Functional cessationism is a major problem as the world falls apart.  As the endtimes intensify, His power will become more and more important in our lives. These are truly the perilous times Paul taught about in II Timothy 3: 1–3. We need the Holy Spirit to thread our way through the increasing chaos.

As I’ve shared many times, The Lord has been radically disciplining me over the past five years since my wife went home. Part of that has been a renewing of my first love. I had allowed the enemy to beat me down.

My life has always been about giving the Holy Spirit free rein in my life. In 2020, as I dealt with my grief, I discovered that in many ways I had been stifling the Holy Spirit’s activity in my life. That was an appalling shock to me. I had ended up living as a functional cessationist.  Part of that was a good thing—as I have become a bit more mature. But the Power of the Holy Spirit was no longer seen very often in my life.

I probably need to define cessationism. It’s the view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, such as healing, tongues, and prophetic revelation, pertained to the apostolic era only, served a purpose that was unique to establishing the early church, and passed away once the New Testament was canonized. That is at least foolishness, and very close to blatant heresy. Most of the church is afflicted with Functional Cessationism—and it’s a major problem today. Many non-denominational churches claim to be spirit-filled but there is no evidence of the Holy Spirit in the church.

As I have mentioned many times, one of our foundational scripture verses is Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus has not changed. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are simply part of what He offers us through the Holy Spirit. He does not change, so there is no reason for us to say that He started the church with power, but He is no longer doing that. The gifts listed in I Corinthians 12 are constantly available whenever the Holy Spirit determines they will help. The Holy Spirit distributes these gifts, as He wills: knowledge, wisdom, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

Functional cessationism greatly hampers spiritual growth

I need to remind you that Pat and I were mainline believers—coming out of the Episcopal Church. So, we’ve never been flagrant holy rollers. As such, we didn’t seek the gifts—we sought the Lord. The gifts are under His control. The arrogance of saying that the Lord has changed on these gifts is appalling. They are simply part of the resources the Lord offers as we minister to others. Scripture is clear. We minister and the gifts follow us confirming the truth of what we are teaching and preaching.

During my current period of discipleship, the Lord has re-awakened the gifts in my life. When my wife and I were leading the mission church in Albuquerque, the Lord commonly used the gifts to help us. We were basically a spiritual hospital for the very damaged people the Lord sent us as our sheep. Over the twelve years, the Lord empowered us to help people.

We never made a big deal about it, but Pat’s work as a Biblical Counselor was often enabled by a word of knowledge or wisdom from the Spirit. The Lord would tell her what her sheep were really doing, what sins they were committing, people they hadn’t forgiven, and a lot of things like that. Those revelations often triggered major growth and healing in her sheep.

She found that she really couldn’t mention what had happened because the counselee would freak out because the Lord had ratted on her. We learned not to push the gifts, but the power of the Holy Spirit to help. In the same way, while leading a Bible study the Lord would give me the scripture verses to use to answer questions raised. They were just a normal part of our life.

The problem was that the gifts were all tied to life at the church

For us, all that ceased when Pat went through several physical attacks. Her flesh began failing her. The crush of dealing with her 2nd and 3rd spine fusion, followed by all the rest of her physical ailments, forced us to shut the church down. With our public ministry cut off, we were dealing with life on a survival level. Functional Cessationism makes it very difficult.

We found ourselves in the position many of you are in now that the end is approaching fast. We could see that we were in the beginnings of the Great Falling Away. It became more and more difficult to find a church where the gospel was preached and Holy Spirit was active. We found ourselves living a life where there were no people in our life who understood the realities of the daily walk in the Spirit.

What the Lord did was show me how the Holy Spirit would help my fictional characters in their lives. More and more I began writing into my characters what I was experiencing with the Lord in my daily life. It’s been very intense. Since 2020, I have been writing and publishing twelve hours or more every day, six days a week. Now that my vehicle died, it’s gotten even more intense. As the church I was attending simply dropped me out of their lives, I have been forced to become ever more dependent upon Jesus. The reality of the power of the Holy Spirit in my life has not only sustained me but increased my spiritual growth. What incredible joy it has been.

As I began searching the online world for community, I discovered it is not available

I’ve found some good preaching and worship. Several times I responded to the online church’s offer to help those of us who have been forced online to find help. If I were a new believer, maybe, but even there it would be an effort to get me to come to church and get involved. But for many of us, that is not possible. For someone like me, a mature believer now over fifties years old in the Lord, there is nothing—no way to get involved.

I want to say (or shout) that the Lord will meet your need! It may be nothing like you’ve experienced before. But the Lord has the power to help us—as all believers and the churches are assaulted by the world. This is a rapidly growing problem. All the prophecy teachers are saying that the number one request they receive is, “Where can I find a church that teaches the truth any more?” The most recent stats I’ve seen are that less than 2% of churches even teach on prophecy. But it’s worse than that, the vast majority of pastors and priests do not teach scripture or how we are supposed to survive as the spirit of lawlessness takes over our society.

The Holy Spirit is more important now than ever because of the deception

If you are confused or unsure, ask the Holy Spirit to show you the Truth about these things. He’d love to talk with you—if you will let Him.