Non-Believers with Spiritual Gifts

[Dave Darling]

Something interesting- there seem to be people out there that are not Christians but have spiritual gifts anyway! I know a girl I went to high school with that was not a believer in Christ but if you were sick she could lay her hands on you and take it, the sickness would leave! She healed several people! She could also give prophecies that would come to pass. There was also a young man at my high school that could read your mind! You do have to be careful with this sort of thing but his gift did seem to be from God. There are people out there in the world that have amazing gifts, stellar, mind-blowing gifts! There are non-christians that maybe even have stronger gifts than those in the body of Christ!

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Something interesting- there seem to be people out there that are not Christians but have spiritual gifts anyway! I know a girl I went to high school with that was not a believer in Christ but if you were sick she could lay her hands on you and take it, the sickness would leave! She healed several people! She could also give prophecies that would come to pass. There was also a young man at my high school that could read your mind! You do have to be careful with this sort of thing but his gift did seem to be from God. There are people out there in the world that have amazing gifts, stellar, mind-blowing gifts! There are non-christians that maybe even have stronger gifts than those in the body of Christ!

Those are paranormal gifts, anyone with a human body has the capacity to develop them. When the bible talks about Spiritual gifts, it refers to the revived spirit within the born again individual that can now act. Before because of Adam, the spirit within a person was dead, but in Christ that spirit is made alive.

Spiritual gifts come from the spirit within a person. Since the spirit cannot be discerned by the body through feelings, sight and other body senses, the time it takes to mature spiritually can take a lot longer.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Something interesting- there seem to be people out there that are not Christians but have spiritual gifts anyway! I know a girl I went to high school with that was not a believer in Christ but if you were sick she could lay her hands on you and take it, the sickness would leave! She healed several people! She could also give prophecies that would come to pass. There was also a young man at my high school that could read your mind! You do have to be careful with this sort of thing but his gift did seem to be from God. There are people out there in the world that have amazing gifts, stellar, mind-blowing gifts! There are non-christians that maybe even have stronger gifts than those in the body of Christ!

You are mixing what comes from God with what comes from the angel of light. One is a Spiritual gift the other is a deception from Satan. Spiritual gifts are only given to the Elect the rest are from the occult. I'll pray that your discernment skills are sharpend . Blessings.

 

[Blade]

Something interesting- there seem to be people out there that are not Christians but have spiritual gifts anyway! I know a girl I went to high school with that was not a believer in Christ but if you were sick she could lay her hands on you and take it, the sickness would leave! She healed several people! She could also give prophecies that would come to pass. There was also a young man at my high school that could read your mind! You do have to be careful with this sort of thing but his gift did seem to be from God. There are people out there in the world that have amazing gifts, stellar, mind-blowing gifts! There are non-christians that maybe even have stronger gifts than those in the body of Christ!

So far nothing more then speculation. The enemy can not heal. If he could his kingdom would be divided against its self and would fall. If the enemy can not read minds then sorry man can not. Oooh if you look into this it is amazing how its done yet no one reads minds. Prophecies.. in the OT do you know why some prophets were called false? Not because they were false all the time no many times they were spot on. False because God never said it. See in the spiritual realm there is no time and space and Satan is really truly good at guessing. Again only God know what the future holds no one else does.

Its like a psychic saying you lost your watch you will get it in the mail next week. Oooh sounds like they see into the future huh. So the preacher asked the lord.. there is no time and space in the spiritual realm so the one demon saw the watch being sent back tells the demon in the woman and blah blah blah. See the preacher didn't ask her for anything I forget why the lord told him to go in. I did something one should never ever do. Well me and a friend worked in this Pizza place when I was about 20 and this old woman comes in and no lie look the part and wanted to tell our future. So Bridget ..yeah looked like her name she was not sold out to Christ. This woman took her and and told her everything about her she was spot on. Yet for me everything she said was so far off. You never ever play with this stuff.

The lord told us to always test the spirits.. so if Christ is not there I will not be.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Something interesting- there seem to be people out there that are not Christians but have spiritual gifts anyway! I know a girl I went to high school with that was not a believer in Christ but if you were sick she could lay her hands on you and take it, the sickness would leave! She healed several people! She could also give prophecies that would come to pass. There was also a young man at my high school that could read your mind! You do have to be careful with this sort of thing but his gift did seem to be from God. There are people out there in the world that have amazing gifts, stellar, mind-blowing gifts! There are non-christians that maybe even have stronger gifts than those in the body of Christ!

If the person is unconverted, then the 'spiritual gift' is not of the Holy Spirit. If the person is manifesting supernatural attributes, then it is coming from a spirit that is not of God and one should not in any way allow that person to lay hands on him or her. Having an unconverted person laying hands on you, can impart things that are not of God and you could end up with a spirit of divination that could cause you much harm.

Be warned. These "gifts" are not of God, and if they are supernatural signs and wonders, they are false as described in Scripture as the devil's attempts of deceiving even the very elect if he could.

Also, there is a lot of talk, smoke and mirrors according to what people are saying are powerful gifts. A claim of healing of a serious medical condition or disability needs to be validated by a medical professional. There is always a lot of talk about people getting healed, but when the actual evidence is sought, it is strangely missing and when the truth is revealed, the person wasn't healed at all.

 

[timewerx]

I had many prophetic dreams and the Holy Spirit was already guiding me long before I became Christian.

I retained those gifts even when I became Christian.

Here's what I think, there's nothing in the Bible that says, one cannot be a believer if he or she was never in touch with another believer. The conditions for belief is the fruit of the person's deeds (John 14:12) out of the abundance of the heart not because someone shared him or her the Gospel and they accepted.

Your passion is what reveals if you truly believe or not.

The 'name' of Jesus is not entirely in the context of a literal name but also in the context of 'cause'. Those who believe 'in the cause'. "for the cause". If your cause / passion is the same as the Lord's then in all likelihood, you are already a believer.

 

[Lukaris]

There are good deeds done by non believers and, I believe, we can give thanks for what is good. We should also guard against any deception, not judging, but discerning, what happens.

I believe scripture can guide us in these matters.

For ex.

James 1:13-17, Philippians 4:8, 1 John 4:1-3.

We can pray that a non believer of a good disposition will come to the light. For ex. see John 3:16-21, 1 Timothy 2:1-6.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I had many prophetic dreams and the Holy Spirit was already guiding me long before I became Christian.

I retained those gifts even when I became Christian.

Here's what I think, there's nothing in the Bible that says, one cannot be a believer if he or she was never in touch with another believer. The conditions for belief is the fruit of the person's deeds (John 14:12) out of the abundance of the heart not because someone shared him or her the Gospel and they accepted.

Your passion is what reveals if you truly believe or not.

The 'name' of Jesus is not entirely in the context of a literal name but also in the context of 'cause'. Those who believe 'in the cause'. "for the cause". If your cause / passion is the same as the Lord's then in all likelihood, you are already a believer.

The truth is that before one receives Christ and is born again of the Spirit of God, they are dead in their sins and trespasses. Their heart is evil and their spirit is dead and they don't have the Holy Spirit in them. Therefore there is absolutely no way they can manifest any gifts of the Spirit. So whatever spirit is guiding an unconverted person is not the Holy Spirit, but another spirit that is not of God.

Also, if you read at the beginning of the Book of Acts, the Jewish leaders forbade the Apostles to preach in the name of Jesus. They had no problem with anything else about the need for having Christian values, etc., but they did not want them to preach about Christ and Him crucified. The Scripture says that there is no other name in which anyone can be saved, except the name of Jesus Christ. A person can preach and teach about the Christian religion until the cows come home and no one will be bothered about it, but as soon as Christ crucified and resurrected is preached, opposition and persecution rises up. There are many religious people advancing the Christian "cause", including Mormons, JWs, Christian Scientists, Christadephians, and even the Masonic Lodge, but these people are not converted to Christ. They are not born again of the Spirit of God. Bishop Spong is all for the Christian cause, but he doesn't believe in the resurrection of Christ, nor does he believe in the atonement, nor Christ being a real person in history. His view of faith is not in the promises of God in the Bible, but in what he believes is love for others and living a good life. That kind of "cause" will lead him straight to hell where he will get a rude shock when he realises that he was tragically mistaken and that the Gospel is true and hell is real.

The Scripture says that God has given Jesus a name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Therefore, if you are supporting a "cause" and not bowing down to the name of Jesus, then what will you do when Jesus comes again and you are forced to bow to His name?

 

[timewerx]

The truth is that before one receives Christ and is born again of the Spirit of God, they are dead in their sins and trespasses. Their heart is evil and their spirit is dead and they don't have the Holy Spirit in them. Therefore there is absolutely no way they can manifest any gifts of the Spirit. So whatever spirit is guiding an unconverted person is not the Holy Spirit, but another spirit that is not of God.

Also, if you read at the beginning of the Book of Acts, the Jewish leaders forbade the Apostles to preach in the name of Jesus. They had no problem with anything else about the need for having Christian values, etc., but they did not want them to preach about Christ and Him crucified. The Scripture says that there is no other name in which anyone can be saved, except the name of Jesus Christ. A person can preach and teach about the Christian religion until the cows come home and no one will be bothered about it, but as soon as Christ crucified and resurrected is preached, opposition and persecution rises up. There are many religious people advancing the Christian "cause", including Mormons, JWs, Christian Scientists, Christadephians, and even the Masonic Lodge, but these people are not converted to Christ. They are not born again of the Spirit of God. Bishop Spong is all for the Christian cause, but he doesn't believe in the resurrection of Christ, nor does he believe in the atonement, nor Christ being a real person in history. His view of faith is not in the promises of God in the Bible, but in what he believes is love for others and living a good life. That kind of "cause" will lead him straight to hell where he will get a rude shock when he realises that he was tragically mistaken and that the Gospel is true and hell is real.

The Scripture says that God has given Jesus a name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Therefore, if you are supporting a "cause" and not bowing down to the name of Jesus, then what will you do when Jesus comes again and you are forced to bow to His name?

Have you ever studied the New Testament in Greek where the Gospel was originally written into?

Think this over for once, if Christ's name J-e-s-u-s in whatever form or language translation is so important that it carries supernatural powers, then why did Jesus NEVER introduced Himself as "Jesus" (for example, "I am Jesus") except ONLY to one man - Apostle Paul (where it is likely due to Paul's atrocities against Christians that forced the hand of Jesus to reveal His alphabetical name).

Also Jesus can write but the only one time it was said He wrote anything was unreadable and it was on sand, very temporary. If even the spelling is so important and yet Jesus Himself doesn't even care about it.

Is it possible we built the biggest religion in the world upon false assumptions and possibly deceived a huge multitude as prophesied in the Bible.?

 

[jacks]

Mark 9:38-41
Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

 

[Lost Witness]

Something interesting- there seem to be people out there that are not Christians but have spiritual gifts anyway! I know a girl I went to high school with that was not a believer in Christ but if you were sick she could lay her hands on you and take it, the sickness would leave! She healed several people! She could also give prophecies that would come to pass. There was also a young man at my high school that could read your mind! You do have to be careful with this sort of thing but his gift did seem to be from God. There are people out there in the world that have amazing gifts, stellar, mind-blowing gifts! There are non-christians that maybe even have stronger gifts than those in the body of Christ!

Nope all power belongs to GOD,
Anything that's not of the spirit isn't from GOD at all

 

[timewerx]

for whoever is not against us is for us.

I've not converted into Christianity yet when I already possessed some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and receiving guidance from it.

But I already heard about the name of Jesus a few times when I went to church but never doing any declaration and prayers for acceptance, belief, salvation, forgiveness, etc.

I was only a young child at that time and I already felt there's two "Jesus" in the world. One is the real one and the other one is counterfeit and more people worship the counterfeit Christ.

I've also encountered God in dreams as a young child, as early as 2 years old and he's everything in that dream I would found out many many years later reading about God in the Bible.

It was an overwhelming presence. Like how the people in the Old Testament felt when they encountered God. It wasn't really like surrounded by 'love'. I think that is a 'new age' concept. The feeling is way more like being swept off your feet at the beach by a very large wave.

In fact, getting swallowed by a huge wave triggers my childhood memories of God in dreams.

 

[timewerx]

So whatever spirit is guiding an unconverted person is not the Holy Spirit, but another spirit that is not of God.

Doesn't the Bible says, "The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the little ones" - young children as I did. NOT because they've converted, NOT because they read the Bible but simply possessing a heart uncorrupted by this world.

What if this Spirit literally guided you to convert, study the Bible earnestly, passionately, and with great urgency?

Because that's what this 'Spirit' made me do long before I became a Christian at the age of 30. This Spirit had been guiding me, showing me dreams, taking me to God in dreams as far back as my earliest childhood memories at the age of 2.

It felt like a re-union when I read and understood the Bible fully at the age of 30 because I recognized the same Spirit who was with me since I'm only a very young child.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Have you ever studied the New Testament in Greek where the Gospel was originally written into?

Think this over for once, if Christ's name J-e-s-u-s in whatever form or language translation is so important that it carries supernatural powers, then why did Jesus NEVER introduced Himself as "Jesus" (for example, "I am Jesus") except ONLY to one man - Apostle Paul (where it is likely due to Paul's atrocities against Christians that forced the hand of Jesus to reveal His alphabetical name).

Also Jesus can write but the only one time it was said He wrote anything was unreadable and it was on sand, very temporary. If even the spelling is so important and yet Jesus Himself doesn't even care about it.

Is it possible we built the biggest religion in the world upon false assumptions and possibly deceived a huge multitude as prophesied in the Bible.?

Matthew1:21 blows that theory out of the water.
"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Doesn't the Bible says, "The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the little ones" - young children as I did. NOT because they've converted, NOT because they read the Bible but simply possessing a heart uncorrupted by this world.

What if this Spirit literally guided you to convert, study the Bible earnestly, passionately, and with great urgency?

Because that's what this 'Spirit' made me do long before I became a Christian at the age of 30. This Spirit had been guiding me, showing me dreams, taking me to God in dreams as far back as my earliest childhood memories at the age of 2.

It felt like a re-union when I read and understood the Bible fully at the age of 30 because I recognized the same Spirit who was with me since I'm only a very young child.

You have every right to have your opinion based on your own experience, but nothing you have said influences me to change my opinion.

 

[timewerx]

You have every right to have your opinion based on your own experience, but nothing you have said influences me to change my opinion.

I can agree it's better to be safe than sorry. But don't get too far you end up denying the Holy Spirit in other things it is capable of doing without 'breaking the rules' in the Bible.

 

[anetazo]

I'm not judging anyone. Read in Samuel, king saul sought witch of endor. The woman had gift as a medium. Familiar spirits. This gift is from satan. She was non believer. Satan gives gifts to non believers. In Acts, a girl had demon, she made money for her handlers. Apostle Paul cast out the spirit in Jesus name. The occult is dangerous. Some practice black magic arts. Leviticus chapter 19, God has cut off those who practice the occult. Stay away from non believers. They don't have the holy spirit. It's a unclean spirit. Get the picture.

 

[Berserk]

Evangelicals need to know what they don't know. In my experience non-Christians often exercise psychic gifts in a more compelling and edifying way than evangelicals. How can I explain this? First, I must admit I don't know, but I can speculate.
Here are 3 factors that might be relevant;
(1) God communicates with humanity through both general and special revelation. General revelation is available for everyone.
(2) The Greek for spiritual gifts is "charisma" which literally means "gracelets." So divine gifts are imparted by unmerited favor, not by merit.
(3) It is possible that some gifts of the Spirit activate psychic potentials that were already present in the mind prior to conversion. We know very little about the latent powers of the human mind.

Years ago, I attended the New England Garden Show in Boston. There was a young female card reader sitting at a table who charged $5 for a reading. Bored, I decided to try her, something I have never done before or since. She asked me to draw 3 cards from a shuffled deck.
Then she looked at them and predicted 2 astounding facts about my immediate future:

(1) She told me in the next day or so I would receive a job offer from an exotic place but advised me not to accept it. I protested that I was still working on my Harvard doctoral thesis and was not even looking for a job yet, but she was adamant. The next day I got a call from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland--a pretty exotic place! The caller was the chair of their summer Masters program in theology and he invited me to teach a Masters level New Testament course. I declined, citing my unfinished dissertation as the reason.
(2) She told me I would soon be working with children and was cut out to do so. That was the last thing I wanted to do as a single bachelor who didn't even want to date unmarried women with children. 2 days later, my Harvard thesis advisor called to pressure me into coaching Under-12 boys in a Boston youth soccer league. I succumbed to his pressure and am glad I did. I coached those boys for 3 years and loved every minute of it! Those boys felt like the sons I'd never had. That card reader proved a real blessing to me, though I have no interest in delving into the occult.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Evangelicals need to know what they don't know. In my experience non-Christians often exercise psychic gifts in a more compelling and edifying way than evangelicals. How can I explain this? First, I must admit I don't know, but I can speculate.
Here are 3 factors that might be relevant;
(1) God communicates with humanity through both general and special revelation. General revelation is available for everyone.
(2) The Greek for spiritual gifts is "charisma" which literally means "gracelets." So divine gifts are imparted by unmerited favor, not by merit.
(3) It is possible that some gifts of the Spirit activate psychic potentials that were already present in the mind prior to conversion. We know very little about the latent powers of the human mind.

Years ago, I attended the New England Garden Show in Boston. There was a young female card reader sitting at a table who charged $5 for a reading. Bored, I decided to try her, something I have never done before or since. She asked me to draw 3 cards from a shuffled deck.
Then she looked at them and predicted 2 astounding facts about my immediate future:

(1) She told me in the next day or so I would receive a job offer from an exotic place but advised me not to accept it. I protested that I was still working on my Harvard doctoral thesis and was not even looking for a job yet, but she was adamant. The next day I got a call from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland--a pretty exotic place! The caller was the chair of their summer Masters program in theology and he invited me to teach a Masters level New Testament course. I declined, citing my unfinished dissertation as the reason.
(2) She told me I would soon be working with children and was cut out to do so. That was the last thing I wanted to do as a single bachelor who didn't even want to date unmarried women with children. 2 days later, my Harvard thesis advisor called to pressure me into coaching Under-12 boys in a Boston youth soccer league. I succumbed to his pressure and am glad I did. I coached those boys for 3 years and loved every minute of it! Those boys felt like the sons I'd never had. That card reader proved a real blessing to me, though I have no interest in delving into the occult.

The problem is that when you consulted the card reader you did actually delve into the occult. It doesn't mean that just because the predictions were accurate, that what you received was of God. King Saul consulted a witch of Endor, and it resulted in him losing his kingdom and his life. The witch's prediction came true, but Saul came off second best.

 

[Berserk]

The problem is that when you consulted the card reader you did actually delve into the occult. It doesn't mean that just because the predictions were accurate, that what you received was of God. King Saul consulted a witch of Endor, and it resulted in him losing his kingdom and his life. The witch's prediction came true, but Saul came off second best.

Yes, but my experience inspired my faith in God and His sovereign guidance of my life.