A biblical clarification of spiritual gifts (Part Four)

Let’s continue our teaching, which shows that the distribution of some gifts are limited as to time. The specific gifts are apostleship, prophecy, tongues, healings and miracles. While God can still perform miracles, the gift given to specific individuals to work miracles at will ended with the Apostolic age. For example, the Bible teaches that those who lived at the same time as Jesus experienced certain miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit that weren’t experienced by the generation that followed Jesus (see Hebrews 2:3-4). In other words, the Gospel of Jesus was first spoken by the Lord, then confirmed by those who heard Him, and further validated by God to those who heard Jesus through signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The generation living with Jesus and the Apostles required signs and wonders to prove that a new message from God was being delivered. The subsequent generations are believed to rely on the sufficiency of the written Scriptures instead. Actually, it’s no biblical reason, logic, or defense to say that every gift of the Holy Spirit must appear in every generation of the history of the church! The Holy Spirit is the Person who decides and endows the church as He wills, and He knows exactly what each believer, each congregation, and each generation needs!! Be encouraged!

Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Th.D., Bible teacher & expositor