An important gift for the protection of the church is that of discernment. We live in a day and age when this gift is more important than ever. All Christians should judge carefully what they hear and read and “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (I John 4:1). Yet more and more the church is displaying a lack of discernment. Some ideas that are given as scriptural and that on the surface seem scriptural actually are clever counterfeits that would deceive most believers. The gift is especially valuable in the church because of this. Discernment is not the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong, it is the ability to see the difference between almost right and right! When Christianity is persecuted, counterfeit teach3ers usually are scarce, because the price for being identified with the gospel is too high, they are much more likely to appear in times and in places where Christianity is considered respectable or at least is tolerated. God gives some insight to expose imitations and deceptions that most Christians would take as genuine. Today, we live in a world that tolerates all teaching, it is … READ MORE

Like its Hebrew equivalent (naba), the Greek verb behind prophecy (propheteuw) simply means, “to speak forth, or to proclaim.” The connotation of prediction was added sometime in the middle ages, and although many of the prophets of old made predictions, that was not their basic ministry. God revealed a great deal of His word through the prophets, but much of their ministry was simply proclaiming, expounding, and exhorting with revelation already given. A prophet of God, therefore, is simply one who speaks froth God’s Word, and prophecy is the proclaiming of that Word. The gift of prophecy is the Spirit-given and Spirit empowered ability to proclaim the Word of God effectively. Believers today with the gift of prophecy are empowered to speak forth not according to their personal subjective faith but according to God’s already revealed objective Word of God. Prophecy can never deviate from the Word of God as it is written, in the Bible as he gift of prophecy is the Spirit’s special enablement of a Christians to testify of Jesus Christ. What is the value of this gift to the Church? Paul will record in 1 Corinthians 14, that prophecy is important to the church, because it … READ MORE

God often leads us, helps, us or warns us by working through other Christians, through ordinary circumstances or through natural laws. but a miracle is an act of God that is contrary to the ordinary working and laws of nature, an act that only He could accomplish by overruling nature an that could not otherwise occur through any circumstances. During the days of early church, God used this gift to validate the message that was being preached. Even Jesus, only used his miracles to validate his message, and to demonstrate that the words He spoke were from God. Jesus nor his apostle ever preformed miracles to draw attention to themselves,, many times they told those who received those miracles not to tell anyone what had happened. Today, those who claim to have the power of miracles advance that their power is determined by our faith. Our faith in never in the power of the Word of God to transform our hearts and minds, but our faith is to be in the “healers” ability to do the work that they claim to do. As a result the “failure” of the healing, is on the recipient not the giver. B.B. Warfield wrote, … READ MORE