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Are we given the gifts of the Holy Spirit in these days?

What is the difference between The Holy Ghost and The Holy Spirit? When does one receive the Holy Spirit? Are we given the gifts of the Holy Spirit in these days? Do miracles still continue?

These are all very good questions. To answer your first question, there is no difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. In the original Greek language, they are both the same words. It is just that in 1611 when King James authorized his English translation of the Bible, the word Ghost was used as opposed to Spirit. We use Spirit today because we understand the word Ghost differently than they did, but it is all the same in the Greek.

To answer your second question, as to when one receives the Holy Spirit, we have a passage in Galatians 3:2. It says, “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” The Spirit was received through or by the hearing of faith. The phrase “hearing of faith” means so much more than just listening to God’s word being preached. It means understanding it and obeying it as well. So the Holy Spirit only dwells in the one who through faith, receives God’s word and
is obedient to it. This is when the Christian receives the Holy Spirit, but this is not the miraculous aspect of the Holy Spirit.

To answer your third question, the only times in the Bible where we read of the gift or gifts of the Holy Spirit are in the context of the miraculous. Acts 2:38 is spoken within the context of the miraculous. There are no other references to the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 that do not refer to the miraculous. It would be inconsistent and out of context to say that the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38 is anything other than the miraculous. Acts 10:45 should be an obvious example of the miraculous. 1 Corinthians 12:4, 9 and Hebrews 2:3, 4 are also dealing with the miraculous. As far as I can tell these are the only passages that contain references to the gift or gifts of the Holy Spirit/Ghost.

To answer your fourth question, miracles do not continue today. First, look at the quality of miracles that people claim to perform today. Where are the ones who can walk on the water? Where are the ones who can still the storms? Where are the ones who can raise the dead? Where are the ones who can make the deaf hear? Where are the ones who can make the blind see? Where are the ones who can heal a withered arm? These are all the quality of miracles that occur within the Bible. You will never find a single person who can perform this quality of miracle. Instead, you find people trying to perform more ambiguous type miracles–things that are not obviously miracles. You find people shaking around on the ground. You find people speaking in “tongues” which are not tongues at all according to the Bible definition of tongues (read Acts 2:1-11 and pay attention to what tongues are in this passage). You find people being healed of diseases that they can’t see or define. The quality of miracles that you have today is simply not the same as what Jesus and the apostles did.

Second, though, and perhaps more importantly, the Bible says that miracles have ceased. While 1 Corinthians 13 is mostly looked at as the great chapter of love in the Bible, that is not what is under consideration by the apostle in the context of the book. Paul is discussing the use of miraculous gifts in chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 13 he is drawing a distinction between miracles and the way of love. Notice what he says in the middle of the chapter regarding what is going to remain and what is going to cease (verse 8). “Charity (love) never faileth: but whether there be prophesies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” The miraculous is going to cease but love is not. That is the contrast that Paul is drawing.
Now at the end of the chapter he adds two more things to the concept of love that shall not cease. These three things together are faith, hope, and love. These three will abide, but the miraculous will cease. Some people say that these things have not ceased now, but will cease when Jesus comes. This is what they say “that which is perfect” means in verse 10. However, “that which is perfect” cannot mean Jesus because when Jesus comes hope will be done away with. Paul writes in Romans 8:24 “For we are saved by hope:
but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” When Jesus comes again, we will see Him and no longer have hope in Him. If “that which is perfect” is Jesus, then not only must miracles cease at that time, but hope as well. But Paul says in verse 13 that hope abides. So “that which is perfect” must be something other than Jesus. In fact, “that which is perfect” has already come. “That which is perfect” is the completely revealed word of God. James calls it the “perfect law of liberty” in James 1:25. Additionally, we read that Ephesians 4:7-13 also talks about when miracles will end. The gifts that were given (apostles, prophets, etc) were given UNTIL we all come to the “unity of the faith.” This means that when the “Unity of the Faith” came, there was no longer a need for the miraculous gifts. The unity of the faith is no less than God’s complete revealed word.

Allow me to phrase the argument succinctly:
1. Miraculous gifts will cease, but faith, hope, and love will abide (1 Cor. 13:8,13).
2. Miraculous gifts will cease when that which is perfect comes (1 Cor. 13:10).
3. Faith, hope, and love will continue when that which is perfect comes (1 Cor. 10:13).
4. Hope can’t continue when Jesus comes because hope that is seen is not hope and Jesus will be seen (Romans 8:24).
5. So, that which is perfect can’t be Jesus’ coming because then hope would not abide.
6. Therefore, that which is perfect must come after the time Paul writes and before Jesus comes again.
7. Therefore, miracles must cease sometime after Paul writes and before Jesus comes again.
8. This was going to happen when the “unity of the faith” came (Eph. 4:13).
9. The “unity of the faith” came after John wrote the book of Revelation (Rev. 22:18,19).
10. Miraculous gifts ended after John wrote the book of Revelation.

Finally, we must take into account the purpose of miracles. We read in Mark 16:20, “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” The purpose of miracles was to confirm the word of God. They did not have a Bible like you and I have. They had people who were preaching. They needed something to show that what they were preaching and saying was the truth. God gave witness to them through miracles that what they were saying was the truth. This is the purpose of miracles. Notice also Hebrews 2:3,4 “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” The words which were first spoken were confirmed by God bearing witness to the words. How did He do this? Through signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. This is how the words of the apostles and prophets were confirmed–proved to be God’s truth. We have the completely revealed word of God today in the Bible. It was confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and by the miracles that the apostles performed and is a historical document. We have no more need to have it confirmed today. Where is the need for miracles today? There is no need.

Now take these three things into account. 1) That there is no need for miracles today, 2) that the quality of miracles that are allegedly done today are inferior to the miracles done in the New Testament and 3) that the Bible says that miracles have ceased and where does that leave us? That those who claim to perform miracles today are really charlatans of the basest kind. They are hoaxes and frauds. Miracles do not exist today. (By the way, my wife is deaf and would very much like to hear, so if you know of someone who claims to be able to perform miracles, just tell them that we would be happy for them to come down and try.)