It has been argued from this, that anyone who truly believes will
receive the miraculous gifts. However, this proves too much - “they shall
take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mk. 16:18).
This is no promise of things which might theoretically happen if the
believer had enough faith; these were sure promises of what would definitely
be done by believers. Unless miracles of this magnitude are clearly
performed, the promise of this verse cannot apply to us at the present time.
You may recall how Paul was able to hold a poisonous snake without being
bitten (Acts 28:3-7), resulting in the confirmation of his preaching as
being from God.
Of all the charismatic Christians who have claimed to
possess the gifts during the past one hundred years, there has been no
realistic evidence of such powers being exercised . Unless every believer
can and does perform signs of such magnitude, this promise cannot apply
today. This leaves us with the conclusion which we have already drawn from
our survey of Bible teaching about the spirit: these miraculous gifts were
possessed by the early Christian believers in the first century, but they
ceased to be possessed after the New Testament Scriptures were completed.
It's worth noting that the experience of humanly inexplicable phenomena is
no proof of posessing Holy Spirit gifts. Paul reminded the Corinthians that
before their conversion to Christ, they had still experienced 'spiritual'
things in their idol worship; and that even a person who curses Christ could
appear to be manifesting supernatural powers (1 Cor. 12:2). Seeing
odd things going on in a church service is therefore actually no proof that
the Holy Spirit is posessed there.
The final verse of Mk. 16 suggests that the miracles “following”
those who believed were for the specific purpose of confirming the spoken
word of the Gospel: “These signs shall follow them that believe...they went
forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming
the word with signs following” (Mk. 16:17,20). Once that spoken word was
written down in completeness, as we now have it in the New Testament, there
was no more need for the miraculous signs to follow those who believed.