The Powerful Gifts Of The Holy Spirit

Charismatic Spiritual Gifts; I believe while God still does some amazing miracles, signs, and wonders and sometimes performs those wonders through a Christian. I believe these things are not necessarily the miraculous gifts of the Spirit as we see in the New Testament. While the Bible does not say outright that the miraculous gifts have ceased, I believe it does lay the foundation for why they might no longer occur to the same extent as they did as recorded in the New Testament.

In this paper, I will review Robert Gromacki’s book The Holy Spirit: Who He is, What He Does I will detail what I feel the book is about. I will emphasize various points given by the author that stood out to me. Finally, I will give my personal evaluation of the book.

Spiritual Gifts are special divine empowerments given to us through the Holy Spirit. These Gifts however are not for our own personal benefit, instead the main purpose is to equip us to be able to serve and glorify the Lord while Jesus continues His ministry though us. When we use our Spiritual Gifts to glorify the Lord we are contributing to the overall heath and growth of the church. 1 Peter 4:10-11 shows us that we have each been given a Gift by the Holy Spirit and when we use that Gift we find the strength we need to build up the Church. The Gifts of the Spirit are messages of wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy,

In the case of the Christian belief system of continuationism and its connection to sensational theology predominant in radical Pentecostal groups or what will be called fringe Pentecostalism, the lack of substantial evidence towards the viability of this view shows that the gifts of the original apostles are not available today. While those who hold to the continuation theory believe the spiritual gifts possessed by the apostles are attainable and are the only method of truly knowing the Holy Spirit, the lack of evidence as to the continuation of these gifts and the fact that they are dismissed in scripture prove that these gifts are not longer available to believers. The issue that most mainstream evangelicals have with fringe Pentecostalism

C. Peter Wagner (2012) defines a spiritual gift as attribute given to each member of the body of Christ, according to God’s grace to be used for the church. Every believer possesses unique God given spiritual gifts. These gifts are given to us to further His kingdom and to bring Him glory. The Biblical reference to Spiritual gifts are found in four passages: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 28-30, Peter 4:9-11, and Ephesians 4:11. They are Leadership, Administration, Knowledge, Teaching, Exhortation, Faith, Wisdom, Prophecy, Discernment, Shepherding, Evangelism, Faith, Serving, Pastoring, Apostleship, Hospitality, Mercy, and Interpretation of Tongues. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28, ESV).

The Holy Spirit, as a member of the Trinity, has eternally existed and worked with the Father and the Son to bring about the plan for our salvation (CCC 686). In a similar vein, the Holy Spirit, along with the Word of God, “are at the origin of the being and life of every creature” (CCC 703). The Holy Spirit is present with humanity from the beginning of time and the beginning of our individual lives, for as the Gospel writer John says, “he abides with you, and he will be in you” (John 14:17).

The fact that those who are connected to Christ are indwelt by the Trinity and empowered by the Spirit of God remains true for Christians today. In Acts 1:8 Jesus had promised the disciples power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and in Acts 2:38 Peter, having preached Christ crucified and raised from the dead, made it clear that those who, by faith, were baptized into Christ would receive the gift of the

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and is equal in essence and in power in the Trinity to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit was originally sent by Jesus after his ascension into heaven, Jesus himself saying that he would send a “helper” after he departed from the earth. This spirit is worshipped just as the Father and the Son are, and also participated in the creation of the world, sustaining and giving life continually to all things, and exhibits the uniqueness and characteristics of the third person in the Trinity. This is the same Holy Spirit that divinely inspired the infallible word of God, and although the canon is now closed, the Holy Spirit still works powerfully and constantly in the life of the church and in believers. The Holy Spirit is the giver of spiritual gifts, which are given at conversion and help the believer become more like their creator. The presence of the Holy Spirit is evident in the life of all true believers, and this Spirit turns cowardly men into mighty warriors for Christ who accomplish actions way beyond their natural ability.

The various gifts of the Holy Spirit as listed in Scripture are conveyed according to the will of the Holy Spirit to every man for the eventual purpose of the edification and building up the church body.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is the source of life and creation. The Holy Spirit worked in the lives of men that God placed His Spirit upon such as prophets and kings to perform His service. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was not given universally in the Old Testament but selectively and temporarily for service. However, in the New Testament, the Spirit grants life to God’s people and believers are brought to faith, in Jesus, through the sovereign work of the Spirit.

The Classical Pentecostal doctrine of the baptism in the Holy Spirit was first formulated at the turn of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, Classical Pentecostals claim that their view of Spirit baptism is based on Scripture, and that this doctrine was a normative part of the experience and teaching of the New Testament church. They further claim that this doctrine should be a normative part of the experience and teaching of the Church today. However, the biblical texts, which are cited by Classical Pentecostals to support their view, have been interpreted differently by non-Pentecostals. The practical value of this study is to help Classical Pentecostals and non- Pentecostals identify the source of this doctrine, and to understand why they disagree on this important point.

Richard B. Gaffin presented cessationist position was very thought provoking and insightful. He began by setting the framework that he was not giving what many would think, a cessationist view would be, but he was giving the view of scripture according to John 3:8, which I find an ambiguous scripture, but one Gaffin references more than any other. Gaffin’s defense of his position was based on some theology but mostly philosophy; he attempted to use exegesis but he failed to make sound critiques of the texts presented. He did however raise a few profound questions that we Pentecostal/Charismatics should take notice of. Gaffin raises the question of disunity and ambiguity in the prophetic and speech gifts in the current church. He asks, “Does the Spirit, who gives gifts to unify and edify, work in the ambivalent and uncertain way” (p. 60)? I felt this was a legitimate question that needs to be addressed within the Pentecostal/Charismatic community.

The Holy Spirit plays a very vital role in the lives of each and every believer; He can strengthen us with a strength that we cannot even begin to muster up in ourselves. He can bring us joy that we cannot even begin to find in the things of this world. He can bring peace to our lives more than anything that we can ever find on this earth. “The Holy Spirit which is primarily an energizing process, is also a revealing, refining, consuming, illuminating process, and one by which we are made to glow with love to God, and love to man, and love to souls.”

Within each church, spirituality is expressed in different traditions and is practiced in various ways. In identifying these traditions Richard Foster placed in six categories namely, contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical and incarnation. Although these traditions are found to be central to our Christian faith each church has demonstrated a tendency to prefer the practice of one over another.

Their is much debate surrounding the use of the charismatic gifts in Acts. Many questions arise about how to use such gifts, and whether or not they can be used today in the first place. The debate regarding the continuation and the cessation of the spiritual gifts, the meaning of which we will clarify in a moment, is a relatively modern one. Although we read about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early church of the New Testament, history is more or less silent on this issue. It was not until the early