Are The Gifts of the Spirit For Today?

“For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2:39

Peter uttered this statement about 2,000 years ago at the end of one of the greatest messages preached, seeing 3,000 souls that day yield to Christ and take him as their savior. But there was more. He was also talking about what happened to 120 disciples a little earlier that day. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4

These were filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. This is the same Holy Ghost that Christ spoke of in John 7:37-39. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” One must drink of the waters of eternal life like he told the woman at the well in John 4:13, “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” That is eternal life. But there’s more, the Holy Ghost as a river of water as mentioned in John 7:37-39.

Is it still for today. The answer is in the scripture quoted above. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2:39 We are still in this time as the Lord is still calling many out from the world to be saved and washed from the sin of this world.

Let’s look at another scripture. In 1 Corinthians 13:8 it says the following: “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” It says that tongues will one day cease. That’s true. So will knowledge.

You may say, “I know people who speak in tongues and live like the devil or that’s all they talk about. There’s more to that than tongues.” You are right on both accounts. There are people who live in sin and claim to speak in tongues. Jesus warned of this in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Notice here he doesn’t even mention tongues but other works of the spirit. This is happening today but that doesn’t make the promise invalid. It makes it more valid in that Jesus said there would be false teachers even doing works in the name of the Holy Ghost but that doesn’t make the real thing wrong.

Seek to be filled with the Spirit of God with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is not all, in fact it’s just the beginning. There is much more that needs to be written but I try to keep these short. I will also say that speaking in tongues is not something one just does to impress or even in church if there are unbelievers. Much more is written about this in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14. There is power in praying in the Holy Ghost. We need this power church!