Discussion All of the Spiritual Gifts are for today

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SANTOSO

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Brother, you seem nice, but worrying about someone else and their salvation can get old real quick.

Not every Christian you run across is going to be nice, in fact, Jesus Himself wasn't really nice to certain groups of people while He was here. He was more than justified in His anger at times.

It's great when we can have fellowship with one another, but not every person that claims to be a Christian really is, especially on here.

Dear brother,
This is what we have heard:
Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. -Philippians 2:17

Isn’t this love ? With great love apostle Paul declared this.

Likewise, we have heard :
For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. -1 Corinthians 4:15

I urge you, then, be imitators of me. -1 Corinthians 4:16

How are we to imitate the apostles who became our fathers through the gospel ?

This is what we have heard:
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. -1 Thessalonians 5:14
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. -1 Thessalonians 5:15

Likewise, we heard:
And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, -2 Timothy 2:24
correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, -2 Timothy 2:25
and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. -2 Timothy 2:26

Dear brother, I confess I make many mistakes. I had frustration over some people in Christian forum before, too. I realized many who are unaware that they make unhealthy remarks that are hurtful. But God have humbled me to understand that I owe much love to the Lord and now how much I need to love those whom God calls me to love.

Yes, we can be afflicted by those whom we are called to love. We need to bear with those who wronged. Who can stand that ? Unless we seek the Lord’s strength to forgive those who wronged us. It hurts. It pains. It is a sacrifice.

This is what we have heard how we are being shepherded by the Lord :

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." -Revelation 7:17

Yes, we do cry now as being shepherded ! We do mourn now as being shepherded ! But the Lord comfort us in our afflictions and deliver us out of all fear.

Yes, we need more of the Lord’s steadfast love in our life so that we can cast all fears and reach out to those whom the Lord calls us to love.

Even the Lord will not let anger, frustration, insults be in the way of love, as we have heard:

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. -Matthew 5:22

So, we should be like the Lord and seek
His strength not to be angry but to show mercy and steadfast love. We need reconciliation with those whom the Lord calls us to love. We are made right because God reconciles us through Christ Jesus. Likewise those whom the Lord calls us to love are being made right— not because of our righteousness— but righteousness that comes from God, that is, our Lord who love us and gave Himself for us — as a righteous sacrifice.

Let His good Spirit lead us on level grounds.
Let Him lead us on the path of righteousness. Let Him teach us to exercise the gifts of the Spirit in His Spirit of love.
 
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SANTOSO

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I am reminded of a crazy story that happened to me once that demonstrates some of the gifts in operation in a uncommon way. We were working on the exterior of our church, painting. When a guy came walking along the sidewalk and came up and started asking questions. I pulled up after this had began, but quickly ended up in the middle of it.

Basically what this man did was ask some very general questions about the Bible, but was looking for very specific answers. When he didn't get the specific answer he was looking for he would begin to make accusations, but even that was weird. In this case the main question he asked was, "What did Paul write?" How do you answer that? There are many correct answers. My wife, not in a place where she was willing to get into a detailed biblical discussion (remember we are painting here) simply said, "epistles". Which is correct. I mean given how general the question is you could say, part of the Bible, epistles, scripture, list some of his books, heck "words" would be an accurate response as well. If you want to get really specific there's the question of Hebrews, or what Paul penned himself vs what someone may have written at his direction. What answer was this guy looking for? To be honest we never could get that out of him, but whatever answer we gave was wrong in his eyes.

But this is where it gets odd. I would be standing in front of him, I'd ask a question, he'd ignore it and ask me something very general like the above, I'd give a quick answer and instead of accusing me of being wrong directly he would, tilt to the side, look over my shoulder, and talk to someone behind me to accuse me, "Did you hear that 'Bob'?" (he had learned a few of our names), "did you hear that? They don't even know _______". Remember this was not to me, but a random person behind me. Which was really frustrating. And we still don't know what he is actually asking.

We tried to end it several times, he would begin to walk away, we would begin to walk back to the church then he'd shout more accusations about us at the people around us, which would effectively re-engage us in the conversation. This was particularly true because he kept doing it to my 14 year old daughter. You don't start yelling accusations at my child and not expect me to intervene, and he knew this.

This went on for awhile and grew more and more frustrating until finally the Holy Spirit began to speak to me. I believe He showed me through discerning of spirits what was happening and gave me a word of wisdom on how to handle it.

All of a sudden I knew. This man was quoting a lot of scripture, but he was doing so in an attempt to draw me into a debate about scripture, but it was a debate entirely built upon his arbitrary and unarticulated rules. And he was trying to frustrate me by talking around me to get me off my game and to draw me into participating. And at that moment through the Holy Spirit I knew what this man was doing was witchcraft.

With that knowledge God gave me a simple word of wisdom with a simple strategy, and it worked. When that man would try to talk to someone behind me, I would take a step to the side and stand in between them so he could no longer see them and I'd look him right in the eye and say, "No! You are talking to ME right now" For the first time this made him flustered. Then I began to articulate the story of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem and how Sanballat came to mock, accuse and frustrate that work. Now he got super flustered, hurled an intelligible insult and practically ran away. The Holy Spirit showed me exactly what he was doing, what spirit he was manifesting, and how to handle it. That man never repented or anything like that, I'm certain walked away telling himself he was superior like he had one upped the church, but regardless of what he may have told himself the divisive spirit at work had been exposed and it became a learning experience for all of us.
We thank God that He sent His Holy Spirit to protect you and your loved ones from all evil.

We thank God who gives you victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us continue to hold fast to the Lord’s love.

For this is what we have heard :
We love because He first loved us. -1 John 4:19
If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. -1 John 4:20
And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. -1 John 4:21

God bless you for loving your brother !
 
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Sunshinee777

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All gifts are to glorify God and edifying church. For encouraging each other and strengthening our faith.
It’s never about what we know or do, it’s what God works in and through us.
It’s very sad to me that some churches / people deny these amazing gifts of God.
Those who have gifts, remember to use those gifts that’s why God gave us them.
And we need to be grateful and thankful daily for what we have received from God. :heartpulse:
 
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topher694

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As there has been no response I am guessing we all believe the Apostolic gifting has ceased?
No it has not. You probably didn't get a response because you responded to a fairly old thread.
 
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lismore

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In reply I would like to ask. Who/where are the apostles today? Thank you.

There are and always have been significant numbers of people around the church who say they are apostles. The Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches all believe there are apostles today.

I would advise you never to take someone's word alone if they make a large claim, like being an apostle or prophet. Test them! The bible clearly says what defines an apostle, how they become an apostle and what apostles should be able to do.

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false (Revelation 2:2).

Test them, be cautious. There is much spiritual deception about in these last days.

From what I know of the forum, many people will affirm a belief that the apostolic gift has not ceased but will hesitate to mention the name of someone who they think has the apostolic gift.

God Bless You :)
 
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topher694

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There are and always have been significant numbers of people around the church who say they are apostles. The Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches all believe there are apostles today.

I would advise you never to take someone's word alone if they make a large claim, like being an apostle or prophet. Test them! The bible clearly says what defines an apostle, how they become an apostle and what apostles should be able to do.

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false (Revelation 2:2).

Test them, be cautious. There is much spiritual deception about in these last days. :)
Phonies have been around from the beginning as you've pointed out. Just because some people abuse the truth doesn't mean the rest of us should refuse the truth.

Jesus said we would discern the true from the false by the fruit. The three primary anointings/graces of an apostle are: fathering, building and sending. If anyone claims to be an apostle, look for fruit in these areas.
 
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hislegacy

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In reply I would like to ask. Who/where are the apostles today? Thank you.

There are thousands of apostles around the world.

There were 11 Apostles of the Lamb - men who walked with Christ
There were many Apostles appointed in the church - 1 Cor 1:1 Paul was not one of the 11
Acts 14:14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this.

Eph 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

Are there still evangelist? Are there still pastors? Are there still teachers? They are all part of the self same sentence and cannot be separated out. If the Office of Apostle is no longer, then the office of pastor, evangelist, teacher no longer exists either.

Apostle - ap-os'-tol-os; from G649; a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ ("apostle") (with miraculous powers):—apostle, messenger, he that is sent.

I know several. This is from one of his meetings earlier this month

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lismore

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Phonies have been around from the beginning as you've pointed out. Just because some people abuse the truth doesn't mean the rest of us should refuse the truth.

Yes, absolutely. One good facet of the truth is that it is not shaken by scrutiny, by rigorous testing. Instead it becomes in perception clearer, stronger.


Jesus said we would discern the true from the false by the fruit. The three primary anointings/graces of an apostle are: fathering, building and sending. If anyone claims to be an apostle, look for fruit in these areas.

I was also thinking of these:

1 Corinthians 9:1 A witness of the risen Christ
Acts 5:15-16, 2 Corinthians 12:22, 2 Corinthians 12:12, Acts 28:9. Apostolic signs.
2 Corinthians 1:1 called by God
Acts 2:42 The teaching

God Bless :)
 
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chad kincham

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It's God's church, he's the overseer, the giver, the arranger. If God doesn't give you the gift then you won't have it.

1Co 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

1Co 14:5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
 
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hislegacy

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Naming some would be interesting for now. No-one has provided any names yet.

Reinhardt Bonke
Mark Bowling
Tommy Reid
Tommy Barnett
John Wimber

you can start there.
 
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lismore

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1Co 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

Yes desire them. But God gives them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:4). We can't operate outside the chain of command. God Bless :)
 
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topher694

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Yes desire them. But God gives them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:4). We can't operate outside the chain of command. God Bless :)
So God tells everyone to desire something, but basically says to some of them, "Sorry I know I told you to pursue this, but you don't get it, bummer for you." or essentially, God is Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown?... that sure doesn't sound like my Father.

I mean, yes, they come from God. I don't think that anyone here disputes that. I believe the conversation here is beyond that.
 
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