What happened in church history about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? They have not ceased.
John Chrysostom (AD 347-407):
“This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place. And why do they not happen now? Why look now, the cause too of the obscurity hath produced us again another question: namely, why did they then happen, and now do so no more?” (Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXIX, 1)
Paul wrote in Romans 8: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” He also wrote in 2 Corinthians 13: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
Jesus said “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.” John 14.
So what happened in church history about the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Augustine in Homily 6 on 1 John wrote around 430 AD:
“10. In the earliest times, the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spoke with tongues, which they had not learned, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:4 These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to show that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away. In the laying on of hands now, that persons may receive the Holy Ghost, do we look that they should speak with tongues? Or when we laid the hand on these infants, did each one of you look to see whether they would speak with tongues, and, when he saw that they did not speak with tongues, was any of you so wrong-minded as to say, These have not received the Holy Ghost; for, had they received, they would speak with tongues as was the case in those times?”
Augustine 430 AD
They have not ceased. They just are not given to those who are not Christ’s. As Romans explains. I have witnessed them, some first hand.
They have not ceased. Here is what I wrote about it in 2018, two decades after it occurred but while I still remembered it all clearly.
‘Have I received the Holy Spirit since I believed? Yes it happened to me in 1994 and 1995. I asked earnestly for the Holy Spirit in 1994 or sometime around that time and had a vision: a bucket of builders’ sand was emptied out in front of me and what was like subtitles said “Build the Temple”. I asked for confirmation to happen three times to prove this was the Holy Spirit. I went to a church service where all were allowed to take part. Three girls from Sunday School had written a song and they sang it: “Build build build the Temple; build build build the Temple; build build build the Temple”. A man with a guitar sang then spoke about King David being speechless when told his son would build the Temple. Then an older man spoke about building the Temple. I undetstood it meant to preach and use gifts of the Spirit to build up the church. Then I experienced the Father speaking to me in a dream then weeks later Jesus made Himself known to me out in a storm which He calmed. Then Jesus confirmed it was Him showing me He is my lord. Then some time after this a friend took me to a church I had never been to because he said I would witness the Holy Spirit there. A leader spoke a message in an angelic language so awesome and in my mind it turned into English saying: “Consider the trees how they put forth buds and leaves. They do so by the authority of the name of Lord Jesus Christ” and then the leader said those same words too in English. Weeks later I was in the bath and meditating like I often did in the stillness and the word of God came to me out of the blue “Israel has sinned” and told me a sign is the eagle with the white eye overhead. I watched the news and the sign was there twice: the beginning of police helicopter services in Bristol overhead with white searchlights and cameras - and American spyplanes. So vision then later the tongue interpretation then later the prophecy was all the manifestation of the receiving of the Holy Spirit God had lovingly given me. God is love.’
Did you not receive them? Are you Christ’s?
I later saw a copy of the Book of Enoch in a bookstore. I never saw it before. I started leafing through it and saw words exactly mirroring the words interpreted from the tongues. Clearly the Lord wants us to know this book is inspired. Believing this led me to so much truth I never knew before and no other human could tell me: no other human except Jesus who learns it from the Father, His Father.
“He will lead you into all truth”, said Jesus about the Holy Spirit.
