Bible Question:
In my opinion, as long as our inner purpose is to get renowned for working miracles, we can wait forever for the Holy Spirit to give us the power to carry them out...! Even Jesus had the sole purpose of glorifying the Father, not gaining personal glory: John 10:38: But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." Notice that even He did not do any miracles for Herod - probably He could have saved His life - His mission was far more important to Him than personal fame: LUke 23:8: "When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle." The working of miracles is not supposed to be anything special for Christians who truly live in God - in fact, it is mentioned as a gift of the Holy Spirit at least as common as the ability to teach! 1Cor 12:28: "And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues." Jesus clearly stated that faith would work greater miracles than what He did... He said "anyone"; to me that is not just the apostles. John 14:12: "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." I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Bible does mention that God did refuse to work miracles or answer the prayers of people, for His purposes. A few well-known examples: - David did not get to build the temple even though he wanted to (1Kings 8:18; also see 2Samuel 7) - The Father 'refused' to save Jesus Himself (even though He did pray, sweating blood in agony, for His 'cup' to be taken from Him (eg. Luke 22:42)! - compare with Matthew 26:53: "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?") - The Lord refused to heal Paul's "thorn in the flesh", even though he asked Him 3 times "lest I should be exalted above measure" (2Cor 12:7) - please read the whole chapter of 2Corinthians 12... Looking at the examples of miracles in the Bible, I conclude that God will only work miracles for us (it is Him who does it, not the actual person; John 10:32, Acts 19:11, Gal 3:5 etc) if the effect of the miracle will be glory to His Name rather than a top story on the front page of tabloid papers... Do we want our problmems solved more than we want His will to be done? Do we want to easily impress others by healing them in the mortal body more than we want to work hard to heal them in the immortal soul? Do we want glory for ourselves more than we want His Name to be glorified? If the honest answer to either of those questions is "yes", then our prayer really should not be "Let me work this miracle", but "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10 God bless you, Zsuzsi |
Bible Answer: Zsuzsi, I think you make some excellent observations! Do we seek (just)to be healed, or do we seek the Healer! As I've said before- and I believe it is a valid distinction- Do we come to God for Who He is, or for what He can do for us? Certainly Exodus 15:26 says, ..."for I, the Lord, am your healer" (Jehovah Repehka). And He is, but He is more than just the God who heals. He is the Alpha and Omega, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Without trying to place limits on God ( which I'm not), we should also seek Him because He is (Ps. 46:10). "Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?" ( Job. 1:9) Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |