The gifts of the Spirit were given to be used in a Christian community, but soon after the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 they were repurposed to be used in a stage performance setting, as revivalists travelled with large tents, and the Pentecostals built large auditoriums that utilised new communication technologies. Because of the stage performance setting, the Pentecostals and Charismatics began to focus on the visible aspect of the gifts, seeking to demonstrate God’s power.
But the original purpose of the spiritual gifts—words of knowledge and wisdom, tongues and their interpretation, gifts of healings, faith, working miracles, prophecy and discerning spirits—was to be an expression of God’s love to His people. And when the original purpose was lost in the repurposing of the gifts to serve as an expression of charismatic power, their true power was also lost, and the Church also lost the gift of discerning spirits, as it got addicted to charismatic spectacles. My new book Supernatural Love: Releasing the Compassion of Jesus Through the Gifts of the Spirit goes to the roots of the stage performance model to disentangle a biblical model of ministry.
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