruden's Concordance [Bible Reference Library, Cruden's Concordance. @ MCMLXXXVII by Barbour Publishing, Inc.], the Book of Acts took place for a period of about thirty years, beginning at the ascension of Christ, and was written by Saint Luke, a physicians, sometime between A.D. 58 and 63. Much of the book was written from personal observations by Luke himself.

Tongues, as just stated, primarily means a language, resulting in speech, substantiated by that term itself [Genesis 10:5, Exodus 4:10, Deuteronomy 28:49], also at times being the Holy Spirit speaking through a few select saints during the Old Testament times [II Samuel 23:2], which thing is now for any believer in Christ to abide under [John 7:38,39, 14:10,26, 16:13, Matthew 10:17-20]. And on the Day of Pentecost, the language tongues were implemented by the Holy Ghost, and perhaps other forms of tongues. But primarily on that day, the language tongues was instituted, which means that the preacher or speaker proclaims the Word in his language, to people of a different language, neither understanding the other's language, yet each person hears the word in his own language, or tongue [Acts 2:4-12]. There was one or two times when I was passing out scripture booklets, and witnessing to someone who, I promptly realized, spoke and understood only Spanish, yet she and her daughter understood perfectly when I asked if they believed in Jesus Christ. There may not be many times in America when this gift of tongues is needed by most believers, but even if it is needed only one time during a person's life, that one time can be a momentous event for the person being ministered to. That person in turn, may turn many others to the Lord [II Corinthians 6:2, Psalm 95:7,8, 102:2, 32:6, Proverbs 1:23-33].

Because satan has imitations for God's things, illustrated by the magicians in Egypt shortly before the Exodus, and indicated by Isaiah 33:19, which seems to be more than a foreign language, and appears to be some type of devilish tongue, we need to try the spirits, to be sure that something is of God [I John 4:1-3, II John 7-9]. Sometimes even Christian people, in their zealousness for God's gifts, perform an act of speaking in tongues on their own which, at best, is self-will of the human. And, as indicated by the verse Isaiah 33:19, and from documentation elsewhere, there is a speaking in tongues that is of the devil's doing. We just need to be sure that whatever is going on is of the Lord.

Howbeit there are also other types of tongues, such as unknown tongues. Known [Greek gnosis] means a seeking to know, an enquiry, investigation, of spiritual truth. The Greek ginosko, a verb, means to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, understand, or to understand completely. While good to have the gift of, speaking in an unknown tongue is speaking to God in the spirit, yet without understanding what is being said, which is why there should be an interpreter when tongues is being used [I Corinthians 14:2,3,5,11,13-25,27,28,39,40], so that everyone present knows what is being said.

As the scripture states, tongues are for a sign to the unbelievers, which helps win their souls for Christ, even though some may be appalled or scared by tongues. We need to let the Holy Ghost take precedence and work. Jesus tells us that His people would speak with different kinds of tongues [Mark 16:17, Isaiah 28:11], which is for our edification and the saving of souls [I Corinthians 14:21.

Another gift of tongues is praying to God in another tongue, such as when you and the Lord are alone together. This tongue is your spirit praying to God, but your mind doesn't comprehend what is being said. That is okay, because the Holy Ghost interprets to God what your spirit is saying, and sometimes, even when we're praying with understanding, we don't really know what we are praying for quite as we should [Romans 8:26-28, II Corinthians 12:10].

Note that God may allow you to speak in a tongue which is not of God, momentarily, in order that you can discern between good and evil in that regard. If that occurs, be sure to repent for letting the wrong spirit influence you and ask the Lord to prevent it from happening again.

Interpretation of Tongues




This gift is pretty self explanatory. Interpret [Greek diermeneuo] means to interpret fully, to explain. If there is no interpreter, then the gift is not to be used at that time ]I Corinthians 14:5,9-20,27,28,39,40].

Gift of Helps




The gift of helps [Greek antilepsis or antilempsis] properly signifies a laying hold of, an exchange, meaning support, then help. According to Vine's, pertaining to I Corinthians 12:28, , "as one of the ministrations in the local church, by way of rendering assistance, perhaps especially of help ministered to the weak and needy", coinciding with I Thessalonians 5:14 and Acts 20:35. Further, "not officials functionaries are in view of the terms helps, but rather the functioning of those who, like the household of Stephanas, devote themselves to minister to the saints. Hort defines the ministration as anything that would be done for poor or weak or outcast brethren".

This gift, though not a main gift of the ministry, is a very important gift, which not all believers have. A woman from my home church, a former nurse, apparently had this gift, as she devoted much time to a variety of Christian and otherwise charitable organizations, even during the time that she battled cancer, up until the last several weeks of her life. I think I can safely assert that Gayle Becker had this gift.




Gift of Governments




Governments [Greek kubernesis], the gift of such, has nothing whatsoever to do with the official government of a nation or province. This word means to guide, denoting steerage, pilotage. There are those in the churches who know how to "get the ball rolling" on projects, and administer those programs, projects and endeavors. While everything needs to be done under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which is often biddings, promptings and commandments at random, especially during preaching, speaking, testifying and even day to day living, certain activities need to be done in a more organized fashion [I Corinthians 14:40]. This is a specific gift of the Spirit and is needed in the churches as well.

From these definitions and explanations, we can see, discern and know that the gifts of the Spirit are very much needed and are still available and in use. Those who say otherwise are giving man the glory instead of God, and are in danger of eternal damnation, many already being of the number who have a head knowledge of God but not of the heart. Some do not seem to know any better, and thus probably simply need to repent, and ask the Lord to open up their hearts to the entire workings of the Holy Spirit which the Almighty wants them to have and use [Isaiah 42:8, I Corinthians 1:19-22,29,31, I John 1:9].

Many of us have, for years, missed out on multitudes of God's blessings, because we just blindly believed certain doctrines, contrived of men and contrary to the Word of God, not daring to question it, because it came from those in authority. Yet if it does not coincide with scripture, then we need to question by whose authority did the doctrine come. There has been a gradual merging of church and state, many of those in leadership positions within the church having taken from the God's Word, for greedy gain or other reasons, and in so doing have given themselves over to the antichrist spirit, dooming their souls, and the souls of those they teach, eternally. It's time to go with the doctrine of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost [Jude 4,5, II Timothy 3:5,13-15 > I John 2:27, II Timothy 4:3-5]. What do we do if we realize we've been in error, not abiding by some of God's Word? We repent, go with His Word, and continue.


      04/18/2015, from the Lord by the Holy Ghost.