Allow me to ask this one simple yet important question. Why aren’t we seeing the gifts of the Spirit listed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 operating in and through today’s believers? Well, make that two questions. Where are the gifts of the Spirit? In our Holy Spirit Rallies, I often see surprised and questioning looks on people’s faces when these gifts begin to flow. More than once, I have had people come up after the service to inform me that it has been years since they have seen any gifts of the Spirit operate in their church. Perhaps you are one of those people that would make the same claim about your services.
Rather than write a lengthy blog post, I believe that my questions’ answers are found in the following two quotations. Ponder these quotations and then afterward, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your spirit. In hearing His voice, I believe that His answer will concern His gifts working in and through you personally.
When asked once why the gifts of the Spirit, manifest in the early church, had disappeared, as if the church had no more need for them, Mr. Wesley responded: “It should not be reasoned that the absence of such in the church (eighteenth-century Church of England) reflects the reluctance of God to give, rather the reticence of the church to receive.” ~ John Wesley as quoted in Dr. Frank H. Billman’s The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders Among Methodists Then and Now (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House Press, 2013),165.
The real reason the gifts of the Spirit are missing from the church is because we have been satisfied without them. ~Gordon Lindsay’s Commissioned with Power (Dallas, TX: Christ for the Nations, 2001),16.
Nothing more needs to be added. Billy……
Yes, I agree. Most Christians want to pick and choose what gifts they receive…they haven’t realized the gifts work through the Holy Spirit. The gift is made manifest in the form needed…why give them something they don’t need?