I just carefully read through your post, George, and you show clearly that the sign gifts have ended, using the same scriptures the men I quoted also used. This line of reasoning from the scriptures is fairly new to me and has been more effective than anything else so far in convincing me that the gifts of the Spirit are not for today, and helping me renounce for good the supposed tongue-speaking I had but never felt right about. (I was praying out loud in my bedroom one morning in the early 90s when these sounds suddenly came out instead of English. I discovered I could make them come out any time I wanted after that. It never felt worshipful or holy, never felt right at all, but I definitely was not doing this myself. This continued after I left the charismatic movement, although I asked the Lord many times to take it away if it wasn't from Him. It never went away, I would just sometimes say these sounds out of the blue, so I remained in doubt. It wasn't until very recently, thanks to teaching like yours, that I was finally completely convinced I had to work to rid myself of it, resist it with determination, and I'm still not completely rid of it).

I think you are right that it's mostly women who get this "gift." The very first one to experience it under Charles Parham's teaching was a woman, and it's interesting that the charismatic movement accepts women preachers, which is clearly against the scripture. However, it has been men who have taught these things and promoted them, such as Charles Parham. Even some of the greatest Christian men have accepted the gifts as legitimate, and chide people for doubting that they are from God. It's distressing to me that great teachers like A W Tozer and Andrew Murray and Martyn Lloyd Jones, some of my most favorite teachers, treat these phenomena as legitimate. Leonard Ravenhill, who taught a solidly God-centered call to holiness and revival, criticized those who don't accept the gifts as part of God's coming in revival, while yet strongly advocating that we seek revival. I want revival but I know that if it comes with tongues or prophecy that it's bogus. None of these men claimed the gifts for themselves but by allowing them as legitimate expressions of God's power for today they allowed demons into OTHER people's lives.

Emphasizing scripture is of course always right, BUT we have to have pastors and teachers to interpret for us, as rightly dividing the word of truth isn't just automatic on hearing or reading the word, and even with study people disagree on the meaning of different parts of scripture.

"Tongues" seems to be different than the other "gifts of the Spirit" since scripture says it was meant for unbelieving Jews. As for the other gifts, as Jerry says in his answer to me, there is a big difference between God's giving healing, or wisdom or discernment in answer to prayer for dealing with particular situations, which of course He continues to do, and the gift of any of these to individuals as they were given to the apostles. But I've continued to wonder all these years about phenomena like the inner "voice" I mentioned above, which isn't one of the "gifts" but is certainly supernatural. I haven't experienced it in years but I also feel I need to know for sure how to tell if something like that is from the Lord or not so I can resist it consistently if it's not. Perhaps the "fruit" is the only test. Since none of these things has done anything to further my walk in holiness perhaps that's all that needs to be said.