Discover Your Spiritual Gifts by C. Peter Wagner

Author:C. Peter Wagner [Wagner, C. Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Living / Spiritual Growth, REL012120, REL012070, REL109010
ISBN: 9780800798352
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

DON’T CONFUSE SPIRITUAL GIFTS WITH COUNTERFEIT GIFTS

I wish I did not have to write this section on counterfeit gifts. I wish it were not true that Satan and his demons and evil spirits are real and actively opposing the work of the Lord. Jesus Himself said, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24). Jesus also spoke about those who prophesy and cast out demons in His name but who, in reality, turn out to be workers of iniquity (see 7:22-23).

I do not doubt that Satan can and does counterfeit every gift on the list. He is a supernatural being and he has supernatural powers—powers that originate in the realm of darkness. Satan’s power was shown in a spectacular way in Egypt when Pharaoh’s magicians could publicly match some of the supernatural works that God did through Moses (see Exod. 7—8). Of course, Satan’s power is limited and controlled. In Egypt he could match God’s works only to a certain point, and this applies today as well.

A rather chilling book on this subject, entitled The Challenging Counterfeit, was written by Raphael Gasson, now a Christian but formerly a spiritualist medium. He tells it like it is out there in the real world. Gasson’s experience has shown him that “it is very obvious that Satan is using an extremely subtle counterfeit to the precious gifts of the Spirit.”1 In his book, Gasson describes in detail several of Satan’s favorite counterfeits.

False Gifts

Gasson specifically shows, for example, how false gifts of faith, miracles, healing, tongues and the interpretation of tongues are produced by Satan. The counterfeit of the gift of discerning spirits, he feels, is clairvoyance and clairaudience. The gift of deliverance is cleverly reproduced by the devil as well, and this is one of the reasons I do not like to refer to it as the gift of exorcism.

Gasson also recalls how Satan gave him, as he gives to many other fortune-tellers, the ability to prophesy, and points out that most of these counterfeit prophecies came true. This is one way the devil makes his appeals more attractive. Psychics can earn a living by receiving information from the invisible world through agents of the devil.

On one occasion during the World War II years, for example, a man brought to Gasson an item belonging to the man’s son who was in the military. The man wanted to find out where his son was. Through his “spirit guide,” who purported to be the spirit of an African witch doctor, Gasson found out that the owner of the item was well and a prisoner of war. The father then proceeded to show Gasson a telegram from the War Department stating that his son had been killed in action more than two weeks previously. Gasson went back to his guide and verified that the soldier-son really was not dead and that the father would have this confirmed in three days.

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