Comfort or Faith?

Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts. -- 1 Cor 12:27-31

How much Scripture are we willing to throw away for our favored leaders? To be sure MacArthur uses a small piece of 1 Cor 13 to claim that gifts are dead. The thing is in doing so he completely ignores the intent of what Paul was saying, because Paul goes on to explain that these things will disappear when perfection comes. Now this word actually has completion in mind. In other words, Paul is saying these things will pass away when all things are complete. Are all things complete? No. So, we can know that what MacArthur has said is in error.

The Spirit is not so inept as to have Paul encourage us to seek His gifts in Chapter 12 of Corinthians only to deny them to us in Chapter 13. Neither would the Lord have promised us we could move mountains if He had not intended for us to do just that (Mar 11:23). But the greater issue lies with John 14:

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it." -- 12-14

The literal translation here is that the "one believing in Me the works which I do that one will also do". In other words, this was not spoken just to the disciples; but rather,  to all those who truly believe. There is no time frame on it, and this is the Lord speaking. Even if some are willing to believe the lie against Paul, surely, they will not accept a man's words over the Lord's.

Here's the thing: Anytime we are gifted by God we are expected to use that gift. We are not given gifts to let them sit on a shelf. They are not given to us to hoard to ourselves. No, they are given to us to exalt Him. To not use them is to insult Him. And that is the comfort of MacArthur, not having to stand like we believe the Lord strongly enough to act on His words.

The only reason we do not have greater things is because we do not ask for them. We do not ask for them, because we don't honestly believe Him. It is just much easier to claim none of these things were meant for us than to live like we know they were.