Jesus looked at His disciples and uttered the following words: “My Father has given everything to me, and I give everything to you.”
And when faced with overwhelming circumstances, whether it was a harrowing storm or a young girl they couldn’t heal, the disciples were criticized by Jesus for their lack of faith.
What has happened to a Church supposedly filled with the power of creation and glory residing within her, yet we don’t expect God to do supernatural things in our lives?
One of the main signs that we belong to God is the evidence of the supernatural in our lives. I’m not going to give people an easy out on this one, either. I’ll make it specific. People are healed of sicknesses and diseases. The dead are raised to life again. People are delivered from sin and addictions. Homosexuals leave their destructive lifestyle. Bitter family feuds find reconciliation. The Church acts as if it is of one Spirit.
When asked by the disciples of John whether or not He was the Christ, the Messiah they were waiting for, Jesus said, “Tell John the lame walk, the blind see.” Jesus often pointed to His miracles as signs that He was the Son of God. The fact that every gospel has such overwhelming evidence of Jesus’ miraculous power should tell us that the early Church found it pretty central.
The disciples continued acting as if supernatural acts were ordinary. Speaking in other languages on the Day of Pentecost. Peter and James healing a man on the way to the temple (“silver and gold I don’t have, but what I do have, I will give”). Peter’s shadow healing crowds of people. A disciple praying over Paul and healing blindness. Gentiles and Samaritans speaking in tongues.
In Galatians, as Paul is chastising the assembly for relying upon their own flesh, he wonders aloud whether the flesh or the Spirit is responsible for the miracles done in their presence. James calls the elders together whenever anyone is sick and says they WILL be healed, and their sins will be forgiven.
Saints through the ages have enjoyed incredible testimonies of the supernatural based on their faith in His power in the lives of His children. It happens even today. People are still being raised from the dead. Sicknesses are still being healed.
But many here in the States quickly bristle at this apparent lack in their lives. They do this using one of several tracks. First, they point to all the charlatans who do it for the wrong reasons. But is that really a reason not to believe in something? Aren’t there people teaching wrong doctrine about a whole host of things, even other religions that are deceiving many? Taking this logic to its conclusion, we cannot even believe that Christianity is true since there are false religions. Tragic that this actually does happen.
Second, we come up with a doctrine that says miracles were important during the time the New Testament was written, but that was then and we don’t need that kinda stuff today. This has no basis in biblical fact. On the contrary, you really have to disregard much of the New Testament (and even Jesus’ teachings) to get there. Of course, we can also point to the well-documented (and in some cases, recorded) evidence of supernatural healing and other events that are happening even today (just not much in America). Not to mention a host of missionary accounts within the past couple hundred years that blow this reason out of the water.
Third, people actually point to the Bible. Jesus says at one point, “it is a wicked and perverse generation that seeks after a sign.” Jesus was addressing the motives of the heart, not the validity of miracles. In Luke, Jesus describes how the Jews of His day were responsible for the blood of all the prophets in history. That sounds like a fairly wicked generation. He routinely described the Jewish nation as a wicked generation (“the devil is your father”). But did that stop Him from raising the dead, healing the cripple and the sick? Absolutely not. It didn’t stop Him from raising from the dead in order to assure the abundant life that we now enjoy.
What we come down to is the one conclusion none of us, including me, wants to admit. It is our faith that is weak. It is our trust and belief that God can, and will (and wants to!), do amazing, miraculous things in our lives.
See, what we don’t understand is that the same people that God used to work such awesome miracles had also given up their materialism, greed, sexual lust, seeking after power, their whole lives to follow Jesus. It is difficult to believe God can heal the sick when we don’t even believe He can change our hearts and free us from our own sin.
So we live in defeat and call it victory or make excuses and justifications for it while other places in the world without our material riches enjoy the regular testimony of the power of God.
It is a wonder we call ourselves “little Jesuses”.
Peace.
I have been thinking about this as I have been reading through the gospels. Why is it we don’t see more miracles? And the conclusion I had come to is we lack the faith.
We limit God to our comfort zones and what we know. Our faith is week. I don’t really have much to add to what you did, but wanted to give you an “Amen” to what you said.
I have been thinking about this as I have been reading through the gospels. Why is it don’t see more miracles? And the conclusion I had come to is we lack the faith, we don’t expect God to move miraculously in our lives–maybe in the “acceptable” ways–a doctor cannot explain why someone is better–but not in the healing the sick and raising the dead type of way.
We limit God to our comfort zones and what we know. Our faith is weak. I don’t really have anything to add to what you said but more wanted to say “Amen”.