Episode 45: Do Gifts of the Holy Spirit Still Exist?

Listen as a podcast by clicking the black box below or go to your favorite podcasting place and search for The All Gifts Podcast. The blog version is below and you can also watch the conversation on YouTube.

Praying in Malawi, Africa.

In this episode I’m joined by Pastor Maral Hinson, coleader of Purpose Place LA Church. My husband Joe and I started attending Purpose Place LA in July 2020.

The church we’d been attending with our family for over a decade stopped meeting in person during the pandemic. I was filled with grief. Missing my spiritual family and the experience of worshiping God in person with other believers. One Sunday, Joe found Purpose Place LA worshipping in person on Instagram live and they were just a few minutes from our house, so we joined them. And we’ve been going ever since.

In some ways our new church was very similar to our previous church. Maral and her husband Pastor Keith-Alan shared our love for the bible. They rented space from a bigger church, they taught solid biblical teaching, and they believed that Jesus was Lord.

But our new church was also different. It was extremely small. A dozen people compared to over 500.

And they spoke in tongues.

Where we came from, speaking in tongues was heresy.

When I came to Christ in 2007, I knew nothing of doctrine or theological teachings. I just knew that I went from a crazy cycle of addiction and self-loathing to a newfound freedom in Christ. I didn’t question the teaching that spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues, healing and prophecy were no longer needed because we have the bible. I participated in bible studies where we disputed the gifts and taught people to distrust anyone who used them.

Afterall, that stuff was kind of spooky.

What I now know is that we were teaching cessationism, a doctrine that spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophecy and healing ceased with the apostles of the bible.

Pastors Keith-alan and Maral Hinson of Purpose Place LA

In January 2021, many months after attending our new church and praying for insight and guidance on these spiritual gifts, my husband Joe got COVID. As a symptom, he experienced intense anxiety attacks. Suddenly my “earthly protector,” the one who cared for me like no one in my life ever has, was physically, mentally, and emotionally sick.

Unable to ease his pain, I locked myself in our garage and cried out to God. My cry became a howl that bubbled into a word I didn’t understand, which bubbled into many unintelligible words.

The peace I suddenly felt was undeniable.

Yet almost as soon as it happened, my mind took over and clamped down.

Unsure if that was speaking in tongues, I didn’t tell anyone. Sometime later, unaccustomed to flying, I was on a bumpy flight. I breathed and prayed unintelligible words into my mask, and I felt that peace again. But afterwards I doubted it. Was I really doing it or was I just making it up? I gave up and decided I didn’t really need it anyway.

Then, this past December 2021, I went to Africa ready to fight for God and be used however he wanted to use me.

In this episode, I discuss this experience with Pastor Maral and how after visiting Africa, I will never doubt the validity of the gifts of the spirit again. Listen or watch this conversation and let me know what you think!