The Baby

A very common saying is " throwing the baby a way with the bath water. This came to my mind when I was reading a religious magazine article about excesses of the charismatic renewal. For the most part I agreed with the writer about the strange and unbiblical teachings that developed since the beginning of the charismatic renewal. It caused many believers to desire and experience many strange manifestations of the so called presence of God. A prime example was the the Laughing revival in Toronto. However when the writer declared that the absence of reference to the day of Pentecost after Acts 2 in the New Testament was an indication that God did not want us to experience any manifestations I did feel that many so called good evangelical Christians are throwing the baby away with the dirty bath water. The baby in this case are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The result is a great lack of Spiritual power in the Christian Church mission. It is a proven fact today that those people who are experiencing and practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit have far more result from their mission work than those who are negative about the charismatic renewal. This is not so strange , considering the statement of Jesus in His last words of Acts 1:8." you shall receive power". All the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit which are listed in 1Cor.12
are manifestations given by God to help us to be more spiritual and stronger Christians. It causes us to have more impact on the unbelieving world. Including the much maligned gift of tongues..
To look at this another way, We all realize that Prayer is absolute necessary for our spiritual well being,which is required for being a good witness. Well , the Bible declares that we actually do not know how to pray but that the Holy Spirit can make intercession for us in our prayers . Crying Abbah Father with sounds we cannot produce.The divine gift of Healing's also can have a powerful effect on the unbelieving world.
We should never forget that our Father God wants us to eagerly desire spiritual gifts.[1Cor.14:1] I hope to you all are just eagerly doing that!
Johannes G Weiss