Are the Power Gifts of the Holy Spirit still operational Today?

 

 Nothing makes me more mad (other than Once saved, always saved) then the Christians and pastors who believe that the power gifts of the Holy Spirit ended with the Apostles. I argued with such a pastor once asking him where in Scripture it said such a thing and he recited the Scripture found in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

 

He said that the "perfect" in this Scripture meant the Holy Scriptures. In other words, when the Bible was completed, all these gifts ceaseed.  The Greek word here for perfect is teleios  which has nothing to do with the written word. It means complete, brought to it's end, lacking nothing. The other times it is used in the New Testament, it refers to God or God's will or behavior that is Holy.  

 

So what is this "perfect" the Scriptures talk about? It has to mean the end of the age, the culmination of God's plan for mankind with the 2nd coming of Jesus and the start of Jesus's reign on Earth. We certainly won't need any of these gifts either in heaven or when living here on Earth with Jesus. I don't know about you but when I look around I see nothing even close to perfection or completion!

 

It is great fallacy to take one Scripture (with no other Scriptures to corroborate) and force it to mean what you want. Many pastors do this because they, themselves, have never experienced a true miracle. So, since there can't possibly be anything wrong with them, they need an excuse for their lack of power and faith. 

 

Let's read what Irenaeus  wrote about the early church in the 2nd century. This was a time AFTER the Apostles had died and the Scripture had been completely written. 

 

Who was Irenaeus?  He lived in the 2nd Century, was a Bishop in the Christian church and a disciple of Polycarp (who was a disciple of the Apostle John)  He wrote much about false doctrines.

 

In speaking about false apostles, he wrote "For they can neither give sight to the blind, nor hearing to the deaf, nor chase away demons, none indeed, except those they sent into others, if they can even do that. Nor can they heal the weak or the lame or the paralyzed or those distressed in any other part of the body as has often been done by the Church in regard to bodily infirmity....

 

And they are so far from being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised them and the apostles also did by means of prayer. This has also been frequently done by Christians when necessity even when the entire Church in a particular locality entreated God with much fasting and prayer and the spirit of a dead man returned and the man we presented alive in answer to the prayers of the saints."

Irenaeus was listing the things FALSE Apostles could not do, therefore, one must conclude that true Christians were doing these things!  

Christians at that time experienced many miracles, including healing, casting out demons and raising the dead! These power gifts of the Holy Spirit are alive and active today. God never changes and He certainly wouldn't take back such important from the Church. 

 

I've seen some amazing things myself, though not at that level. I've seen healings, heard tongues interpreted, heard prophecies that have come true, and cast out demons. So, no pastor or believer can tell me otherwise. It's such a shame that most Christians no longer operate in these gifts. If they did, I believe many many more people would get saved. Why? These gifts often accompanied those who went out preaching the good news as proof of the Gospel. Now, so many churches are dead spiritually. It must break our Lord's heart.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. "  John 14:12