Tongues & Prophetic Words: Are Miraculous Gifts still for Christians? (1 Cor 13)

In 1 Corinthians 13:8, love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. All right, so people are here saying, all right, look, these spiritual gifts, prophecy, tongues, and words of knowledge, they will pass. For we know in part, we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When. When I was a child, I spoke to a child. I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part. Then I will know fully, even as I've been fully known. Okay, so we all agree, I think, that prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge, all the spiritual gifts, even the gift of healing is going to pass away one day. They are going to pass away. The big question is when. Cessationists believe they've already passed away with the death of the apostles.

They have defined the perfect as being the Bible, the canonized scripture as we have it. So the moment the canon was closed, yes, the perfect has come. All the spiritual gifts have ceased because we no longer need them. We have Scripture.

So the question is, what is the perfect? What is the perfect? That's been spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. Now it actually tells us. I mean, it really does, because it's. It says, for now, this is presently right? We see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. That's true. He's speaking about encountering the presence of God face to face. Goes on. He says, now I know in part that is true. Yes, we know now in part. Then I will know fully, even as I've been fully known. So he establishes the then and now. He says, then I'm gonna seek God face to face. I'm gonna know him as I've been fully known, and. But for now, I don't. I don't see him face to face. And I only know in part that's why we need spiritual gifts. The reason that we need the gift of healing is because not everyone is healed, because they haven't been face to face with him. Because everyone who's face to face with them is healed. We need the gift, the gift of word of knowledge. Because now we only know in part. We only know of him in part. We only know of what he's doing in part, right? But when we're face to face, there's no word of knowledge.

Needed because everyone knows exactly when face to face. That is, in a sense, when we are in his presence, in eternity, when we are dwelling with him, when we are face to face, when all is fully known, when we're no longer looking through a glass dimly, because we are here on earth in our finite human little place, but we are with our king. When we are face to face, we will no longer need the gift of prophecy because we have our king right there. We will no longer need the gift of healing because we will be healed. Like you have said, we will no longer need the gift of tongues to preach the gospel to someone in another language or to even praise the Father in this other language, in the language we don't understand, because now we do understand. We are in his presence. And everyone who is in his presence knows him absolutely.

So the perfect as is used by cessationists that to say that it is the Bible, right? Never does 1 Corinthians 13 state it is when the canon is established and called the Bible. It says specifically, it is about being face to face. And it is about being and knowing God fully, as we've been fully known. When that happens, the spiritual gifts will cease because there's no more need for them. Hallelujah. There's no more need for them. That would be a good thing.

Amen.

Because we have something truly that is greater here. As for now, by the way, let's just end with this. The Word of God is important. The Word of God helps us discern. The Word of God is holy.

It is the standard.

Absolutely. It's how we, how we test all things. But it does not replace the need for spiritual gifts. Yeshua had the Word of God in him. He was the walking Word of God. And he still had spiritual gifts. He still had healing flow out of Him. Words of knowledge flow out of Him. Prophecy flow out of Him.

Exactly. Spirit and truth are not at odds with each other. They work hand in hand. Yeshua spoke about that in John chapter 4. Those who worship the Father will worship in spirit and in truth, walking in the power, the authority, the fruits, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the Holy Spirit, listening to the teachings of the Holy Spirit, which always bring us back to the Word because they go hand in hand with which we know. Scripture says, thy Word is truth.

Right. So God speaks to us through His Word. He speaks to us through the life of Christ. He speaks to us through prophecy and tells us through Paul to not despise prophecy. Paul also says, I speak in tongues more than all of you as an encouragement to the Church of Corinth to also speak in tongues. Paul obviously is also walking in the gift of healing, as do the others.

Exactly.

Philip was into Samaria and in that place he started causing on demons and healing the sick. That was a breakthrough for the Gospel.

Exactly. And Philip's daughters were the those who prophesied even though their words are not in Scripture. So there can be those who are prophesying and yet their words are not considered scripture because they're not in Scripture. That we see that in Scripture. Those who prophesied during the time of Moses and people are coming up to him saying, moses, tell him to stop prophesying. And Moses is like, I wish that all of God's people would prophesy. Moses himself longed for this day with the giving of the Holy Spirit poured out like as we see in Acts 2, this inauguration of the harvest that we get to take part in it. The same Holy Spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead dwells within us. And yet many of us quench that.

Yeah. And what Christina is saying is that just because someone gives a prophecy doesn't mean that that prophecy was meant to be canonized as scripture and distributed as scripture. There's many examples. Philip's daughters, the prophetess is there and the prophets, the time Moses there that Christina mentioned, these are examples. And there's more Agabus prophet Agabus in the New Testament. Just because God gives someone a word doesn't mean it's scripture. And so the this is the confusion is people think if God's prophesied through someone, that must be Scripture. And if we're not calling that scripture, then the gift must have ceased because we now have the full Scripture here. And we don't need therefore the gift of prophecy anymore because Scripture has fully been made known and completed. Right?

Right.

Right.

Or they think that the fact that if God is able to speak today, that somehow nullifies or belittles Scripture itself, that we don't need God to speak because we have the Scripture and we start to despise or raising the questions prophecies we have heard of and seen. Sadly, people have given false prophecies. There are those who perpetuate stuff like this and it's. It's a mess, it's wrong. But the issue is that for every authentic, there is a counterfeit. We know that Satan the enemy has created counterfeit religions, counterfeit gospels, counterfeit ways to heaven. Right. Of course there's going to be a counterfeit prophecy. Everything that's good, the Enemy tries to tarnish and twist and warp, to bring others and to lead people astray, Right? Where there was a. There was a tree of knowledge of good and evil, there's a tree of life in this. And the enemy, right, he tries to rope us in, to listen to his words that God really say to make us doubt God. But again, coming back to for every authentic, there is a counterfeit. And we need to have that discernment with what the scripture itself speaks absolutely.

And concluding with this, what is the goal of the counterfeit? It's always to confuse and actually lead you away from what is the authentic, to confuse you, to be like, I don't even know what's true anymore. I'm just gonna like, stay away from everything that sounds, feel spiritual or. And that's what the world's fallen into. And many believers have fallen into that with spiritual gifts, saying, well, that stuff is weird. The I've was hurt. I saw this, I saw that it was done improperly. Therefore, I don't want anything to do with that. No, the authentic is determined by the word of God and the word of God alone, not your experiences, not by what seems right to man, by what the scripture clearly describes is here today. So today we see in part, we know in part. And that's why we need prophecy. That's why we need a word of knowledge. That's why we need the gift of healing. And yeah, if I pick up the phone and call the ancient church, early church of Ephesus, even after the death of John, they're going to be like, hey, come on out, let's pray for you.

And if you look at the writings of certain church fathers and other believers, they spoke about how these gifts were still happening. You look at the writing of Augustine, and he spoke about how people were still getting healed, resurrected and resurrected from the dead. This had not ceased, as many have taught wrongly. And I'll just end with this verse, 2nd Timothy 3, 16, 17. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So let us pay heed when Scripture speaks about these things, including spiritual gifts. Walking as Jesus walked, as Yeshua walked in the authority and the love and the fruits and the power of the Holy Spirit. Because that is is to honor the Word that he has given and entrusted to us.

Amen. Guys, thank you so much for joining us with this one. Subscribe we have more teachings on this. Check out our video called testing cessationism when we go verse by verse testing all the ideas of cessationism to see if there's any merit in it. But like this video comment, let us know your thoughts and we can't wait to see in the next one. Shalom Shalom.

Sa.