PneumaReview.com invites you to interact with this academic paper by Pastor Adeboye Godwin.

Abstract

Today it is most difficult to teach or write about the Holy Spirit. This is because there are several arguments, different teachings, various thoughts, different beliefs and divisions arising from the teaching on the Holy Spirit. The aspect of doctrine of Holy Spirit which has been the most controversial is the case for Spiritual Gifts. Spiritual Gifts is given to unite Christians, but it has been the major cause of conflict and ecclesiastical disunity.[1] There are two Greek words generally used to describe spiritual gifts. The first is pneumatikos, meaning “Spiritual things or things pertaining to the Spirit.” This word emphasizes the spiritual nature and origin of spiritual gifts. The other words often used to identify spiritual gifts is charisma, meaning “grace gift.” The word charisma (pl. charismata) emphasizes that a spiritual gift is a gift of God’s grace: it is not a naturally developed ability but rather a gift bestowed on a believer for God’s service (1 Cor. 12:1-7). The interpretation and discussion of the charismata have varied from the various extremes.

Pastor Adeboye Godwin

This research is purposeful. It is to remedy the misconceptions on the possession and exercise of spiritual gift in the community of believers. Nowadays, there appears to be much emphasis on the Holy Spirit, and charismata are gaining more prominence than ever before, it is expedient that Christians be taught the purpose and the appropriate use of charismata. The subject of spiritual gifts has aroused unprecedented interest in every religious circles. With almost universal appeal, the tide of charismatic theology has cut across all theological barriers and ecclesiastical institutions. This works reveals that the spiritual gifts are not given to engender pride, hierarchy and disunity in the church but for the purpose of building up the church and also that charismata are not end themselves but a means to an end, and that end is oikodomen (Building up of the body of Christ)

Introduction

The singular issue that has most divided the body of Christ today is the lopsided orientation about the proper usage and purpose of the Spiritual Gifts. The use of spiritual gifts can mar or make the church. Any casual survey of Christian bookstore and libraries will show that the subject of the Spiritual gifts is a “hot item nowadays.”[2] For the fact that 21st century christian ministry is pneumacentric (full of and centered around the manifestation of Holy Spirit) has made the issue of the Holy Spirit to be in the forefront. Over the last decades the volume of the books written on the Holy Spirit have sprang in to a large proportion. Peter Wagner’s prefatorial words affirms this current trends. He says “I need to make a good case for adding another book to the already too-long list of book on spiritual gifts.”[3] This shows that a lot has been said about the concept of Holy Spirit. Also, the Wagner’s assertion reflects that the most pneumatological concepts that has been widely discussed and demonstrated is the “Charismata.”  Some of the questions that have been raised and misunderstood are: “what are the biblical methodology for the usage of charismata? what is the intention of God in giving out the charisma to some individuals? how can these charismata be appropriately utilized in the body of Christ? Should the charismata be theocentric or anthropocentric? How can egocentric notions be removed from the usage of charismata? and which of the charismata should be given the highest preeminence in christian body? Answers to these questions are important to how united the church will be. And how united the church is will affect the extent the church will go on the Great Commission.

We can assume that, at the time Paul wrote, the New Testament church had a clear understanding of what these offices required, how they operated and who filled them. However, with the passing of time, the role and operation of these ministries in the everyday life of the church became less clear.

Thus, for centuries, the offices of pastor and teacher have been familiar ministries in all churches. However, only since the middle of the nineteenth century, with the success of Charles Finney and other “professional” evangelists of that day, has the office of evangelist gained a popular understanding and acceptance.

The offices of apostle and prophet have been more elusive for modern Christians. Many have accepted a belief developed throughout the centuries that the age of the apostles and prophets ended around 96 AD, about the time John, the last apostle, died. Another belief, first stated by St. Augustine (and later retracted), has been widely accepted along with this. It holds that, with the completion of the canon of Scripture, the Lord withdrew miraculous gifts of the Spirit such as tongues, prophecy and healing.

Over time, as the bishops consolidated their power in the church, the office of apostle was almost forgotten. By the second century, apostles and prophets were seen as nothing more than traveling medicine men with little or no influence or authority. In the Didache (11:3) the following rules were laid down for itinerant “apostles and prophets”: “Now, as regards apostles and prophets, act strictly according to the precept of the Gospel. Upon his arrival every apostle must be welcomed as the Lord; but he must not stay except one day. In case of necessity, however, he may stay the next day also; but if he stays three days, he is a false prophet. At his departure the apostle must receive nothing except food to last till the next night’s lodging; but if he asks for money, he is a false prophet.”

Although the accuracy of teaching is preeminent when judging the quality of a book, credit must be given for its tone when appropriate. From page one of Hull’s work, the reader is struck with the author’s sincerity, transparency, his passion for people, his drivenness for all that God has for him, and his willingness to risk all for his perception of the will of God in relation to the charismata.

This book comes from the heart of a pastor. More specifically, from the heart of a pastor who is trying to transition parishioners of a cessationist mindset into the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit. There is a generous mix of true-life anecdotes and biblical teaching. Some anecdotes leave you laughing or celebrating, others leave you in tears. At times his language is plain, but poignant: “If you lay your heart on the altar, someone will come and jump up and down on it” (p. 172).

Aside from Hull’s firm belief in the continuation of spiritual gifts in today’s church, even miraculous ones, perhaps his greatest contributions are in the chapters on healing and on hearing God’s voice, in which are packed practical guidelines that encourage faith while acknowledging God’s sovereignty.

It is, however, with reservations that I recommend Straight Talk to Pentecostals. With characteristic frankness, Hull admits that “I have had a prayer language for more than thirty years, but I am still not 100 percent sure it is God or my own flesh” (p. 118). More important, Hull holds an unbiblical view of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which he views as conversion (p. 116). Although he decries cessationist thinking as “inbred” and based more on “custom” than “study,” he is himself a Lukan cessationist when it comes to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, stating that the Pentecostal interpretation of Spirit-baptism is “impossible” (p. 111).

He bases his interpretation of the six occurrences of Spirit-baptism in Matthew, Mark, and Luke-Acts on the one occurrence in Paul (1 Corinthians 12:13), arguing that Paul’s usage is more weighty because it was seventh and last and twenty years removed from the “fluidity of the first years when they [the first Christians] were all trying to figure out the role of the Holy Spirit” (p. 114). One problem with this is that 1 Corinthians 12:13 appears to be the believer’s baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (a sensible and universal experience of all Christians), not the believer’s baptism in the Holy Spirit by the Heavenly Jesus that imparts a prophetic empowerment for service (a likewise sensible though not universal Christian experience; cf. R. Menzies’ Empowered for Witness). Hull shows no appreciation for the diversity of the NT writers and no appreciation for Luke’s uses of “filling” synonyms, which occur over 50 times in Acts alone. Neither does he show any appreciation for the probability that Luke, as a close companion of Paul and as someone who held Paul in high regard as a great man of God, is applying his considerable training in the Greco-Roman narrative style of historiography to clarify Paul’s epistolary writings for Christians thirty years removed from Paul. Instead, Lukan cessationist like Hull have effectively silenced Luke’s majority usage of “baptized” (3x) and “filled” (9x) in favor of Paul’s single usage of each term (1x[?]/1x). This use of Paul to parse Luke is a practice left over from cessationist Protestantism, and a hearty adieu by biblical exegetes is long overdue. (For more thorough discussion, see Roger Stronstad’s Spirit, Scripture and Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective and The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke).

 The Praying in the Spirit Series. 

Robert Graves making a presentation at the 2014 meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.

Robert W. Graves wrote Praying in the Spirit (Chosen Books) in 1987, when it received great reviews from a number of Pentecostal/charismatic scholars and leaders including John Sherrill, Dr. Vinson Synan, Dr. Gordon Fee, Dr. William Menzies, Dr. Howard Ervin, Dr. Walter Martin, and Dr. Stanley Horton. It is the great privilege of the Pneuma Review to republish it here.

What They’re Saying Now: Some Non-Charismatics Reevaluate Tongues (Winter 1999)
What They’re Saying Now: Some Non-Charismatics Reevaluate Tongues

Some Marvelous Effects of Praying in the Spirit (Spring 1999)
Some Marvelous Effects of Praying in the Spirit

Focus of the Charismatic Experience: Tongues, the Holy Spirit, or Christ? (Summer 1999)
Focus of the Charismatic Experience: Tongues, the Holy Spirit, or Christ?

Just What Is the Nature of the Prayer Language? (Fall 1999)
Just What Is the Nature of the Prayer Language?

Better Than I Was, Not Better Than You Are (Winter 2000)
Better Than I Was, Not Better Than You Are

Part 1 of: That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Spring 2000)
That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Part 1)

Part 2 of: That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Summer 2000)
That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Part 2)

Figure 1 from: That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Summer 2000)
Consensus on First Corinthians 13 by Non-Pentecostal Scholars

Figure 2 from: That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Summer 2000)
Proposed Dates of Charismata Cessation

Figure 3 from: That Glorious Day When Tongues are Not Needed: Until Then … (Summer 2000)
Charismata in Post-Apostolic Church

Editor Introduction: How the Prayer Language Comes (Fall 2000)
Editor Introduction: How the Prayer Language Comes

How the Prayer Language Comes (Fall 2000)
How the Prayer Language Comes

Now That You’ve Spoken in Tongues (Winter 2001)
Now That You’ve Spoken in Tongues

Singing in the Spirit (Spring 2001)
Singing in the Spirit

Afterword: Beyond the Charismatic Experience (Summer 2001)
Beyond the Charismatic Experience

Praying in the Spirit: Works Cited (Summer 2001)
Works Cited

The 1987 version of Praying in the Spirit is also available for sale here (Kindle and softcover).

In June 2017, Robert Graves wrote:

Praying in the Spirit was updated and expanded this year. It is more than 65% longer than the original with current updates, new arguments, and added chapters. Of course, it needed it after 30 years! If you’re buying a copy make sure you get the Empowered Life Academic edition, 280 pages (Empowered Life Academic is an imprint of Harrison House Publishers).

This index was later included in the Winter 2023 issue.

A guest article by Tracy Close, introducing you to the gifts of the Holy Spirit spoken of in the Bible.

Charismata is the plural form of the Greek word charis, meaning grace. Charismata are the visible effects of grace in word or deed, known more commonly to us as spiritual gifts.

Image: Stan Myers. Used with permission.

Much has been written about the subject of charismata, enough that one could devote quite possibly a lifetime to the reading of all of it in the pursuit of total understanding and grasp of exactly what gifts of the Spirit are, how they are used, whether they exist or not(if that understanding is actually possible).

There are many belief systems or theories existing today regarding Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One theory, called cessation, states that spiritual gifts died with the apostles of Paul’s time (sometime around the end of the first century AD). It is believed that charismata existed to empower the budding Christian church, to ensure that through miraculous happenings people would be brought to a belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior and therefore the church would increase in numbers. Once the church was on it’s feet, so the theory goes, the gifts were no longer needed and therefore ceased. There are other cessation theories, but this seems to be the most popular.

However, this author takes the stance that the gifts of the Spirit are now and have always been present. No where does the Bible state that the gifts of the Spirit were to cease for the Church, not until Jesus comes again. There are historical accounts of the manifestation of charismata in the church through the ages. Most importantly, because I believe I have personally witnessed spiritual gifts in practice, I believe that they are alive and well in many churches today.

Having said that, the purpose of this article is to provide what I hope is a minimal education as to what spiritual gifts are and what they are not. The statements contained herein are derived from studying The Bible, literary resources, online articles and teachings in local churches.

The prophet Joel predicted, before Jesus walked the earth, that spiritual gifts would be made available to many. “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions; And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28). No longer would the prophets and miracle workers be a small group of people.

So it happened at the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended to heaven that the prophecy was fulfilled. “They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)

Those who succeeded the original apostles as leaders in the churches make no mention of a cessation theory. They do, on the other hand, give testimony of miraculous gifts and healings occurring in their day. I have documented this in my book, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, published by Charisma House. Consider the following quotes from church fathers recognized by both Protestants and Catholics as the legitimate successors of the original apostles.

Justin Martyr (100-165)–“For the prophetical gifts remain with us even to the present time. Now it is possible to see among us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God” (Eddie Hyatt, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, 15).

Irenaeus (125-200)–“In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church who possess prophetic gifts and through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages … Yes, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years” (Hyatt, 16).

Tertullian (150-240)–“For seeing that we too acknowledge the spiritual charismata, or gifts, we too have merited the attainment of the prophetic gift … and heaven knows how many distinguished men, to say nothing of the common people, have been cured either of devils or of their sicknesses” (Hyatt, 17).

Novation (210-280)–“This is he [the Holy Spirit] who places prophets in the church, instructs teachers, directs tongues, gives powers and healings, does wonderful works … and arranges whatever gifts there are of the charismata; and thus making the Lord’s Church everywhere, and in all, perfected and completed (Hyatt, 20-21).

Origen (185-284)–“Some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvelous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other over those who need their help that that of the God of all things, along with Jesus and a mention of his history” (Hyatt, 18-19).

Augustine (354-430)–In his work, The City of God, Augustine tells of healings and miracles that he has observed first hand and then says, “I am so pressed by the promise of finishing this work that I cannot record all the miracles I know” (44-45).

This chart is from part 2 of the sixth chapter of the Praying in the Spirit Series.

Robert W. Graves wrote Praying in the Spirit (Chosen Books) in 1987.

Figure 3

Charismata in the Post-Apostolic Church

Robert W. Graves wrote Praying in the Spirit (Chosen Books) in 1987.

This chart is from part 2 of the sixth chapter of the Praying in the Spirit Series.

Figure 2

Proposed Dates of Charismata Cessation  

Those who are involved in friendly debates with cessationists should seriously consider this book as a gift in order to further conversation on the topic. Let me briefly identify the book’s highlights.

First, Ruthven provides a valuable overview of the history of cessationism, beginning with Jewish sect of the Pharisees in the period of the early church and continuing through the Reformers’ debate against the Radical Reformation and Roman Catholicism, Hume’s criticism of all supernatural miracles, and the emergence of Deism.

Jon Mark Ruthven

Second, against this background, the cessationist polemic of Princeton theologian, Benjamin B. Warfield (1855-1921), is critically assessed. An outstanding example of contextualizing a theologian’s ideas, Ruthven’s discussion not only establishes the internal inconsistency of Warfield’s concept of miracle in the latter’s Counterfeit Miracles (1918), but also reveals a clear irony in his methodology. In his zeal to uphold the authority of Scripture, Warfield actually misread the biblical data on the charismata even according to his own hermeneutical principles. Further, his a priori cessationism led him to discredit miracles documented in the history of Christianity by applying to this record the same historical method that Hume and the deists used to undermine biblical miracles themselves. In short, Ruthven demonstrates that Warfield’s ‘bibliolatry’ (my term) actually blinded him to the continuities manifest between Scripture and ongoing biblical revelation, thus motivating his polemic.

Cover from the 2011 revised and expanded edition from Word & Spirit Press.

Third, Ruthven challenges the ‘evidentialist’ doctrine of miracles and the charismata that claims these served only to accredit the foundations of Christian faith in the first century. He provides us with a thorough exegetical investigation of all texts related to the function and duration of the charismata, and argues convincingly the thesis that they are edificatory for the Church. The charismata concretely express and make relevant the Gospel, and equip the Church for mission. If in fact the Church’s mission continues until the end of this age, then cessationism is wrong.

Finally, Ruthven provides hints for extending the biblical theology of the charismata that he has developed into a systematic theology of charismata. These involve other areas of theological study such as pneumatology, eschatology and the Kingdom of God, ecclesiology and theology of ministry, and the doctrines of grace and revelation. The book includes an exhaustive bibliography that researchers on cessationism cannot afford to ignore.

Ruthven’s writing style is lucid and his argument persuasive. The book is informative for scholar, pastor and layperson alike. I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Amos Yong