The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul List nine (9) separate Gifts given by the God the Holy Spirit to Believers Part 2

1 Corinthians 12:10 “To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy” KJV

Paul continues in his broadcasting of some of the gifts or charisma given to believers by God the Holy Spirit as he comes now to the fifth of the nine (9) and that is the gift of “working of miracles” and this English word “working” is the same Greek word we discovered in our study two (2) studies ago used in verse 6 for “operations” and that Greek word is energema which means the effect or activities or the thing wrought by the gift. Now the second English word “miracles” Paul uses which is the primary description of the gift is translated by the Greek word dunamis which means force; miraculous power and by implication a miracle itself; a worker of miracles; strength, power, ability inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth power for performing miracles; moral power and excellence of soul. This gift given to a believer enables that person to be a vessel for God the Holy Spirit to exert His mighty supernatural force, strength, and power to bring about an action that cannot be explained nor understood from our human perspective as the writer of Hebrews declares God did through the early disciples when he wrote, “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Hebrews 2:2-4).

Also we have the record of this gift being worked out through the Apostle Paul against one of the agents or instruments of satan a man named Elymas the sorcerer as documented for us by these words recorded by Dr. Luke, “When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said, ‘You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.’ And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord” (Acts 13:6-12).

The sixth of the nine (9) is the gift of “prophesy” and this English word is translated by the Greek word propheteia which means a foreteller or an inspired speaker or writer or poet; a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; the divine mind, to which the prophetic faculty is due of the endowment and speech of the Christian teachers called prophets; the gifts and utterances of these prophets set apart to teach the gospel for the kingdom of Christ. This gift is given to men or women to foretell future events and also to be able to speak forth and write God’s gospel truth with power, authority, and clarity that those in the flock of God would be fed His Word that would grow them up into spiritual maturity. The question most raised today and in every generation since our Lord Jesus’ ascension back to heaven is the question of whether men or women are still given the aspect of this gift to speak of or write of future events that will take place in the life of an individual or a church or a city or country or the whole world for that matter.

“The Cessationists believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophetic utterances and faith healing, ceased being practiced early in Christian Church history. Cessationists generally believe that the miraculous gifts were provided only for the foundation of the Christian Church, during the time between the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost,  33 AD, as described in the 2nd Chapter of Acts, and the fulfillment of God’s purposes in history, usually identified as either the completion of the last book of the New Testament (Book of Revelation), or the death of John the Apostle, the last of the Twelve Apostles. The counterpart to Cessationaism is Continuationism, which teaches that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have remained available for use by the church ever since Pentecost. Disputes over Cessationism versus Continuationism have since led to denominational schisms within the Church” (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

The problem I have with these “isms” is simply both have to deny certain parts of the Scripture to make their theology have Biblical legs to stand on, therefore, it is my view that Paul was speaking to individual and collective Christian brothers and sisters who none of them saw our Lord Jesus Christ “in His Body” like Paul did and nowhere in his discourse here does he qualify any of these nine (9) gifts for a certain Christian to be endowed or given and others to be refused based on when they were saved. We must always submit to the authority of the Scripture no matter what camp one identifies with and concerning the gift of prophesy (as with any of the gifts) the enemy or the devil can and does counterfeit them through the men and women under his control as we learned above in Paul’s encounter with Elymas the sorcerer as well as others Paul encountered like the girl with the “spirit or demon of divination” and she was able to foretell or predict future events and she was used to do so to make her slave master money.

And this is the encounter Paul had with this “demon” as recorded again for us by Dr. Luke, “It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’ She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, ‘These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.’” (Acts 16:16-21).

Paul in this instance again exercised his gift of the “working of miracles” by the Holy Spirit’s Power when calling out this demon from that slave girl, but if this slave girl with a “spirit of divination” could tell the future certainly by means of satanic power, then how much more does the “Spirit of Truth” give men and women the ability to speak forth future events (John 16:13) as God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ deemed necessary for the working out of His Purposes in His Church and for keeping His Saints from the attacks of the evil one. I am neither a Cessationists or a Continuationists, but I consider myself a Bibleist (which is not a word) but I am one who just believes the Bible and that I am what the Bible says I am “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and that I have what the Bible says I have “in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3) and I can do all that I do “in Christ” (Philippians 4:13) and finally that I am gifted by the Holy Spirit as He sees fit for the edifying of Christ Body (1 Corinthians 12:8-11).   

“I never have any difficulty believing in miracles, since I experienced the miracle of a change in my own heart.” Augustine

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” C. S. Lewis

“We need a baptism of clear seeing. We desperately need seers who can see through the mist--Christian leaders with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy.” A. W. Tozer

“When our Lord ascended back to heaven and gave gifts to men, He did not say that some of you will be Cessationists and some Continuationists, but instead He said “follow Me” and if someone follows Him they will be endowed with whatever gift our Lord Jesus deems necessary for that person to have to work out His Purposes on the earth because He is the same today, yesterday, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and let us not be confused by satan’s counterfeits or imitations of the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, but let us just be vigilant in testing the spirits that speak and write claiming to do so for our Lord Jesus Christ, for He will always expose the counterfeits to His children.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…