What I've Seen, and Been Part of...
And yet none of you can testify to actually having seen these signs. You're relying on pure emotion and a desire to see them.
...is not pure emotion. It was real, but if you don't believe in these things, I can see why you would hold to that understanding.
I once didn't believe in the gifts of prophecy, but having been subjected to the ministry of a prophet, and seeing, over time, how the words of the Father have come to pass; I can no longer judge those caught up in and practicing these gifts as working out of "pure emotion!"
Amy, we serve a supernatural God (meaning there are going to be things manifested in and through others that are nothingless than supernatural, or without explanation). Just as everything that has happened, throughout the age of man was new and strange and miraculous to them, there is nothing stopping God from doing the same in revealing Himself and manifesting His awesome gifts and wonders in our time, too!
We simply should not get to the point where we limit Him by what we think we understand, or like so many, throughout time, we can be left behind.
Do you not hold to the teaching that there will be a rapture? And if you want to believe in that event, how can you really support it since the word "rapture" does not appear in text, anywhere? It is a made-up word to describe an event that will be as supernatural as any man has and will ever see.
So how is holding to that hope or event any different than holding to the idea that God is still working through us in "signs and wonders?" God thinks so highly of us that in 1 Corinthian 6:2-3 (AMP), we are told that "Do you not know that the saints (the believers) will [one-day] day] judge and govern the world? And if the world [itself] is to be judged and ruled by you, are you unworthy and incompetent to try [such petty matters] of the smallest courts of justice? Do you not know also that we [Christians] are to judge the [very] angels and pronounce an opinion between right and wrong [for them]? How much more then [as to] matters pertaining to this world and of this life only!"
While on the planet, we are in a comprehensive On-the-Job-training program. We've been deputized by Jesus to act on behalf of the Father, and to limit the acts we have been entrusted to enact, limits the awesomeness of God Himself in the lives of those we come in contact with.
The idea that many hold to (that the gifts ceased to continue after John's death on the Isle of Patamos), makes no sense if we are going to be ambassadors, deputized by Jesus, to show the world the wonder of the awesome God we come by the name of.
Of course, we need to prayerfully be cognizant of the charlatans of life. The flashes for the cash preachers are around every corner, and we need to temper and act in accordance, being careful not to go overboard, or be caught up in the spiritual hysterics that many churches have given way to.
There's a spiritual fine line to walk, sort of like the narrow path we walk, and we need to be extremely careful not to wonder, stray, or go in a different direction other than forward, as we move within the perimeters of the arsenal of weapons and gifts. He has given us to use.
For instance, I have been used to pray for healing and seen healing come. However, that gift is not always going to be applicable to every instance I come across. I have moved in discernment, and prophecy, but, then again, it is not an every day event that manifests itself every time I minister in Jesus's name. I operate in the gift of love, but there are times I must operate in the gift of tough love, or not being too loved to do to the nature of the party and their willingness to receive.
Each gift will be manifest itself within me when it is critical and necessary to the situation, and it always is used to lift Him up, NOT me!
the Operation of Sign Gifts will be manifested in spiritual moderation, and always in line with His will and not ours. Not everyone who says pray for my healing will be healed and returned to this life (they die, a greater form of healing). Preaching the Word of God is a combination of prophetic gifts and discernement skills, coming together to bless, enhance and enlighten those present to hear the Word.
Finally, while I pray in a special prayer language, I am careful to not offend those who don't or those who question its existance altogether. My prayer language is for God and myself, not for anyone else, and it only manifests itself on certain ocassions, and I do not know when it will surface, which means I can't make it happen without Him.