Spiritual Gifts
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Joel 2:28-32
. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour
out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall
see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in
[15]
those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the
heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the
great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:
for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord
hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”
This prophecy of Joel, which speaks of the out-pouring of the Holy
Spirit in the last days, was not all fulfilled at the beginning of the
Gospel dispensation. This is evident from the wonders in heaven and
in earth, introduced in this text, which were to be precursors of “the
great and the terrible day of the Lord.” Though we have had the signs,
that terrible day is still in the future. The whole Gospel dispensation
may be called the last days, but to say that the last days are all 1800
years in the past, is absurd. They reach to the day of the Lord, and to
the deliverance of the remnant of God’s people. “For in Mount Zion
and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the
remnant whom the Lord shall call.”
This remnant, existing amid the signs and wonders that usher in
the great and terrible day of the Lord are, doubtless, the remnant of the
seed of the woman spoken of in
Revelation 12:17
—The last generation
of the church on earth, “and the dragon was wroth with the woman,
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
The remnant of the Gospel church will have the gifts. War will be
waged against them because they keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 12:17
. In
Revelation
[16]
19:10
, the testimony of Jesus is defined to be the Spirit of prophecy.
Said the angel, “I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that
have the testimony of Jesus.” in
Chapter 22:9
, he repeats the same in
substance, as follows: “I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren
the prophets.” from the comparison we see the force of the expression,
the