Read 1Corinthians 12.
Paul lists the gifts. Saying one has ___ gift given by the Spirit... another has ____ gift given by the Spirit...etc. After he lists all the gifts (tongues only being one, not given to all) he says:
vs 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
(as He, the Holy Spirit wills)! We don’t ask for the gifts. The Holy Spirit, not we ourselves, decides which gifts we get!
How sad that one group thinks we’re all supposed to speak in tongues and another group thinks No one is supposed to speak in tongues. It’s weird how people start forming churches around particular gifts. I’ve seen small group churches where all the emphasis was in Bible study (lots of teaching, knowledge gifts there) and others with emphasis on tongues and evangelism but scant teaching knowledge gifts. We need every part of the body and every gift in our churches.
Hands, feet, eyes... we need the whole body! Not everyone receives the gift of tongues. Not everyone receives the gift of teaching or helps or exhortation. But every believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit receives a gift or gifts.
The Last Days church will have a form of Godliness, but deny the power from on high.
If you go to a church and ask for prayer to heal, how will you get healed if the person praying has no gifts? A person with one gift has all the gifts because the Holy Spirit brought them with Him. But only one or two may manifest itself distributed by the Holy Spirit as He wills. But the fellow with none of them CANNOT work supernatural things without any of them. For thousands of years, the Holy Spirit might visit, but then leave. Those persons had no power to fight evil on the earth. Casting out demons was not done, EVER! Then the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2 and followers of Jesus could have this power to fight in the supernatural realm. The Holy Spirit is not an "It". He is fully God. He is God's muscle to get things done, especially in the Spirit world.
We can't see into the Spirit world without the Holy Spirit. This is why, RIGHT NOW, there are demonic spirits operating in America, but the majority can only see "gun control" and hate Trump. Almost NO ONE see's that since prayer was forbidden in school, we are raising a crop of ignorant murderers in public schools. Almost every measurable bad thing has gotten worse since the 70's. Abortion makes life cheap to a millennial. Killing Terri Schiavo was just the tip of the iceberg of murdering people without trial and conviction of capital crimes. There is NOTHING to stop the government from emptying nursing homes of people on feeding tubes now to save money. That is why it's so important to control your health care. When they control that, they control you. Satan is moving on America RIGHT NOW, to convince them that rape is good, some people need killing without trial, burglary is good if you don't have a job and need it, freedom of religion means everything but Christianity, freedom of speech means everything I agree with, Socialism good, capitalism bad, America is a racist country and was founded by racists. The list is long and getting longer but Scripture just calls it saying evil is good and good is evil.
Most of us watch the News, but are blind to the bigger picture. The Holy Spirit points these things out to people.
What would pass muster today,....Prayer in schools, or gun control? Gay marriage or teaching Scripture in school? Killing a baby born for a week, or banning all abortion and euthanasia? This is why people are against the death penalty, yet allow killers to get out of jail after a few years. We are allowing men to enter women's restrooms and don't see anything bad with that. Now, we can't even make up our minds if we have a girl or boy at birth.
Scripture says "Thinking themselves wise, they became fools". We accept the world is ending because "science" says we have 10 years to live. The list is endless, but without eyes to see and ears to hear, we are defenseless to Satanic attacks. Jesus was adamant about His Apostles having the Holy Spirit so they could have eyes to see and ears to hear. He "Breathed" on them so they could understand the Scriptures BEFORE Acts 2.
Question:....Is the church growing or shrinking with all the turmoil in the world? The Holy Spirit gives power to the Kingdom people to grow the church, but it is obviously shrinking. The lack of people with the Holy Spirit living in their tabernacle is the cause. Satan does what Satan does, but there are fewer and fewer to fight him. If we are sitting in our Lazy Boy waiting for Jesus to come back and defeat him, why are we claiming to be Kingdom citizens? We were elected into the Kingdom to build it and you can do NOTHING on your own. Without any authority and weapons, we are overtaken in an instant.
I would love to see Trump suggest that we bring prayer and Bible study back to public schools because we didn't kill one another back in the 50's and 60's, we left the keys in our cars, we left the doors unlocked at home, children chewed gum in class instead of bringing an AR 15 to class. Something has happened from the 70's till today. Any Christian with the Holy sight can see that God is being pushed out of America and the world. God has already written the results that are coming, but we somehow believe that we have a long time yet to go. Think about what will happen if guns are outlawed and government orders their removal. Think about what will happen if Trump is impeached for no reason. Think about what will happen if Antifa arms themselves and patrols the streets as they did in 1930's Germany. What would happen to the world if America falls to godless socialists?
We are at a sensitive time in world history and the Holy Spirit is our weapon. If you say you're saved and support the Democrat party, Satan has lied to you. The Holy Spirit would show you that anyone that would kill a child would have no problem killing you. But they don't have the Holy Spirit and are convinced they don't need Him.