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

Miracles Still for Today

 There is a highly questionable and controversial teaching that the supernatural spiritual gifts that appear in the book of Acts and 1 Corinthians were taken away by God in the first centuries of the Christian era.

This idea is supposedly supported by some verses in 1 Corinthians 13.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Co 13:12 NIV

This clear recognition is intended to point to the appearance of the New Testament. But neither Paul nor most of the Corinthians had seen the complete New Testament.

How many Christians in our day who know the New Testament have a clear recognition of God that so surpasses the revelations of the apostles themselves? This makes no sense.

This verse in 1 Corinthians is not a new idea. David had the same revelation in Psalm 17.

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness. Ps 17:15 NRSV

The psalmist was David, who believed that in his afterlife he would see God himself directly.

I once looked for this text in various Bible commentaries in a Christian bookshop. The commentaries were not Pentecostal, but they all explained that 1 Cor 13:12 is supposed to be a reference to our encounter with God in the next life.

David expected that he would meet God directly and visibly after his death. This had nothing to do with the appearance of the New Testament.

In our time, we need God's supernatural help like never before.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mk 16:17–18 NRSV

In our time, millions of Muslims are becoming Christians. In millions of cases, they are converted after seeing Jesus in a dream or vision, and in many others they are converted after experiencing healing miracles.

I know an Arab Christian who was formerly a Muslim. A Muslim Arab tried to kill him with poison, but he was unharmed. When the would be assassin saw him alive, he was shocked.

The Christian man quoted Mark 16:18. … and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 1 Co 13:8 NIV

When will prophecies and tongues cease? When we see Jesus.
What about knowledge coming to an end? We still need knowledge because we are not face to face with God.
 

Unusual Miracles in Christian Mission

 I know a preacher in Australia who was on a mission trip to Pakistan. He heard that a poor Muslim  farmer in the neighbourhood had a very sick cow. Many Muslims know that God dramatically answers the prayers of Christians, and this farmer invited the preacher to pray for their sick cow.

He visited the poor farmer, but the cow was already dead, but he prayed for the dead cow anyway. The following day the dramatic news came, the cow was alive again and completely healthy.

There are many churches in Europe where signs and wonders are not expected, but especially in Africa, Asia and South America, signs and wonders like the one in Acts are very common.

The first dramatic sign in the book of Acts was the manifestation of speaking in tongues.
One hundred and twenty disciples of the Lord Jesus were together in Jerusalem.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Ac 2:4 NRSV

Then they came out of the upper room and proclaimed heavenly wisdom in these languages they had never learnt.

Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven.

When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Ac 2:5–6 CSB

An American preacher was once a guest on a Christian talk show in California. In the middle of the interview, he felt a very strong touch of the Holy Spirit.

He began to speak in tongues. He felt very nervous because he didn't know how the radio station's management would react. He was relieved that no one reacted.

Listeners to the talk show could call counsellors.
Immediately after the program, a telephone counsellor approached the preacher. She spoke with a strong German accent.

It turned out that a German woman was listening to the program and she heard the preacher speaking in her own language. The preacher didn't even know what language had come out of his mouth and he didn't know what he had said in flawless German.

The German telephone counsellor explained to the preacher that the German woman who had called was terminally ill and dying. She heard instructions from God on what to do from the preacher's mouth. As she carried out the instructions from the Holy Spirit, the power of God came upon her. She got up and was completely healed.

The English preacher mentioned above told me how he experienced a very unusual manifestation of speaking in tongues. He received a direction from the Holy Spirit to fly to Jakarta, Indonesia. 

He obeyed God's leading and sat in a hotel room in Jakarta. He had received no further instructions. All he could do was wait and pray.

Then there was a knock on the door. An Indonesian pastor entered and invited him to preach to his huge congregation.

The English preacher stood at the pulpit, ready to preach in English with an interpreter. He opened his mouth and began to preach in perfect Indonesian. He had never learnt Indonesian.

Not only could he speak Indonesian perfectly, but he could understand everything. From that moment on, he was able to completely master the Indonesian language. He later worked as a language teacher and taught Indonesian in Australia.

For me, speaking in tongues is very important. I pray every day in languages that I have never learnt. I don't understand these languages and if there are listeners, they don't understand anything either.

But God understands.

For the person who speaks in a tongue is not speaking to people but to God, since no one understands him; he speaks mysteries in the Spirit. 1 Co 14:2 CSB

How can we understand this contradiction?

In 1 Cor 12:10 we read about ``different kinds of tongues`` 1 Cor 12:10

We cannot understand this gift of grace, but God's gifts are always good.