We Need Supernatural Gifts Today

 Why do we still need the supernatural spiritual gifts that appear in the New Testament?

God still wants to heal supernaturally today.

Why did Jesus heal? The suffering of the sick aroused such compassion in Jesus that his stomach turned. He never changed. God is love. He has never changed.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Heb 13:8 NRSV

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Jn 14:12 NRSV

We need to release the healing gifts of the Holy Spirit because Jesus commanded it, because he loves sick people.

We need the gift of grace to discern spirits. (1 Cor 12:9)

So many Christians try to discern spirits, but only on the basis of Bible knowledge. But how can we help a mentally ill person if we don't know what the cause of the illness may be? Natural or demonic?

• Is the sick person demonised, or do demons play a lesser role?

• Should we pray for miraculous healing or cast out demons?

• Does this person need counselling or psychiatry or simply deliverance?

Bible knowledge or psychology often cannot provide answers. We need revelation from the Holy Spirit.

Once I wanted to help a person who had taken a lethal overdose. I prayed for hours in unknown languages from the Holy Spirit. God intervened and the person recovered without harm.

Why was praying in tongues necessary and effective? I desperately needed a miracle from God, but my faith was not enough to get the miracle I needed, but the gift of praying in tongues added God’s supernatural power to my limited faith.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Rom 8:26–27 NRSV

Paul did not want to speak in tongues in the church service, but rather prophesy so that the congregation would understand, but in his private prayer time it was quite different.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; 1 Cor 14:18 NRSV