Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1, ESV)
Paul instructed the Corinthians to desire spiritual gifts, even though they were already desiring them strongly and constantly, and were exercising them in selfish and abusive ways. Of course we ought to desire God, and to desire him for his own sake. But Paul did not tell them to desire the Giver, or to desire the Giver instead of the gifts, or to desire the Giver more than the gifts. Rather, he said to desire the gifts, to desire these abilities to perform special works by the power of the Spirit.
How much do you desire the Giver when you refuse to desire the gifts that he tells you to desire? If I do not desire the Giver, I would want nothing to do with his gifts, but if I desire the Giver, I would want everything that he has for me, including his gifts. I would want all of them. I would want as many as I can get, because I would want anything that has to do with him and that comes from him.
Although it is possible to make a distinction between a Giver and his gifts, a healthy personal relationship is holistic, and not heavily segmented and prioritized. Thus the Bible does not teach something like, “Do not desire what God can do, but desire God himself.” It teaches us to want all of him. The error is similar to the one that says it is selfish to pray for yourself. The Bible teaches us to constantly pray for ourselves. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that we should pray for our forgiveness, and also to say “Give us today our daily bread.” That is, we ought to pray for ourselves every day, even for our material needs. This does not show selfishness, but faith in God and a continuous consciousness of God. Likewise, the Bible teaches us to desire and pray for God’s power to work through us.
Therefore, earnestly desire spiritual gifts. More and more, desire and pray for the manifestations of power. The Bible is God’s complete and sufficient revelation, and this final word commands us to desire spiritual gifts, including prophecy, healing, and many others. Because this is God’s final word on the matter, there is no chance that this will be overturned before the coming of Christ.
There is no excuse for unbelief and disobedience on the matter. Stand firm, and become suspicious and outright hostile against those who adorn a cloak of religious scholarship and piety, but who try to lead you away from God’s commandments. Deuteronomy 13 says that if a prophet comes with signs and wonders, but tries to lead us away from the true God, then do not follow him, because God is testing us to see if we love him with all our heart and with all our soul. How much more, then, should we pass the test, when a false teacher comes to spread rebellion against the Lord without signs and wonders!
The spiritual gifts come from God, and they give you the abilities to perform the work that God has called you to do and to edify the church. Satan’s agents would try to take them away from you by their false teaching, and they would persecute you even in the name of Christ. Their aim is to neutralize your ministry by directing your trust and attention to resources that are powerless against the principalities and the demonic strongholds that enslave the minds of men.
Let any suggestion that the Spirit’s powers and manifestations have ceased remind you to react against the false doctrine, to stir up the gifts of God, to repent of unbelief and inaction concerning them, to desire them even more, to talk about them and pray about them even more, and to exercise them even more for the glory of God and the good of his people.