A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. 1Corinthians 12: 7-11 (NLT)
The things of God are not a game beloved. Christianity is not something to be massaged into something we can market and sell. Theology matters. Doctrine matters. While some of the poor theologies and false teachings seem to not be a big deal we often do not see the end result. We do not see the discouraged seeker never returning to church because their "seed" never produced a "harvest." We never see the believer fall back into a lifestyle of sin because of the hyper grace message. We certainly never know who was led into a false relationship with a false Christ, through a false teacher. Every now and again though we can see a moment in time that reveals the dangers the Bible warns us about over and over again regarding false teaching.
The latest trend in popular Christian music is known as Jesus Culture. Targeted mostly at youth, Jesus Culture roams the country putting on conferences where their brand of worship is mixed with dominionist preaching, false theology, and a dangerous misunderstanding of Scripture. As the church becomes more enamored with the world the increasing lack of discernment leads to leaven such as Jesus Culture spreading throughout the body of Christ unchecked. We tend to look at what is against God with a wink and nod.
I present the key verses today as the backdrop to understand what God has said about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, one of which is the gift of healing. The first thing we see is that a gift is given to every believer so that we might help each other. So the first lesson is that the gifts are given. They are not earned like some spiritual merit badge. They cannot be taught as if some cheap parlor trick. We further see that not everyone has all of the gifts - that to one person God may choose to give one gift and to another He may choose a different gift. The second lesson is that it is the Holy Spirit that decides to whom He will distribute which gifts. He alone decides and these Scriptures cannot be clearer. Yet despite this you still have heretical churches operating heretical schools designed to "teach" the supernatural gifts of God. Bethel Church in California is one such church, as they operate the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Some excerpts from the BSSM website:
" BSSM is a Holy Spirit driven ministry school where students learn how to live in the Kingdom of God and extend its borders through a supernatural lifestyle. "
" When the students take their supernatural ministry into the community, it gets pretty wild and exciting! "
" The academic instruction at BSSM is unique because it is taught by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers - not by professors or theologians. "
