Subject: Right purposes for miracles |
Bible Note: Hi Rowdy, Thank you for your fast reply! As a matter of fact, I deliberately linked my message to your statement.. The question was meant to be whether you agreed or not. :-) The points I was trying to make are basically my answers to your questions: 1) If we see no miracles today done by Christians, it is the sad result of our corruption, not the 'end' of the Holy Spirit giving His gifts. As I was trying to point out, Jesus said ALL people who believed ('pisteuwn', to have confidence in, trust, be persuaded of etc.) in Him would be able to work miracles; not just the apostles. I have now researched John 14:12 again to see if my interpretation of this verse was right; still, to me the Greek 'o' definitely suggests 'whoever' instead of 'you' or 'the apostles' or such. Also, John 14:13 reads: "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." That made me think that it was His promise to give us power to work miracles so that the Father may be glorified... Which leads on to my answer to your second and third questions: 2-3) If miracles are done, the way to find out if they really come from God is to look at the effects they have on people: who is glorified, God or the supposed magician? 'Testing the spirits' does refer to judging their teachings; we have to look for their purposes behind the 'miracles'. As I understand from your posts you do not believe in modern miracles, and sadly, I must agree with you to some extent... I am also rather skeptical about people who claim to be using their 'bioenergies' to heal on TV etc. Yet I believe we cannot say that the Holy Spirit does not want to exhibit His power in our age any more; it is our fault that we (Christianity) are not working miracles, not His. If we only had faith in the promises of Jesus and the purposes which the apostles had in the early church, we would safely tell a mountain to move and it would obey us - for God's glory, not for ours. Of course you do not have to agree with me. But in any case, I believe we can trust the Holy Spirit to let us know in any given situation whether the 'miracle' performed is mere deception, the work of false prophets or a true wonder of God which we should be thankful for. As for me, until I have personally witnessed a miracle like those described in the Bible, I cannot say they do exist today. But until I find definite Scriptual references which clearly suggest that miracles could only be done in the apostles' age, I do not deny their existence either. God bless you, Zsuzsi |