The tongues of angels may be as numerous as the tongues of humankind. The same may be true of demonic tongues. (makes good theater anyway - lol)
So, you see evidence that the gifts did not cease. I hope I'm not putting words in your mouth. You have limited findings, but they are findings none the less. Had the gifts ceased, this would not be so. And had the "gifts" only been sign gifts, this would not be so. Unless there is once again a need for "sign gifts". (I don't think that was ever the reason for the "gifts"/manifestations of the HS - see 1 Corinthians 12:11-12)
There is a tendency to conclude that tongues is nonsensical and meaningless speech. I don't believe that is the case at all. When we don't know what to pray, the Spirit intercedes on our behalf. (Romans 8:26) What could be more sensible, or meaningful, than a direct hit with our prayers. I wouldn't be quick to discount that. And frankly, I don't use tongues as a last resort, but rather a first line of defense/offense.
And in terms of a defense for things charismatic, we have precious little to go on biblically. If the Corinthians hadn't been "swinging from the chandeliers" we wouldn't have 1 Corinthians chapters twelve through fourteen where 95 percent of what we do have lives.
Reviving the manifestations is a pioneering work for those who are open to it. And I am very much against trying to stir up what isn't there. But I have had a few personal experiences that have me well convinced. And been present for others having similar experiences. (even long distance healing via cell phone)
And from my perspective, we don't own the "gifts", they own us. I always want to be open to being used by God to minister to others. (no matter what manifestation of the Spirit is required) And I am occasionally, and clearly, directed to do so.
I have reason to believe the findings I have represent the present state of the charisms, who has them, and what one must do to attain one.
Also, as I somewhat indicated previously I don’t believe that when we don’t know what to pray, this represents an automatic theurgical invocation of speaking in tongues. Rather, what the Spirit moves us to pray should be comprehensible, and my personal experience is one of always knowing what to pray, but not praying it enough. For example, every Christian according to the Didache, which is a crucial first century text on the life of the early church, should endeavor to at a minimum pray the Lord’s Prayer thrice daily. I myself without having read that started ending my nightly prayers as a teenager by praying the Lord’s Prayer three times. Then, there is the Jesus Prayer, which I now strive to pray as much as possible. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner”, which can be shortened to “Lord have Mercy” or the more elegant New Testament Greek “Kyrie Eleison,” which is so beautiful it was adopted in the liturgies of the Latin*, Syriac and Coptic Christians.
Regarding Charismatic Christianity, in our enthusiasm to see the gifts, which never ceased, in my opinion - they have always existed among those who would actually benefit the Christian Church as a whole by having them, it is vital to remember the importance of discernment. We are told to test every spirit, and warned that our adversary the devil, who roams like a lion, will deceive even the elect, if possible. It is not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit if we see something that superficially resembles the charisms as described in Scripture, but is in fact a deception. And there are some things we see among some Charismatics that have no scriptural basis.
Rev. John MacArthur did a conference on discernment called Strange Fire a few years back, which made some good points, but then negated its credibility owing to his hard cessationist Calvinism. I have seen and experienced miraculous healings, in the sacrament of the Eucharist and in the anointing of the sick with oil, which I can describe to you privately, and engaged in effortless communication with an elderly monk, greatly revered in the Greek Orthodox Church, who knew God but not English. And I have heard reports of Orthodox monks and nuns who prophesied, and greater miracles than that, or than one hears of in a Roman Catholic context; really only the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have the same content, but the Orthodox tend to de-emphasize it, because our faith should not be based on signs and wonders.
However, the cautiously open minded approach I take, even to the experiences reported in charismatic and pentecostal settings, although I believe that ironically, you would find the gifts you seek most frequently in the context of liturgical worship, John MacArthur rejected out of hand, because he has a contempt for the Eastern churches which extended to horrible remarks about the Christian fidelity of Dr. Hank Haanegraaf after he and his family joined the Eastern Orthodox Church (which is one of three ancient Eastern churches, the others being the Oriental Orthodox and the Assyrians). The fact that Dr. Haanegraaf was battling cancer at the time did not seem to matter to MacArthur.
So a much better work on the subject of Christian spiritual discernment is
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, by Dr. Seraphim Rose.
Lastly, regarding Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit, I think this refers to the final rejection of salvation, because the most important soteriological function of the our Lord and Paraclete the Holy Spirit is shining His uncreated grace upon us, so that we experience compunction and have, despite our depravity, the freedom to believe in Christ and cultivate this saving faith. But we can also choose to reject our Lord. From this understanding, which is shared by most Christian churches I have encountered, and was definitely believed in the Early Church, we can reassure anyone who worries they might have accidentally engaged in it, that since they feel contrition and are worried for their salvation, their faith is in fact alive, and whatever they did was not enough to constitute the Unpardonable Sin.
This all being said, I think it would be extremely dangerous to one’s salvation to go into a church, Charismatic or not, or an Orthodox monastery, and accuse everyone of being possessed by the devil. The devil does impersonate the angels and even God, and creates counterfeit “christianities” - cults whose pastors are wolves in sheep’s clothing, like the Jehovah’s Witness, and, with specific regard to miraculous healing which you and I have experienced, the actually deadly psuedo-Gnostic cult of Christian Science, which fortunately, more than a century after Mary Baker Eddy began her career as a heretic and a con artist, is dying off; Christian Science reading rooms are closing and their churches are being sold as the membership leaves.
And this is good, because we can plainly discern the evil in her cult, which is recognized as non-Christian on CF.com, since their doctrines resulted in the shaming or abuse of members who sought medical treatment for injuries, and instead of medical doctors, the Christian Science laity would visit Christian Science Practitioners, licensed by the church, whose job was to charge people money to pay for them! Believers in that cult were taught that these practitioners of what was neither Christian nor science, were the only effective providers of health care. That Christian Science has lasted as long as it has and has deceived as many people and actually caused the deaths of many, including children, from a lack of medical attention, demonstrates the dangers of the demonic and the need for sober discernment without the vitriolic prejudice we see in John MacArthur. We just need to follow the scriptural directive to test every spirit, and use the accumulated wisdom of the Holy Scriptures, which God the Holy Spirit himself inspired, aided by the tradition, reason and experience of Christians over the 2,009 years since Pentecost, to separate the sacred and nourishing wheat from the useless and dangerous chaff.
I am impressed by your instinctive piety, and although on the surface, there are a number of apparent differences between us, I believe we have much more in common, and I feel blessed to have made your acquaintance in these past few months.
*Western Christianity used to consist of more than the Roman Rite, from which Protestant worship is derived. Before Charlemagne decided that the Roman liturgy should be used throughout his Empire, there was the Gallican Rite, and before the British Isles were forcibly converted from Celtic Orthodoxy to the Roman church, there was the Celtic Rite, both of which survive in fragments. In Milan and Toledo, two variants of the Gallican Rite survive, the latter having the Spanish, or Mozarabic Rite, which the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and even Toledo gradually replaced with the Roman Rite, but one chapel in the Cathedral in Toledo is dedicated to preserving it, and it is also used by a monastery, and by Anglicans in Spain and Mexico, and a portion of it survives in the traditional Mexican matrimonial service. Milan is the only place in Western Christendom where a Gallican-based liturgy still predominates, the Ambrosian Rite, although some parts of the text are close to the Roman Rite, specifically the Eucharistic prayers. But other Gallican features remain, like Advent lasting six weeks. There was also a beautiful Gallican liturgy in Southern Italy, called the Beneventan Rite, whose musical tradition has been preserved, but the rite itself became extinct long ago, for reasons I am unaware of.
