How Were Miraculous Gifts Given To Man?

Robert Meredith

    We live in a time when many are claiming to have miraculous gifts from God, or are making claims that God has spoken to them directly.  What does God’s Word say on this subject?  Are there miraculous gift’s today?  Let us turn to the pages of the Bible for our answers.

  In the first century gifts of the Holy Spirit were given to different individuals for the benefit of the Church.  The Apostle Paul penned, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit...But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will” (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).  These miraculous gifts were needed because God’s New Testament had to be given to man.  Both 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 and Ephesians 4:11-14 teach us that God gave these gifts for the purpose of revealing His Word to man, and that after His Will had been completely revealed, these gifts would cease.  The Holy Spirit, through both Jude and Peter, revealed that His Word had been revealed to man (Jude 3 and 2 Peter 1:3).  Therefore, the days of miracles have ended.

  Jesus promised the apostles that they would be guided into all truth.  He said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).  Also He told them, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).  In both of these passages, Jesus is speaking to the apostles, not the disciples in general.  The promise of the Holy Spirit’s power was made to the apostles.  The Christ told them to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endued with power (Luke 24:49 & Acts 1:8).  Acts 2 records the fulfillment of this outpouring.

  The apostles received the baptism of the Holy Spirit as promised in Matthew 3:11, and were able to pass miraculous gifts to other individuals.  When the gospel was taken to the city of Samaria, two of the apostles, Peter and John, were sent there by the other apostles so that the gifts of the Holy Spirit might be given to them.  In Acts 8:17 one reads, “Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”  The next verse plainly state that “through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given” (Acts 8:18).  It was only through the laying on of the apostles’ hands that these miraculous gifts could be passed on to other people.

  Since God’s Word has been completely revealed, and there are no living apostles today, one can rightly conclude that those who claim to have such gifts are greatly deceived or are great deceivers.  Let us be ever thankful that God has given unto us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), and that when we read we can understand God’s Will for us (Ephesians 3:4).