I Corinthians 12 begins with these words, "Now concerning spiritual gifts..." So, if spiritual gifts are not an important aspect of our spiritual formation and church life experience then why write about it? I mean there are so many important topics that seem so more important in the church world today why not just rip I Corinthians 12-13 right out of the Bible? Except of course, we need to keep The Love Chapter (13) in place for weddings and to emphasize that Love is more important than recognizing and using our spiritual gifts. Right?
In the modern contemporary church, individual "success," "purpose," and exercising our "faith" to feed our consumerism addiction is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he formed his church. Jesus' entire mission was "to build motivational teaching centers across the globe for the edification, exhortation and building up" YOUR own individual purpose for being here, building a multi-national corporation so you could give to the GREAT Apostles of your time so they can live well, and having faith enough to live the affluent life that Paul outlines in his second exhortation to the church at Corinth (See II Cor. 12). Right? I don't think so.... Hmmm
In John 14:12 Jesus explains to us, that "the Works that I do, you shall do also, even greater works than these. Jesus spent 1/3 of his time casting demons out of people, 1/3 of his time healing the sick and performing miracles, signs and wonders, and 1/3rd of his time teaching. Christianity today spends 1/3rd of it's time singing "Christian Karaoke" to Hillsong United or Jesus Culture so we can have cool church. Instead of leading people into the presence and power of an almighty God our songs have reduced God to being like the "weather patterns" and letting others know "Oh, how blessed I am" while daring some one to stand up and begin to prophecy; or, horrors of horrors "speak in an unknown tongue." Why we can't have that - it will drive unchurched, churched, and unsaved away. They will think we've lost our minds. We have to have a respectable service. Yup! I can see it now. A demonic spirit begins to cry out of a person and Jesus turns to his disciples and says, "Please take him to the back room boys!" Then turning to the crowds he says, "I'm sorry for that disruption, that young person is suffering from mental illness. Now let's get back to where we left off in our success in life topic for today!" I don't think so!
When the Apostle Paul wrote I Corinthians 12-14 He wanted to explain how "spiritual gifts" operated and how they were to be exercised in the context of a their local assembly times. We have no idea how big this church was at the time, however, some have thought it to be the size of a house meeting, some have thought it to be about 200, while others have said it might be around two to three thousand. Now, mind you, most mega churches today will use their size to "outlaw" the gifts from being exercised in their public assemblies due to claims you won't be able to "hear, see, or do" them due to production constraints. But, why then would The Lord have Thousands witness the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and hear the public expressions of people speaking in unknown tongues??? Even without a microphone or soft music in the background. Why was this public expression allowed then but now forbidden in most contemporary churches? Oh, I can hear the rumble of theologies and excuses for pushing these gifts out of the church. From, the gifts are not for today to we don't have time for that in our main services but we do pray for people in our Small groups. Or, how about this one, "Well not everyone has the same gift," translation- I don't think this is for me. Paul explains that these are the "expressions of the Holy Spirit" as He directs to be expressed for differing purposes of ministry time within the life of the church. I guess the reason these expressions are not happening is that we are too busy not listening, discerning or relying on the pastor, Apostle or prophet to tell us what God is saying. Besides... can't we just text or tweet our thoughts and hopefully our God-inspired thoughts will go up on the big screens?
Satan is clearly waging a battle to stop the supernatural expressions of God's spirit in the life of contemporary church... and you know what? The problem isn't that crowds will be afraid of signs, wonders, or miracles - Jesus proved that "theory" wrong. The problem is no different today than in Jesus' time. The Religious leaders - Pharisees, Sadducees, and priest of Jesus' time were just as bothered by His works as many ministers are today. They can't control it! As believers we are called to be directed by the Holy Spirit, open to His promptings and freely exercise these giftings for ministry toward others. The scripture says, that God confirms the word with signs following." But more importantly we need to pay close attention to Paul's word:
I Cor. 14:22 "So the gift of speaking in other languages is a sign for unbelievers, not for believers. The gift of prophecy is a sign for believers, not for unbelievers." This certainly defeats the claim used by those who say speaking in tongues will scare off unbelievers.
I Cor. 14:39 "So, brothers and sisters, desire to speak what God has revealed, and don't keep anyone from speaking in other languages"
Unfortunately, Many early protestant reformers often removed "Icons, symbols, and art" calling it idolatry. Today, we have replaced these symbols with video screens of the face of pastors and worship leaders. What do these modern icons point us to? I think we certainly need to reconsider what messages we are communicating through our use of social and mass media. I know for sure that in every case of the Miracles, signs, and wonders i have witnessed, people Are pointed to God. Wasn't that the concern of the Protestant reformation when they removed those beautiful artistic expressions of God, heaven and faith history? They didn't want distractions from experiencing God. George Fox said it well, "There is no one who can speak to our condition except Christ Jesus."
Unfortunately, the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been replaced by new gifts: The Gift Of Administration (to ensure that there is no disruption of the church's programs), The Gift Of Leadership (Ephesians 4:11 ministry gifts have been replaced by CEO corporate models), The Gift Of Influence (which I can't find in scripture). Funny Thing I don't remember Jesus or Paul teaching on these modern business models of church. I often think to myself that our churches are just doing business, not ministry. Forget the ministry of the Holy Spirit! We are marketing, selling books, promoting church albums, with the idea that all these new revenue streams are helping our outreaches. I just read today about a new realty TV show coming entitled "Preachers of LA' which will feature the Dramatic Lifestyles of Six Mega-Pastors" Maybe this is why The Holy Spirit is not found in many churches today. Maybe, we should look at how our formula's, doing business, starbucking, and new traditions are making the Word of God of none effect. When we examine the historical exercise of The gifts Of The Holy Spirit as found in the ministry of Charles G. Finney; we find whole cities coming to Christ - like the Rochester, New York revival. 10 years after this revival, 80% of his converts were the backbone of the area churches and held prominent positions of authority throughout the whole city. That's what I'm talking about!
The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit are essential for today. The scriptures state clearly, no matter how big or small a church is: "Do not quench the Spirit." ( I Thess. 5:19) I Cor. 14:40 states "Let all things be done... " in writing The apostle Paul wrote "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." Ignorance of the Gifts leaves the church powerless in a world that needs a demonstration of God's transformative power. The gifts are essential for today and we need to seek earnestly to be used in expressing the best and least of the gifts for the benefit of those who don't know Christ.
PS> And I'm not even or have ever been a pentecostal. So guys, like John Wimber, once said to Yorblinda Friends Church, "we believe all this stuff- when we going to do it?"
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