Why is it important that we keep thinking about the gifts of the Spirit? There is another reason what I have called current interest and misunderstanding. The twentieth century saw a remarkable increase in interest in the gifts of the Spirit. It is largely due to the Pentecostal and the charismatic movements. In fact, the Greek word for a spiritual gift is charisma, and that is what charismatic means: it is the study of the experience of spiritual gifts. And as you may know the Christian world has been revolutionised. Millions of people have come into Pentecostal churches, and they are very interested in the question of spiritual gifts. This is something that people are interested in; they are talking, reading, and studying it. Our young people are meeting those who talk about spiritual gifts; they are interested in this matter.

The fact is that there is confusion, controversy, and uncertainty. Some gifts are being claimed today which we believe are not for this age. Some people are saying that gifts have come down which were the property of the apostles. Other gifts are being distorted, or misused. Sometimes it goes into the grotesque and the absurd.

John MacArthur writes of a wonderful testimony from a woman in Florida, who taught her dog to praise the Lord in an unknown bark. Now we say, Well, that is absolutely ridiculous! It is, but these are the ridiculous, absurd, almost blasphemous things that are being taught and said. Do you remember the episode of the Toronto Blessing? We were told that this was something that was happening permanently for the churches and that all the churches needed it. There were churches in the province where I live who said, This has happened to us. It is going to spread over all the churches. Do you remember the holy laughter? What do we hear of it now? These churches had the grace to say,  Well, we were wrong. We made a mistake. We said something that has proved not to be true.

Then at the other extreme there are people—some of them could be in our own churches—who are so put off by this that they have gone to the other extreme; they do not want to think about the gifts of the Spirit at all. They do not want to have anything to do with them. They regard them with suspicion and fear. They stay away from them. They have no time for them. They do not want to hear teaching on them. They disregard Paul’s advice who says, I do not want you to be ignorant. They are ignorant. So, because of all this controversy, there is a need for positive, scriptural, practical teaching.¹

Edward Donnelly