Blog Details

There is much division in Christ’s church today regarding spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. The main questions seem to be over the legitimacy in contemporary times of prophesies, tongue speaking, and divine healing.

I grew up in a Pentecostal tradition via my ministerial grandfather. While I saw many manifestations of these gifts from time to time and several legitimate healings by faith, I never felt a strong compunction to speak in tongues. I do think I have had some prophetic experiences. My faith has never been based on emotional pursuits or “signs and wonders”. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of divine revelations and miracles, but I don’t believe true faith is built on relying on those experiences. I figure if the Holy Spirit wants me to have and use those gifts, He will deliver them. He knows what I am ready for or need. More important is to build my faith around the Word of God, the Bible. The word will sustain me when devoid of emotion or feelings since “truth is truth”.

It seems quite evident to me that humanity has never retained the benefits of faith by seeing signs and wonders. After all the miracles and signs Jesus performed to prove He was the Messiah, there were relatively few at His crucifixion committed to following Him. His words to remember were “Unless you people see signs and wonders,…you will never believe.” (John 4:48) and “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) Christians need to get off their merry-go-round where faith somehow needs to be rewarded by gifts, signs, and wonders. The signs of the Holy Spirit are not for the believer’s edification, but to be the power of the Gospel as we reach out to others. If your faith is based on waiting for supernatural events of proof, yours is a weak faith indeed.

Acts 1:8 promises that we Christians will receive power “when the Holy Spirit comes upon us”. When does this happen? At salvation? Yes, it takes the Holy Spirit to regenerate our spirits unto salvation. We cannot save ourselves. We can’t even decide for ourselves. It takes hearing the word, then obeying the word through the power of the Holy Spirit. The only role we play in salvation is submission to the call of the Holy Spirit. The rest is God’s work He has already done with the present help of the Spirit who continually gives us HIS power…it’s not about ours. Yet, beyond salvation we are to be increasingly full if the Holy Spirit.

How do we become fuller of His spirit?

John 14:26 says “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you”.

While we receive salvation when convicted by the Holy Spirit of our sin and repenting before Him, accepting forgiveness without works on our part…this is just the beginning of our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. As we learn and study the revelation of God through the scriptures, the Holy Spirit reveals the deeper meanings and brings us understanding through the spirit, not just the mind. “Our spirit bears witness to truth”.

Hebrews 11 tells us “Faith is the substance of things HOPED for, the evidence of things unseen”. Faith itself is a gift from God, not self-generated lest any mere man should boast. This means that we don’t count on “signs and wonders“ as the basis of faith but rather as a RESULT of it. Thus, I am comfortable and rely on faith whether I see miracles or not. I believe based on Gods revelations through His Word…not because of feelings or emotions. Believe me, my emotions are affected by the Holy Spirit, but the proof of Him is not in our physical senses, but in the gifts and fruits that come when HE fills US. It is not about us, but Him. Our job is to remain open and pliable to God, earnest to obey because we love Him.

When Jesus was on earth 2000 years ago, he provided many miracles as proof of His deity as the Messiah. He didn’t heal everyone, and most who saw or experienced miracles did not really believe in or follow Him. Even his disciples abandoned him in those final days even with all the miracles they had seen him do. That is an amazing fact to me. Thus, I find it suspect when leaders in parts of the modern church start teaching that “everyone” must speak in tongues or experience miracles to “be filled with the Spirit”. This is not solid theology.

The Holy Spirit is described as a “mighty rushing wind”. He comes and goes at will. We sometimes feel Him and His affects. Other times we wait on Him to come. He comes according to His purpose, not ours. We serve God, God doesn’t serve us.

For me the best scriptural study of the Holy Spirits relationship to us is a contextual study of 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. Here we find Paul teaching the church in Corinth about the role of the Holy Spirit in worship and in private prayer life and explains the variety of gifts and roles in the church. It is obvious that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us to the heavenly realms. The fruits of the Spirit are emphasized over the gifts, and the fruit of love trumps all other manifestations of Gods Holy Spirit.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and angels yet have not love, my words are like tinkling glass or a clanging cymbal” …meaningless. Gifts without the fruits of the Spirit are basically worthless when it comes to fulfilling God’s will.

I am NOT saying gifts are worthless or have ceased to exist. I have seen too much to agree with that errant theology. I just think they are being manipulated in a false manner. When in faith, I have always believed in pursuing the Holy Spirit and accept any gift or “revelation“ He wants to impart. For some of us that is tongues, others prophecy, and yet others the gift of helps. Yes, “helps” is mentioned equally as important as more emotional or sensational gifts such as tongues, prophesy, or divine healing. (1 Corinthians 12:7-12)

I do not believe we are to seek gifts, but the giver of the gifts…then we take whatever He gives us. To demand gifts from God can be arrogant and haughty… pharisaical even. To say that a believer MUST demonstrate a certain gift to prove they are “full of the Spirit” is not Biblical and often is included in false Gospels being expounded on in these times. Faith and Spirit are not based on signs and wonders even if they are sometimes accompanied by them. The true Gospel is based on the death and resurrection of Christ as the Messiah and our redeemer. Nothing more, nothing less. All we have to do is BELIEVE in order to have the Holy Spirit within us.

It is also obvious that when someone has PRIDE in their gift, they already have the reward they can expect to receive for their experience. Pride and conflict over these gifts and interpretations of scripture are divisive and not of God or His Holy Spirit.

Faith is based on facts, not feelings. If we equate faith with emotion, signs and wonders, we relegate spiritual faith to a fleshly experience based on feelings and emotion. On the days you feel no emotion in your faith, does that mean you have no faith? NO! When you can’t “feel” God is the time your FAITH kicks in. The reward of faith is when you have hope in the middle of despair and trust in a positive outcome in the middle of a silent time where you have no clue what to do or feel, yet you KNOW you can trust God with the unknown outcome that is always on its way.

Seek knowing the unique person of the Holy Spirit. Pray to Him directly. He is the closest person of the Godhead to your soul here on earth. Why would you not build a relationship and let Him empower you to live a Godly life? Wait on Him. He is always coming to your rescue and will grant you the gift(s) HE wants you to have.