I do not oppose any kind of gift, but I am fighting because these gifts have been greatly utilized by the enemy to frustrate people from knowing Christ in a deeper way. There was a group of Christians in China called the True Jesus Church. Whenever they came together, they had to kneel down and shake their chairs to exercise their gifts. That was their way. I am not saying whether this is right or wrong. But the subtlety of the enemy is that he utilized this matter to hinder these people from going on to know Christ in a deeper way. They could not sit quietly with a sober mind and an open spirit to listen to someone speaking to them about Christ as the inner life. They were held by their gifts and could not advance in the knowledge of Christ.

I have seen a great number of people who were stirred up to speak in tongues. But once they had the speaking in tongues, they were held by it. It is somewhat easy to help a new believer and even an unbeliever to know Christ, but it is rather hard to help a person who speaks in tongues to know Christ in a deeper way. Here again we see the subtlety of the enemy. The gifts which are used by God to bring people to Christ have been utilized by Satan to hold people and prevent them from going on with Christ. Thus, even the gifts can become something against God's purpose. First Corinthians was written simply because the Corinthian believers were held by the gifts and would not go on to know Christ in a deeper way. Whenever they came together, they just exercised to speak in tongues. This is why the apostle told them not to exercise that much in speaking in tongues. He said, "In the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue" (1 Cor. 14:19). This is the clear word of God and we cannot fight against it. It is in the opening of this book to the Corinthians that the apostle declared, "I did not determine to know anything...except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified" (2:2).

If we receive Christ and experience Him by the cross, the Holy Spirit who indwells us will restrict us from exercising so much in the gifts. Many Christians today are under the deceiving of the subtle one. They are deceived not by sinful things but by good things given by God. These good things frustrate people by mixing up the Old Testament principles with the New Testament principles, mixing up the soul with the spirit, and mixing up the carnal things with the spiritual things. We need the cross. If we are willing to go to the cross and let the cross be applied in our heart, we will know where we are.

Brothers and sisters, I would ask you to stand together in the spirit to pray and fight the battle. Throughout the generations the enemy has always been doing things in a subtle way. He is doing one thing, yet he pretends he is doing something else. We have to stand together in the spirit to pray. The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but spiritual (2 Cor. 10:4). We have to pray in the spirit to fight the battle for Christ. Only Christ is the safeguard. Do not trust anything else. All things must be tested by Christ.