Miracles: Modern Proverbs

I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see.
- Peggy Noonan

Miracles
Modern Proverbs

Miracles are the outward manifestation of the genuine presence, if not finger, of God. Rare as they are indispensable, without a continual outpouring of the power inherent in to genuine fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit, the glory of Christianity quickly devolves into the worldliness of Churchianity.

Christ constantly taught by show and tell. Using signs and wonders Jesus drew immense crowds and then taught them the word of God with authority. Furthermore, He commissioned His apostles, and more importantly those who would believe their message, to carry on the family business in the same way. Thus making healing and miracles as integral part of making converts and disciples:

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:15-18 NJKV

Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.”

- Mark 9:23 MSG

Miracles
Modern Proverbs
by Robert R. Pennington

Have modern day miracles ceased under the current dispensation of Grace? If not, why is the quantifiably miraculous so rare? Should we wait expectantly of God to perform His word or is He waiting on us?

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you...” Do we have power? If not can the Holy Spirit be upon us?

Was the miraculous nature of Jesus' life an example of God's merely preferring to glorifying His Son or His preferred Standard Operating Procedure? Might the miraculous be His norm and be meant as our own?

Our Commander and Chief's final order was not, Go into the entire world... these was next to last. His last was, but wait until you receive power...then you shall be my witnesses (grk. martyrs....). Rarely are either, much less both, of these standing orders either obeyed or seriously acknowledged.

It might be said the Jews and Gentiles who witnessed the myriad of Jesus' miracles and yet crucified Christ had tasted what they rejected. The same cannot be said of modern man, nor of all his ages since.

The Bible records many miraculous events and highlights men and women who often enjoyed phenomenal relationships with God. Clearly it's testimony is offered as a historical background to Christianity. Yet, particularly in the New Testament, there seems to be an ongoing invitation to the individual and collective members of the body of Christ to encounter the miraculous. We are repeatedly led to believe in and hope for a relationship with God that "goes beyond knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." Unfortunately, aside from the subjective, only a tiny fraction of a percentage of a percentage of a percentage of believers enjoy anything approaching experiences "exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we can ask or think." There may be may reasonable answers for this universal condition, the majority likely not to our liking. Still, on a whole one wonders if such accounts do more to inspire or disappoint the average Christian.

It is never recorded that Jesus or His apostles ever left someone who was asking to be healed in their illness for the "glory of God." Quite the contrary, what is recorded is the healing of some who didn't ask. Such apologetics are constantly employed by the Church though we are never instructed to use such to comfort one another. In fact, James' declaration that the elders' prayer of faith will heal the sick strongly implies such miracles will not disappear, though elders able to pray with such power have seemed to. Here as elsewhere, the New Testament instruction is to heal the sick. A rule for which one is hard-pressed to find a single clear exception.

Those blessed with and thankful for access to modern medicine may be reluctant to invest time in researching, praying for and experimenting with healing the sick. Yet how limited our best health care and the pains of death come to us all.

Few are able and willing to discern the difference between Blessings, Answers to Prayer and Miracles. Lumping them together and using the descriptions interchangeably seems to magnify the Lord but in reality it minimizes His silence and distance from Churchianity.

Do we help or hurt our relationship with God and one another by evangelistically using adjectives like "miraculous," "amazing," "wonderful," and "move of God" to describe fairly common events. Blessings yes, but signs of His presence and favor? Consider, "He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the just and unjust."

We rightly give thanks for isolated miracles such as the testimony of Carrie Ten Boom. But let us judge with righteous judgment and not fail to commiserate with the 7 million murdered Jews not to mention their families and friends, as well as 100 million WW2 casualties.

John concludes his Gospel suggesting that the works of Jesus were so numerous that the world could not contain the complete written record. Poetic license notwithstanding this strongly suggests Christ method of "show and tell" was the rule of His ministry's rather than exception. Telling then that all four Gospels fill only a fraction of a single book and that with many redundancies. Clearly each recorded miracle and teachings it augments must be extremely meaningly to the faith and as such deserving of great study on every level.

Is the glaring lack of the clearly miraculous a matter of Divine policy or human unbelief, both or Dark Matter?

Did Elijah practice calling fire out of heaven before Carmel? Is anyone practicing calling fire out of heaven today? Nearly all Christian disciplines require its adherents to practice them repeatedly. Do we have a greater mandate than he considering the level of sin in our culture and the exceeding precious promises of our faith. We have his example of doing so 3 times! We have the prophecy of the 2 witnesses who do so and more. We have Mat. 17:20, 21:21 and 1 Cor. 13:2.

Like all of Christ's teachings, the story of the rich man and Lazarus deserves careful consideration. At first blush it appears Jesus is denying the power of the miraculous to develop faith. Yet, in numerous other accounts Christ clearly understands and even recommends power evangelism and discipleship. From the beginning of His "signs" in John 2 through the commissioning of them in Mark's final chapter their vital and important place is clear. The gospels would certainly be lesser reads without them and the Book of "Acts" would have been the Book of "Words."

Many have noted the centrality of miracles to evangelism but few note its importance in discipleship. Christ's response to the twelve at the occasion of Lazarus' death is telling. Particularly in light of the hundreds of miracles His disciples had already witnessed. Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.”

Many today quote Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, commending themselves for preaching a simple gospel of Christ. However, this verse lauds not simplicity but the power of the miraculous to build unshakable faith, something sorely lacking, if present at all, in the Western Church today. "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

The Father provided a miracle working Savior by His Son who, by His Spirit would provide a miracle working Church. See Feeding the 5 thousand: "You feed them" Walking on water: "Why did you doubt?" “Asleep in the boat: O you of little faith."

After his transfiguration Jesus explains his disciples powerlessness over a certain demon as a lack of faith in Matthew and elsewhere as a need to fast and pray. Paul, who explains faith comes by hearing the word of God, also was a practitioner of this lost art.

First Moses then Paul loved so fervently as to be willing to trade their salvation for the good of others. Interesting, both also wished all have the gift of Prophecy.

1 Cor. 13:2 'If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains...' suggests what physicists are beginning to suspect, that as all matter in our Universe is formed from energy, in the same way the source of energy is wisdom. "By wisdom God created..."

Jesus vowed the reality of "mustard seed" faith not once but twice, a supposition 1 Cor. 13:2 and the Epistle of James support. Moses and Elijah had it, as will Revelation's two witnesses, yet no Christian movement acknowledges the validity of this 'Law'. Our not doing so, in a sense validates Jesus' warning, “When the Son of Man returns will he find faith on the Earth?”

Elisha, having both Elijah's 'mantle' and twice his power showed remarkable restraint. How many others throughout history may have secreted 'Mustard seed' faith?

For some, yesterday's pursuit of the Presence and Power of God has little baring on today. As past meals factor little into present hunger, so each day presents its own cravings. It may be incumbent on such to "taste and see that the Lord is good" that they might lead the way to His banqueting table.

There is a great deal of unnecessary confusion among those showing interest in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is particularly true regarding healing the sick, the New Testament's most frequent miracle. Clearly we in the West are without the power described in the Gospels and the Book of Acts (not Words). Few if any are able or willing to satisfactorily explain the spiritual drought we have long faced. Such conditions are ripe for and have produced dozens of doctrines, each with as many variations. Yet the Bible's handling of the topic is simple and direct. Regrettably ""non linear"" and admittedly without a Book entitled "Healing the Sick" containing chapter and verse, the practice is still well documented throughout it's pages.

Even within the tiny fraction of recorded miracles that Jesus and His apostles performed, healing the sick is repeatedly showcased. Gospels and epistles agree this gift is to continue without cessation for a variety of obvious and vital reasons. Yet having all but ceased in today's modern world the Church is faced with a dilemma. Explain the promise of the gift away or examine ourselves to see if we merit the presence and power of the Giver.

A leading apologetic temptation for explaining the powerless state of Churchianity is to simply fail to quantify terminology. This is particularly true in the case of the idea of "suffering." Persecution was tragically the norm for may in the early Church. So much so that the Greek word for witness became synonymous with martyrdom. Yet so too was the power of the Spirit, particularly as demonstrated by miraculous healings of the sick. In fact, it would seem the latter was often the bases for the former.

To equate the past and/or present redemptive suffering and even martyrdom of missionaries with our constant failed attempts to heal the sick is illogical. Historically persecution is commonly, however unfortunate, the result of great faith while powerlessness is and has always been a clear and understandable result of the opposite.

All my efforts in prayer and pro-life service have been to one end. The restoration of power evangelism, “signs and wonders” as seen in the Gospels and the Book of ACTS. We are desperate for wonders that capture the attention and signs to point the way. At current levels of deception, here were the day is well spent and the night comes when no man can work, telling without showing the truth has little or no lasting impact, either within Churchianity or without.

As to discussing the partnership of Divine sovereignty and human free will a marketing slogan from Orchard Supply Hardware might be useful, "You can do it, we can help." Nicely, it works both ways.

Peter's healing the lame beggar at the gate beautiful is an example of the power of God, a phrase applied too broadly in Churchianity today. When lives are somewhat or, in relatively few cases, radically changed this may be attributed to the inherit benefits of obedience to God's commands. While applaudable, this hardly equates to the miraculous described in the Gospels and Book of "Acts."

Man’s habit to largely ignore the glorious scripture and its numerous volumes of commentaries as well as the innumerable books, tapes, videos and sermons on important Christian themes provide strong evidence of the weakness of human testimony when unaccompanied by the presence and power of the Divine.
Should modern day Christians answer detractors as Christ did by saying, “believe me for my works sake” would there be anything to believe?

Upon close examination, half the claims of 1st World Charismatics are hype and the rest error. Even so, let us not through the baby out with the bath water.

James is perhaps the most practical and passionate New Testament author. Flawless in simple yet scathing doctrine, like the Lord, His half brother minces few words. Take his handling of sickness in the Church. He alone gives clear instruction. Let the ill call for the elders (plural). Let the elders anoint the sick with oil and pray the prayer of faith. Such prayer by elders will heal the sick and create an atmosphere demonstrative of Gods love and mercy whereby sins will be confessed and forgiven providing the added bonus of spiritual healing as well. James' prescription is perfect when it works and diagnostic of a greater disease when it doesn't. Either Gods word is untrustworthy, we lack true elders or for one or more reasons they lack the ability to pray the "prayer of faith."

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