Do you ever find yourself frustrated by the fact that you don’t see miracles happening in your local church on the level they did in the NT? Next to knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, my strongest longing in Bible college was to experience, and be used in the supernatural. I wanted to see the same miracles I read about in the NT performed in my midst as well. More specifically, I wanted to be the vessel the Lord used to work those miracles. I prayed every day for this. I believed God would do it. I fasted in faith to see the breakthrough. It never happened.
Yeah, there were little things that happened here and there, but nothing major, and nothing consistent. It frustrated me to no end. What was wrong with me? What was wrong with everyone else for that matter? After all, I wasn’t the only one praying in faith to be a vessel of God in this area, and failing to see results. My intellectual and existential struggle with this reached crisis proportions by the end of my junior year, causing me to seriously reconsider the Christian faith. After all, if the God of the Bible is a miracle worker, and the Bible promises that those same miracles will follow those who believe—and yet they weren’t—then maybe there’s something wrong with this whole Christianity thing.
Of course, I understood from passages such as I Cor 12 that while God can work through any believer to perform any miracle at any time, there are some in the body who are specifically gifted in those areas, and thus we should expect to see the miraculous being exhibited more frequently in their lives than in others’. But this did not alleviate my frustration, because other passages in Scripture seemed to indicate that at least some of the miraculous should be exhibited in the lives of all believers.
After several years of frustration and thinking on the topic, I came to the following conclusion: I had false expectations about the miraculous. While defending his apostleship against those who challenged it Paul said, “Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance by signs and wonders and powerful deeds.” According to Paul the signs and wonders he performed proved that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. We tend to read the exploits of Paul in the Book of Acts and come away with the impression that every Christian can do exactly what Paul did, but this fails to take into consideration Paul’s unique office in the body of Christ. If every Christian performed the miraculous just like Paul, how would the miraculous have been a distinct confirmation of his apostleship? Not everyone is an apostle. Apostles have the unique ability to work miracles—many and great miracles—that other believers do not have. This does not mean that non-apostles will not work any miracles, but it does mean that they may be less notable, and clearly not as frequent. We should not expect to be used in the miraculous on the same level as what we read about in Scripture.
We also have to have the proper perspective on the frequency of the miraculous even in Scripture. While a lot of miraculous things are recorded in Acts we have to remember that they were spread out over a period of about 30 years. Now it certainly might be the case that there were a lot more miracles that took place during that period of time that just weren’t recorded, but we should not get the idea that these miracles in Acts were occurring every day.
Do I say all of this to say that we should not be looking for the miraculous? No, God is still in the miracle-working business. We just need to manage our expectations, not expecting that the signs of an apostle be wrought by those who are not apostles.
May 24, 2007 at 8:26 am
While I am on the topic of miracles, let me express my frustration at a common practice of ours. Many times we pray for God to heal so-and-so, but it doesn’t happen. That person proceeds to undergo surgery instead. When the surgery is successful we thank Jesus for what He did. It seems to me our thanksgiving is misdirected. The fact of the matter is that the surgery was successful because of a skilled surgeon, not God per se. God’s involvement was only secondary, in that he created man with the ability to perform such feats. So while we should thank God for His secondary, passive role in the process, primary thanksgiving is due the doctor. It just seems we’re so used to God not doing the miraculous, that since we can’t thank Him for intervening in a supernatural way, we thank Him when someone else accomplishes the healing through natural means, falsely attributing the healing to Him.
Jason
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May 24, 2007 at 7:24 pm
i have to agree about that…I think we are so desparate to believe God worked a miracle that we make it something He did rather than the surgeon. Having said that, that does not mean God was not involved somehow to make sure it went well
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May 24, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Oops, that was me above
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May 25, 2007 at 7:33 am
Doesn’t the Bible promise actual miracles (eg, moving mountains) to those who have faith?
For all sons of the Father:
“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?“
To me, that doesn’t sound like it’s limited to apostles. Of course, it could simply be false. But that’s what the Bible says.
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May 25, 2007 at 8:23 am
Arthur,
There’s nothing in that passage about miracles.
I’m not saying we can’t expect for miracles to happen. I think I made that point clear in my original post. My point is that we should not expect to see it like Paul saw it. Furthermore, if we think miracles were happening every day it is because we have a skewed perspective. The events recorded in Scripture took place over years of time, in various locations. We want all of those same events to occur in our location, in the course of a year.
Even those who are not specifically gifted in the working of miracles or healing will see some miracles and healings in their lifetime. They may even be involved in them personally. But we shouldn’t expect to have Paul’s ministry because we do not hold his office, and he specifically says that the level of the miraculous he was engaged in was a unique sign of his apostleship.
Jason
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May 30, 2007 at 7:51 am
Jason,
I hope you haven’t given up seeking and desiring to be used mightily of God in the gifts. I understand your frustration, but when we’re young we lack patience. Moses didn’t come full swing into his ministry until he was 80 years old. He spent some time in the backside of the desert. Philip the evangelist was used in the gifts of miracles and healings and he wasn’t an apostle. Although I agree the signs of an apostle are the wonderful display of the power of God but their sufferings are just as extreme. Yet, I don’t think the gift of miracles is limited to the apostles only. The bottom line is God is no respecter of persons and He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
I had a similar experience as a young Christian (3-4years in the Lord). I became very frustrated that I couldn’t know everything about the Lord all at once and I stopped studying the Bible as much as I had been and just read it. I’ve since learned to be patient and I now know learning about God is a process, here a little there a little, precept upon precept, kind of like math..you start with the basics and go to higher levels.
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May 30, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Anonymous,
No, I have not given up on the miraculous. I think I made that point in the article. I have just given up the hope that I am going to be involved in the miraculous like Paul was. I think such expectations are misguided for the Biblical reasons I cited in the post.
Jason
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June 13, 2007 at 11:50 am
So here is the big question. What do we tell the people who come up to the front to be prayed for ?
God might do it ?
God might heal you of cancer, but don’t expect it ?
Jason I share the frustration that you experienced in Bible College, and believe you may be right about miracles, but what do we do with that information ? How do we change peoples expectations to something more realistic without completely destroying their faith?
It seems to me that many people who cling to the hope that they will experiance something miraculous in their individual situation would simply give up if you tried to convince them otherwise, and in the end possibly give up anyway when their miracle did not occure ,either the way they expected it, or not at all.
Seems like a lose/lose scenario to me.
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June 13, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Brad,
Good question. I think we should teach them what the Bible teaches about healing, and the nature of faith. While God can work miracles of healing, and sometimes does, He does not do so for everyone. Healing is not promised to us in Scripture.
Regarding faith, the Bible does not teach faith as a “believe God will do whatever you ask of Him, and if you believe hard enough He will do it.” Rather, Biblical faith is trusting in the Word of God. Since God has not promised healing to everyone, we cannot claim to have faith that God will definitely heal us (unless God has revealed so supernaturally).
What we do is tell people to have the kind of faith they did in the Gospels. They came to Jesus and said, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” They said,” Lord, I believe you are able to do this.” That’s what kind of faith people should have: faith in God’s ability to do it, subject to His will. They pray for Him to do it, but ultimately decide to continue to trust in God regardless of the outcome.
What’s the alternative? Tell them they can expect to be healed when the Bible doesn’t promise us that? What happens when God doesn’t heal them? They either question their faith, or possibly even the existence of God. That is by far worse.
Jason
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