It's as if it was overlooked in Paul's (non-exhaustive) listings of spiritual gifts in
1 Cor 12. It missed a worthwhile mention in
Ephesians 4. But it's one of those supreme giftings in the church today. "Bro so-and-so can pray a fence post through." And then there he goes, laying hands on people turbo style while keeping tally ("number 5, he got it, number 5")!
I've yet to find a Scripture to show this special gifting to the church today -the exception being
Acts 8:
14When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into[c] the name of the Lord Jesus. 17Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Was this a special gifting that Simon wanted to purchase or are we jumping the gun and asking a question already deep into AssumptionVille? And what about the shoulder massages, tongues-encouraging (ironically, this passage is one of those that doesn't even mention tongues), jaw shaking, head rattling, screaming-in-the-ear tactic? The Apostles need a praying through class!
Was this normative? Or is this all in the flow of the Lukan account of His continued Gospel saying "when this thing broke out, everywhere we went, there was supernatural happening, the Spirit's affirming, declaring Jesus as the Way. Do we have a tendency to zone in on the supernatural, which was a following sign, and instead chase the supernatural?
Random thoughts for AFF this morning.
Threaded Mode
