SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN A NUTSHELL

Just as there are FEW who are truly born again today, so there are very FEW who truly understand spiritual gifts today. Moreover, it is no more possible for an unregenerate man to understand spiritual gifts than it is for an unregenerate man to say that Jesus is Lord.

Wait a minute... Haven't reams upon reams of men not only parroted the phrase, "Jesus is Lord", but likewise have professed a sincere and seemingly abiding faith in same, even though they ultimately ended up in Tophet?

That's what I'm talking about. The unregenerate cannot possibly understand this, yet it's true. Indeed, the ONLY man in the world that can say "Jesus is Lord" is the man who is TRULY born again. There are no exceptions. Hear it again -- the ONLY man in the world that can say "Jesus is Lord" is the man who has had an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL MIRACULOUS EXPERIENCE in the Holy Spirit wherein Jesus Christ has PERSONALLY INTRODUCED HIMSELF in the UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the NEW BIRTH.

That is no more hyperbole than is Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead.

The ONLY man on this planet who can say "Jesus is the Lord" is the man who is GENUINELY born again by the SAME Holy Spirit who GIVES him an array of spiritual gifts upon the MOMENT of his regeneration, and there is not a GENUINELY born again Christian on this planet who would deny that. Not one. Not ever.

Nor is it metaphor or any other literary device that Paul employed when he stated that the ONLY man who can say "Jesus is the Lord" is the man who is GENUINELY born again. He who is not GENUINELY born again CANNOT SAY that Jesus is Lord. Such a feat is UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE. Utterly. Of course, just see how long it takes some shallow, ignorant fellow to parrot those very words and then think he has defeated Paul's assertion with a big, hearty "gotcha". That man's folly is immediately transparent, while the folly of others must be exposed, as will be shortly seen.

In the meantime this visceral truth stands, now and until every knee bows, to wit -- he who is not GENUINELY born again CANNOT SAY that Jesus is Lord, and Jesus Christ HIMSELF will bear witness to that truth in the day of Jesus Christ. Wait and see.

Already those of the flesh have no clue of what I'm talking about, anymore than they have a clue as to what Paul meant when he stated the exact same thing. The unregenerate are utterly clueless about this and every other genuine spiritual matter. Absolutely, utterly clueless, for they themselves have never EXPERIENCED the very RESURRECTION POWER of Jesus Christ in the SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the NEW BIRTH, and thus correspondingly they've never been given the POWER to truly say that Jesus Christ is Lord -- I say, they've never been given the POWER to say that Jesus Christ is the Lord, which EVERY MAN who is GENUINELY born again has been given, and has received upon the MOMENT of his new birth, and who can thus PRODUCE THE BIRTHRIGHT, unlike the unregenerate, who cannot now PRODUCE THE BIRTHRIGHT, and who will be SPEECHLESS when they stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ to be condemned thereby. [Matthew 22:12]

That's why the unregenerates among us assert that the spiritual gifts have ceased, and that's also why on the other side of the coin the other unregenerates among us attempt to mimic spiritual gifts by spouting gibberish with their tongues and by howling like monkeys and other beasts, and by conning the feeble-minded and the unstable out of their money with fake miracles of healing and prosperity.

In fact, BOTH sides are mired in a CESSPOOL OF UNREGENERACY. Neither has the slightest clue about spiritual gifts. None. None whatsoever.

And the fact is, he who does not possess at least ONE of the spiritual gifts enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12 is he who is INFALLIBLY UNREGENERATE. There are NO exceptions. None whatsoever.

Actually, I've never met or encountered a truly born again Christian who possessed only ONE of the spiritual gifts enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12; rather, EVERY genuinely born again Christian that I know of has possessed SEVERAL of the gifts enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12, and he who cannot testify to at LEAST ONE of those gifts is yet again deluding himself if he thinks he's born again. That's why Paul stated that the Holy Spirit gives such gifts to EVERY MAN to profit withal. EVERY MAN... Why? To profit withal. And he who is GENUINELY born again knows without vacillation that Paul spake true, and he knows it two ways -- one by the Word of God, as written above, and two by the EXPERIENCE of the WASHING OF REGENERATION and RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST. [Titus 3:5]

There are no exceptions. None at all. In fact, not only does a truly regenerate ten year-old possess one or more of the spiritual gifts enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12, but he likewise has more knowledge of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of heaven than all the unregenerate preachers and Bible scholars on this planet combined. And once again, that is not hyperbole, or metaphor, or what-have-you. That is PURE TRUTH, and that pure truth will stand without an IOTA of rebuke or modification in the day of Jesus Christ. Wait and see.

The cessationists and the so-called Pentecostals and Charismatics are both FLAGRANTLY SUPERSTITIOUS, just like the Athenians in Paul's day [Acts 17:22], only on different sides of the coin, and in different manifestations.

The cessationists must commit two great blunders in order to maintain their superstition -- ONE, they must completely WREST and EXCISE numerous passages of Scripture, and TWO, they must DENY the UNMISTAKABLE MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the New Birth, which is to say, they must deny the FACT that "the MANIFESTATION of the Spirit is given to EVERY MAN to profit withal."

But guess what? The so-called Pentecostals and Charismatics must do the exact same things in order to maintain THEIR superstition as well. The only difference is the fact that the so-called Pentecostals and Charismatics must WREST and EXCISE a whole DIFFERENT set of Scriptures, in addition to denying the UNMISTAKABLE MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the New Birth, but on a different plane. You see, the so-called Pentecostals and Charismatics insert both human and demonic practices into their methodologies, thus attaching a very sensual and devilish spirit to all of their endeavors, whereas the cessationists in their practice deny the supernatural altogether, though most of them of would not come right out and admit it, even though that is the de facto result of their unregenerate doctrine and practice.

In fact, even though the modern so-called "tongues" movement is almost wholly flesh-driven and devil-driven, nevertheless, God the Holy Spirit is still as free to exercise the very least of the gifts, the gift of tongues, today, just as he did two thousand years ago at Pentecost, and there is no doubt that he has actually done so from time to time throughout history, yet only very rarely, and certainly not as is exhibited by the so-called Pentecostals and Charismatics in their circuses these days. Not even remotely.

The simple truth is -- the SCRIPTURAL truth is -- and as all who are genuinely born again know by EXPERIENCE according to the Scripture, the Holy Spirit exercises the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 just as actively and just as often as he pleases in all whom he truly indwells today, just as he did in the earliest days of Christianity. Of course, the Holy Spirit is under no constraint to operate with the same ubiquity or the same perspicuity as he has in the past, or may do in the future, though he certainly can if he so chooses, but the fact is, he DOES still operate with the same gifts as he always has, "dividing to every man severally as he will", exactly as it is written. [1 Corinthians 12:11]

And EVERY soul who is born of the Spirit knows this, and knows it INFALLIBLY, for he is a recipient of at LEAST one of those gifts, and almost certainly MORE than one. Never let anyone seduce you into thinking that whole passages of Scripture can be safely ignored, that whole passages of Scripture no longer pertain to us today. Such doctrine comes straight from Satan, and he who propounds such doctrine is the mouthpiece of Satan. Wait and see.

I say, wait and see, for such a man will be withered at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ when he is called to give an account of himself. Such a man will have no explanation when Jesus Christ calls him to account for why he brought the Scriptures down to his level of experience instead of supplicating Jesus Christ to bring his experience up to the level of Scripture. And such a man will rue the day he was born, for the Holy Spirit does not teach those he indwells so, and "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his", as it is written. Wait and see. [Romans 8:9]

What spiritual gifts of those enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12 has the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord [2 Corinthians 3:17], been pleased to exercise through you? If and when you were born again -- GENUINELY born again -- the Holy Spirit not only indwelt you, but likewise began to exercise his gifts in you as he caused you to grow and bear fruit.

Genuine spiritual gifts are not worked up. In the truly regenerate, genuine spiritual gifts come more naturally than breathing air. If that isn't your EXPERIENCE, If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to be born again.

Would you be born again? GENUINELY born again?