Re: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

There are indeed a tremendous amount of extraneous practices entering the christian scene these days. Excesses of all kinds ranging from the ridiculous to the blasphemous, and of course if we are versed in the Scriptures this should come as no surprise to us. However, just like there is a danger of falling prey to bizzare practices and doctrines, there is an equal and just as dangerous and deceptive trend to dismiss the real moving of God as "doctrines of men" or even worse, "doctrines of devils".
The first can be forgiven, as it's an offfense directed at man, but the latter is a griveous sin, for it's crediting something that God is doing to demons. This equals blasphemy.
There are many things that happen or don't depending on the level of faith given to the believers. There are many documented testimonies of dead people being raised from the dead (as a result of prayer in the name of Jesus) after several days, in places like Africa. But here in North America we scoff at such a thing because most of us have never seen it. Yet, do we dare to imply that this is demonic?
As the sites Ev and Toonces have posted, it is imperative to check everything with the Word and guard from disorderly expressions and manifestations, but in our scrutiny, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater and miss any of God's blessings.
He came so that we could have fullness of joy.