CHAPTER FIVE

The Greater Gifts

WE HAVE now to consider the remaining six "greater gifts" (Gk.) of 1 Cor. 12:31. But before doing so we may repeat that whatever difficulties may arise in the use of the Gifts of the Spirit, the solution is not to be found in jettisoning the gifts but in searching the Scriptures for guidance in the matter. It is folly in throwing away the bath water to lose the baby also! The theme of the addresses of the late John Wallace was that our beloved Assemblies of God are in grave danger of being unable to press through what he called the spiritual "sound barrier", which has hitherto prevented all Revival Movements from being used a second time for Revival.

       This is a problem of the first importance, for we shall, of course, find that those Assemblies which have no faith in, nor desire for, prophecy, which we are expressly told to covet, will find it impossible to expect to receive or manifest those greater gifts of the Spirit which we are about to consider. Yet all Pastors should scripturally (1 Cor. 12:31) be encouraging their members earnestly to covet just these greater manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and to be able to rely implicitly upon Our Lord's astonishing words in John 14:12, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also: and greater works than

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these shall he do, because I go unto My Father." For having so gone back to Heaven, the Lord was to receive the Holy Spirit and send Him to His Church. Even the Corinthian Church, which was so lacking in goodness that Paul hesitated to pay them a second visit, yet came behind in no Gift (1 Cor. 1:7), for it is faith not merit, which is the basis of our standing with God: if we can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 11:20-24). The difference between Pentecostal Assemblies and other Christian bodies lies, not in superior consecration—no one could hope to be more consecrated than the C.I.M. or W.E.C.—but in our ability to believe for the miraculous gifts of the Spirit; where this is lacking our advantages are gone and we may be, and often are, less successful in God's service than our brethren. But where these gifts are being manifested, as in the ministries of Branham, Osborn, Bhengu and many others, and in the Churches of the C.E.M., there the Gospel, being miraculously attested is far more readily received, and the powers of darkness more decisively defeated.

       Returning now to our consideration of the six remaining Gifts of the Spirit, we shall find that in all but one, i.e. Faith, there is a question of translation to be considered first. The R.V. corrects the A.V. in three instances, giving us Gifts of Healings, workings of miracles, and discernings of spirits. In other words, there is no such thing as the ability to heal or work miracles or discern spirits at will, but each healing, miracle, or discerning of a spirit is a separate gift according to the will of the Spirit. Then also the Greek says, not The Word of Wisdom or The Word of Knowledge but A Word

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of Wisdom and A Word of Knowledge. There is then, I think, no such spiritual gift as the ability to speak with wisdom or knowledge, when one will. This ability can come to any Christian, whether baptized in the Holy Ghost or not, and is the result of Bible Study and maturity in the Christian life. But "a word of wisdom" and "a word of knowledge", as mentioned in 1 Cor. 12, can only come to one who is baptized in the Holy Ghost, and does not spring from any natural ability, however developed, nor any exertion of the human will. They are expressions of the wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Ghost, not of the recipient, and are, like all the gifts, miraculous interpositions of the Lord to meet the needs of the moment.

       There lies behind the immediate advantages given by these Acts of the Spirit the great aim that those amongst whom these gifts are used may be led to say that "God is in you of a truth" and so accept the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 14:25). It is in itself a difficult thing to believe that someone of whom you know nothing at all is indeed the messenger of the Living God, with a message of eternal Life or Death in his mouth! God has, in fact, never desired this to take place, but has always wished to accredit His messenger's words by His own actions (Mark 16:15-20). Indeed, even His own Beloved Son (Luke 4:14) and His disciples (Matt. 10:8), as well as His apostolic Church (Acts 1:4-8) did not begin their ministry until their words could be accompanied by the Spirit's acts. From Moses (Exod. 4) to Paul (Acts 28:7-10) there is a continuous work of the Holy Spirit to enable men to

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receive the words of His messengers as the Words of the Living God, and this Age will end with the last struggle in Jerusalem between the lie spoken by the man of Sin, backed up by the power of Satan, and the Truth spoken by the two Witnesses and backed up by the power of God. The modern conception of a non-miraculous Christianity is simply a hangover from the unbelief of the Middle Ages. There is no such thing in either Old or New Testament. In both, God is "the Living God" who "hath done whatsoever He hath pleased" in contrast to the idols of the heathen who "neither speak nor see nor hear."

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