Episode 5: Do People Still Have the Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Summary

Question: People claim to perform speaking in tongues, healings, etc. Do these things still legitimately happen today?

If someone were to say they have done the miracles that the apostle Paul has done, I’d say they were a liar. Unless you can show me in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the writings of Paul, it’s not believable. You hear all these testimonies about miracles, prophesying, this happening, that happening, but the question always is what does the Word of God say.

First of all, the teaching on the Holy Spirit breaks down into three different things.

1. Baptism with the Spirit. Baptism or immersion with the Spirit happened only twice, both times it consisted of a sound like a mighty rushing wind, tongues like fire coming down from heaven, and speaking in other languages.

2. The indwelling Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit is received when a person is immersed in the name of Jesus Christ.

3. The gifts of the Spirit. These gifts are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. All of these are also called manifestations of the Spirit, in other words they are something very visible, very obvious. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 all deal with the use, misuse, and abuse of those gifts.

1 Corinthians 14:26-33 It is pretty clear that the user of the gifts controlled the gifts. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. The New Testament prophets controlled their gifts.

2 Timothy 1:6 This is a gift which Timothy controlled, he’s supposed to fire that thing up because he hasn’t been. This gift he has been given through the laying on of the apostle’s hands.

Acts 6:5-8 Very simple question, was Stephen performing these things before or after the apostles laid hands on him?

Acts 8:5-7 The second man mentioned who had hands laid on him in Acts 6:5 was Philip (not Philip the apostle, Acts 8:1 tells us that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem). The crowd heard and SAW the signs he was performing (manifestations). Was Philip performing these miraculous signs, gifts of the Holy Spirit, before or after the apostles laid hands on him?

Acts 19:1-6 Paul explained to these guys that the John’s immersion, the immersion of repentance, was not going to do the job and they needed to be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ, which is for forgiveness of sins and to receive the indwelling Spirit. We see in verse 6 that when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came ON them, they were speaking in tongues and prophesying (gifts of the Spirit). Did they do this before or after the apostle Paul laid hands on them?

Without exception, in the New Testament, nobody has any of these gifts unless one of the apostles of Jesus Christ lays hands on them.

Acts 8:14-20 Immersion in the name of Jesus Christ grants you the indwelling Spirit, so this is something else. The interesting thing about this is Simon saw. The gifts of the Spirit are manifestations, something visible, something obvious. The indwelling Spirit is not visible at all. He saw that the gifts of the Spirit were given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands. This is also significant because even though Philip had the gifts, he did not have the ability to pass on the gifts. It was necessary for Peter and John to come from Jerusalem to lay hands on them.

So with regard for anyone’s ability to speak in tongues today, interpret tongues, prophecy, work miracles, have special gift of wisdom, or whatever, it’s bogus. The only way you can have one of those gifts is if you can find Peter, or James, or John, or Paul, and persuade them to lay hands on you and then if the Holy Spirit desires He could give you one of these gifts. If you can’t find one of the apostles then you can’t get any of the gifts. If anyone is making the claim they have these gifts, either they are confused or they’re lying.

So today it’s really clear you have to go to the Word of God to get the information you need. That solves a whole bunch of problems right there. A question I have is why do these people that claim to have these special gifts always get salvation wrong? Specifically on immersion for forgiveness of sins, being born again, born of water and the Spirit.

So, no gifts today, sorry!