Gift of Miracles
Audio Version
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1 Corinthians 12: 7-10 But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the
word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same
Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To
another the working of miracles;
Before continuing into the realm of
miracles I want to back up and remind us of a few things Paul said at
the beginning of this chapter. Remember he acknowledged that these
Corinthians were once into idolatry and were led astray by those spirits
that were behind the idols. I believe he was trying to make sure that
the Corinthian church left the idolatry and fake stuff behind and
learned that the true signs and wonders are to be given to all who
believe to edify the church, confirm the word and not to just gain
attention or attraction to glorify the one doing the miracle.
One thing Paul said in the verse I quoted
above was that the manifestation of the Spirit is given, to one is given
by the Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit.
This is just a friendly reminder that these
are gifts of the spirit and not our gifts or gifts of man. He was
showing us diversity in the body of Christ but at the same time a type
of unity in the body of Christ. We are all to work together yet in our
separate ways. We are not to say that the hand is greater than the foot
or that the one person is greater or better than another person.
We also should not limit God to our own
traditional understanding of what church is. If God leads some into
house churches, fine. We should not exclude them and they should not
exclude us. Unfortunately some of them think any organized church is
part of the harlot church because they are organized. That is limiting
God though to their own understanding. We are only part of the harlot
church if we have gone into apostasy and are doing as the harlot church
does. On the other hand we should not say they have to be like us and
have a headquarters and such to be “right” with God. They might be able
to reach people we cannot reach and we will be able to reach people that
they cannot reach. By love serve one another.
We also need to be reminded that all these
things are for the glory of God, to bring people to God and to show that
Jesus is the Christ that was raised from the dead. The same Holy Ghost
that heals the sick is the same Holy Ghost that raised Jesus from the
dead. It is all the work of the spirit and is not to glorify people.
Sometimes I wish we would forget every name
and just remember the name of Jesus. Idolatry is not just statues and
icons. In today’s world this could be celebrity worship and looking
toward those that are popular or big name evangelists and those that
supposedly are doing a great work of God. Sometimes it is not their
fault but the way people look to them instead of Christ.
We do not have to tear them down, envy them
or speak evil of them but neither are we to copy them, follow them or
think we need them and their help before we can do any work for God.
Jesus is the head of the church, not Rick Warren, Billy Graham or Benny
Hinn. I'm not saying this to put down anyone person here but to remind
us that any of them are not greater than a janitor or a blue collar
worker.
Healing should be following all of us, not
just certain big name preachers.
Revival can come at any time, we don’t need
Bro so and so or bishop whoever before we can have revival. They are not
better, neither are they worse than you or I.
God wants to use us. He put us here. We are the ones that need to be used by the Holy Spirit to bring revival
to our local assembly. We must quit holding men’s persons in admiration,
thinking we can’t do anything until so and so arrives and holds a
revival. God does send people on occasion to stir us up and we do need
to hear visitors and those God sends to hold revivals and such but I'm
only pointing out that we don't have to depend on that for revival. God
can bring revival in a church just by the local congregation starting to
pray and seek God in earnest. Yes occasionally bring in someone that God
sends to us with a special message but not to become dependent upon that
one method. Let God use local people too. I've sat under many good
local teachers growing up. We use to study the bible diligently. Now we
have video bible studies that may have their place but we stopped using
local teachers. One of God's gifts are good bible teachers at local
churches. If ever the electricity went out and we had no sound system,
we could still study God's word with local people.
Now to speak of the gift of miracles.
- Miracles are like healing except they
involve things that may or may not be a physical healing. Someone
being raised from the dead for instance is a miracle.
- First of all, it is not natural
miracles that occur for instance in nature. We see the beauty of
God’s creation all around us and of course it is miraculous but that
is not what the gift of miracles given to believers in the body of
Christ is.
- It is not a medical breakthrough.
Surely a cure for cancer would be a miracle and I do believe God is
the one who places that knowledge in people to come up with cures
like that. I believe the people that come up with the answer to
polio really got that from God. Still that is not the spiritual gift
of miracles which is one of the nine gifts of the spirit.
- It is not modern inventions like
electricity, radio, television and technology. The computer seems
like a miracle to me. Yet this is not the miracles spoken of as a
gift of the spirit.
- We may see a miracle of someone being
rescued by a skilled worker of some kind and that is a miracle and I
do believe they had the divine help of a merciful God but that is
not what we are referring to as the gift of miracles.
- The gift of miracles is not natural
and an ordinary man in his or her own strength cannot accomplish
this type of miracle.
- It is not luck or something that
occurs by chance.
The spiritual gift of miracles is a
supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit doing a supernatural act
that man cannot do.
We can turn to Mark 16: 17-20 for reference
which some modern theologians have tried to say does not belong in the
bible. They would have to throw out the whole book of Acts too if that
were the case.
The gift of miracles occur as the will of
the Holy Spirit at the right time, when and where He wills. We do not
just decide that we are going to have a miracle today. In fact all nine
gifts work this same way.
Miracles bring glory to God, bring the lost
to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and demonstrate with visible
outward signs, the truth of God’s word. It is to convince unbelievers
that God’s word is true, Jesus is truly the way of salvation and the
only way to God and that what we are speaking and teaching is true.
It is not to glorify men and cause men to
be in control of a group of people. It is not to show off or use as a
side show for the gift itself. The gift is to glorify the Lord.
It is do God’s divine will as He desires to
see as many saved as possible before His second coming.
Miracles deliver people from danger,
troubles, accidents and also causes something to happen that is needful
in order to further the cause of Christ.
Examples:
- Elijah raising the widow’s son from
the dead. 1 Kings 17.
- Elijah pouring water all over an
offering to God yet the offering caught fire when the prophets of
Baal could not do the same. 1 Kings 18.
- Naamon’s leprosy came upon Gehazi when
he took the reward Elisha refused to take. 2 Kings 4.
- Moses and Aaron did many signs and
wonders in Egypt. The magicians could only duplicate some of them.
- God opened up the Red sea so Israel
could cross.
- Daniel escaped harm in the lion’s
den.
- The three Hebrew children were not
burnt in the fire when they were cast into the fiery furnace.
- Paul was not bitten by a viper when
anyone else would have died.
- Tradition says that John was boiled in
oil but was not harmed. Paul was set free from chains while in
prison.
- Peter was used of God to raise up
Dorcas from the dead.
- Jesus did many miracles. Signs and
wonders followed the apostles.
These were all to show us that God was the
real God in the Old Testament and that Jesus was sent by God to save us
from sin, in the New Testament. They were not done to exalt Moses,
Elijah, Peter, Paul, John or Elisha but to bring people who had sinned
back to God.
Just because Jesus warned against false
prophets who do signs and wonders and because so many have used these
things to try to raise money, to make a name for themselves and really
messed up big time does not mean that we should ignore what is meant for
the church to have in order to convince the world around us that the
word of God is the truth and that Jesus is the only way of salvation. DC
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