When JESUS cometh or we go to be home .
ALL the gifts given were for the equipping of the Church and for evangelizing . that dont end
TILL JESUS COMES . THEN there will be no more need for this as the church has went home and
the new heavens and new earth wherein NO evil is , where all souls are the saved of CHRIST
and there is none in need of being saved . THE GIFTS are FOR THE CHURCH for a reason .
AND till our pilgramage is over , or THE LORD do come , THEY ARE STILL available . hope that helps my friend.
Also
@Aunty Jane &
@DJT_47
It does help, thanks. I think the reason many christians confuse it is because in the original greek in scripture "Holy Spirit" can be written two ways. 99% of the scriptures can be easily understood without any knowledge of the Greek language, but the other 1% there's no way to understand it without an understanding of Greek.
Look at Acts 8:15-17 and in that passage "Holy Spirit" is written 3 times. The phrase Holy Spirit can be written with a definite article, or it can be written without a definite article. The Greeks used the definite article to convey "Identity" or not, with a definite article which refers to the qualitative aspect of the noun, not the identity. The qualitative aspect of a noun are it's attributes. Whenever an article isnt used in a situation where the context demands it, the emphasis is placed on the qualitative aspect of the noun, not the identity. (Sometimes waith a noun in wich the context proves to be definite, the article is not used. This places stress upon the qualitative aspect of the Noun rather than its mere identity. (Dana and Manty's Textbook, pg 149).
Like a book for instance. I could say hand me a book but that could be any book. If I said hand me the book then you'd say, which one? Context is everything. I hear you though! What does all that have to do with the spiritual gifts?! I'll tell you. Here is
Acts 8:15-17
15 As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. 16 The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit..../NLT
"Holy Spirit" (Noun) is in that passage 3 times. And if you pay attention to the context you will see that they arent using Holy Spirit as a definite article in this passage. So it speaks of the qualitative aspects (attributes). So overall, they are talking about the spiritual gifts here, not "the" Holy Spirit. Himself because they received Him when they were born again. So they were referring to the qualitative aspects of the Holy Spirit..the spiritual Gifts!
They had been boorn again abd Baptised by John, but they had not been Baptised in the Holy Spirit. This is what they were praying for when they laid hands on them!
They meant they had not even heard of a Baptism of the Holy Spirit before. These were new believers!
Here's a similar story!
Acts 19:1-7
1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers.[
a]
2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.
“No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked.
And they replied, “The baptism of John.”
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.”
5 As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues[
b] and prophesied.
7 There were about twelve men in all..../NLT
See what happened? They got the Holy Spirit upon being born again, but it wasnt any spiritual gifts with it, they come later, with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit! And He prayed for them to receive (the qualitative aspects, ie Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It doesnt say that those who received the Baptism/Gifts of the Holy Spirit were Apostles only, they were Believers. And yes, their all dead now too, but the Gifts didnt cease. They are available today. So some dont realize these aspects of the Greek language so think that the Gifts stopped, when in fact they did not.
I got lucky last sunday at church because the Holy Spirit was the topic and He expained all this stuff, and I was paying attention! I already knew that miracles were still real because I have been witness to them, however, I was unable to explain why because I dont know Greek! And I still dont, lol. But The Pastor did and now I do know that too.