"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel... By which also ye are saved... unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

There is an old saying that states, “There are more things wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”. In the book of Ephesians, persevering prayer is the last of seven pieces of armour that Paul says we ought to put on in our spiritual battle against the enemy of our souls. In any battle it is important that communication lines with the Captain of our salvation are kept open. He has the greater view of the battle, and so we should report to Him frequently and wait for His instructions in all things. When the communication lines are broken, there is great potential for disaster.

It has been suggested by some that “praying in the spirit” is a reference to speaking in tongues, but this cannot be for Paul is addressing his letter to all the saints in Ephesus. This piece of armour is not only for the few, if any, who may have had the gift of speaking in tongues in the Church at Ephesus, but for all the “brethren” (Ephesians 6:10). Can it be that only an elect few with the gift of speaking in tongues could “pray in the Spirit”? Are not the prayers of all the saints who are praying in the will of the Lord as the Holy Spirit leads them, “prayers in the Spirit”?

This is just another example of how the “Charismatic Movement” has skewed the Scriptures and detrimentally influenced many to misinterpret the God's Word with their teachings. What benefit could any prayer be where the one praying has no understanding of what he is saying? Paul says this would be “unfruitful” (1Corinthians 14:15), and exhorts us to “pray with the spirit, and … pray with the understanding also” (1Corinthians 14:15).

The fact of the matter is that Paul said, “tongues … shall cease” (1 Corinthians 13:8). The word “cease” comes from the Greek word “pauo”, were we get our word “pause” from, which simply means “come to an end”. The gift of tongues was a gift of the Spirit that was fully operational in the days of the apostles, but Paul said it would be “done away” with “when that which is perfect is come” (v. 9). Some have tried to force their own interpretation on these verses to mean Christ at His Second Coming. This could never refer to Christ at His Second Coming for “that” is a neuter pronoun. Furthermore, “that which is perfect” comes from one Greek word, “teleios” which means, “complete” or “mature”. In the context, “that which is perfect” appears to be referring to the completion of Biblical revelation.

Paul went on to say, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:11-12).

James also used these exact same metaphors when referring to the Scriptures. “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect [Gr. teleios] law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:23-25).


The Word of God is like a mirror or “glass” where “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Scriptures reveal to us who we are, and by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, enable us to make the necessary changes to be like Jesus.

Now, with the completed canon of Scripture we have all the truth we need for our guidance until Christ comes again. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

It is clear that some of the gifts of the Spirit were not for all people, nor for all time. Some of these were to be done away with when the revelation of God's written Word was completed with the last apostle, John (Revelation 22:18-19).