The Gifts Are Forever

Every mature believer should be familiar with how the gifts of the Spirit operate. This is the specific means through which God has chosen to channel his power through his people, and he expects us to learn to move in his supernatural power.

In 1 Corinthians 12:1 Paul warns: “I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant about spiritual gifts.” God specifically chose the gift of prophecy, for example, to inform us, instruct us, encourage us, and correct us (see 1 Corinthians 14:3). That gift, like the other gifts of the Spirit, was manifested continually in the Old Testament and has been manifested throughout the history of the Church. And it continues to be manifested in our time wherever there are people willing to believe that God moves in the same way throughout the centuries, and that his gifts were not just for a limited time, but for any time when his miraculous intervention is needed to meet a need among his people.

During his first great sermon after Pentecost, the apostle Peter declared (Acts 2:38, 39):

38 Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 For the promise is for you, and for your children, and for all who are far off; for as many as the Lord our God shall call.

The strange idea that the gifts ceased to be manifested after the establishment of the canon of Scripture is an artificial contrivance of some theologians that has nothing to do with the reality of the spiritual world. The gifts were designed and poured out to meet needs that still arise in the lives of God’s people and that will continue to be felt until Christ comes.

Where there is no expectation that God still manifests himself dramatically and with power, the Spirit will be grieved, and the manifestation of the gifts will decline. The only ones who benefit from this sad state of affairs are Satan and his demons, who are left free to move unhindered among an ignorant and spiritually feeble people, unable to call forth divine intervention when the Enemy lunges at them.

Study the Bible and learn how the gifts operate properly in the life of the believer. Receive by faith the fullness of the Holy Spirit within you, for that is where the operation of the gifts begins, whether in ministry or in everyday life. And begin to cultivate by faith those wonderful spiritual resources that God has given you as an inheritance. As you use them, even if very imperfectly at first, they will gradually awaken and develop within you until they become an indispensable resource for that new life of power you will begin to live.