Featured IF You Hold To Sign Gifts Operating, what verse/Function?

:thumbsup::thumbs::thumbsup::thumbs:

 

If any message would come in the form of a tongue/language.....if it comes from God it is extra biblical revelation. If God has given us all He said He would....there will not be any other revelation.

if it does not come from God...it is false to begin with.

 

JF....there is a clear and inward work of the Spirit. As I get older I am coming to see that it is always word,and Christ centered. It works through a biblically educated conscience

JF...all Christians understand that God is God. We want all God has for us.
the day in which we live has many who are looking to replicate pentecost.

Jf.....i would love to be an apostle...but it is not to be. At the same time...God has given the Apostles to all of us as foundational EPH2:20-22

We have been given a complete revelation that as we feed diligently on the word, God will use us as a witness as we go about our lives . We are to be available 24/7.......I do not need the hair to stand up on the back of my neck to realize that God has ordained good works for us.
We live in a nation with multitudes perishing in unbelief all around us.
we are to be prayerfully looking to be salt and light, and occupy for our King in every circumstance of life. God has elect sheep in all the world...we are to find them by preaching the word of the cross. If we are faithful to proclaim the message and remove obstacles[our part] the Spirit will do His work of saving, or reprobating those we speak with.

 

JF,
I believe there is a clear dealing with us by the Spirit inwardly.
All people have a God given conscience. Christians have a biblically educated conscience.....the difference being we have the Spirit indwelling us enabling us to welcome the word of God 1cor2....

Jesus said the means of sanctification is the word Jn 17:17....

the psalms speak of God working on the Ot saints...working in their heart and mind. the Nt speaks of the absolute necessity of keeping the heart as we were instructed in proverbs

I think that staying in the rails of the scripture,and obeying this instruction, are the very means God has ordained.

It is a fine line....so people go off here ....the nature of it is such that some begin to think that every thought that they have is a "message from the Spirit".

You see some here on BB. They put things into the personal and subjective realm.....something like this: I know it was God,and no one is going to tell me that God did not tell me________.

How do you tell someone ...oh yes...it was clearly the Spirit,and not just your own mind?...or oh no.....it was not the Spirit.

In the end....it comes back to the sure word of God.

i have had times where thoughts came to mind, or those Deja Vu kind of things happen. if it is about a person...i pray for them. If it is about an event that is coming up, I pray for wisdom.
Am i going to write a book about it....or claim revelation knowledge, or a word of wisdom???? NO. We are christians with the indwelling Spirit 24/7.

 

We are not given the direct promise to that the apostles were given to be guided into all truth...or we would be infallible.
But , that being said...we have "all truth that we need " in scripture.
Certainly there are times when the Spirit enables us to be used as a vessel unto honour...to speak forth the words of life. I also believe that if we are prayerfully and diligently pursuing holiness heb 12:14...and in the path of obedience...God will work out the providential details where we will say the exact thing that is needed to that particular person.

Think of it this way....we have this treasure in earthen vessels....that the excellency may be of God and not of us.

people in here resist the doctrines of grace, because they have not yet realized that it is exactly because God is working out his eternal purpose in redeeming the elect that there are no accidents ,or coincidences...
It is sobering to realize that we have been given a great gift, that is meant to be used to serve God, and reach others.

the books you read...or do not read...the verses you work on....the sermons you listen to, are meant to help us, and those we minister to.

 

Dear Amy,

Around 26 years ago, a missionary whom our church supported gave a testimony in our local church. He was a Filipino from Metro Manila, Philippines and he narrated his unforgettable experience when he visited some Ifugao tribesmen, around more than 250 miles up north. He said that he felt compelled to share the gospel to the tribesmen even though he did not know their language. So, he spoke to them in Tagalog. After his gospel presentation, he simply prepared to go home.

As he was about to go home, some tribesmen ran after him and said, "Where did you learn our native tongue (Ifugao)? Your Ifugao is as good as ours!"

The missionary said, "Ifugao? But I spoke to you in Tagalog!"

"Tagalog? Of course we know our native tongue, and that is the language you just spoke."

In short, our missionary spoke in Tagalog; the tribesmen heard in Ifugao.

I guess this was a rare instance where the gift of tongues was in operation. Logically, there are only two conclusions which we can deduce from the incident: 1) Either our missionary was lying, or 2) Our missionary was telling the truth.

I do not think he was lying. If he was not lying, then he was telling the truth. If he was telling the truth, then gifts "did not entirely cease."

I "guess" that gifts did not entirely cease--but may occur in rare cases according to God's sovereign will. :wavey:

 

I have some friends who have been missionaries to other countries and one told me that what he saw was much like going back into the book of Acts. In this country I had a few experiences that when it happened the first time I told my pastor and he gave me the look like I was crazy.

One of my friends told me that he does not tell much about what happened where he was because people would most likely find it hard to believe. He is certainly not a charismatic or pentecostal.

 

What gets me is how the arm chair theologians sitting in their office can make such determination on some things they know nothing about.

It blows me away at how some determine theology on the basis of its use and abuse. Every gift can be abused with people.

 

Those who sit in their easy chair and make theological decisions based on the limited experience they have without ever tossing out their ideas for examination by others.

 

What may seem as strong here may be seen as weak by those from somewhere else. We may seem spiritual in our own eyes but to those who have gone through the fires of communist persecution may see us as a weak nation. What may be seen as tolerable here may be seen as demonic by someone else who has seen the demonic in action. What may be seen by someone in the bush as miraculous may be seen here as charismatic or pentecostal.

 

I think it would be safer to say that in our day and age the gift of languages (the true meaning of tongues) would be more akin to the experience of William Carey who set out for India with little or no formal education, being a simple cobbler before that time.
Yet by the end of his life he had translated the Bible or parts thereof into 44 different languages. That truly is a gift. But it is not miraculous. It came through study and hard work. That is how most missionaries acquire the ability to speak another language. The same is true of Adoniram Judson who went to Burma. The only person that had been before was Carey's son, and he was martyred. Carey survived but he had to learn the language without the aid of any translator, dictionary, grammar book etc. He was the first one to "crack" the language. These were the men that went before us, hard workers, diligent in study, walking by faith, suffering untold misery, and God used them and blessed them in their ministeries.

 

neither one of these claims relates to signs of the apostles at all.