Mark 16 says, Mr 16:17, 18 And these signs shall follow them that 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. You can not pick and choose they all go together if you have one of the signs then you will have them all. So I said if you lived I will proclaim your ministry. By the way this is written to Jews not Gentiles and not the body of Christ. You need to study and divide which church there are more than one and they are not all the body of Christ.
Beware of not rightly dividing the word of God when you study you will end up applying verses to yourself that are for Israel and be mixed up in which Gospel is preached today.
I offer you the same encouragement. Your conclusion that the gifts were only for 2000 years ago and once "the bible arrived there was no longer need for them so they vanished" is a doctrine of man that is built on sand.
Not at all Paul prayed for healing and was not healed 2Co 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. many Saints in Acts were left sick in cities wihtout healing. this is one of the sign gift for Israel. These are never said to be gifts for the body of Christ. the onlyexample of Paul casting out a devil is in Acts Ac 16:18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. and its reason was so the devil could not paritcipate or cause confusion in the body and to the new converts.
I love my bible and for me it is a wonderful tool (along with prayer, worship, fasting, etc etc) to fall more deeply in love with my Lord. But i worship the living God and this is who i have a personal relationship with, not the bible. Chette, do you worship the living God or do you worship your authorized version bible? Is your bible the third member of the trinity, bumping the Holy Spirit off that list? Was one result of the Lord Jesus being crucified and risen to send us the bible?... or was it to send us the Holy Spirit who will be our counselor and comforter and who would teach us all things? I live my life as led by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, not by a book (even a book as awesome as the bible) and I strongly encourage you to do the same.
I worship God and my Lord Jesus Christ but God hath said, Ps 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. if god has magnified his word above his name we are to follow his word. I don worship a Bible I worship the true God of the Bible. Also, god reveals himself through the word not fasting, prayer or worship 1Sam3:21 And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD. The Bible is very important for the Christian not signs, not gifts, not feelings, not fastings, not prayers the Bible is Gods way of communicating himself to us and revealing himself to us. When you practice goes against the clear teach or is a mix of confused teaching that is not the word of God but your own teaching.
The Purpose of the Holy Ghost is to teach us the word. 1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. you see it is the words and these words are preserved for us in the Bible. We are sure he teaches us all things what so ever Christ Spoke becuase those words are preserved in a Bible for us today. so the Bible is a very important part of the Christians life and if he doesn't know how to study and disobeys scripture there is no way he (you) can teach a man like me anything.
You confuse teaching and instruction for Israel under the Kingdom Gospel with the teaching and Instruction for the church the body of Christ under the gospel of Grace. If the teaching of one section of the Bible goes against the teaching of God that was given Paul for the church then we know it is not a doctrine for the church.
You fail to study and rightly divide the word of God.
It is always a weak fall back when a weak boastful man accuses someone of worshiping the Bible over God. But God's word is clear he magnified it above his name (even the name to cast out devils) so it should be magnified in our lives.