Charismatic Creeper

Yesterday I spent most of my day searching out scriptures because I read something that I was puzzled by. I'm still working on it but I wanted to catch you up on the second chapter of the book.

It talks about the Charismatic Renewal. It's the fastest growing religious movement since New Testament days, according to Lester Sumrall. This movement is not distinguishing between race, sex, denomination, or doctrine. It's something where people are coming together equally eager to receive truth about the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

I presented my glorious facebook people.... basically only a few people... with a question yesterday. Do you think the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still relevant today? If so, is it all or just some? Everyone who commented said yes and all. These people, to my knowledge, are Charismatic Christians. Over and over the book states that we don't argue with people about their denomination or doctrine. 

I asked another friend of mine how I would go about talking to someone about the gifts of the Holy Spirit if they didn't believe that they were a part of ministry today. She came back with a great analogy. If someone were to misuse a vehicle/pain medication etc would it effect your ability to use them? Just because they don't use them, or they don't know how to use them correctly, doesn't mean that it is effecting the way you use them. If someone has their license taken away, you still drive your car. If someone attempts to take 37 advil, that doesn't mean you stop using them. 

It is a very unspoken subject, I've experienced, in churches I've been to. The book covers a few fruits of the Charismatic blessing. Love of God's word, Stewardship, Facing up to sin, evangelical compassion, reaching out to others, joy and happiness, and physical healing. A lot of people want to argue that the Holy Spirit today couldn't do what it was doing in the day of Pentecost. But why? Is God different today then He was 2000 years ago? I'm sure those who want to say that the gifts of the Spirit are irrelevant are people who have seen them used incorrectly. 

This is one of those subjects where you have to agree to disagree with people. If people are not open to the gifts of the Spirit, I wouldn't want to push it upon them. Only because it may push them further away. Like the book covers, we are not to argue with doctrine or with denomination.  The two foundation stones of the Spiritual Gifts is Love and Unity. Paul talks about Unity in 1 Corinthians. So, if you believe that the gifts are important, great. If you don't, great. I'm not going to argue the point one way or another because I'm not going to drive a steak between Christians.