Additionally, just because some gifts may no longer be given (i.e., Apostles, Prophets) to the Church, it doesn't mean we are "gift-less". That would be an error. Perhaps the PURPOSE for a specific gift has passed. Is God not allowed to do that?
Good question. The Old Covenant died the moment the Curtain was torn supernaturally by God when Jesus died on the Cross on Calvary.
So the manner in which believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped, (i.e. ritual in the Temple) died once that Curtain was torn in half.
The curtain was where God’s spirit dwelled.
John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets. They preached in this same dispensation of Temple sacrifice, they were, in effect the “Holy Spirit” to people and mostly to the Jews.
And most importantly, these Old Testament prophets, including David and Moses WROTE THE WORD OF GOD.
No one now, in this church age, can have the same position as the Old Testament Prophets who wrote the Word!
NO one now can try to go back and be an old Testament prophet, because we have now a better gift. The gift of the Holy Spirit.
In same manner, no one alive now can pretend to be on par with the New Testament Apostles. They also lived under a different dispensation as we do. They lived during the transition time of Christ’s earthly ministry on earth.
They were eyewitnesses to Christ’s time on earth. And no one today can call themselves an Apostle on par with them because they were first hand witnesses to Christ and THEY WROTE THE WORD OF GOD.
No one today can take away their positions, or inhabit the positions of the Apostles. They sit in a special place in heaven, reserved for them alone.
They lived under a different dispensation than we do, in terms of function and position.
We are under the dispensation of Pentecost, which came after Jesus ascended to Heaven, and indeed, THIS WAS THE REASON Jesus said “I must go to the Father” and instructed His disciples to wait (with His mom) in the upper room... so this better thing, the outpouring of His spirit would be given to all who ask.
So we must guard against abuses of these Pentecostal gifts. Prophecy now can never contradict the Word, but only uphold it and encourage faith. And we are never to give a personal prophetic word more weight than the Word in our minds.
This is why Paul says “prophecies will fail” but Jesus says “heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word is Eternal”.
So far as miraculosity is concerned, what I have seen is that patience and Providential timing of an ordinary ability outclasses an only superhumanly possible effort at the wrong time and in the wrong way. God has literally saved me even from death by such truly miraculous occurrences. Before I was saved, I did not recognize them. Now I do. But there is one thing no one escapes. I am 81, and my physical body is going to stop operating. It's past time to get used to that point of no return. There is no "spiritual gift" that will supersede it. Period. Everyone needs to confront that, squarely.