"These signs shall follow
those who believe:in My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with
new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing,
it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover" (Mark 16:17,18).

The signs delineated by the Lord
Jesus when He told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel
have a close correspondence with some of the spiritual gifts listed by the
apostle Paul:"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man …
the gifts of healing … the working of miracles … divers kinds of tongues
… the interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. 7-10).

It is a point of great controversy
among Biblical scholars whether these so-called "sign gifts" still
exist in the present day or whether they ceased when Holy Scripture was
completed at the end of the first century A.D. (as suggested by 1 Cor. 13:8).
It is not my purpose to enter into this controversy in this article. I believe
that one of the purposes of these gifts was to authenticate the teaching of the
apostles—to get people to pay attention in an era in which the Holy Scriptures
had not yet been completed and were not widely available. In parts of the world
today where the Scriptures and Christianity are as yet unknown, the Holy Spirit
may still be pleased to use such gifts to help missionaries to communicate the
gospel to the people and to get the people to pay attention to what the
missionaries are trying to tell them.

It may well be that these sign
gifts in their original form have essentially ceased in parts of the world—such
as our own—where the Bible is well known. However, I would like to do two
things in this article:(1) for any who believe they possess one of these sign
gifts today, I shall point out from Scripture how such gifts are to be used;
and (2) I shall suggest ways in which modified forms of the gifts of healing,
miracles, tongues, and interpretations may be manifested by believers
today—through the leading and power of the Holy Spirit—to minister to others.

                           
Healing

The Lord Jesus healed people and
so did the twelve disciples and the apostle Paul. We learn a number of things
from their examples:

1. The gift was not used for
personal benefit or gain. The apostle Paul could heal others (Acts 14:10;
28:8,9) but not himself (2 Cor. 12:8,9).

2. The gift included power for the
ultimate healing, namely, making the dead to live again (John 11:43,44; Acts
9:36-41; 20:9,10).

 

3. Neither Jesus nor the apostles staged
healing services, but rather went to where the sick people were, where there
could be ample testimony to the validity of the healing (Mark 1:21-2:12;
5:1-17; John 9:1-11; Acts 3:7-10; 9:38).

4. To my knowledge, there is no
mention in Scripture of anyone failing to be healed because of his or her own
lack of faith. But Jesus rebuked His disciples, who had the gift of healing,
for their lack of faith in failing to bring about healing (Matt.
17:14-21).

5. Illness cannot necessarily be
attributed to Satan. Satan could not touch Job without the LORD giving him
permission (Job 1:12; 2:6). Some illness is a result of a person’s own sin
(Jas. 5:15,16; 1 John 5:16). Some trials come directly from the Lord, "for
whom the Lord loves He chastens" (Heb. 12:5-11). And sometimes, the healer
may even be led of the Lord to call down sickness upon a sinning person in
judgment (Acts 13:11). Therefore one with the gift of healing must understand
that it may not be God’s will for a particular person to be healed (2 Cor. 12:8,9;
2 Tim. 4:20), at least for the present.

There is a kind of healing needed
in the Church today that, no doubt, is much more important than mere physical
healing. I refer to healing the backslidings of God’s children (Jer. 3:22; Hos.
14:4) by faithful appeals and admonitions (Matt. 18:15; Gal. 6:1). I refer also
to the healing of conflicts and breaches among Christians by those gifted as
peacemakers (Matt. 5:9).

                     
Working of Miracles

"They shall take up serpents;
and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them" (Mark 16:18).
This does not mean we are to tempt God (Matt. 4:7) by purposely playing with
cobras and drinking poison (as some way-out cults do today, often with dire
consequences). But the life of a missionary can be made very hazardous by
scorpions, tigers, polluted water, and hostile people. King Darius feared that
Daniel would be killed by the lions (Dan. 6:19-22) and the people of Malta expected the apostle Paul to die from the snakebite (Acts 28:3-6). While neither
Daniel nor Paul set out to perform miracles in these instances, the Holy Spirit
was pleased to work miracles through them.

How might the working of miracles
be applied today? Have you ever heard it said, "It will take a miracle for
X to become saved [or for Y to be restored to the Lord; or for Z and his wife
to be reconciled]"? Thank God for those of his faithful children who are
willing to challenge "the impossible" and accomplish, through
ministry of the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit, that which—humanly
speaking—is impossible (Luke 18:27).

                     
Speaking in Tongues

Here are some principles and rules
from Scripture for any who claim to speak in tongues, particularly in the
setting of the local church:

1. The tongues are real languages
(Acts 2:4,6,11), not repetitious nonsense syllables like
"ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ba-ba."

2. No more than three men are to
speak in tongues in a given service (1 Cor. 14:27).

 

3. Those who speak in tongues are
to do so one at a time (verse 27).

4. They are to make certain there
is an interpreter; if none, they are to be silent (verse 27).

5. They are to pray for the gift
of interpretation (verse 13), in which case, if everyone in the room speaks the
same language, it would be preferable to skip the tongues and go straight to
the interpretation (verses 19,24).

6. The women are not to speak in
tongues but rather keep silence in the assembly meetings (verse 34).

The gift of tongues was given, in
part, to bridge communication barriers, as was evident on the Day of Pentecost
(Acts 2). Today, by studying foreign languages, we can prepare for the
possibility of being led into foreign missionary work. Even if we all speak the
same language, there may be cultural, social, economic, and educational
barriers to be bridged in an assembly. Suppose there are blacks, whites, and
Hispanics in an assembly; persons with Ph.D.’s and third grade dropouts;
teenagers and centenarians; Canners and non-Canners. These diverse groups, even
though every one is a born-again Christian, may tend to gravitate into cliques.
So the Lord may raise up someone with the gift and ability to bridge the
communication and fellowship gaps among the diverse groups.

                       
Interpretation

Any who believe they have the gift
of interpretation of tongues should bear in mind that a message in a foreign
tongue that is ten minutes long cannot be credibly interpreted in two minutes,
and vice versa. With the abundance of foreign language institutes and
translation services available today, it would be very wise to take tapes of
tongues-speaking and interpretations to be evaluated by language experts at a
Berlitz or similar agency. (See January-February 1976 Words of Truth for
an example of this.)

A modified form of the gift of
interpretation is sometimes helpful even when there is no speaking in tongues.
I refer to an area of ministry in which one may not be gifted as a teacher per
se but is gifted in understanding teaching ministry and making it more
plain to others. Suppose a teacher presents a complex explanation of a
particular doctrine. A listener who understands what has been taught, but who
senses that it might have gone over the heads of simpler souls, may get up and
give some simple examples and illustrations to aid others in the understanding of
that doctrine.

"Covet earnestly the best
gifts" (1 Cor. 12:31).