I have taken quite the break from the Spiritual Gifts series. I’m really glad I did. Some of my views have changed within the past few months, and I’ve made just a few edits to my Tongues/Interpretation of Tongues post. I’m mostly a Cessationlist now (I think spiritual gifts of the apostles have ceased), however, tongues, in particular, I think most do not actually have it, but I think some genuinely do.
Regarding miracles or healings, I believe the Lord can heal and give us miracles, and He answers prayers for healing. I do not think others themselves have the gift of healing/miracles. If they did, why not visit hospitals and heal sick kids? Not once do we see any of these proclaimed healers do so. They tend to try to pick people in which the illness can’t be seen physically if it is fixed or not. There is such a thing as people feel obligated in front of big crowds to pretend they are healed out of fear, and others think they are healed merely by an adrenaline rush of everyone getting excited around them. But as soon as the excitement is gone… the illness/pain is not. Many people have stories about this. Please see: Justin Peters | Clouds Without Water Session 3: The Hurt Of Healing & Fake Healing Videos Evaluated Todd White, Tom Fischer, & More by Mike Winger.
Faith healers are very selective about who they heal for this reason. I recommend Justin Peter’s testimony. He has cerebral palsy. He has attended MANY faith healing events since he was a teen, and often is told to go away, Why? His illness is PHYSICAL. It’s obvious and that threatens “faith” healers for being called out. If you would like a short, 4-minute video in which Justin Peters covers the power of suggestion and psychosomatic tricks regarding faith healing, see this clip (the video is not from Justin Peter’s channel): Todd White Is A False Healer.
I do not believe God uses individuals to stretch out legs that create “healings.” (I have witnessed this firsthand.) I’ve seen many “faith” healers debunked. Justin Peters in the above video poses the question if people truly could heal why don’t they go up to an amputee and heal them? They won’t because they can’t actually heal like in the days of Jesus and the Apostles. The miracles Jesus did were immediate and obvious. People did see limbs completely healed before their eyes, no trick of a lengthening leg. See: Todd White Doubles Down On False Leg Lengthening Miracle by Fighting 4 Faith
I’m grateful God allowed me the opportunity to postpone going over the gift of prophecy as I would have had a similar mindset as my original thoughts on dreams. As I have shared, I no longer think God uses dreams for prophecy purposes (see the beginning of Hebrews 1, God speaks not through the prophets now, but Jesus Christ), and I think sharing dreams, on public platforms should be wisely considered before doing so. We don’t want to make proclamations about God that are not true. And just because something is true from a dream still does not make it from God. Please see my recant: Why I Took Down My Dream Posts & Series | Recant
This post isn’t to convince you or to change your views on spiritual gifts. I wasn’t convinced by one discussion, either. But in studying the topic and hearing multiple people, their testimonies, and hearing their research, and scripture… that changed my perspective.
I encourage you to explore what you know as truth because if it is the truth then it is a solid foundation that will NOT have any holes in it. That’s why the testament, the Gospel of Jesus Christ stands. It can be tested and questioned heavily and yet it stands. All we have to do is invest the time.
Listen, our faith IS NOT TO BE BLIND!
The debate on spiritual gifts is not a core of salvation, people can disagree, and that’s okay! Thursday’s post will cover the spiritual gift of faith, see you then. 🙂
Community Prayer for July 2020
Monthly Scripture – (NKJ) Psalm 85:08, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly.”
Get To Know Me & My Blog
Believer Handbook
Second Blog: Peeking Beneath
Inside Cup 
Good thing to address! Condensed story time: I was a huge fan of this Christian band called For Today in high school, and I went with some friends to see them perform. Fast forward to us ending up in a back room with a band mate and some other fans: the band mate insists our loving Father would not give me FA. One fan says she was physically healed at a concert–something about a wounded ankle and being enabled to put down her crutches and walk without them. The band mate and some other folks encircled me and said a bold prayer for healing. Afterwards, the band mate asks me, “Do you feel any different?” It was awkward. Of course I didn’t, so I say something back like, “Uh, I’m not sure…” He says some vague stuff about praying some more and trying to really believe it, sorta kinda implying I would be healed once I had enough faith.
There’s a lot of thoughts to explore. Was the one girl really healed, or was it more of an adrenaline thing, like you said? Maybe in the moment she was able to ignore the pain in her ankle to put down the crutches. Is it true that we could give and receive healing if we somehow believed harder? Is it slightly arrogant to think God has to heal someone when we decree it? What about the verse about the thorn in Paul’s side?
It would be so helpful to me and likely others if you expounded on your beliefs pertaining to apostolic gifts in future posts! Maybe it would help me make more sense of the “healing gone wrong” incident. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing! Yes, Thursday I will address some debunking of the lies of word of faith. We are not little gods, something they preach. We cannot create faith. God is the object of our faith. We need faith, He doesn’t. Never in the history of man could we manifest anything, this is the law of attraction, which I discussed early this year when I covered the vision boards and warning against them.
I share some scriptures about people Paul laid hands on, for other purpose, and were not healed, such as Timothy. Paul left a sick man, why didn’t he heal him?
I think there is a period of healing and apostlic gifts in Acts but then we don’t really see them talked about much else. I think there is a time and a purpose for these things, and I think for apostolic gifts it appears to be fulfilled.
Scripture is clear that trials help refine us. Despite worldly lies that this is suppose to be our “best” life now, it’s simply not true. We are foreigners in this land for good reason! We are to be set apart! Believers thrown to lions, was this their “best” life? Sickness? Tribulation? Torture? The best life lies often work in America but they do not work in other parts around the world where the poor barely get by.
I recommend the Youtuber Polite Leader. He is doing a series now on false teachers and he covers a lot of word of faith and prosperity false teachers. The videos are about 10 mins or less but very informative.
Yes, as you see there is a lot to be said on the topics and slowly but surely I hope to keep breaking them down on the blog. 😊
LikeLike
I like how open you are. Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
As much as we know there are many fake prophets, there are genuine people.
The spiritual gifts of the Apostles did not end with them, I believe if we dig deeper and continue to grow with GOD, that greater works will we do.
John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate the discussion. I view John 14:12 fulfilled regarding works as what we see in the book of Acts. This conversation Jesus had in John 14 was with the apostles. I don’t believe all spiritual gifts are ended, rather, most of the apostlic ones.
You are so right, He is the same, just like He was in the Old Testament and there are only a few instances in which healings occured in the Old Testament. It’s not all the time. But it looks like specific people for a specific time. That’s my take on it currently.
I’m grateful that our opinions of the topic are secondary and non related to salvation in Jesus Christ, praise God 😊😊 And discussions like these can just help us point to how awesome He is!!
LikeLike