What I don't get here is why the death grip on speaking in tongues and other signs and wonders?
Is it that some people need *proof* that God is working in their lives? Proof that God filled them? Can't they tell any other way?
When I got filled with the Holy Spirit, I KNEW it was of God. It was way too powerful an experience. I didn't and still don't need to speak in tongues to validate the experience. If someone needs a sign like that to tell them that God did something in their lives, then it wasn't God.
It's like being given a brick of gold boxed up in a shoebox and all I focus on is this cool shoe box I got to prove that I got the gold.
Do some people need this as assurance that they're saved or have been filled? Is the recognition that tongues can be faked that much of a threat to them that they can't acknowledge it to be a possibility because then they have nothing to point to for their security?
I can see the point of signs to validate the message of the gospel to unbelievers, but for believers who are already supposed to have faith, what's the point of the sign? Can't they see when God's working without it?
Interestingly, I came across another list of gifts that Paul lists and I don't recall EVER seeing any charismatic or pentecostal seeking after THESE gifts....
Romans 12:1-8 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
And with these gifts, there's no mention of them passing away when perfection comes.
Yeah, but, then the passing collection plate may not get as full as fast with THOSE gifts among the congregation as with the fancy, wowy, showy ones. ;o)