Our expectations for the Christian life matter and those expectations tend to create a gulf in the body of Christ. On the one hand, a major stream of theological thought holds that Jesus came, lived a life of miracles to prove that he was the Son of God, and purchased the forgiveness of our sins through his sacrifice on the cross.  His intent for us is that we come to faith in Him and his completed work on the cross, live a moral life, teach others the tenants of our faith, and do good to the people around us.  The expectations of these believers keep them from ever seeking more.

A second stream of thought is that Jesus came and lived a life of miracles to not only demonstrate that he was the Son of God but also that the Kingdom of God had come with power. His intent is not only that we would come to faith in Him but that we would also continue to demonstrate his reality and the power of the kingdom of heaven by doing the miracles he did as we lead others to Christ while doing good to those around us.

Perhaps, it seems like a small difference but in practice it is not.  The first stream of thought believes in the historic miracles of Jesus and the early church but holds that the historic record is sufficient for belief.  No current miracles are necessary to bring others to Christ and, therefore, the Holy Spirit no longer distributes gifts of prophecy, tongues, healings, miracles, and so forth.  Moral living, loving others, and preaching the gospel are the defining marks of the church.

The second stream of thought would echo moral living, loving others and doing good but would add the element of miracles not only for the purpose of evangelism but also as an ongoing expression of the love and compassion of God for hurting people.  Jesus did public miracles in order to establish who he was but he also did many in private telling the person who was healed to tell no one.  His motivation for healing as much out of compassion as it was to prove that he was the Son of God.  He is still compassionate.

There are all kinds of religions and religious groups who claim to have revelation from God concerning salvation.  They also point people to living a moral life, loving others, and doing good.  They nearly all have some form of historic miracles on which their doctrines and stories stand.  So…how will a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Scientologist, or a Satanist determine that Jesus is the real God versus the one they have been taught to worship since birth?

Moses seems instructive in this matter.  Remember when he had his showdown with Pharaoh and the false gods of Egypt (Ex. 7-12).  Pharaoh called on his magicians to match the miracles of Jehovah….and they did….for a while.  Moses had Aaron throw down his staff and his staff turned into a snake, but so did theirs by “secret arts”.  The snake from Aaron’s rod ate the snakes of the magicians, but both displayed impressive power.

Moses then commanded the waters of Egypt to turn to blood.  Pharaoh’s magicians did the same by their “secret arts”.  Moses called up a plague of frogs. The sorcerers of Egypt matched that as well.  However, Jehovah through his servant Moses continued to display his power and when a plague of gnats was called out, the magicians could not match it nor any of the plagues that followed. Then those same magicians declared to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

There came a point when the works of darkness could not compete with the works of God and those who saw the miracles began to believe.    Since our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), we need to understand that miracles were not just to impress men, but also to demonstrate the superiority of the Kingdom of Heaven over the kingdom of darkness.  Jehovah declared that his plagues were not just judgments on the men who had enslaved his people but also were judgments on all the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12).  In most parts of the world, men still do not need to be convinced that a spiritual realm exists.  Their question is not whether there is a god but only whether the God we serve is more powerful than the god they serve.  That can only be demonstrated by the miraculous hand of God.

Jesus reflected that same reality when he said to the Pharisees,  “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Luke 11:20). A demonstration of power was always at the center of Christ’s ministry as well as those he sent out.  When he sent out the twelve and the seventy he gave them power and authority to heal and cast out demons. When he gifted the church, he gave gifts that demonstrated the power of the Kingdom of God through prophecy, healing, miracles and so forth.

Throughout the book of Acts we see the supernatural move of God through miracles, angelic activity, and moves of the Holy Spirit.  That is the model of evangelism and church growth that we see in the New Testament. Interestingly, many of the churches that reject the miraculous move of the Holy Spirit today claim to model themselves after the New Testament church and yet omit the very things that demonstrated the reality of Jesus over the demonic spirits that were being worshipped throughout the New Testament world.

Jesus made an interesting comment about John the Baptist in the gospel of Luke.  He declared, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk.7:28). How could a brand new Christian or even a mature Christian be greater than John the Baptist?  Certainly, he would not be greater than John in character and faith but he would be greater in capacity because the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes a lifestyle available that not even John had access to.

By Old Covenant standards, John was the culmination of the prophets although we have no record of him doing any miracles.  But Jesus said that the least New Covenant follower would be greater than John. He said that because he was going to send the Spirit for all of his followers after he returned to the Father. Why would Jesus give us such capacity for power through the Holy Spirit, but not want us to exercise that power just as he did?  After all, he promised that anyone who had faith in him would do the works he had been doing and even greater things (John 14:12).  That sounds like an expectation for all who have faith and he did not put an expiration date on that promise.

In a world where no one knows who to believe or what to believe, it will take authentic demonstrations of the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven and the finger of God to convince the world that Jesus is who he says he is. Living a moral life and doing good is praiseworthy but it does not set us apart from others who claim to have God’s seal of approval and who live relatively moral lives and do good. Even Satan appears as an angel of light.  It will take miracles that outstrip what others can produce even by their secret arts just as in the days of Moses so that the truth of God’s word and the reality of Jesus become undeniable. My hope then and my prayer is that the church in America and each of us will begin to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in order to duplicate the ministry of Jesus that will once again turn the world upside down.  The apostle Paul summed it up when he said, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20).  The question for each if us then is, “How is that power being displayed in our lives or our churches?”

Blessings in Him.

Most mainline churches in America today still seem to fear an over-emphasis on the Holy Spirit. They certainly believe in the Holy Spirit as that part of God or that part of the Trinity that resides in God’s children, gives life to the spirit of man, and who shapes our character as Christians (fruit of the Spirit). However, the idea of power, revelation, prophetic words, words of knowledge, gifts of healing, visions, dreams, etc. are not on the menu in these churches. They seem to believe that if Christians pursue these supernatural manifestations of the Spirit, they will be led astray by the enemy into all kinds of deception and a faith focused on miracles rather than Jesus.

At the same time, there is a frustration in these churches, or at least among some of the people and leaders, that what we have in our faith is insufficient to truly meet the needs and challenges of the day. What do you do when your members suffer for years with depression, anxiety, fear, suicidal thoughts, addictions, doubts, gender confusion, or vaguely diagnosed illnesses and your prayers and Bible study only seem to give them temporary relief but no real victory?

Typically, churches that do not operate in the “supernatural” gifts of the Spirit, either conclude that these people have insufficient faith to be set free or send them out to secular doctors and psychologist for treatment. Even if they go to Christian counselors or therapists, most of them have been trained in secular approaches to treatment…so our people only get what the world offers with the simple addition of a prayer and a scripture. A theology then arises from our inability to help our people that declares that it is God’s will for his people to suffer in this fallen world, just as those who have no faith but the promised healing and freedom will come as we enter the presence of Jesus in heaven.

At the same time, we have the presence of Jesus within us already here on earth. Why shouldn’t that presence (the Holy Spirit) provide healing and freedom here as well as in heaven? In addition, Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 10, that we are not to wage war as the world wages war, but are to use divine weapons to pull down strongholds. He states this need for divine weapons because he also declares that our real struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers in heavenly realms. What doesn’t touch the spiritual realm will not set us free, if there is a spiritual component to our physical illness or emotional torment. And Paul suggests that most of the time, there is a spiritual component. Churches who don’t want to “over-emphasize” the Holy Spirit leave their people in the grasp of dark spiritual forces because secular treatment doesn’t touch the spiritual realm.

Of course, all churches pray for the healing of physical illnesses and emotional torment. Typically, however, the prayer is more of a wish than an expectation because if God doesn’t operate supernaturally in his church any more, then we can’t really expect more than secular doctors, science, and therapy can deliver. More than that, if God has provided solutions for infirmity and emotional distress through supernatural gifts of the Spirit, then he expects us to exercise those gifts as his primary source of healing and freedom and not just keep calling on him to do what he has equipped his church to do.

Sometimes we act like a policeman who has graduated from the academy and has been given authority and power to go make arrests and bring criminals to justice, but every time he sees a crime in progress, he calls the chief of police to come and do something. The chief will say, “ You have authority and power. You make the arrest. That is your job. If you can’t, then resign from the force.” If we keep calling on God to do what he has anointed and appointed us to do, then much will go undone. A heavy and healthy emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the church that stays consistent with biblical guidelines is the answer.

Before you push back, think about what an emphasis the first century church placed on the Holy Spirit beginning with Jesus himself. Jesus declared that the Holy Spirit would live in us, counsel us, teach us, lead us into all truth, reveal the heart and mind of God to us, heal us, free us, shape us, and give us power for ministry…to do what he had been doing. He didn’t tell the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit shaped their character or delivered sound doctrine so they could be effective witnesses. He commanded them to wait for power, which immediately manifested in tongues, revelation, and boldness. Can “supernatural” spiritual gifts be abused? Sure. They were widely abused in Corinth. Paul, however, did not tell them to quit exercising the gifts but to exercise them with love and a sense of order. When the church was looking for qualified leaders, they did not search for seminary graduates or successful businessmen, but looked for those who were full of the Spirit…which also manifested in miraculous works. The church was ordered to be filled with the Spirit at all times and to pray in the Spirit at all times. They were to earnestly desire spiritual gifts and to bear the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. When Ananias and Sapphira were disciplined unto death in Acts 5, it was because they had lied to the Holy Spirit. That suggests the prominence the Holy Spirit held in the church.

We could go on, but it would be heard to emphasize the Spirit more than the early church did or the New Testament does. I believe there is more danger in under-emphasizing the Spirit rather than over-emphasizing him. The truth is that the church needs much more of the Spirit rather than less if we are to fulfill our mandate of discipling nations and bringing heaven to earth.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold outthe word of life.  Philippians 2:14-16

I recently visited with a young woman who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a small group Bible study in her home, but continues to struggle with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.”  In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women of her community.

If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addictions, shame, fear, anger, depression, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a very large number of believers feel and act just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressures to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward people in their past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection.

I’m not scolding these believers for not being “the Christians they should be,” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom and healing that Jesus promises.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but does not radically free us and change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth in the text from Philippians quoted above.   Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness like the sun’s brilliant corona as it shines around a total eclipse. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness” or contrast to the unredeemed.

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not.  Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new. Jesus declared that he came to heal broken hearts and set captives free.  Those promises are for this world not just the world to come. After all, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave operates within us.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul declared, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  These individuals had come to Jesus with a lifestyle of sin that was essentially their identity. But, as new crea4tions, they were no longer what they had been.  This was more than forgiveness, it was transformation.  And it was transformation that had not taken decades of professional counseling, drug therapies, or detox clinics. It was the truth, the love of Christ and his body, and the power of the Holy Spirit that made such dramatic transformation possible.  It is still possible today and I have seen it over and over.

The Spirit of God who has constant access to the mind of God lives within us and is willing to download the knowledge and creativity of heaven to those who ask for it.  Because we have “the mind of Christ,” we should be the smartest, most creative, most resourceful, and most optimistic people on the planet in very noticeable ways.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, an incredible potential for radical change is released. The door to our prison cell is unlocked and opened wide.  The question is whether we will walk through that door into a radically new life or voluntarily stay in our familiar environment.  Many Christians stay because they are unaware of the open door because it is only perceived by faith.  They are also unaware of the destiny and power Christ offers them to set them free and transform their lives.

Satan’s first goal is to keep us from coming to Christ. If that fails, his second goal is to make us ineffective in Christ. One of the enemy’s most effective strategies is to convince a believer that he is the same person he always was and will always be, even after coming to Christ. We rarely rise above the view that we have of ourselves.  Satan peddles the lie that the only difference between the saved and unsaved person is that the saved person has his or her sins forgiven. Otherwise, we are still as powerless and broken as the unsaved around us.

I have heard that statement made in churches as an expression of humility and to push back against any tendency toward self-righteousness. The intent is honorable but the premise is false.  If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus, the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power, healing, authority, and blessings of heaven after our funeral.  Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while our life plays out like a sad country song.  That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.  That is not the abundant life. That is not being more than a conqueror.

After coming to Christ, the essential difference between those with the Spirit of Christ living in them and those without the Spirit should soon become apparent, not as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us. The fact that so many believers blend in perfectly with the world around them reveals that something is amiss. Speaking of Jesus, John tells us, “In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).  There was a measure and quality of life in Jesus that was unmistakable.  It stood out and drew men to him.  With Christ in us, we should exude the same life.  That life comes through the power that heals and sets men free (Isa.61:1-4) and the power that transforms us into the image of Christ.  A forgiving but powerless gospel will not take us there.

Paul gave a stern warning to the church at Galatia regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He declared, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal.1:6-8). Paul was concerned about a gospel that preached salvation by works, but an incomplete gospel also borders on being another gospel.To teach forgiveness only, without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, leaves believers vulnerable to the oppression and affliction of the enemy.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not yet made it into the majority of churches or believers in America.  My hope is that a time will soon come in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her area seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). I also hope that you will be a clear voice in the Kingdom of God for all that Jesus purchased on the cross for all those who follow him.

In this blog, we will finish our discussion of Cessationism which teaches that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous intervention of God ended somewhere around the end of the first century because the “purpose for miracles” had been fulfilled.

One basic rule of biblical interpretation is that you take the natural meaning of a passage unless the context or contradictory passages elsewhere force you to look for another meaning. Any natural reading of the New Testament would never leave the reader with the impression that miracles only had a seventy-year shelf life and would then slip into history.  The natural expectation for most would be that the ongoing life in the church would look like the Book of Acts with miraculous healings, deliverance, angelic visitations, and the dramatic evangelization of new people groups.  However, we are told by Cessationists that the power flowing through the church we read about in the New Testament was soon to be withdrawn and the Holy Spirit was about to be muted.

Miracles that were recorded two thousand years ago, but that are not replicated today in the name of Jesus, simply have the flavor of mythology. However, if those miracles are replicated, then the message about Jesus is reconfirmed to every generation.  I and millions of other Christians believe that God still performs miracles in order to confirm the message preached about Jesus and because he is still a compassionate God who cares about the suffering of people.  Additionally, John tells us that the reason Jesus came was to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8) … which apparently were the lost condition of man, illness, infirmity, broken hearts (emotional wounding), demonic affliction, demonic storms, and even premature death because those are the things that Jesus dealt with in his ministry.   Was he only concerned about destroying those works for a few decades in the first century?  Was the church then left without power to oppose a powerful enemy for millennia?  When Jesus said that anyone who had faith in him would do not only the works he did, but even greater works (Jn.14:12), there was no suggestion of a time limit or a brief window of opportunity to do those things. How do we faithfully represent Jesus (which means to re-present) without doing what he did?

There is an illustrative list of spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, and a list of offices in Ephesian 4:11.  Among those spiritual gifts are mercy, encouragement, administration, wisdom, faith, serving, giving, and leadership.  If these are spiritual gifts, then they were imparted supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.  Spiritual gifts do not come from the natural realm.  They are anointed supernaturally to bear spiritual fruit and to overcome the power of the enemy. If the supernatural gifts of healings, prophecy, miracles, etc. passed away at the end of the first century, then the remainder of the spiritual gifts should have ceased as well because Paul does not differentiate between one kind of gift and another.  To him they are all spiritual gifts (not natural bents or abilities) given by the Spirit to build up the body of Christ. Cessationists believe in the present-day gifts that don’t have such a supernatural flare such as mercy, giving, leadership, etc. but carve out those that demonstrate power and authority over the enemy and claim that God is done with those.  That seems very inconsistent to me. Theologians have created categories of gifts, but Paul never mentioned those categories.

Concerning the 1 Corinthians 13 passage that speaks of certain gifts ceasing, Paul was writing an entire chapter on love.  His premise was that even the most amazing gifts that were not motivated by love, fell short of God’s purposes.  He then said that love never fails but where there are prophecies they will eventually cease, tongues will eventually be stilled, and knowledge will eventually pass away.  He said that we know in part and prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect (complete, mature) shall come, what is in part will disappear. And we will know even as we are known. The Cessationists’ claim is that the “complete” or “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is the finished New Testament.  According to this view, once the New Testament was written and compiled, there was no longer any need for miracles or miraculous gifts to validate Jesus or the apostles. I have already addressed that part of the argument.

In the context of his chapter on love, Paul is more likely to be talking about the full maturation of love in the body of Christ or the return of Jesus who himself is perfection and completeness.  I haven’t noticed that the completion of the New Testament has given us full knowledge of everything we didn’t know then. Simply having something in writing does not mean I understand it. Three semesters of calculus in college demonstrates that point.  I had it all in writing, but never really understood it or its applications. If the completed New Testament were the key to full understanding and knowing as we are known, we would all be united in the faith rather than divided over so many points of doctrine.  We would be certain about end-times, which we are not. We would be agreed on spiritual gifts, which we are not.

Ephesians 4:11-16, is an interesting parallel to this passage.  There Paul says that Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to the church in order to equip the saints for works of service.  Those works are to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature.  Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine that blows through the church.

It is likely that Paul is saying the same thing in Ephesians 4 that he did in 1 Corinthians 13.  Notice the parallels:

• We have all been given spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ (1 Cor. 13)
• We have been given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for works of service that build up the body of Christ (Eph.4).
• The gifts are needed until that which is perfect, complete, or mature has come (1 Cor.13).
• The offices are given until we reach unity in the faith and become mature, attaining to the measure of fullness in Christ (Eph.4).
• As we mature, we need to put away childish things (1 Cor.13).
• As we mature, we will no longer be infants (Eph.4).

The gifts and the offices are needed until we are all unified in Christ and totally mature in him so that all we do is motivated by love.  It seems most likely that which is perfect, mature, or complete is spiritual maturity, unity, and fullness in Christ.  I don’t think we are there yet.  In addition, even if the completed New Testament were the perfect thingto come, Paul said that prophecies, tongues, and knowledge would pass away, but he did not mention the other gifts.  The remaining gifts include healings, miracles, spiritual discernment, as well as the other “more comfortable gifts.” It is a big leap to include all of the miraculous gifts and to pronounce them to be nullified without a direct word from the apostle.

Finally, the pattern of evangelism that Jesus practiced and commanded his followers to use was to preach the good news and then demonstrate the kingdom through signs and wonders as well as compassionate healings, the restoration of life, and deliverance from demonic affliction.  To dismiss the miraculous gifts of the Spirit is to dismiss the demonstration of the kingdom. Jesus commanded his followers to evangelize the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe (or practice) everything he had taught his apostles (Mt.28:18-20).  He taught them to preach the kingdom and them demonstrate it with power.  We are commanded to do the same. Without all the gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous intervention of God, we cannot do what Jesus commanded us to do.

Although Cessationism takes power away from the church, it is in some ways an easier way to live.  You never have to wrestle with the question of why God did not heal a person you prayed for with faith because you don’t expect God to intervene in that way. You feel no responsibility to confront demons because the demonic is not on your radar. You never have to press in trying to hear God because you believe he only speaks through his word. You never have to question why you have not yet received the gift of tongues because you would never ask for that gift in a million years!  On the other hand, you must watch people remain in the grip of addiction, depression, anxiety, and homosexuality for years, only hoping that the secular world of psychology, science, and medicine can cure what Jesus has no apparent cure for.

A belief in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit through all of his gifts and a belief in the miraculous moves of God places more responsibility on us than we sometimes want, but it also enables us to join Jesus in pushing back the borders of darkness and liberating people from every form of bondage.  Yes, it makes the Christian life challenging but also exciting.  It does bring the Book of Acts to life and allows you to experience and see dramatic transformations in the lives of men and women in a few days or weeks rather than in years or decades. And honestly, witnessing the miraculous makes Jesus more real than he could ever be without the miracles.  When we see a miracle, we experience God not just hear about him and experience is the great transformer.  I hope you will be encouraged to pursue a life of miracles because it is biblical and it is the life God has always intended for you.

Blessings in Him.

In my last blog, I stated the primary reasons that Cessationists believe that God no longer performs “miracles” in his church, especially through the gifts of the Spirit.  I want to begin to respond to those reasons in this blog.

First of all, let me address the idea that God no longer works miracles.  A Cessationist believes that God answers prayers but works within the natural order of things rather than doing what is impossible according to natural law. For instance, when a person prays for the perfect job and gets that job, that is not a “miracle,” because God worked within ordinary laws of nature and society to facilitate the answer to that prayer.  However, Jesus walking on water is a miracle because it defies the laws of nature.  Cessationsist don’t believe that God operates in that way anymore and so accept the “ordinary” spiritual gifts of mercy, faith, encouragement, leadership, service, administration etc. but reject the “miraculous” gifts of prophecy, miracles, healings, tongues and so forth because they operate outside the natural order of things.

However, I would assert that if you pray, you believe in miracles. I believe that a miracle occurs anytime God intervenes in the natural order of things.  If you pray at all, asking for protection, provision, favor, etc., you are asking God to intervene in the ways things would pan out if left to themselves.  Otherwise, why would you pray?  You probably don’t pray for the sun to rise in the east in the morning because you anticipate that it will rise in the east without your prayers. You don’t pray for the lights to come on in your house each time to touch a switch because, in the natural order of things, the lights always come on.  So if you pray, you have begun to sense that if left to themselves, the natural order of things is going to bring harm or disappointment to you or your loved ones.

Many of God’s greatest miracles worked within the realm of natural law.  Great catches of fish on Galilee employed only boats, men, nets, and fish which all function in the natural realm.  The timing and location of the fish marked the catch as a miracle.  If you don’t believe in miracles, you would mark it only as a coincidence or a unique, spontaneous convergence of natural forces that prompted the outcome.  A stone hitting an exceptionally large Philistine warrior in the one square inch that would kill him employed only a young man, an ordinary slingshot, and a common stone from a creek bed.  All of that operated within the realm of natural law.  Did God miraculously guide the stone or was it simply dumb luck? God fed his people in the wilderness with quail.  The miracle was that so many quail arrived at the camp at the same time. Was it a miracle or a migratory phenomenon of some sort?  The Bible would call it a miracle.  So…even when we ask God to work within the natural order of things to manipulate time, circumstances, decisions, job availability, favor, a doctor’s performance, etc. we are asking for a miracle. God still performs miracles on behalf of his people on a daily basis but only faith knows the difference between an intervention by God and a curious coincidence.  I believe the scriptures call any intervention by God a miracle.

Now, there are definitely acts of God throughout scripture that defy natural law…the healing of leprosy by a touch, blind eyes spontaneously gaining sight, withered hands growing out in a moment, walking on water, the Red Sea parting, a dead man being raised after four days in the tomb, etc. But those miracles are no harder for God than directing quail, fish, or a stone.  If he does miracles, he does miracles…yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  If he intervenes for his people so that the natural order of things is disrupted or reordered, then a miracle has occurred.

Now, the first argument by Cessationists is that they have never seen an authentic miracle such as we see in the gospels.  Therefore, in their view, miracles no longer occur.  These same believers have never seen an angel or Jesus face-to-face, but would not deny their reality.  So, is it not possible that authentic miracles still occur even if we haven’t seen one personally?  Secondly, I would venture that God has performed miracles in their sight but they filtered them through their unbelief and pronounced them as frauds or natural coincidences. Remember, I served in Cessationsist churches for over 20 years. I remember men and women on several occasions telling our staff and elders of amazing healings.  Tumors disappeared with proof on x-rays and children that had been declared to have severe birth defects by every scientific standard were born whole and healthy. We simply wrote those off as faulty equipment or a poor diagnosis rather than seeing the miraculous hand of God.  Even when we couldn’t deny what we saw, we never announced the healing to the church knowing that there was simply some unknown natural explanation for what had happened.

Part of the reason, these churches have not seen miracles is that they only pray for the ordinary and get what they pray for. I remember when a good Christian doctor asked me to pray that he would do his best work. I told him I believed he would do his best work even if I didn’t pray, but I would pray that God would enable him to do even more than he was capable of on his own.  Even when you see miracles outside the realm of natural law, it takes faith to acknowledge them or, at least, the source. The Pharisees saw much, but discounted the miracles as fraud or as the work of Satan. I suspect that some Cessationists have done the same.

The second argument made on behalf of Cessationism is that Jesus only performed miracles to demonstrate that he was the Messiah, the Son of God.  It is true that the miracles of Jesus testified that he was the Son of God, but he performed many miracles simply out of compassion rather than a need to demonstrate who he was (Mt.9:35-36, 15:32, 20:34; Mark 1:41, etc.). The writers of the gospels seem to go out of their way on numerous occasions to mention that the motive of Jesus for healing individuals or the crowd was compassion rather than publicity.  You would think that same unchanging compassion would still prompt him to relieve the suffering of his people – even through miracles.

In addition, he told many that he healed not to tell anyone about their healing.  Those commands are contrary to the purpose of miracles if we restrict their purpose to evidence that he was the Son of God. If that were the only purpose for miracles, surely he would have told those people to go and tell everyone they could find.   After he returned to the Father, the miracles done by his followers were done in the name of Jesus, which means “by his authority.” Those miracles, performed after his ascension, still demonstrated that Jesus was who he said he was. Present day miracles do the same.

The third argument is that God empowered the apostles to do miracles simply to confirm that they were men approved of God in order to establish their authority in the church and so that their writings would be seen as writings inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Certainly that was part of it, but why give spiritual gifts of healings, prophecy, miracles, tongues, deliverance, discerning of spirits, words of knowledge, etc. to the ordinary members of the church and to those who did not write any of the New Testament such as Philip and Stephen?

In addition, Luke wrote his gospel and the Book of Acts.  Yet, he was not an apostle nor do we have any record of him performing any miracles to demonstrate the inspired authenticity of his writings.  Therefore, miracles were not given only for the purpose of marking Jesus or the apostles as men approved of God because “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given…” (1 Cor.12:7).

I want to reiterate that believers who attend Cessationsist churches along with their leaders are good people who love Jesus. They were taught or indoctrinated in this theology from birth or as new Christians.  I was in such awe of the men who taught me that I simply accepted their teachings, believing that the parts that didn’t make sense to me then would make sense later as I learned more Bible.  I’m sure they learned this theology in the same way.  The problem is not with the people but with the theology that robs the church of power and leaves people in the grip of Satan.

We will finish our discussion of Cessationism in my next blog.

A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of about thirty believers from various fellowships in our area who came together to hear a woman teach about her experiences with deliverance.  Most of these people attend churches where deliverance is not practiced and, in some cases, not permitted.  My sense was that most assumed that their churches did not exercise all the gifts of the spirit nor consider deliverance from demons to be needed or legitimate because they simply had no experience in those spiritual arenas.  To some degree that is true, but it actually goes much deeper than that.

What many believers in mainline evangelical churches (Baptist, Church of Christ, Bible Church, Methodists, Nazarenes, Christian Church, etc.) don’t understand is that there is a formal theology that flatly rejects the notion that God still performs miracles, speaks to men directly, and operates through all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  That theology is called Cessationism, which holds that the miraculous works of God and especially the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to operate somewhere around the end of the 1^stCentury. Most of their pastors will have been trained in that theology in their seminaries.  Not only were they taught that this view of scripture is the truthbut there is also a great deal of pressure in denominational circles to maintain that “orthodoxy” in the churches they lead.

I think it might be helpful for many believers who read this blog to be given a thumbnail sketch of this theology and a biblical response to it, so I want to do that in this blog and, one or two to follow.

Let me start with some historical context. This theology began to immerge around the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation (1500 -1600).  This was a time when many felt that the Catholic Church was abusing its power, which was immense throughout Europe.  Nations and individuals were beginning to push back against the church’s control and break away from it.  As an individual and priest in the Catholic Church, Martin Luther led the way.

The initial idea was not to break away from the Catholic Church but to reform some of its practices.  However, the Catholics were unbending so that men and nations, such as England, began to break away. At the same time, it was an age of exploration, discovery, and invention.  Science was beginning to make its mark and the intellect of man was beginning to be exalted. By the 1700’s, the “Age of Reason” or “Enlightenment” was in full bloom. Reason and logic, were the foundations of science and began to be seen as the hope and salvation of mankind. Some began to believe that science was the new Savior and that scientific truth was the only real truth that could direct the affairs of men.

You need to remember that in that age, nearly every university in the western world was established to educate pastors and church leaders and to take the gospel into the entire world.  The earliest scientists and philosophers were intellectuals in those seminaries.  Whatever influenced those university leaders would eventually influence the church because they trained and ordained those who would lead their churches.

In that cultural, intellectual environment, many men began to question the miraculous events of the Bible that did not seem reasonable or scientifically plausible,as if God could not or would not act outside of his own created natural laws. Some historians believe that Luther and others denied that God still manifested himself in miraculous ways because the Catholic Church claimed to be stewards of the miracles of God. If miracles were authentic, then God was with the Catholic Church and breaking from the Catholics would seem to be the same as abandoning God.

More than likely, the greatest impulse behind a denial that God still works miracles among men was the fact that the most influential men of that age had not personally seen any miracles.  If you are a church leader, and you have not seen or experienced any of the miracles recorded all over the pages of the Bible, you have a dilemma.  If God is still in the business of doing miracles and you aren’t seeing any…there may be something wrong with you or your doctrine or your denomination that displeases God.

In an age where being scientific and rational was more culturally applauded than having faith in the impossible, the leading religious scholars of the day, opted to find a theology that declared that God was no longer in the business of miracles. They simply declared that the Age of Miracles had ceased, because God’s purposes for his miracles had been fulfilled.  That same theology has been passed down to most mainline churches in the 21^stCentury.

In my next blog, we will discuss the purposes the Cessationists have assigned to God’s miracles in the New Testament and why they say miracles or miraculous gifts are no longer needed by the church today. Then we will talk about that!  By the way, I was trained and ordained in a Cessationist fellowship and held those positions for a number of years before God led me to a church that embraces the supernatural works of God.

I was brought to faith in a fellowship that had a stated goal of reproducing the New Testament church in our day.  That was actually a thought that gained traction in the 1800’s long after the Reformation had opened the way for numerous denominations to spring up and splinter the body of Christ.  The idea was that unity could be restored in the body if we took the Bible as our only source of authority and reproduced the church as we saw it in the New Testament.  One of the things they looked for were patternsthat emerged in the way the church functioned.

A cornerstone passage for the goal was taken from Paul’s second letter to Timothy. “What you heard from me, keep as the patternof sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us (2 Tim.1:13-14).  The 1^stcentury church met on the first day of the week, so we must.  The church in the New Testament had evangelists, elders and deacons, so me must. The early churched immersed believers in water (baptism) so we must. You get the idea and it makes perfect sense. The problem was that we picked some patterns to follow and dismissed others that made us uncomfortable.

For instance, Jesus established a very discernible pattern in his ministry. In fact, it was a pattern that would mark the Messiah and his followers.  When John, the baptizer, found himself in prison, he began to doubt his own judgment about the Messiah.  He sent some of his followers to confirm that Jesus was who John believed him to be. “At that very time, Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Lk.7:21-23). He not only preached the kingdom, but demonstrated the kingdom as well.

He instructed others to do the same. “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons” (Matt. 10:5-8).  Later, he sent out seventy-two others with the same instructions. Then, in “The Great Commission,”  Jesus commanded his followers to go into all the world and to make disciples of all nations by teaching them to obey everythingthat he had commanded them to do.  Whatever Jesus had commanded his apostles and close circle of disciples to do, they were to teach others to do.  He doesn’t seem to make any exceptions in his teachings.  Therefore, the pattern for all believers was to preach the kingdom and then demonstrate it with signs and wonders.

When Jesus sent out the twelve and the seventy-two to represent him throughout Israel, they could not truly re-present Jesus without doing the works he did.  Neither can we re-present Jesus without doing those same works. There are some who believe such authority was given only to a few in the first century.  However, Jesus declared, “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” (Jn.14:12-14, emphasis added).

Jesus clearly stated that anyone who has faith in him will do what he had been doing and even greater things.  He posted no shelf life and no expiration date on his offer because it was a matter of bringing glory to the Father. In addition, Jesus gave gifts to the church through the Holy Spirit by which “the household of God” could exercise authority and demonstrate the Kingdom as well.  That is how the church is to represent Jesus. We can do so because Jesus was given all authority by the Father and we, as believers, share in that authority,

Remember that the Father raised Jesus from the dead and “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion” (Eph.1:20-21).  Then “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms” (Eph.2:6). In the same vein, Paul wrote, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority” (Col.2:9-10). If you can receive it, the truth is that we also are seated above all rule, authority, power, and dominion and have been given his fullness because we are seated with him.  We possess that authority now.

The church’s failure to push back the borders of darkness as Jesus did is not due to any lack in what Jesus has provided, but due to a lack of faith or understanding by God’s people, so that we don’t claim and operate in the power and authority reserved for us. Until we are committed to reproduce the New Testament Church in its fullness, we will never be all that Jesus wants us to be and his glory will not cover the earth until we demonstrate his glory through his authority and power.  No matter how many “patterns” we reproduce, we will not truly reproduce the church Jesus died for, without the exercise of his power and authority as we share the gospel.

I was browsing through the third chapter of John again this week.  It’s is one of those chapters that, no matter how many times you have studied it, you always know it contains so much more than you understand.  But one thing was evident to me as I read the words of Jesus again as he spoke to Nicodemus.  We should never underestimate the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and in the Kingdom of God.  When you say it, it sounds trite – as if everyone knows that.  My experience, however, is that most believers don’t know that because they treat the Spirit as a minor player in the Godhead.  He gets an honorable mention on Sundays as one who, perhaps, played a significant role 2000 years ago but since then has been rather tame.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  I am reminded of that when Jesus cuts to the chase with Nicodemus.  Nic was a Pharisee as well as a member of the Sanhedrin.  But to his credit he was a truth seeker, although he still cared a great deal about his position and what other members of the  “good old boys” club thought of him.  He came at night so that he would not be seen with this “questionable” Rabbi. He represented another group within the Pharisees or the ruling council who were not quite ready to condemn Jesus because Nicodemus said, “We know you are a teacher who has come from God…” He came with a list of questions representing this little group.

We must speculate on where he was going with his questions because Jesus sidetracked his dialogue and began to speak about his own agenda.  However,  I feel confident that Nic was going to ask a series of questions about the Messiah and about the nature of miracles and so forth. That would have been an amazing discussion to hear and a spiritual discussion at that.  However, Jesus knew it would have been a futile discussion because this brilliant theologian and descendant of Abraham would not get it.

Jesus simply said. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Clearly, for Nicodemus, that must have seemed like a hard left turn that, perhaps, was leading to nowhere.  What an enigmatic statement that seemed to just come out of left field.  Nic tried to track with Jesus a bit and so protested that a man could not be born again when he is old. Then Jesus added to the confusion by saying that no one could even enter the kingdom unless he was born not only of water but of the Spirit. Here was a man who all his life had been taught that knowledge of the Torah, love for the word of God, and good works would gain him entrance into the kingdom. Jesus simply said that entrance was not based on anything we could do but solely on the basis of what the Spirit would do.

When Jesus said that a man could not see the kingdom,  he meant that a man could not understand, perceive, or experience the kingdom without being born again.  An equally valid translation would be that he could not see the kingdom unless he was “born from above.”  That birth from above was by the Holy Spirit.  In the same way that Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit coming on Mary, we can only be born again by the Holy Spirit coming on us and we cannot see, perceive, understand, or experience the kingdom without the work of the Holy Spirit. If our initial realization of the kingdom comes only by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, then all other experiences and insight into the kingdom can come only by the Spirit as well.

If we place limits on the Spirit, we place limits on our understanding and experience of the kingdom.  In an effort to make God understandable, we miss out on understanding.  In our efforts to keep the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts from being abused, we abuse our own experiences with God.  In order to enter the kingdom, we must be born from above.  In other words, it is not just an intellectual exercise of acknowledging who Jesus is, but God has to do something to us. A new creation (2 Cor.5:17) means that suddenly, we are different and distinctive from the rest of creation. I believe that someday science will be able to measure a shift in brain function, DNA, or genetics that occurs the moment someone is born again.

I do not believe that being born again, being born from above, or being born of the Spirit is simply a metaphor for us as we somehow take on a new philosophy of life. When the Spirit comes power is imparted.  Radical transformation is initiated. Positions shift in the heavenlies as we are seated with Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is rumbling around in us waiting to get out.  All of that begins with the Spirit of God and continues with him until the Spirit himself raises us from the dead. The Spirit is immeasurable power and wisdom and can only be capped or quenched by us.

In too many places, the church still quenches the Spirit in the name of doing everything “decently and in order.”  In my Bible, when the Holy Spirit showed up, fire erupted, people spoke in tongues, people went out and preached in the streets, buildings shook, everyone had a revelation or a tongue or a prophecy, people got healed, and demons got cast out. Some even dropped dead in church for lying to the Spirit.  All that doesn’t seem to fit our definition of  “decently and in order.” Many of our churches could benefit from a little disorder orchestrated by the Spirit.

We have even elevated intellect over spiritual gifts and spirituality.  If you don’t think so, check out the classifieds in a Christian journal where churches are looking for staff members and pastors. The qualifications are rarely based on spiritual gifts, spiritual maturity, intimacy with Jesus, or how many people a person has led to the Lord.  They are most often based on degrees earned in an accredited university or business experience in the corporate world. Jesus himself nor his apostles should even bother to apply. They would not meet the qualifications.

Although the Spirit points us to Jesus, Jesus points us to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God along with the Father and the Son.  We should pursue Him with as much passion as we do the other members of the Trinity.  If we fail to do so, we may enter the kingdom as a newborn, but we will remain in that same condition for years to come.  Our problem is not that we don’t know enough scripture, but that we haven’t experienced God enough.  That experience comes through the Holy Spirit.  Maybe we should make a real effort to get to know him.

Somehow, in the last few centuries, the sermon became the central event when the church came together. I distinctly remember my early training as a pastor when we were told that worship was to prepare the hearts of the congregation to receive the Word of God through the sermon. The centrality of the sermon is clearly expressed by the number of churches that record and offer the sermon each week. In fact, the bookstores in larger churches will offer dozens of sermon series with a sprinkling of worship CD’s thrown in. No one seems to question the emphasis. But what if we gathered primarily to experience the presence of God rather than to study God? How would that change our gatherings?

I am not saying that preaching or studying the Word is not important. It is. But is it more important than His presence? Even under the Old Covenant, the presence of God was everything. The Ark of the Covenant was the central furnishing in the temple. It sat in the Holy of Holies with the stone tablets on which the commandments were written, a sampling of manna, and Aaron’s priestly staff within the ark. The lid of the ark depicted the throne of God surrounded by cherubim. God said to Moses, “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you…” (Ex. 25:22). The amazing and fearful thing about the Holy of Holies was that the presence of God was there. The entire point of the temple was that it housed the presence of God and The Presence was a source of blessing.

During the wilderness wanderings, the presence of God was also experienced as a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud which hovered above the tabernacle except when it was time for Israel to move. In those moments, the cloud moved ahead of Israel. Speaking of that pillar, Moses said to God, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Ex.33:15-16). It was the presence of God that set Israel apart from all other nations. It is the presence of God that sets us apart.

First of all, the presence of God dwells within each of us as the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit should cause each of us to be observably different from all other people. But there is another dimension of the presence of God that can be experienced when God’s people gather together. When gathered and hearts are focused directly on the person of God, there seems to be a synergism of the Spirit that manifests the presence and power of God in amplified ways. Jonathan Welton describes such a moment in Brazil. He says, “ I was with 5,000 home group leaders at a church in Manaus, Brazil. The presence of God was incredibly tangible during worship…as she (Kathy Oates) took the microphone, she began to prophecy over the nation of Brazil, and a powerful wind began to blow through the church…Inside, the wind was whipping around like on the Day of Pentecost – a mighty, rushing wind had come in to the house. It blew the potted plants on the stage wildly and even blew open two large arched doors on the stage. While this was happening, I stepped outside the church to see if there was any natural explanation for the wind. Outside, it was eerily calm and peaceful…team members were later to talk of strong winds blowing in a circular motion around them as they ministered…virtually everyone prayed over that day was instantly healed.”

I noticed that Welton said the wind began to blow as they worshipped. The scriptures declare that God inhabits the praises of his people (Ps.22:3). Praise draws the presence of God in ways that preaching will not. On the day of Pentecost, the tiny group of Christ-followers were in an upper room praying and fasting when the Holy Spirit showed up in spectacular fashion. The Spirit seems to manifest the presence of God in greater ways when his people are encountering him directly through praise and prayer.

One of the reasons that the 21^st Century church has been rendered powerless is because we have exchanged experiencing God for the study of God. When the early church met, the presence of God was manifested through worship that was offered in spirit and truth, through intense prayer often fueled by fasting, through the gifts of tongues and prophecy and the expectation of healing. Seeking the presence of God brought those manifestations and the church turned the world upside down.

Again…preaching, teaching, and the study of the word are essentials but our goal must be His presence. Rather than worshipping to prepare our hearts for the message, perhaps the message should prepare our hearts for worship. Instead of an opening prayer, perhaps we need a season of prayer. Even in our personal time, we should give more thought to experiencing the presence of God rather than simply reading about him. It is his presence that changes everything.

So why would anyone resist the idea the God still operates through his church with signs and wonders? Why would anyone resist the idea that God still intervenes in the lives of men and women with supernatural intervention? Jesus was known for his miracles. The marks of an apostle were miracles. Men like Phillip and Steven (non-apostles) operated in signs and wonders and the early church was fully gifted to do the same. Jesus clearly declared that those who would have faith in him would do what he had been doing and even more. So why do numerous churches and theologians continue to deny that God still works miracles through his church?

I know there are many reasons that these churches resist. First of all, it is the theology that they were taught and a theology that they have never questioned because they had so much respect for the men who taught them. If you never see miracles in your church, then you need to explain that absence in a way that doesn’t suggest that you are lacking faith or that something is missing in your relationship with God. But…once I “explain” why God no longer does miracles, then I quit asking for miracles and, as a result, will never see one. Once my “explanation” becomes the orthodox view of my slice of Christianity then any attempt to question the status quo smacks of heresy and I begin to view any reports of miracles as misguided emotionalism or fakery on the part of those who would manipulate the desperate for power of money. In essence, the primary argument against miracles in churches that reject them is that miracles are no longer needed. They were initially needed to validate Jesus and his followers, but once they had fulfilled their purpose, God took them off the menu. For these churches, the record of the miracles is enough for people to believe.

We could go on for a long time about why many of the faithful resist the notion of miracles and miraculous gifts in the church today, but lets take a different tact and talk about why miracles are actually necessary for the church to fulfill her commission on the earth. Lets talk about why miracles and miraculous gifts are still needed. There are numerous reasons but let me offer three of the most compelling.

First of all, miracles point us to a greater, unseen reality. We live in a material world. Many people are trained to trust only in what they can see and touch. Scripture asks them to believe in fantastic, unseen realities – a glorious, majestic, all-powerful God sitting on a huge white throne in heaven surrounded by seraphs with six wings declaring his holiness day and night while smoke surrounds him. We are asked to believe in great wars in spiritual realms between angels and demons, the dead being raised, and the blind given sight. We are asked to believe in a God who calls all nations to judgment and a great final resurrection of the dead. To those without faith, those visions seem fictional, like scenes from The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.

God created faith throughout scripture by miraculous works. The plagues on Egypt and the Red Sea crossing were not just to subdue the Egyptians but also to build faith in the Hebrews who had never known this God. Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, in which fire fell from heaven, called those Israelites who witnessed it back to faith. Many who saw the miracles of Jesus believed. In a material world and culture, something undeniably inexplicable must occur for people to experience a paradigm shift that allows for the possibility of another realm before they will start to consider biblical truth. When we fail to ask God for miracles or explain away miracles, we deny people a glimpse into a supernatural, spiritual realm that might open them up to believe.

Secondly, miracles reveal the nature and heart of God. Bill Johnson puts it this way. “A primary purpose of the miracle realm is to reveal the nature of God. The lack of miracles works like a thief, stealing special revelation that is within the grasp of every man, woman, and child. Our debt to mankind is to give them answers for the impossible and a personal encounter with God. And that encounter must include great power” ( Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth, p 119).

One of the great revelations of Jesus was the heart of the Father towards men. Jesus declared that when we have seen him we have seen the Father. The miracles of Jesus delivered people from illness and terrible disabilities, ended demonic torment, fed hungry people, raised the dead returning them to their grieving families, and restored relationships. For people who may only see God as the angry judge of all the earth, a touch of his love and compassion through a miracle is life altering and totally changes their view of God and their perception of his thoughts about them.

Thirdly, miracles continue to validate Jesus as the Son of God and Risen Lord and to validate his church as those who carry his Spirit and message. Those who deny miracles propose that stories of miracles that were reported two thousand years ago is sufficient to create faith in Jesus as Lord and the Bible as true now. If that were the case, everyone who read the bible would surrender their hearts to Jesus. Once the Holy Spirit resides within a person, faith based on two thousand year old stories is not a stretch but coming to faith often needs more than that..it needs an experience with God to create faith that then accepts the rest.

Even churches who deny miracles will talk about feeling the love of God, being overwhelmed by the peace of God,or sensing his leading. How are those experiences not miracles in which God has inserted himself into the natural order of things so that people experience something outside the natural realm? If people came to faith because they experienced God in those ways, what is the difference in people coming to faith because they experienced the love and power of God through healing, deliverance, a prophetic word, answered prayer, or some other kind of miracle?

When people, including believers, experience the power of God in their own lives, something shifts. God either becomes real or more real. Torment leaving in the name of Jesus or cancer disappearing in his name confirms by experience that Jesus does have all authority in heaven and on earth. Faith grows. Expectation increases. The reality of God is established and the church that does those things in his name gets instant credibility in they eyes of those Jesus has touched.

To deny miracles or to be indifferent toward s them robs the church and the world of life-altering glimpses into another reality. It robs the world of a revelation of the nature and heart of God. It robs the world and the church of faith. Saul of Tarsus knew the Torah and the miracles of the Old Testament. He had heard the stories of the miracles of Jesus and of the church he was persecuting. More stories would not have changed him but a personal power encounter (a miracle) with Jesus changed him and history in radical ways. The non-religious need miracles to begin to consider the reality of a spiritual realm and a world beyond this one. The religious need to be knocked off their feet to reconsider who Jesus really is and his heart for broken, imperfect people. Not only do miracles still happen today, but they are needed more than ever. We should not be shy in asking for them or pursuing them because they lead straight to Jesus.