Ed, I don't doubt your sincerity. Really I never have. And I don't doubt Tom Fisher's sincerity.
But just like you, I see deception as a real concern, and I like to fight it whenever possible and I may come across too strong when doing that sometimes. But you have to admit you do that too, right! :) But didn't even Paul sound very strong sometimes in his fight against deception (But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. Gal. 2:11) Sounds a bit strong. lol
Ed: As with your strongly held mind boggling perception that the miracle gifts have ceased in the face of all the abundant and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, your perception which includes the false idea that it would have to be 100% effective every time to be a real gift, is not an issue of you intentionally trying to deceive others, but one of you arguing very sincerely from a place of your own deception.
V: The gift of healing not being 100% is not my greatest evidence to believe the gift of healing is no longer given. My greatest evidence is all the biblical evidence as to why all the Apostolic gifts were given in the first place, what they were meant for, and the biblical evidence that they ceased, or passed away.
I can't rely on experience for the truth on this doctrine or any others. Afterall, once again, I see the Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, New Agers, etc. claiming their own miracles and gifts of healing, etc. I saw a story today of a pretty miraculous miracle but the woman was a non-believer and she contributed her miracle to a New Age person. So since the gift of healing is proclaimed everywhere, even amongst all the false religions, etc. what should I be looking for to know if someone is a "healer" from God or not? The evidence can't be the miracles if even the false religions claim that and show supposed evidences of that, can it? You say yes to that I guess since you think God will do miracles through someone despite what they believe and teach, at least it sounded like that's what you were saying. But let's not forget also that the bible is filled with warnings of lying signs and wonders that will look like real signs and wonders, and that's why they will deceive people. And why will Satan bring the lying signs and wonders? Because he wants to lead people away from the true gospel into false religions, etc.
So my evidence can't be the miracles. My evidence has to be, what does someone teach? Are they teaching the true gospel?
I see Tom Fisher saying he has the gift of healing. But does he preach the true gospel, and from the little bit of teaching from him that I have access to, I have found that he doesn't. Now, as I said up above, I don't doubt his sincerity. But what I see him calling an accurate grace and gospel message is not accurate at all to me.
But as I've said countless times on here, I still believe God still miraculously heals so saying I believe there is no "gift of healing" anymore is in no way saying God does not heal anymore. So people should still hope, pray, be anointed, etc. for healing. And then accept whatever God's will is. And that's another false teaching I constantly see with the "healers". I constantly see them saying that it's always God's will to heal, despite all the biblical evidence to the contrary as well as all the evidence of people of true faith not being healed.
Ed: I believe that your overwhelming need to attack those walking in the miracle gifts is based on the same blinding and deceiving anti-Holy Spirit religious spirit that influenced the pharisees to continually attack Lord Jesus, attacks which included accusing Him of casting out beelzebub by the power of beelzebub and of Him generally being of the devil.
V: I'm not attacking these people anymore than they are attacking those that oppose them, if we want to call it "attacking". We are all called to stand up for what we believe to be the truth, because just as you said, deception is a real concern and has real consequences. So just as you said about how it would be good to stop assuming that everyone we think is in deception is purposely deceiving, I say let's also stop saying that standing up for what we believe is "attacking!" What do you say? :)
So here are a couple of videos I watched today. Both these stories are from Oprah's new series called "Belief". The first one is a story of a couple I've been following for a long time. They are Christians and have been prayed for by thousands and thousands of people all over the world for the husband's healing. He has been anointed over and over. And I'm pretty sure they have been prayed for by those that claim the "gift of healing". I think James Robinson claims the gift of healing and he prayed for Ian in person. I do not believe they would deny anyone praying for them. They are huge fans of John Piper and John Piper is not a cessationist. I also know that when Ian was first injured, the whole family, and also his girlfriend who is now his wife, were sure he would be completely healed when the accident happened and for so long after that even. I think eventually after so much praying and waiting, they came to understand that it might be God's will for them to walk in this, and their strength and love in this has been a testimony to God's grace to countless people around the world. You can see in the video, that even Oprah sees them as inspiring, hence why she chose them out of thousands of other stories I'm sure, to be in her new series.
This next story is about a woman that also had a traumatic brain injury, just as the husband in the story above had a traumatic brain injury. Both were in a coma for a long time. But this woman miraculously got better. Yet there is no glory given to God, but the glory is given to a Muslim mystic.