I don't think enough christians think about the consequences of getting into spiritual gifts heavily, especially when they are mimicking the church of Corinth rather than learning from the church of Corinth's mistakes.
Hi Wattie, not sure what you mean about the consequences of getting into spiritual gifts heavily??
The consequence of doing this often leads to unstable mental health, because christians tend to 'force' it the gifts. So they will get themselves into a state of mind, get wound up or emotional to 'bring on' the manifestations.
If Christians do anything that is not something the Holy Spirit is leading them to do it will make their lives a misery. It has nothing to do with spiritual gifts but everything to do with emotionally lead people who may have a zeal without knowledge. Spiritual gifts are from God and all that God gives us is always good.
The fruit of the church of Corinth's abuse of the gifts was fornication and abuse of the Lord's Supper among other things.. are christians going to mimic that church, or learn from it?
If they read their Bibles and studied to show themselves approved unto God a workman that need not be ashamed and rightly divided the Word of Truth being Holy Spirit lead they certainly wouldn't.
Another thing that leads to unstable mental conditions for christians is putting your faith in miracles for everything. The miracle becomes the object.. rather than Jesus. What happens when the miracle doesn't occur
I believe we have to know what His promises are and by faith walk them out in our lives. The truth of God's Word and His promises are true and we can count on them. But our faith has to be IN the ONE who gave the promises.
Miracles are by definition, very rare. Faith should be in Jesus, not in something that happens very rarely and is for particular purposes.
Miracles are not rare, they are a daily happening for us if we open our eyes and dare to believe like the Holy Spirit keeps beckoning us to do. I have seen the Lord make a bag of dog food last for more days than it should have. Have had protection from sickness while everyone else i work with got terribly sick. My car keeps starting and my body keeps working. Those are only a tiny few, I could go on.
God keeps opening doors that were once closed. He opens doors and no one can shut them. He keeps graciously loving me and showing He is taking care of me because His Holy Spirit keeps leading to believe He will. That Holy Spirit KEEPS leading us to believe.
Before I got this revelation, I didn't know He literally meant THAT in His Word when it said to walk by faith and NOT by sight. It sounded to simple and hair brained like those wacky Christians I used to see running around praising Jesus all the time. Now I'm one of them and see why they are so joyful and happy. He really does and He really will. I refuse to allow my mind to believe He won't be true to His word. I can only do that by daily learning how to walk by faith. Committed to daily learning because the other way is no life at all.
Eg.. 'We are not going to get medication for my son's treatment.. we are relying on God for a miracle'..
This is a daily walk and each day we take a step at a time. Not taking your medicine is not wise. God gives us many ways of getting healed. Medicine is a gift and so are doctors. Taking a shower is important if you want to stay clean., changing your clothes is wise. We live in these bodies and God gives us abilities.
There also is a time when we realize that all these good things are from Him and we should take them happily and learn about His grace by taking from Him. And then keep stepping out in faith to dare to learn even more. No one can walk that out for us. No one, not even God will MAKE us take from His gracious hand.
We are to work out/walk out our own salvation in all seriousness knowing how much He loves us. He will meet our needs and take care of us just as He promises despite what circumstances or people say.
That's not sound faith.. it's in something that is in God's hands and He operates with miracles - especially of healing, very rarely.
You can disagree.. fine..
But remember it is Jesus who we trust in. A miracle isn't worshipped.. neither are gifts.