I was unable to get back yesterday to this scintillating discussion. However, JBH, I disagree that you showed me anything other than your opinion, which disagrees with mine. You see, the problem is, many people tend to close their minds to any other possibilities rather than the one they stand upon. Me, I stand upon the Rock, and know that God, the Father, is MORE than able to do or will anything He desires at any time He desires. He made a donkey talk, He raised the dead, He moved a two-ton stone, He turned water into wine....He can do anything He desires.
But he doesn't do those miracles now does he?
Who walks on water today?
Who has power to calm the sea, instantly?
Who has the power to raise the dead once they are buried?
Who has the power to change water into wine?
What was Jesus doing. He was doing miracles that no one else could do, demonstrating his deity. Even after that they still rejected him.
I think He can also still use people in the manner in which He desires....people who are committed and dedicated, open to God's Will in their lives. That includes healing, tongues or anything else.
God can heal, but there is no such thing as
the gift of healing today. That is a totally separate issue than believing that God can heal. That is what I emphasized from the beginning.
As for tongues, I challenged you to show me one person in the entire earth that has the Biblical gift of speaking in tongues (actual foreign languages, previously unknown and unheard to them).
Until the day Christ Jesus steps foot on this earth once again, when His work is complete, when He ushers in the Millenial Kingdom and He rules and reigns....then will all be perfect and complete.
If you are speaking of:
But when that which is
perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. (1 Corinthians 13:10)
The word perfect means complete, and it is referring to the Word of God which was completed at the end of the first century. At that time the sign gifts such as prophecy, tongues, revelatory knowledge, tongues, healing, miracles, etc. all ceased. They don't happen any more. Demonstrate that they do. Remember they are gifts.
We tend to think of signs and miracles as huge earthshattering things. Why does it have to be? Isn't hearing the gospel for the first time in your native tongue a huge thing?
It is not a miracle. A miracle is supernatural--above the natural--when the natural is suspended. God suspended the natural laws of gravity when he came walking on water and bidded Peter to do the same. The fact that He could walk on water was a miracle--supernatural--above the realm of the laws of nature. That is what a miracle is. We take this word and make it too common that we lose its significance.
Isn't having Doctor's Without Borders come to your little African village and being able to do surgery on a little native girl with a cleft palate a miracle of healing?
No, it is God using a doctor to heal someone. It might even be an answer to prayer. But it is not a miracle.
You see, I believe THESE are the sign gifts today. When that precious little girl can smile at her mother and father they're more willing to listen to the Gospel over the village witch doctor.
That is a natural response. It is not a miracle.
When that missionary comes to a jungle village and can speak the language they're open to listening and accepting. THOSE are today's miracles....those are the sign gifts if we simply stop to accept them.
Those are not sign gifts. I am on the mission field now, as I post. I have to speak another language that I struggled with to learn. That is not a gift. God did not give me the gift of tongues. Nevertheless many have heard and listened, and accepted. These are not miracles. This is a fulfillment of the Great Commission, something every Christian ought to be involved in.
