House Church Talk - Re: cessation of spiritual gifts

[jim sutton]

Ross J Purdy wrote:

>I was specific in saying which gifts have ceased, nothing I said denies ALL
>gifts of the Spirit, nor does it deny our complete dependence on our Lord.
>(Must we exhibit the supernatural gifts or know someone who does to prove
>our dependence on God? Are performing tricks our "expectant hope"?)

And now for yet another Jim to join in, just to muddy things up a little more, 
if I possibly can.  (My hopes may often be low, but they are always very 
great.)

Brother, I am grateful for your continued patience in a talk that often causes 
tempers to flare.  We believers, even though we have the Spirit of God 
powerfully in us, are often tempted to be foolish and testy when it comes to 
the things of God.  And I can testify that God has forgiven my own stupidity 
more times than I can count.  

I think I can see where you're coming from, but your argument seems directed 
more at the activities of certain churches (and at some church traditions, 
such as you MUST speak with tongues or you're a nobody...) than at the reality 
of Spiritual gifts.

If God Himself has not ceased, then His activities in the church have not 
ceased, and it is foolish for any of us to decide, on our own, what God has 
stopped doing.  We must not pick and choose among the gifts, deciding what 
will, or what will not, be accepted as from God.  

And it is even worse when we try to read our desires and dislikes back into 
the Scriptures.  As far as I can see in Scripture, God has not called a halt 
to anything He that does.

He still speaks with human beings.  He continues to give His people skills and 
abilities they did not receive by way of natural (or contrived) genetics.  He 
continues to transform human hearts and minds by the influences of His Holy 
Spirit.  He saves souls, just as He always has.  Those who reject the mercies 
of God, in Jesus Christ our Lord, are still bound for hell.

It is error to assume that God has stopped doing anything.  As long as the 
Spirit is active in the Body of Christ then anything can and will happen.  

Maybe you've actually not seen a certain gift in operation, or I have not seen 
much of another gift.  But that hardly means anything at all, except that we 
may need to get out more, or simply that God has done (just as always) as He 
will, when He will, where He will.

Because the Holy Spirit continues to operate in the church, every Spiritual 
gift is still in operation.  No reason to doubt it or wonder.  Just because I 
do not speak in tongues (and I do not) means nothing at all about the the gift 
itself, or the Giver.  In the right time and place, anything may yet happen. 
 And I'm sure that it does happen wherever God wills it, just as in the first 
century.

Your brother in the Lord Jesus,
Jim (Sutton)